IR blaster integration??

anyone got a good system for doing IR commands through indigo? i was hoping that we'd get a hardware dev putting out an IR blaster that's insteon compliant -- a wall unit with an IR blaster attached, etc--

or ideally for me an IP blaster, connected on the LAN, and could be just a 'dumb' unit that waits for commands from software. then an attachment script in indigo could define the protocol and commands could be sent using the actual IR hex codes in a sub routine/action group. that would be ideal for me. to open an ip socket may have to use terminal or something until indigo supports direct url addressing. don't know.

anyone know of anything getting close to that?

I use an IRTrans which I control in Indigo via AppleScript and iRed software.
IRTrans is available in USB and ethernet versions and is capable of sending and receiving IR.
It works great!

now that looks GOOD. thanks macp.

also i see some new developments there:

- New: Send IR Codes via HTTP Call (only with IRDB)
- Sending and Receiving of IR commands via TCP or UDP
- New: Send IR Codes via UDP ASCII String (only with IRDB)

that's great. very clean, might not even need ired. but i'll start with it for sure.

well done. thx.

just wanted to update to say that i got the ip version of irtrans and it integrated beautifully with my setup. scripting couldn't be easier either! this really filled a gap in my automation capabilities.

thanks for the tip!

You're welcome.

Are you using iRed?
Or just the HTTP calls?

I have the USB version, so I have to use iRed. But that works great.
And I'm thinking of getting the ethernet version also.

Do I really need it? No. But it's just fun to have these gadgets.
I might use it to switch on the TV in the bedroom in the morning.

i'm going thru ired now, because it is so light a load on the cpu it isn't any kind of issue. i wrote a little attachment for indigo so i can do ir commands from any action with just a handler call:

RemoteControl("lexicon/mc8","mute/zone2")

real easy. works great. and my server is in the basement so using enet is essential to my setup. at the moment i have only one transceiver, in the den, everything else is more directly applescriptable, but if i need to i can add transceivers in other parts of the house. the audio/vis equip is not as yet very networkable (aside from tivo) unless you do proprietary stuff like crestron/amx via rs422, etc, and a lot of stuff won't be networkable for years it seems, like televisions (and if sony would design stuff with discrete on/off commands, i'd be even happier), so ir is the best solution for me at the moment. and frankly, works great.

the ip version was total plug and play, easy as pie as far as network setup. and, as you know, ired is so easy to program... can't believe i didn't do this before.

i'm glad i back up indigo's db every week because i wouldn't know what to do if i lost it that thing is so complex at this point. now, if i ever move i'm gonna have a serious borg-like setup to reinstall in the new place... but, that's life for a nerd isn't it?

off topic: If you want to know what's inside a complex Indigo database: Indigo Database Report

oh right. forgot about that. i'd be interested to see that.. i'll check it out this weekend.

I have a simple IR application that I am looking for advice on. I am planning to install a Lutron motorized shade in the bedroom at vacation home. It has an IR remote control. What I want to do is have a blaster that can connect to my Mac Mini and Indigo via WiFi because it would be difficult to run ethernet or usb or IR cables to this particular room. IRTrans looks good but expensive plus shipping to get from Europe to here. I looked at a z-wave alternative from motorizedsolutions.com but it was more than double the cost of a Lutron shade. It was $1,350 plus more than that for installation.

You might check out the iTach and other products from Global Caché... I've been meaning to investigate them a bit more for some additional integration, but from what little I've read the hardware seems pretty decent (and relatively inexpensive). There is a plugin available as well -- see Perry the Cynic's forum for information about the plugin and supported versions; I am sure some actual users would be able to give FAR better advice, but that might give you something to begin investigating.

Adam

If you have an IR system in place and just need to get it to a remote location
I've had great success using an X10 Powermid. Cheap too.

http://www.amazon.com/X10-Powermid-PM59 ... B00023KG40

Carl