Trick Question for the Gurus here... Has this been done before? please read.

[Yellowbmr]

I have my equipment hidden in the closet behind the wall in my living room which can only be accessed inside the master bedroom. This will hide the cables and the living room is just clean. I am using a IR to send signals to the receiver mounted under tv, which then sends the signal to the room (via wire) and then i have 5 eyes in the closet which turns on devices on and off.

My question is, sometimes, i don't know if the receiver is on or off, cable box is on or off, plasma unit is on or off and same thing with DVD. So i have to guess which one is on and it makes it really confusing. Is there something that i can wire to the front (like LEDS) that shows the status of the units (if they are on, the LED shows on for DVD, i don't mind installing LED;s), but has there such install been done?

 

[Az B]

Yes, that is a problem. My gear is all in a closet as well, and I use the IR repeaters.

The universal player is in the room, and I have it plugged into the switched outlet on the receiver. That way I can tell if the reciever is on or not by looking at the universal player.

The cable box I don't worry about. I just leave it on all the time.

 

[BMXTRIX]

The first thing to do is look for something like a Pronto style remote that you can program yourself. Why? Because you are likely to find that about half of your equipment, or more, has discrete power on/off.

If you want to really go high end, drop a Crestron control system in front of it and you will hit about 99.9% on/off reliability automatically.

Not sure about tying a power reader into things... How about a $50.00 security camera tied into a composite input on your TV then turn on your TV first and put it on the camera input and you will know what is on and what isn't. That's just an idea though.

 

[Yellowbmr]

i almost went crazy searching, but found the solution.

with this unit i can use a powerflash module to turn led's in different room on or off.

http://www.smarthome.com/8013.html

 

[Votrax]

with this unit i can use a powerflash module to turn led's in different room on or off.

http://www.smarthome.com/8013.html

At $25 a piece that could get expensive. You could build a pretty simple circuit using photo transistors and op amps to illuminate remote mounted LED's for a heck of a lot cheaper.

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

with this unit i can use a powerflash module to turn led's in different room on or off.

http://www.smarthome.com/8013.html

Cool, and at non-ripoff prices! That's one to tuck away for later...thanks!

Votrax: being an electronics neophyte is such a circuit illustrated somewhere? I'm at the 'trained chimp' level: I can populate a perfboard from a simple diagram with a slightly better than even chance of success but not much more. I am dreaming of building my own Audio Fortress of Solitude someday.

I don't know what happened to my earlier reply, but I suggested the low-tech possiblity of fiber optic pipes from the panel indicators to a small display mounted discreetly on the theater wall.

 

[BMXTRIX]

What Equipment Do You Have?

Have You Looked Into Discrete Ir On/off?

 

[Votrax]

Cool, and at non-ripoff prices! That's one to tuck away for later...thanks!

Votrax: being an electronics neophyte is such a circuit illustrated somewhere? I'm at the 'trained chimp' level: I can populate a perfboard from a simple diagram with a slightly better than even chance of success but not much more. I am dreaming of building my own Audio Fortress of Solitude someday.

I don't know what happened to my earlier reply, but I suggested the low-tech possiblity of fiber optic pipes from the panel indicators to a small display mounted discreetly on the theater wall.

I'll draw a circuit up and post it when I get a chance. The fiber optic isn't a bad idea if you don't have a great distance to go. Smarthome.com has some innovative stuff, just not the cheapest.

 

[Votrax]

I decided a photocell would require less components.