Wired IR Extender?

[EagleMoon]

Not exactly Control4-related but does there exist a wired IR extender device? That is, is there an IR receiver that I can connect via a pair of wires to an emitter in another room. Ideally, I'd be able to run it over my Binary B-RGBIR-500 baluns.

I don't need it to be integrated with Control4 -- I know the HC-300 will emit IR codes, but that means it needs to be set up properly, which hasn't been done. Specifically, I want to access the GUI setup menus of my receiver and it is not in any room where I have a display. The keys to access and control the GUI menu apparently were not learned into the "driver" for the receiver.

I only need it once in awhile so if there's a cheap way to remote the IR signal, that's preferable to getting my dealer out to fix the driver.

[pharmdsmith]

What receiver? I logged in for a customer and had him aim his remote at the controller and added these for him. Took 10 minutes, 5 was getting remotely logged in.

[EagleMoon]

What receiver? I logged in for a customer and had him aim his remote at the controller and added these for him. Took 10 minutes, 5 was getting remotely logged in.

Only 10 five minutes to learn the codes? Sure would have made my life easier if they had taken that five minutes when they were here. I think I should be annoyed. (Added to some other things)

Edit: Receiver is Sony 5400ES

[EagleMoon]

Oh, and part of my beef now is with the Sony. Basically I want to be able to access the GUI setup menus even though the receiver is in a different room from any display. Learning the proper codes into the Control4 driver would fix most of that.

However, as I learned tonight after dragging a 42" TV into the mechanical room and digging out the receiver manual, there are settings that affect Zone2 which are only visible on the main zone's menu. What's the point of that? Grrrrr.

[pharmdsmith]

Same exact receiver. I added "Options" which he uses his green button in the living room. "GUI" with his red button. "select" with enter button. Up/down/left/right. Do you have 4sight? I can log on and add those to the driver. Then you can program with HE how you want to execute those commands.

[pharmdsmith]

Or I can email you the codes and you can get your dealer to log in and add them.

[EagleMoon]

Or I can email you the codes and you can get your dealer to log in and add them.

Thanks. Whichever is easier. Dealer needs to come out one day soon if we can coordinate schedules but don 't know if we can arrange it before I go back for a month or two.

I'll need to think about which buttons I'd want to use. At the moment, I've programmed the colored buttons to control several lighting scenes in the theater. I hate to give those up.

Two things I don't quite understand are:

1. On the sub-menu of "TV", there are several devices in addition to "Satellite". One of those is "Receiver". At the moment, selecting that device doesn't show me anything at all. Would it make sense that I could use it for accessing the setup menu? I could then nest my lighting scene scripts under a "If currently_selected_device is not Receiver" statement.

2. Even if I walk into the mech room and use the receiver remote to bring up the setup menu, the arrow keys on the SR-250 don't control it. That's because the codes for arrows are not in the receiver driver, right? If we add them to it, what happens in normal operation, i.e. watching satellite, when I press an arrow? How does Control4 know whether that keypress is to go to the satellite receiver or the A/V receiver? Or does it send them everywhere (after modifying with the proper code for each respective device)?

Anyway, what I'm trying to describe is that it seems like I should have a device in the "TV" or "Videos" menu called "Receiver" or "Receiver Setup" where I can then use the regular SR-250 Menu, Info, Guide, Cncl, Select and arrow buttons for the receiver setup. Is that possible and reasonable?

[pharmdsmith]

Yes receiver can show up under tv and video like you describe. A lot of times the dealer hides it so that would need to be unhidden. Your number 1. Is exactly what I would do so you don't loose your other uses for the color button.

2. I had to add the directional and program it to the remote arrows. You would put the conditional, when arrow left is pressed, if receiver is current source press left on receiver.

[EagleMoon]

2. I had to add the directional and program it to the remote arrows. You would put the conditional, when arrow left is pressed, if receiver is current source press left on receiver.

On the Sony Blu-Ray player, the menu comes up when the disk is not playing and the arrow keys navigate as expected without any explicit programing. Is it possible for it to work the same way on the receiver?

If I'm watching satellite, the volume key controls the receiver volume but every other remote key controls the satellite STB. If I'm watching Blu-Ray, the volume key controls the receiver volume but the other keys control the Blu-Ray.

That is how it should be, but does Control4 send out the modified codes to every device at the same time or does it understand the context and only send the codes to appropriate device? That is, if I'm watching a DVD and press Pause, does the STB also receive a "pause" code or is the Blu-Ray player the only device to see a "pause" command?

I think it must send only to the appropriate device but there's no visible explicit programming that controls that, so it's some internal Control4 magic.

I think I'm being dense here, but what I would hope is that the internal magic will send correct arrow key codes to the STB if "Satellite" is the selected "TV" device and will send correct codes only to the receiver if "Receiver" is the selected "TV" device.

[pharmdsmith]

The receiver constantly controls the volume because in the bindings it is the volume endpoint. If you are watching your DVD and hit pause, that will be the only device to pause, unless you have additional programming at the room level for pause command.

The issue with this receiver driver is when it was created (any driver) there are default commands for up/down/left/right. All you do is add the codes and you are set like you are wanting. BUT for some reason these directional commands were deleted from the driver default commands. So as the driver stands now the only way I know to add them is using the custom commands. The custom commands don't automatically map themselves to a button. You have to use the additional programming to make them work. The other option is to create the driver from scratch and NOT delete the default directional commands. It was faster for me to use the custom commands then to recreate the whole driver. Now I'm not a whiz at all in driver creating, so if another dealer knows how to readd default commands, please share. I can't see anywhere in the driver page to make that happen.

[dogdvr]

The Up down left right commands may already be in there, but instead of controlling sat, or TV or Bluray, select control receiver, then the commands will work.

They will work based upon what device is showing on the sr250 as being controlled

Brent

[pharmdsmith]

The ir driver for this receiver in control4's database doesn't have the directional commands. For whatever reason they were deleted out of the default command section when it was created.

[dogdvr]

well, then it is even easier to add, and you don't need to assign them to custom buttons

[EagleMoon]

They will work based upon what device is showing on the sr250 as being controlled

Ah....therein be the magic. Thanks for that tip....it should have been obvious to me.