CBUS ELAN S12 Integration

Hi,

I've been playing with the idea of integrating my CBUS with my ELAN S12, to allow control of the S12 via Wiser and some keypads (Neo) as well.

My current CBUS installation includes, BW Touch (MKII I think), PAC, Wiser, Neo keypads.

My ELAN S12 has 8 zones and about 6 sources.

I also have an Onkyo TX-NR509 in my home theater room.

The problem I have is that everything is controlled using IR from each zone, but this is not reliable and not practical.

My ultimate goal is to be able to control both CBUS and AV (S12 & Onkyo) using Wiser iPad/iPhone app. Also, I would like to control volume and source on the S12 using Neo keypads.

My simple brain tells me the only way really would be to use RS232 via a CNI into the S12 and the Onkyo, and then use IR Emitters to control the sources?

That would mean 2 CNI's and a bunch of IR emitters, which would end up costly.

Any advise would be appreciated, before I embark on this. Thanks

 

Personally, I would look at a third party product that still would give you a seamless interface between everthing, but also has more power and flexability (to connect to other products).

Control4, Crestron etc are the type of product I am thinking about, but me prefernce is CQC fropm charmed quark as it is a lot cheaper and if you are so inclined you can do a lot of it yourself.

While CQC does not have a driver for the Elan system, I have previously looked at the protocol (for another job) and it is possible to write a driver (anyone can do this, you dont need the company to supply it) to integrate it all together.

I do believe the the Onky receiver is covered (the N stands for Network and it can be controlled via the network).

C-Bus is also covered under CQC.

iOS works well with it as does windows as a touch interface.

Jump on over to their site (http://www.charmedquark.com/) and have a look and I think you will be pleased and surprised at what it can do for the price.

To answer some of your questions.

A CNI is a network interface for toolkit (C-Gate) and nothing else really uses it (correct me here if I am wrong).

To control the Elan from C-Bus directly you will need to use a serial port on either the touchscreen or a PAC and then program in all the commands you want to send when a goupr is activated. Not sure how hard two way comms will be though.

Mick

 

Hi,

Thanks you for the reply. I've already downloaded CQC as from my research it does seem to be the way to go when it comes to integration. It is however completely foreign to me but I'm sure I'll grasp it over a period of time.

I was also thinking of just using the Generic RS-232 driver to communicate to ELAN as a start, however it is only 1-way comms by the look of it.

Thanks for confirming what I thought would be the correct way to go.