I just received my 500 and Irclone. I have read all the documentation for both items and have read the info on this site about the IRclone. I still do not have a clue as how to get started with these items, especially the IRclone. To say the least I am not a technical type of person. I have a couple of Pronto units that installer programmed. I guess these are good units, but they are very difficult to program for me. I was hoping that the IRclone would make that process much easier, but I need help to get started. I know I haven't given system info, because I have 3 systems located in my home and vacation home, so I want to try with one, see how it works then if everything goes well, purchase 2 more 500 units. Thanks for any help.

Wade

I started to type some long and drawnout reply but changed my mind...

What kind of equipment are you going to tackle first?

To keep things simple, you migh even want to try only 1 device. And to make it even simpler, start with only a couple of commands.

Follow the 500's manual and learn the commands (as I noted, just a couple or so) to the remote. Then connect your IRClone box to the PC, run the 500Editor program and backup the 500 to the PC using the remote's Clone feature (also outlined in the 500's manual.) Once the file appears in the 500Editor, do a file/save as and name it something unique. (One BIG thing to always remember as you learn and experiment is to save your work. And it's not a bad idea to give the file different names as you go (using file/save as) along. This helps you go back to earlier stopping points in case you make a boo boo. You can always delete these earlier files later on if the clutter becomes to big.)

You can then go into the device commands you learned and practice naming them and moving them around. This will help later if you grab someone else's file here at rc.com to use. Then practice uploading back to the remote from 500Editor. (Out of habit, I don't try to download and upload in the same session. Sometimes 500Editor doesn't like doing this. So I just save my work, exit and then come back in. The program loads fast and this helps prevent glitches.)

Bottom line is practice makes perfect. As time goes by, you'll understand how this all fits together. 500Editor lets you adjust macros, backlight timing, punch throughs and more. Plus you have a backup if the remote gets dropped (or worse.)

Have fun!