IR control of Cbus

Hi guys
any idea the best way to do this
I have a guy who has his house lighting all on cbus, most switched being Saturns.
he is also using RF remote controls by Universal remotes.
He doesnt want to have an IR receiver in each room.

So what he wants is to be able to control his lights from the remote.
Pressing the button on the remote will fire an IR emitter in the control room is there a way to interface this to cbus.

It seems to me the cbus receivers presume you have one for each room. even using a touch screen you can only IR control the current page.

so what i am trying to say is, presume he has 50 lights in his house, his remote would send 50 different IR codes to a single emitter in the control room (or possibly RS232) I then nned to get these 50 codes into cbus.
any ideas
Thanks
Mark

 

For the native C-Bus IR commands there are only 16 discrete commands using the C-Bus IR protocol and another 8 under an NEC protocol.

If you want to have control of 50 groups from a universal remote control then the best bet would be to buy an IR to RS-232 converter, connect it to a 5500PAC and write some logic code to make it work together.

If he is using an RF remote control then perhaps the remote manufacturer makes an RF to RS-232 converter, so that you can skip using IR entirely?

 

Hi Mark

What is the brand or remote?

 

Philips Pronto

I personally would look at using the Philips Pronto range.
The RFX9600 (receiver) will do everything you would need. (RS232 - IR - Relay)
The choice of remote (transmitter) would be up to the clients choice and suitability for the task.
The 9300 and up will work via wifi.

Worth a look.

Colin Smith

 

Thanks guys
He is using URC remotes
MX3000, MX850 and MX950
He has the MSC400 which should do RS232 and already has a PAC could be the way to go.

Thanks
Mark

 

Hello Mark.

Another option would be to use a touchscreen to receive the IR commands in the central control room and send out C-Bus commands. From memory there may be a limitation where the IR codes need to be of NEC protocol.

Regards,

Mark

 

Yeah thats what i was hoping to do, had a spare black and white touch screen.
But the touch screen only accepts IR commands for the current page displayed, so you would have to get all devices on a theme page.

just need to convert the IR emitter to cbus signals. The Pac serial option is looking complicated.

 

I saw a project once that had an audio rack in a dedicated utility room - the B&W touch screen was mounted inside the rack and used purely for the IR to C-Bus interfacing. Its single page was setup with a number of buttons approx 5mm x 5mm (lots of buttons). Simple but effective.
I suppose it all comes back to cost of materials V's cost of programming time and unless you are looking after the AV side as well, it can provide a clear demarcation point between the two.

Regards,

Mark

 

Hi Mr Mark
Thats pretty much the set up he has and I do his AV stuff as well.
That does sound like a good way to do it.
Think I will give it another go
Thanks
Mark

 

Hi Guys
Thats seems to have done the trick and working like a dream.
Thanks
Mark