controlling receiver with IR for whole house audio

[JimS]

I just ordered a Sherwood 4109 to replace a Aiwa receiver that broke for the 3rd time. Right now I am using it with two sets of speakers and have it set up with a remote extender so I can control it from both locations.

But I want to set up computer control and go more to the whole house setup similar to jwilson56 and have a few questions...

How to keep the computer in sync with things that toggle with each button press. I see the power has a standby button so that should be easy. But the FM/AM button, speaker buttons and probably a few others toggle with each keypress.

Has anyone had trouble with two sets of 8 ohm speakers? The manual states they should be 16 ohms if both are used at the same time but 8 ohms is standard - Seems strange but I have read that most amps have similar requirements. If I don't crank up the volume is this going to be a problem? If so perhaps I should just get another receiver. Or should I look at matching transformers or something else?

Any other quirks I should be aware of?

I am planning on using LIRC under Linux. I haven't used it before so I may not be using the right terms but are the codes for this receiver available on the net or will I need to teach it each key myself? I plan to use some homebuilt hardware.

Thanks!

 

[oberkc]

Has anyone had trouble with two sets of 8 ohm speakers? The manual states they should be 16 ohms if both are used at the same time but 8 ohms is standard - Seems strange but I have read that most amps have similar requirements.

Is it possible that this is the cause of your prior failures?

Two sets of 8ohm speakers would, theoretically, be 4ohms. I would be looking at a reciever that can handle this, or a balancing switch box. I have used amps capable of driving down to 2 ohms, but I find a 4ohm amp to be pretty easy to find (if a little more expensive than typical sherwood and aiwa).

 

[jwilson56]

I use a separate receiver for each zone and control it through IR. They are all located in a remote central location and since I send out the IR command for anything I want to do there is no need to know the status of each function on the receiver. I only use a hardware status for the power that is done with some digital I/O. At $50 for each used receiver I used for the auxiliary zones it didn't make much sense in trying to drive more than one set of speakers across zones. As said by others... many receivers don't handle 4 ohms well and I hate LPADS locally (with the heat generated).

 

[JimS]

The failures were not due to the speakers. All were low power power supply issues not the main power rails to the output or the output devices.

Jwilson I noted in your blog you have one of the same sherwood receiver and you noted it was for the IR controlled speaker switch. You have zones on each output. Do you never run both zones at the same time and prevent that with software? How do you deal with this issue?

Any issue with running the speakers in series for 16 ohms? I might do that until I can pick up another receiver.