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I've been looking for a decent handheld remote that I can use to control my theater with using CQC. My Kindle works perfectly well running RIVA except for form factor (no buttons for volume and mute for example) and the blinding backlight (I have a bat cave environment and nothing takes you out of a movie like a bright light).
I'd like an RF, WiFi, or Bluetooth remote that has at least some programmable labels (Like the URC MX-350). The Logitech Harmony Ultimate looks promising but I can't tell if the programming scheme makes it possible to essentially have all commands map to bluetooth commands. Of course I can go to a setup like the RTi ZRP6 and an RTi RF remote or the URC equivalents, but by the time I'm done I have a $1200 remote.
Any suggestions/successes?
Mark Stega
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I have the harmony ultimate and all of my ir commands are blasted by the base, not the remote. I really like the feel of it but my wag doesn't like the touchscreen keypad. The shortcuts are nice and I have added ir commands that I use to control things like lighting and thermostat in CQC. Some people complain about the harmony programming software but I have had no problem getting it to do what I need.
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How about using something like the URC MX-850 (or whatever current model is), with an RF repeater base station (MX-350) located near server, which transmits IR to an IRMan or USB-UIRT?
Basically MX850->MX350->USBUIRT-CQC. Its a lot more reliable than it sounds, I was using that for a *long* time, plus IIRC it only cost something like $300ish all-in.
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IVB Wrote:Basically MX850->MX350->USBUIRT-CQC. Its a lot more reliable than it sounds, I was using that for a *long* time, plus IIRC it only cost something like $300ish all-in.
+1...........
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potts.mike Wrote:I have the harmony ultimate and all of my ir commands are blasted by the base, not the remote. I really like the feel of it but my wag doesn't like the touchscreen keypad. The shortcuts are nice and I have added ir commands that I use to control things like lighting and thermostat in CQC. Some people complain about the harmony programming software but I have had no problem getting it to do what I need.
Did you use IR to CQC simply because it was easier than Bluetooth?
Mark Stega
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IVB Wrote:How about using something like the URC MX-850 (or whatever current model is), with an RF repeater base station (MX-350) located near server, which transmits IR to an IRMan or USB-UIRT?
Basically MX850->MX350->USBUIRT-CQC. Its a lot more reliable than it sounds, I was using that for a *long* time, plus IIRC it only cost something like $300ish all-in.
I had thought of this but it seemed so kludgy! But if you had good reliability I guess it should go back on the list (and considering that there is a +1 from gacevish means that there are two people happy with the solution).
Mark Stega
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Mark Stega Wrote:I had thought of this but it seemed so kludgy! But if you had good reliability I guess it should go back on the list (and considering that there is a +1 from gacevish means that there are two people happy with the solution).
I have roughly the same setup with a few MX-980s (RF/IR) + MX350.
Works well.
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Mark Stega Wrote:Did you use IR to CQC simply because it was easier than Bluetooth?
I am not sure how bluetooth would work but I had IR setup previously so I just set one of the ultimate hub's blasters in front of my Ir input for cqc.
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Mark Stega Wrote:I had thought of this but it seemed so kludgy! But if you had good reliability I guess it should go back on the list (and considering that there is a +1 from gacevish means that there are two people happy with the solution).
I use a really shitty RatShack remote with a generic IR Repeater going into a USB UIRT and it is super reliable. Actually shocked when it works all the time.
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Mark Stega Wrote:I had thought of this but it seemed so kludgy! But if you had good reliability I guess it should go back on the list (and considering that there is a +1 from gacevish means that there are two people happy with the solution).
I use a MX880-->MSC-400--> CQC via rs232. A bit more programming for the msc-400 base-station but it works well, and you can send any text you want back to cqc. With the new ability to parse parameters in the generic socket trigger driver, it makes writing the action code very simple.
I've used the usbsirt and it would almost always work but would lock up every month or so for me.
