- Posted on
Tue Apr 03, 2012 11:43 am
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moscomedve
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- Posts: 34
- Joined: Apr 02, 2012
Complete control of TV, XBox 360, PS3 and AppleTV using an insteon keypad, IR Transmitter programmed with macro's, and apple remote. Also needs Remote Buddy Express, Logitech PS3 IR reciever.
When the thermostat turns on (needs separate triggers for Fan, AC and Furnace), an increase volume scene is activated that runs an IR macro on the IR transmitter to increase the volume by 5. When the thermostat turns off, it decreases it.
The keypad sends scene commands to the IR transmitter. On: turn on TV, Off: turn off TV. A on: set input to RGB then HDMI 1, send on to Apple TV. A off: send menu hold to AppleTV, send select hold to AppleTV (puts to sleep). B on: set input to RGB then Component 1, send on to XBox 360. B off: send off to Xbox 360. C on: set input to RGB then AV1 (cannot control Wii by IR), C off: nothing. D on: set input to RGB then HDMI 2 (send 2 hdmi IR commands) then send on to PS3. D off: nothing. Each tv input change goes to RGB input first to put the tv into a known state.
The entire setup can be controlled by the simple apple remote (I hate universal remotes) by pairing it to a computer with an IR receiver that is in sight (or reflected sight) of the remote. Remote Buddy can then be configured to intercept IR commands and re-map them to insteon scenes. For example, holding up will direct the IR transmitter to raise the TV volume, holding down will lower it. If the keypad is set to A (appleTV) then up, down, right, left, play/pause, menu and select are mapped to IR macros that transmit the required commands to the Apple TV. If the keypad is set to D (PS3), then the same buttons are mapped to macros that control DVD/Bluray playback, with the exception that menu brings up the playback control menu, and menu hold returns to the disc menu; also holding right will go to the next chapter, holding left will run a macro that sends previous chapter twice (the first instance goes to the start of the current chapter, the second goes to the previous chapter). There is a bit of latency, but it's not too bad, and I designed the mappings only around the DVD/Bluray control features I use the most (of course anything else needed can be accessed through the playback control menu). In practice the setup is quite simple, and there is no need to fumble around with multiple remotes, or use a magnifying lens to figure out which button out of 200 to press on a universal remote.