Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems IR to RS232 converter? Direct soundfield access...

Hi Srgtfury,


Yup, it was pretty simple and easy to install and integrate RadioRA into the NetLinx system as well. Really, it should be easy to integrate into any system with RS-232 capabilities.

For RadioRA, I do:

• "timed" lighting (lights go on and off in certain areas based on time of day, day of week, and/or DUSK/DAWN times)
• activity-based lighting (i.e. if you video mute the projector in the Theatre room, RadioRA will light the way to common areas - bathroom and kitchen)
• Timed lights off in certain areas. If you turn on light in garage, or attic, or crawl spaces, they'll automatically turn off in an hour or two - in case the person forgets to turn them off
• All lights off at a few key times (i.e. midnight, etc) to make sure we didn't leave some oddball light on somewhere

We also have on-screen indication on the touchpanels for common scenes (on/off) and control, and finally we have on-screen indication of any of the lights in the house are on (via the ZMP zone map output).

What sort of stuff have you done with RadioRA? Same sort of stuff, or something different?


Okay, you're getting into areas I haven't gotten into (yet). I don't currently have any sort of an audio distribution system, although the NetLinx has cards to do stuff with that. So, I had a few questions:

• What's Winamp?
• What sort of gear to you use to produce/amplify whole house audio? Seems like you'd want such a system to be a matrix (any source to any set of speakers, in any combination), with sufficient power to get decent sound in a room. What are you using for that?
• Do you just do MP3s? Or can you, say, pop a DVD into a DVD player and feed that back (as a source) to various rooms of your house? I presume multiple DVD players mean that you have multiple concurrent CDs available to listen to throughout your house?
• Do you have any sort of an intercom system that works with this? That is, it seems like a whole-house audio system and an intercom have a lot in common (reproducing sound); you'd just need some way to allow voice to be fed back up. Have you done anything in this area?
• My security system predates my NetLinx system. Thus, it has pretty limited automation interfaces (currently relays to trigger certain events). What brand system do you use to give you richer information? And what, exactly, are you capable of controlling remotely from your automation system?

A total departure from Meridian related stuff, but interesting none the less, and it's tough to find people that muck in these areas! :-)

[This message has been edited by Jeff Coffler (edited 04-20-2001).]

Hi Jeff,

RA: I have all the items you noted in place. I also have ...well, a lot of idle time, so...... I took a digital photo of some of my kids sitting in the HT room reading a books of my choosing and incorporated that into my TP. I then placed a transparent button over the particular studious child and joined that to a press for that lighting scene. Now I can have a page flip in the TP to another photo, with actors unmoved and the light illuminate, with a toggle to flip back or to another "illuminated" child, etc.. i also have a stepper to do a system on when the RA dimmer is pressed entering the Ht, with various lights sequencing to unltimatly turn off the screen eyeballs at image transmission. DVD pause steps to a lighting scene of choice, etc..

The Crestron system has an audio distribution system that allows multisource inputs and 8 zone outputs, all selectable by each TP individually.

Winamp is a free sofwtare player for MP3's.

I have an Adcom tuner and amp + switcher for 6 zones and am going to use either an old Yamaha amp for the 2 remaining zones or go to a different amp system. Most of my zones are in wall or outdoor speakers and the HT room isn't rellay used for much MP3 stuff. My HTPC, Toshiba 3109 and sony 200 disc changer are there at the moment.

I have a Panasonic 6/16 system, so just punted on the intercom via Crestron/security system system.

You are right we are a bit off topic-i always seem to do that.

Anyway, when will we get Meridian to give us anupdate onthe rs232 feedback so we can poll the 861 , get the info onwhther we are in 2.0,2.1,5.1 or PCM and switch the DSP accordingly. I think DPLII is second to only %>! in EZ.

Thank you very much

Rich

Hi Jeff and Sgtfury,

It's great to see some people who are doing things similar to what I am working on. As I get further along, I'll be posting results plus probably asking for help. My theater won't be finished for a few months. Some is being done by a contractor, and some of the programming I am doing. It includes:

* Meridian 861, DSP speakers, Sony G90
* Whole-house audio distribution with local controllers in most rooms
* Lutron Graphik Eye and RadioRA
* MP3 server for the house
* Panja and NetLinx control

This is fun, I'm just getting into some of the programming.

I have seen a IR to RS232 adapter on the web, can't remember where.

Go to www.metacrawler.com and do a search for Infrared to RS232 and you'll find it.

This might work
http://www.appdig.com/ocelot.html

Rich