Newbie: IR commands from Homeseer

Post by **Stoommaaltijd** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:48 pm

Hallo allemaal. (for English, see below)

Ik ben nogal een newbie met een vraag over het aansturen van InfraRood, op diverse locaties in huis, aangestuurd vanuit domotica software zoals Homeseer. Volgens de specs van Homeseer zou dit althans moeten kunnen.

Na vele uren rondkijken op het internet ben ik er nog steeds niet achter waar ik nou zou moeten beginnen om dit vanuit Homeseer te realiseren. Wat voor apparaten zou ik op de PC, of idealiter via het net of misschien nog beter... middels RF aansturing, moeten aansluiten (en aanschaffen) om dit goed te realiseren?

Het gaat om het kunnen aansturen van apparaten die door IR worden geactiveerd en dat je zelf de codes kunt aanleren en uiteraard niet alleen apparaten die in de buurt van de PC staan.

Iemand tips over waar te beginnen?

DANK!

groet, Eric

Oops, I was under the firm impression that this was a Dutch forum. Apologies!

The topic is a newbie question about how to realise sending (self learnt) IR commands from software such as Homeseer... in various locations. What equipment would I have to install to make that work? Where do I begin?

Thanks for your help, regards,

Eric

Post by **John Downe** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 11:31 am

Eric, I am very pleased with this set up using HomeSeer....

USB-UIRT to learn, watch for and send IR commeands from HomeSeer. - see http://www.usbuirt.com/ - worth looking on the HomeSeer forum re this too.

The IR Commander and its add-ons to distribute sent IR commands around the house - see http://www.keene.co.uk/cgi-bin/bigcodesearch.pl?IRC

I use a TVLink+ to get the IR signals out of the coax system and into the IR Commander - see http://www.tvlink.co.uk/tvlinkplus.htm

Then a PaceLink - ignore the references to Sky that is incidental actually enables the USB-UIRT to insert an IR signal from Homeseer into the Coax distribution system - see http://www.pacelink.co.uk/rf2link.htm

I also have an 8-way coax distribution amplifier in the loft which works with all this other stuff.

Sounds complicated? - well this gives Homeseer and manual control over multiple TVs, Sat box, AV Amps, Dlink Media Lounge in multople rooms and HomeSeer knows what is going on through the "magic eyes" in each room - ie these http://www.tvlink.co.uk/tvlink.htm

Took me a while to get to this set up having tried PowerMids etc but wireless signal too unreliable.

PS glad you translated the Dutch! Hope the above isn't too "double-dutch"!

John Downe

Post by **Stoommaaltijd** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:41 am

Wow, thanks... that's a lot of info! As I'm writing this I haven't actually looked into it yet but from your reply I get the impression you have looked into this quite thoroughly and that gives me the confidence it'll be exactly the kind of information I was hoping for. As soon as I have made some progress I shall report back here.
Thanks very much! Cheerio, Eric

Post by **Stoommaaltijd** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 6:48 pm

John's info made me think of another solution that might work better for me... mainly since I do not have coax communication possibilities in my house.. so here's a question that I hope someone out here might know.

I am currently using one IR to RF/RF to IR set (cheap and cheerful) to send IR from one room to another. The RF part seems to be on 433mhz or whatever the standard is... These 2 units have served me well for years although I am sure that technically they may not be utterly reliable.

Now I've come across an RF receiver and transmitter which you can hook up to your PC/Homeseer (RFXCOM USB receiver and transmitter) via some RFXCOM software. This software apparently also allows controlling RF based switches from IKEA and so on.

My question is: would this RFXCOM hardware and software allow you to 'learn' any RF codes? Which you can then activate and transmit from Homeseer events etc?

What I was hoping is that I could then use the cheap IR to RF unit to teach my PC, via RFXCOM receiver, the RF code for the IR command... and then have the PC (Homeseer event) transmit via the RFXCOM transmitter the RF code for the IR command... which is then picked up by the cheap and cheerful RF to IR unit.

This way I'd be able to both:
- run IR commands from homeseer to any room in the house
- control other RF bases switches (some of which I still find useful) also from Homeseer.

Crucial is of course, as stated above: will I be able to learn any RF 'code' in the RFXCOM hardware/software.

Thanks again for any input on this!

Cheers, Eric

Post by **Bwired** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 11:10 pm

Hi Eric,
This is not possible with a RFXcom reciever/transmitter. It supports the devices which are listed on the rfxcom site.
Regards Pieter

Post by **Stoommaaltijd** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 11:23 am

Ah yes, after I posted my previous post I realised I could have put this question to the RFXCOM peeps which I did and within 5 minutes they responded with a similar answer. In fact they recommended I install a UIRT device, combined with a Powermid, which I will look into now. That might do the trick too.

But thanks very much so far... I have a lot of stuff to look into thanks to you here.

Take care, ciao,

Eric

Post by **Stoommaaltijd** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 1:08 pm

Well... I thought I was on the right track but it seems rather impossible to find a (web)shop in Holland that actually sells such a USB UIRT unit. Are there any Dutchies out here who might know of a supplier in NL? Thanks!

Post by **John Downe** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 1:16 am

Just order online from http://www.usbuirt.com/order.htm - not sure what the problem is - they have a special EU order item on the above page.
By the way make sure you can return the PowerMids if they don't have enough range - they didn't for my house
John Downe

Post by **Stoommaaltijd** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:15 am

Thanks John for your advice.

I have ordered one (from the UK) as that seems to be THE (only) place where you can buy them.

Generally speaking what I find a problem with ordering from abroad is the rather hefty shipping charges (20 dollars in this case) but that's one thing... when/if something goes wrong you are again dealing with more expensive charges. That's why I prefer to order from somewhere more local if that's available.
Ideal would be a shop in the vicinity of Amsterdam... like in the old days when you could go to a place where they keep stuff in store and you can have a look at it... and then buy it when you like it and then take it home with you! (These places were called 'shops'.)
Sadly, no such place exists anymore for particular items such as these.

Looking forward to what the postman will deliver soon and how it will work for me!

Thanks so far all of you for this post! Good to know there are other people out there playing around with domotica!

Cheers, Eric