JP1 Remotes

Hi all,

It's been almost 7 years since I last visited these fora and to be honest I never delved deeply into the JP1 at the time because I got this remote to do what I needed without reconfiguring. Now, however, I have a new situation that seems ready-made for the JP1 piece of the puzzle: we're completing the build of a new theater in our new house and it will involve hidden components behind a door, lighting without direct line of sight to the switches, and a projector. More maybe coming in the future, so it's time to start looking at the capabilities of this remote versus newer (and much pricier) new remotes and tablet/smartphone apps.

So for my first question, I'll focus on the hidden components. Initially there will be two or three components. I have the RF base stations and two IR repeater wires from three of the remotes I still have. First question is whether or not I'll need more than one repeater running inside the cabinet? Since each of the base stations only has one wire output, I hope one station and one wire will be sufficient to control everything in the cabinet.

Second set of questions is about the lighting. I currently have two circuits, one each for sconces and overhead cans. One or two more likely to be added for floor/stair lighting in the near-future. I do not currently have dimmers on these switches (the electrician forgot) so I'm looking for remote-controlled dimming options for both/all. I've read good things about Smarthome Insteon and Lutron Maestro devices. Anyone have ideas or suggestions on this topic? And those switches are located well out-of-sight, so I'll need RF to control those.

Is there a way to link component controls so that I can press 'play' for the DVD player and the lights will dim to 'off' and if I hit 'pause' they would go to 50% (and 'stop' go back to 100%)? This sort of integrated control is where I would like to move and will try to do myself or gladly pay someone for their help in this adventure.

I do still have my JP1 cable (unused) that I can employ with some guidance to accomplish any or all of what I've asked about. I'm not totally averse to buying something newer to control the theater - like a tablet with TouchSquid - but I would prefer to not spend oodles of money to do what the 9910 can do already just to show off a tablet app...

Thanks for the help on this. I'm anxious to hear some guidance.

Scott

With very few exceptions, universal remote can't control RF devices besides their own bases. So if you want to control your lights, you'll need to buy some sort of IR gateway device that your remote can talk to. I'm pretty sure Insteon and Lutron make these for their systems. Once you've done that, you can easily do the integrated macros you've described. I used to do exactly the same thing with X10 and my JP1 remotes.

You can usually strategically place your blasters so one or two reach most, if not all your devices. They follow the same rules as visible light, so think about line of sight and reflections when placing them.

Thanks, Dave.

So is there a dummies FAQ about what x10 is? Seems I've been sleeping and completely missed x10. Is it more involved than an Insteon set up? Seems like between those and the Maestro there should be a system that will work for me relatively easily.

Stay the course Scoob. Forget about X10. It's cheap and easy to set up, but it's very old technology and very unreliable, and some of the components you need are no longer made. I was just giving you an example of a setup similar to what you're looking for.