Opinions for IR

[Frunple]

Hello all,
I am in the process of buying all the equipment for my HA project, doing some major renovations to the house and I want to get everything ready now, and I want to be able to control all of the home theater stuff. I went with the Speakercraft AT-1 for IR distro and a GC-100 to go from IR to ethernet, the problem I'm running into is being able to tell when a device is on or off, as in receiver, tv etc. I read some posts talking about "two way" Ir but they're not really 2 way, just controlled from 2 different ways.
How can I distinguish when a device is on or off without rs-232 being used?
I've seen some "current sensing" devices but I'm not sure if they will incorpoate into the systems I'm using (will be using a Cortexa for main control).
Any ideas?

 

[robertmee]

Hello all,
I am in the process of buying all the equipment for my HA project, doing some major renovations to the house and I want to get everything ready now, and I want to be able to control all of the home theater stuff. I went with the Speakercraft AT-1 for IR distro and a GC-100 to go from IR to ethernet, the problem I'm running into is being able to tell when a device is on or off, as in receiver, tv etc. I read some posts talking about "two way" Ir but they're not really 2 way, just controlled from 2 different ways.
How can I distinguish when a device is on or off without rs-232 being used?
I've seen some "current sensing" devices but I'm not sure if they will incorpoate into the systems I'm using (will be using a Cortexa for main control).
Any ideas?

If you can't communicate to the device (via RS232 or IP) to know its status then your only choice is an external device. The two I've seen are the current devices you mentioned or an optical sensor placed on the Power LED. The other option is hope that your devices have discrete On/Off commands (and not a power toggle) and just always issue a Power On command first in your macros.

 

[bfisher]

Also - on the back of most Amplifier/Receivers, they have switched outputs (110VAC). Plug in a wallwart to the switched output on your receiver, and wire it to an input on your controller. Now you know if your Amp is on/off.

As for TVs, those are more difficult. In addition to what Robert mentions, you can monitor the AC current. When the TV is on, more current is being used, and your controller then knows it's on. I used CR Magnetics equipment (CR-3110).

Good luck

 

[FrankMc]

Hi

To monitor status of my tv,s dvd players etc i designed my own probes and controller ... I also use the same system to monitor room (zone) temp sensors...
Check out the link for further info...

http://www.armaghelectrical.com.au/page9.html

HTH
Frank

 

[Captain Caveman]

Hello all,
I am in the process of buying all the equipment for my HA project, doing some major renovations to the house and I want to get everything ready now, and I want to be able to control all of the home theater stuff. I went with the Speakercraft AT-1 for IR distro and a GC-100 to go from IR to ethernet, the problem I'm running into is being able to tell when a device is on or off, as in receiver, tv etc. I read some posts talking about "two way" Ir but they're not really 2 way, just controlled from 2 different ways.
How can I distinguish when a device is on or off without rs-232 being used?
I've seen some "current sensing" devices but I'm not sure if they will incorpoate into the systems I'm using (will be using a Cortexa for main control).
Any ideas?

You already own the GC-100, now all you need are sensors to monitor the equipment. Check out the Global Cache website for their sensor products. As a warning your equipment will have to put out enough volts to trigger the sensors. Cortexa and Global Cache products work very well with each other.