Is anybody interested in controlling non-B&O kit with the BEO4? I ask because one of the main reasons I started buying B&O was the promise of only needing one type of remote control in the house rather than the clutter of black bricks that normally adorn the armrest of everyone's sofa.
Unfortunately the promise was not fulfilled - even though I have a lot of B&O kit, there are some things that I have to get elsewhere. I use a Sky Digibox, an On Digital Terrestrial box, a TiVo and a motorised CI satellite box. It may be unusual to have all these inputs (not even getting into the subject of the lack of inputs on Avants), but I managed to slim down to three remotes - using the Tivo remote to control the Sky digibox and the Tivo, and the internal STB controller with the BEO4 in the Avant to control the On Digital box - with the CI satellite box adding the third remote control.

Now I know you can buy a programmable remote control like the Philips Pronto to control everything, but I would lose the use of the BEO4! One of the main reasons I bought B&O in the first place.

Anyhow, this has been bugging me for months and I think I have found a solution by using a home controller. The way it is intending to work is for the controller to receive a command from the BEO4 - (say one of the extended keys on the BEO4) and re-map the IR code into one that the non-B&O kit can understand. The complicating factor is that B&O use the 455Khz frequency for their IR signals and most receivers only work up to 100Khz. I think I have found a solution using a 455Khz receiver and downconverter to 40Khz as an input to a IR controller. Although I have ordered the kit, I have not received it yet so I don't know whether it will work (its a $400 gamble). If anyone is interested, I'll check it out (probably before the end of April and write a summary.

I too am interested in your application as I too have a BEO4 and would like to use it to control non B&O equipment. Good Luck on the gamble.

I too also interested in your testing. B&O had indicated the Avant only comes with limited 3rd party devices support.

Looking forward to hearing about your results. Being a dane, I know all about difficulties with B&O - even though the design is unbeaten!

I've finally got all the kit together and have set up the system but there are two significant problems with the Ocelot:

1. The Ocelot doesn't seem to be able to accurately recognise the downconverted B&O RF that comes out of the Xantech. I have asked ADI (Dan Boone) about this on the X-10 bulletin board as they seem very responsive and helpful there.


2. There is a delay of 0.6 secs from a keypress to the response. According to Dan this is because the Ocelot waits for 0.5 sec to 'listen' to the IR port. It is workable but it is very slow and doesn't seem to handle multiple key-presses (although this may be a symptom of (1).

Anyhow, the general principle seems to be OK, so I hope this can be resolved.

Regards

Nigel

What is the response time to RS232 strings by the Ocelot?

jcmitch

There is a maker in Denmar of addons to satellitereceivers and other topboxes that will accept Beo4 remotecontrol. It works super for me.
Chris

Which maker in Denmark do you mean? I could only find

[Link: home6.inet.tele.dk]