ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Hi everyone,
I'm looking at whether a simple, retro-fit, one-room home automation solution can be developed for use with Beo4 and other B&O remotes, but this got me wondering what people would like to control from their Beo4's.....
Please let me know your thoughts on the one button you would most like to add to your Beo4 - this can either be a practical one (eg. "CURTAINS OPEN") or maybe a less acheivable idea (eg. "CHILDREN - MUTE")
Once I've got some ideas on the sorts of things you would like to use Beo4 to do (or Beolink 1000, BeoTime, etc), then I can focus the development work - not sure I can find a way to silence famliy members from the remote control, though!
Please let me know what you think.......
Kind regards, Steve.
Steve.
www.soundsheavenly.com
Founder of Sounds Heavenly Cables and Brand Ambassador for Bang & Olufsen
Sounds Heavenly are proud to sponsor BeoWorld!
Please check out my YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/soundsheavenlycables
Hi Steve,
Family mute would be fantastic, like you say probably a no go!!!!
Control my remote gas fire would be fantastic
Jonnie
Jonnie,
You can control a gas fire with the Beo5/6 but it would have to have the remote in the first place!
Steve,
The obvious thing that comes to mind would be the position of Beotime in relation to the wall lights - like Lintronic if it was to bounce the signal around the room then you could position the Beotime anywhere in the room.
How about a coffee maker in bedroom - goblin teasmade - alarm goes off and then coffee maker is fired up!
Beosound 8, Beotime, Beocom 4, Beo 5, Lutron Rania, MacBook 15" (Mid 2015), iPad Pro, iPhone 6S, B&O Play H3, Beolit 12, Form 2, A8 Headphones, B&O Play A1, B&O Essence
Beosound Stage, Beovision 8-40, Beolit 20, Beosound Explore.
As I'm in Spain and suffering a particularly hot & dry summer this year, I'm considering (at last!) air-con in the house. I expect (?) to be able to control it via my Beo4 & Lintronic setup, but an 'A/C or 'Air-Con' button would be nice! I don't use the CD button at all now so may utilise it for controlling the air-con but a dedicated button would look good,
Hi Steve
Central heating control would be top of my list - if not now, for later in the year. If you could also get the Nest Thermostat to work in the UK and interface with it you can take my order now!
Peter
Instead of the text or light button there could be a 'home' or 'control' button with list commands for various items.
Now i use 'light' for my light (duh) and Dyson fans and in the list the window blinds.
Hope that this comment isn't too off-topic but I wish someone would come up with a way of changing the A9 remote buttons so that VIDEO selected SAT and AUDIO selected CD. I'd take that over any BEO4 mods.
Thanks, there's some great ideas here!
I think L1no has got the perfect solution, ie. a HOME or CONTROL button for Beo4, ideally mapped to an existing Hex code so that Beolink 1000 and other old remotes can still operate home automation products (are you listening B&O?) Yes, I know Beo5/6 can easily have extra on-screen buttons added, but I'm keen to see what can be done with the legacy remotes to make this inclusive for all B&O owners.
I'm currently thinking of using just the LIGHT button to give relay outputs for things like blinds, fans, heating, coffee maker (smart idea, Chris!)
So, as a slight twist to the question (for those with home automation already in place):- Which button currently works your home gadgets on your Beo4?
Thanks again for all the ideas! Steve.
Backlight would be handy. Especially in the dark. :)
Beste Grüße / Best regards
Schlaumeier
Setup Livingroom: BeoVision 10-40 and 10-32, BeoLab 6000 front, BeoLab 4000 rear, BeoLab 11, Ouverture, Apple TV 2 & 4, Airport Express, 6 x LC2.
Other Rooms: 3 x BeoSound 8, BeoVision 8-26, MX 4002, 2 x Keyring, 2 x Beolit 15, A1, Airport Express, 4 x Beo4, 2 x Beocom 5
The extra controls in the list menu only come up in the Light mode. Don't know if it is supposed to do this but i like it.
A HOME button would be really nice. With the numbers you could get house scenes like 9 to go to bed. This would include shades down, bathroom lights on, and a walk-out time for the AV and lighting. Nice effect could be a small light that could turn on lighting the alarm console in a hallway and bedroom so you won't forget to turn it on.
Siemens/Miele builds a build-in coffee machine for use with the Nespresso cups and has a serial port for service AND control.
Currently have a little device in my network that sniffs my iPhones mac-adress in my home network, when he senses the iPhone is connected he'll send IR commands around the house like TV or RADIO. It could easily turn on my lighting as well in a alarm situation.
Steve at Sounds Heavenly:I'm currently thinking of using just the LIGHT button to give relay outputs for things like blinds, fans, heating, coffee maker
Steve, I'm also using the LIGHT button for my self-built bus system throughout my house.
Steve at Sounds Heavenly:Which button currently works your home gadgets on your Beo4?
So things like "LIGHT", "4", "UP" is lighting up bulbs, raising shutters, switching on towel heaters, dimming up lights etc. Even activating the rain water reservoir in the garden... "DOWN" of course is switching them off / lowering shutters...
Expanded this to LIGHT "1" "3" "UP" for up to 14 devices. No use on a BL7000, though.
A little problem is that Beo4 is returning to "TV", "SAT" etc after a little while; that's why I'm mostly using BL1000's that don't....
So I'm missing e.g. AUX more than other keys on the Beo4. That "LIST"ing until "AUX" is more than annoying
If I would have known you are into home automation we should have been talking a lot in Struer
Gunther
What blinds are you controlling with beo4? I've been looking but can't find a simple solution. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
Hi Gunther,
Sorry, I should have mentioned this - I'm into EVERYTHING B&O! Sounds like you have a good system set up. Did you adapt an off-the-shelf home automation system, or design your own?
Hi 2012martin,
I think the straight answer is that there isn't a simple solution - yet.......I'm hoping to find a way to make baasic home automation control from Beo4 easy to retro-fit into the average home.
Hi L1no,
I just get the LAMP button as an extra option on my Beo4 when in LIGHT mode - I will see if I can get any other options added.
Thanks everyone for all the feedback......
There are a lot of buttons (functions) in LIGHT mode on Beo4:
When you select LIGHT, you can find MORNING, LEAVING, HOME, TV VIEW, EVENING, MUSIC, RELAX, SLEEP,GENERAL, OUTDOOR, LAMP iin the LIST. All these functions can be controled via a Lintronic box or the MLGW.
There is also a CONTROL mode in the Beo4. You will find two WINDOW buttons, five CURTAIN buttons and an ON-OFF button in the LIST.
These functions can also be controlled via a Lintronic box or MLGW.
I have controlled the blinds via LIGHT color modes with a Lintronic relay board. Now it`s controlled the same way via MLGW controlling the relay board via RS 232.
Projector, screen, light will be controlled via cinema out of the BS3with help of a Lintronic box. Projector functions like menu, settings... are controlled via Beo4 in FORMAT mode.
I`m using FORMAT color mode. Screen can also be controlled via FORMAT 7 - 8 - 9 : Screen up - Stop - down.
Stefan
Hi Stefan,
Thanks for this. My Beo4's (mk.2 and mk.3 without the navigation joystick) only seem to have LAMP and STORE options in the LIST for LIGHT mode. I also don't have the CONTROL mode accessible as far as I can tell. Can you tell me which version of Beo4 you have and how you enabled these options on the Beo4 please?
Many thanks, Steve.
AUX is desperately missing from the top of the remote. Is there any way you can set up a poll here?
LIGHT MORNING, TV VIEW....functions are available on the Beo4 navi 1710. Same with CONTROL mode.
The FORMAT functions can also be used with earlier Beo4s and Lintronic box.
You don`t need to enable these functions. Just add CONTROL in the LIST.
Thanks Stefan,
Your welcome....and sorry for the mistake:
FORMAT 7 - 8 - 9 is: screen down - stop - up . Makes more sense.....
Steve at Sounds Heavenly:Did you adapt an off-the-shelf home automation system, or design your own?
Steve, I have everything built on my own - from schematics, PCB layout, assembling, software, IR coding/decoding etc...
There just wasn't anything I was aware of back in 2006 when we (my college and me) planned a thing we would think our ideal of home controlling.
He's not into B&O so hasn't the IR receiver / transmitter on the controlling panel.
And as he was completely rewiring his home we choose a 4-wire-RS485-bus structure (2xpower, 2x signal) independent of any EiB / KNX expensive devices. Two years later I was moving and having a new house built so we layed around 4km of wiring in total
The system includes 4 audio channels in almost every room via simple 2x6W central amplifiers in the control room and the speakers in the ceiling panels.
But in my environment I can send IR commands from the wall controllers to an real B&O device e.g. in the living room (and having 1 timer per weekday to wake me up through my ouverture in the sleeping room...)
Many more features like smoke detector alarm with showing the location as real text, showing windows not shut when leaving the house...
Much too complicated to explain here and not really suited for retrofitting. If you need some more information / ideas just PM me - not sure if this is of global interest (yet?)
And probably I can learn some new features for me, too
You're thinking of constructing a system of your own?