At a clients house where there are 2- Russound MCA-C5 Controllers and a ST2 Tuner and a russound ipod dock.

I did not install equipment and haven't worked with russound in a while so be kind.

There are 9 zones total. On 6 of the inwall keypads (2 gang style) the LCD says no response from controller. 1 keypad seems to work fine but will not give metadata from the sirius tuner and the ipod does not play properly (music sounds skippy & stops by itself). The other keypad comes on to the tuner automatically but cannot control the tuner or go to the home screen to switch sources. The 9th zone is being controlled by a URC keypad and seems to be functioning properly but I haven't tested all functions to verify.

I have tried powering down the russound and no change. Then I removed power from the units for about 10 minutes. Plugged back in but no change.

Ideas, thoughts, or suggestions, before I rip it out and put something better in?

Unplug all the keypads except for one and see if it works.  If so, keep adding keypads one-by-one until it starts to act goofey again.  I've seen this before with older CAV6.6 systems where a bad keypad or bad wiring to one keypad was causing the problems.

You can also try disconnecting the RNET cables between controllers and sources to simplify the system for troubleshooting.

Remember to power down the controllers and sources when you unplugging and plugging things.

After more testing I have figured out that if I disconnect the ST2 tuner from the rnet system then the keypads function properly. I still can not get the ipod dock to work either. It was linked to the rnet through the ST2 tuner rnet ports so maybe whatever shot the tuner also shot the ipod dock.

Just curious... Can you the details if the Urc keypad? Model# and functionality of it. Is there 2-way feedback?

So many questions, so little time.

1. What id do you have each of the controllers set to?
2. Is there a reason the customer wants all those am/fm tuners? Each of the mca-c5 systems has an internal tuner, so that means you have three or four tuners, depending on how you lay the system out
3. You mentioned two units; are the keypads that aren't functioning properly all going into one of the units?

Not completely convinced it's a Russound problem. Fact that you aren't familiar with the equipment does not make it defective. Working on a Saturday when tech support is generally not available can be quite frustrating....

Working on a Saturday is the real problem....

Check Firmware on the MCA-C5's and ST-2 to ensure they're up-to-date. I think the ST-2 needs to be latest rev to be compatible with the MCA-C5.

Also, verify that the ST-2 is at the end of the RNET chain [not sure how the iPod dock figures into the chain--check this].

Best of luck!