JP1 Remotes

This is my first post, so let me first say thanks to everyone who gathers here to help everyone else out.

I have a couple of questions. First, I don't have any JP1 remotes or any X10 stuff yet. I am doing my research first to make sure that everything I want to accomplish can be. I would hate to spend a bunch of money and have my new system dissapoint me. Now to the questions:

1) What in the world are scenes? I have done a bunch of reading about them, but am still not sure that I understand what it is they are talking about. I suspect that they are programmable "moods", but how do you activate them? It seems that this would be a perfect solution if one wanted to have all the lights in a room dim to 10% for movie watching, and then come back up to 80% when the DVD player was turned off. Do the different scene enabled 2-way devices control each other?

2) Could the Kameleon 8 (URC-9960) control these scenes with the help of an IR543? I have read many reviews about this remote both good and bad, but have 99% decided that it is the remote for me. I really like the WOW factor of it, and it looks to be really easy for anyone (wife, friends) to use. I understand the limitations of not being able to rename buttons, and having to remember what mislabeled buttons do what, but since I would most likely be the only one doing those advanced things, it would be a non issue. That and with 8 rechargable AAA batteries, it sounds like the drawbacks of the remote could be easily overcome.

3) What are these "Extenders" that I have read about here for these remotes? It seems like they give further enhansements to the remotes, but at a sacrifice of some things. Can these extenders be modified to do only the things you want them to do? Are these extenders necessary to acomplish the things I am trying to do?

4) What is the difference between house codes and unit codes?

That is all I can think of right now. I know this is already a long post (especially for my first one), but I want to make sure to do this right the first time since our money tree died. What I want to be able to do is assign a macro that will switch the input of my TV over to DVD, switch the input of my surround receiver over to DVD, and turn on the DVD player all while dimming 2 overhead lights (controlled by wall switches) and 2 lamps (controlled by plug in modules). I also want to be able to reverse the process with another macro. I want to make sure that I can have independant control of each light even though I also want to be able to control them all at once. I wish to accomplish all of this with the Kameleon 8 and the IR543. Is this asking too much of the technology?

The only thing that I could find as far as requirements of scenes is that the remote had to be able to send a complete set of X-10 signals, i.e., numbers 1 to 16, letters A to P, and transmission of an address separately from an ON, OFF, BRIGHT, or DIM command. Can the Kameleon 8 do this?

If there is a better way of doing what it is that I am trying to do, please let me know.

Thanks so much for reading this post. Any help would be truely appreciated.


Flipper

1) Scenes: not sure, never used them. I suspect that it's a way for you to set the lights to a certain level (eg, "movie" scene, might mean back lights off, front lights at 40% and side lights at 30%, you get the idea). You can't do this with basic X10, but I believe there are more advanced X10 setups where you can.

2) If the IR543 can do it, the Kameleon can too, but like I said before, basic X10 (which means the IR543) can't do scenes. Hopefully someone with more X10 knowledge will jump in and tell you how to do scenes.

3) Extenders are pieces of custom built software written by a select few JP1 experts that take over control of the remote and don't let go. This enables you to make the remote do whatever you want and gets you past all the stupid restrictions that are always built into these remotes (ie, things like "you can't program macros to the device buttons", etc). The only sacrifice is learning, but learning ability is easily restored by loading a non-extender IR image.

4) Unit codes = lights, applicances, etc
House codes = multiple IR543 boxes

A further clarification on a couple of items:

1. Scenes are set in the hardware (not the remote); sort of like preset stations on your tuner. The IR commands will take you to preset command 1, 2, ... These are also done differently by manufacturer. The x10 controlled switches will require the IR-543, but I believe that Lutron has switches that can be directly controlled with IR. We have device upgrades for the Lutron IR commands.

In general, IF the hardware uses IR commands then the OFA/JP1 remote can probably be programmed to send those commands.

4. House Code is like a zone, unit code is for a specific unit. In x10 there are commands like all lights on and off commands and all units on and off commands. Those are by housecode. The there are commands like unit 16 on or unit 16 dim, etc. Each IR543 can only do one housecode. It can be any one of the 16 (A through P).

Cool thanks for the explanation. I think I have figured out what I am going to purchase for my setup. Now I just have to come up with the money!