Re: A-Bus and Futuresmart panel

[Mick <stuck@xxxxxxxx>]

Are you saying that the UNO kaypads are an A-bus compatible product and
that you have mixed and matched?

wkearney99 wrote:
>>Well, it is a big house and counting patios,
>
>
> Make sure you have enough amplification out on the patios.  The A-bus keypad
> amp IS NOT capable of driving outdoor speakers.  I have one as a slave to a
> CAV66 and I use a separate 200W amp to feed the rock speakers.  I take the
> line-out from the keypad back into the house, into the amp and then over
> 12ga outdoor wire to the speakers.  Sounds great.
>
>
>>there are in fact 16 pairs
>>of speakers. What is wrong with that? The ChannelVision panel modules
>>handle 4 pairs each and they claim you can use up to 4 of them, while
>>the Futuresmart panels handle 6 each and they claim you can use 2 of
>>them (not quite enough for my setup).
>
>
> Stick with units that use multiples of four as most ABus keypads support 4.
>
> Bear in mind that in order to support the 16 zones you're talking about
> feeding your audio signals into 4 different hubs and then each to four
> keypads.  Daisy-chained from one hub through to another.  That's a fair bit
> of messy cabling.  Be sure to leave enough room to effectively mount the
> hubs.  And seriously consider getting cabling that's as close to the right
> length as possible.  As in, don't get 6 footers and bundle them up.  Get 1
> footers and lay them out neatly.  Likewise consider using patch panels for
> the keypads.  Bring the wires out of the wall to the patch panel and then
> use a short patch cord to connect to the hubs.  Don't just snake the wires
> out of the wall and stub then with RJ45s.  It'll look crappy and if/when you
> need to replace something you don't want to risk breaking a cable in the
> process.  Besides, when you show it off and it's got cleanly laid out cables
> people are generally more impressed than a rats nest coming out of a hole
> chopped in the drywall.
>
>
>>I looked into speaker level
>>distribution and it is less expensive, but lacks the IR control
>>capability of the Abus, plus I am not wild about running this many #16
>>wires all over the house.
>
>
> I have a combination of A-Bus and a CAV6.6.  I greatly prefer having the Uno
> keypads over the somewhat 'dumb' A-bus keypads.  The Uno's allow a lot more
> and provide text display feedback.  That and the A-bus keypads don't
> remember the last used volume level.  You have to turn them on and then ramp
> up the volume.  You don't know it annoying until you use an Uno and it
> automagically starts up at a configurable volume level.
>
> What I do it take four of the CAV66 zones and slave them each to an A-Bus
> keypad supplying a room nearby.  For example, the sunroom has the Uno, while
> the deck right next to it has an A-Bus slave.  Likewise, the exercise room
> gets the Uno, the guest bedroom next door gets the A-Bus.  You could
> mix-and-match futher by daisy chaining the audio through the various source
> devices.
>
> But when you're wiring, seriously consider wiring for the future.  Pull both
> CAT5 for the keypad but also 4 conductor 14ga for possible future
> centralized speaker amplification.  Wire is the CHEAP part during an
> open-wall installation.  If you never use the central lines, well not much
> of a loss as wire's inexpensive.  But if you even need to expand it'll cost
> triple to fish new wires.
>
> -Bill Kearney
>