Need remote with lighted keypad

T

tbrad

Member
Hi Everyone -

Great site! I was digging around on remotecentral.com and ran across a reference to cocoontech.com and decided to check it out on a whim... Sure glad I did!

Anyway, a few months ago I got the HA bug and it's been "Katy bar the door" ever since. My wife has humored me thusfar but she has one big request - a remote with a lighted keypad. AC power would be an acceptable second choice.

Does anyone know of an X10 controller that has a lighted keypad for under $250.

While I (hope) have your attention, my big complaint is the lack of controllers that will handle all 256 house codes without a cheesy code wheel turner kludge. I've got a couple of Smarthome Controllinc Maxis and they are a step in the right direction but lack a few key features (lighted keypad.... <g>)

Many thanks in advance for any pointers you may have.

Thomas
 
Welcome to CocoonTech! Sorry, I don't know of any lighted X-10 style remotes. The closest would be one of the TV style remotes, I know some of them are lighted or have displays and can work with X-10 indirectly.

May I ask why you want a controller to handle all 256 device codes? That doesn't seem very user friendly as I could never remember all the addresses and what they are for. Many rooms are handled by 4, 8 or 16 button controllers that allow the buttons to be labeled for functions.
 
Hi Wayne - thanks for the welcome.

(Now you've done it... <g>)

Don't get me started on X-10 controllers. I simply cannot believe the lack of a good controllers available considering the age of this technolgy.

An all house code controller seems almost like a necessity to me... The ability to control electric devices from anywhere I am in the house, yard, etc. is one of the most appealing things about X-10 as far as I'm concerned.

In our house we have each room on a different house code - K for kitchen, D for den, etc. etc. (I did this to make it easier for everyone else to remember <g>). In this particular case we need a different controller for each room. This means we can't turn off the TV upstairs with the controller in the den - unless you have a dime, screwdriver, etc. to turn a code wheel <ugh>.

I know that having a unique house code for each room is maybe not the "best" approach -but- I've got 40+ (and growing) X10 modules, switches, receptacles, etc. scattered around the propery so no matter what we're going to use more than one house code and it would be nice to be able to have one controller access everything without turning a durn code wheel. If I'm missing something obvious that would make life easier with the current state of X-10 controller technology *please* let me know.

As I said in my eariler message, I do have a couple of Controllinc Maxi's which handle all possible house/unit codes. Letters A-P on the left, Numbers 1-16 on the right. Press the letter and number you want to control and that's it. If they would make a version that ran on AA batteries and had a lighted keypad I'd be in hog-heaven. ;-)

Oh... I do have a Keypadlinc on order. The deal with it that's appealing to me is that you can have 8 X-10 devices defined AND (drum roll) they don't have to be sequential!!!!! Imagine *that*. (In case you can't tell, the lack of a remote that will send anything but sequential house/unit codes is another "I can't believe..." issue I have"

Anyhoo.... I was ready to ditch the whole project until I ran across the Controllinc Maxi - that's how important a user friendly all house code controller is to me.


Thanks,
Thomas
 
Thomas,
You need to automate this so there isn't as much of a need for a remote in each room. Using something as simple as X10 motion sensors reduces the need to turn on or off a light/TV/or anything else. If the room is vacant for X number of minutes I turn the TV off. The same with lighting. I use one X10 remote and that is on our nightstand to turn the overhead light off once in bed. While the approach is not perfect it works well enough to get rid of the remotes.
 
tbrad said:
I know that having a unique house code for each room is maybe not the "best" approach -but- I've got 40+ (and growing) X10 modules, switches, receptacles, etc. scattered around the propery so no matter what we're going to use more than one house code and it would be nice to be able to have one controller access everything without turning a durn code wheel.
Click to expand...
Actually this is a very good approach because it gives each room the ability to use ALL LIGHTS ON and ALL UNITS OFF buttons on a local mini controller without affecting the whole house. I have done something similiar for years with limited success (I have a lot more than 16 rooms and had to dedicate some house codes for special puposes so it wasn't perfect).

One option is to get a Home Automation controller and use it to do X-10 translation. I.E. program it so that when you press an address that you don'r need for local control, say D16 in the Den, that the HA controller hears it and sends a K1 to control the Kitchen light.

Another option is to use 8 button wall transmitters Most brands these days will allow each button to be assigned to any house and unit code so you can control items in several different rooms.

Look for an old Nutone wireless controller. These massive things had 16 ON and 16 OFF buttons for an entire House Code plus a little door you could flip to control the next consecutive House Code.

I'm sure others will have more ideas on how to handle your situation.
 
The way to decouple remotes from house codes is through home automation software (I use HomeSeer, but there are others with similar capabilities).

As you have, I've got each room on its own X10 house code (though I'm in the process of switching to Insteon codes). Then I've got several remote "types" (kitchen/dining, living room, upstairs, etc.), with several of that type scattered around the area in question. Each type has its own house code, separate from the room codes. A centrally located, whole-house, all-house-code receiver (a W800) is connected to the computer running HomeSeer. It does not put the remote commands directly onto the powerline. Instead, HomeSeer is set up to respond to each button on each remote type with an individual action - mostly, just control lights in the room or rooms associated with that remote type, but additional useful functions too. For instance, each type has a button set to toggle on and off all the outside lights. The "upstairs" remotes have a button to turn off all the living room lights. If I had an electric coffee maker, I could have a button on the upstairs remote to turn that on.

As you can see, there are all sorts of possibilities once you adopt this strategy. You've got sixteen individual buttons on a remote; thirty-two if you don't mind using the slide switch. That should be enough control for any given area.

Regarding your lighted remote, HA software is capable of interfacing with all sorts of devices that can be used for control - I've just gotten a Nokia 770 "Web Tablet". It's a pocket-sized widget with an 800x480 touchscreen, WIFI and Bluetooth, and a built-in web browser (among many other applications). It does a very nice job of controlling HomeSeer. A bit beyond the budget you specified, but vastly more capable than a sixteen-button remote.

- Dennis Brothers
 
Why not use a pronto remote.
I'm at present looking at interfacing a Xantech touch screen into my HA system. So this could be another alternative. I've got the bits but now just need some spare time to get it working.
 
There are all kinds of ways to solve your problem. Personally, though, I think the desire to have that kind of control demands a solution more user friendly than a 256-code X-10 controller. You didn't mention if you are using an HA controller. How are you doing timed events, scenes, etc? If you don't have one, THIS is the bigger problem than the lighted remote :rolleyes:

Here's what I did. A few years ago, I picked up a couple of Pronto Neo remotes. Not only are they backlit, they have a nice touchscreen, and with a PC you can set up custom screens with buttons and graphics. I'm really happy with them. Then I got an IR-543 (an IR-to-X10 converter). I assigned custom, labeled buttons on the remote to certain X-10 addresses. Works great, is user-friendly, my wife loves it, and it sure beats a minicontroller or palmpad. Note that you can get an all-housecode version of the IR-543. I think something like this could also work for you.

If I were to start over right now, I'd probably investigate the Nokia 770 as a touchscreen interface to my house's web page (I run Misterhouse, but you could point this device to any software or hardware HA controller with a web interface).
 
Thank you all for your time and input.

Currently I'm using Indigo on my Mac and Homeseer on my XP notebook upstairs. The most appealing suggestion is the Nokia 770 *but* I use Indigo to handle triggers and actions and it doesn't have a web interface. Homeseer is pretty nice but I don't think I'm going to buy it when the demo is up because it's a bit "busy" for my tastes.

The Pronto / IR suggestion is pretty good too and I'll investigate that further as well.

All of the suggestions were good... but it's a shame that getting an all house/unit X-10 controller with a lighted keypad designed specifially for X-10 doesn't exist.

Thanks,
Thomas

btw, I've learned a great deal from browsing these forums. This site is *fantastic*!
 
Thomas -

Before you dismiss HomeSeer, check out the (free) TouchPad plugin. It provides a much less busy web interface that I've found works very well on the 770.

- Dennis Brothers
 
toscal said:
Why not use a pronto remote.
I'm at present looking at interfacing a Xantech touch screen into my HA system. So this could be another alternative. I've got the bits but now just need some spare time to get it working.
Click to expand...
I had a pronto, and spent a lot of time tweaking it. In the end it was frustrating for WAF. Also, I came to the conclusion that primary buttons being touchscreen is not the way to go. The ideal case is when you have a screen to represent the dynamic nature, but hard buttons for primary use.

I believe I found it, and the wife loves it: Harmony 880 (around $230). I am much happier with it as well.

Programmed overnight, and you can get an IR to X10 box (not made by harmony/logitech, the one Mark referenced) and control lights that way. I've been meaning to hook mine up that way but haven't done it.

Of course his comment about a touchscreen would trump this. The pronto I worked with was one of the original ones, I have not worked with the newer ones.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for the tip on the Indigo web interface. I downloaded it last night and am playing with it today. A bit spartan but it does the job. :o

Thanks,
Thomas
 
I apologize, I was rereading this (I'm travelling at the moment), my recommendation is not what you need as it is IR based and more suited to home theater. For that purpose it is very good, but for multiple room and general house usage it is probably not the right solution.

For a home theatre or tv viewing room though I'm real happy with it (but I too plan on augmenting with some sort of better touch screen integrating the home automation/lighting/security features at some point myself.

Sorry for the quick reply this morning...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top