Home Theater Lighting Control

[JJ]

I was talking with Joe (legit) about this the other day and I wanted to know what you chaps thought - two questions.

I'm interested in IR controllable lighting options that I can control with my Marantz universal remote.

One - are there such things as simple plug-in wall units that you can connect say, my lamp to that can be controlled via remote? For that matter, reliable ones that rely on IR and not RF? The IR ones are mad unreliable and my remote does not control RF.

Two - this is where my current switch for my rack lighting in my living room. It is located ALL the way over here:



Out of line of sight! If I were to get, say a Lutron wall-dimmer, it would be as simple as making a hole in the drywall on the other end of that wall and rewiring that switch - correct?

[Hammie]

You'd probably have the same issue with line of sight.

Is it above or below the counter?

[ak808]

I have no experience on IR lamp controllers but I do have an intermatic z wave one that works great. So sorry I'm no help there.
But for you switch solution I don't think it will work unless you mount the switch in another box on the otherside of the drywall. Simply cutting a hole in your drywall will not do you any good since all you'd see is the back of the box which the switches are mounted on. Maybe place a mirror on the other side so the signal can reflect back to the switch. That might or might not work. Don't know if you seen the ir switch dimmers but they are pretty thick. So a problem I see is that your switch box houses 4 switches, which will mean about a possible 8 14/2 wires meaning about 24 wires (maybe more maybe less depending on how your electrician wired your switches). So space could be an issue depending on how deep your box is.

[JJ]

OH LOL!

No, no, I meant get the Lutron switch and put it on the other side of that wall, where the hole in the drywall will be.

I'm not that braindead, either!

I've yet to disconnect that switch and see what wires are working back there. I'm expecting the usual pair and a ground.

[ak808]

OH LOL my bad Well in that case yes it should work out fine and would be quite simple granted that you know your basic wiring. Just putting out the space constrants since I ran into that problem myself. Ended up pulling the box out of the wall for a deeper one.