Some updates on where I am today and to share some personal experience. Over time my most important hardware gained IP integration support and integrations gradually became more reliable. I still find the process of updating an integration unnecessarily complicated (check on GitHub, download update files, save them on the computer, delete old integration, install new integration, re-run setup) and, once you have about 10 receiving regular updates, this becomes a bit of a time waster. Jack has released an Integration Manager which is a step in the right direction but the task is still not automated but for a minority of Integrations (Jackâs own to begin with).
Currently I need IR for three products:
- my Gryphon amp - no Ethernet interface / control
- my Grandview screen - which I could also presumably control with a 5V trigger or a serial adapter which involves cable adapters that would have to be custom built
- my dCS Vivaldi stack
For Gryphon I learned the IR codes from the remote however, even with the dock placed right underneath the amp, IR control would be hit and miss (mostly miss). The fix was using the IR blaster that came in the box with the docks. Not sure why Gryphon does not like the docks but the IR blaster now triggers it consistently. That was one.
Grandview- same story. I learned the codes from the remote. The dock placed on the floor, underneath the screen, does control the screen most of the time but there are still misses which is annoying.
The serial interface, even assuming I would figure out what adapter cables I need and how to program it, is still not implemented by UC as far as I can tell.
The trigger functionality - fair warning to those who might want to use it: the dock jack sockets at the back are 3 pin/stereo and use a special pin layout so DO NOT insert a standard mono trigger cable in these sockets because they are not going to work and you risk frying the circuits. Also the dock only delivers 5V so if you need a 12V trigger, you are out of luck. I am currently in the process of ordering a custom trigger cable with the correct pin layout from Design A-Cable to test the trigger functionality with the dock, assuming the screen works with a 5V trigger (it is supposed to).
The dCS Vivaldi stack is the most frustrating of all. IP control should be possible because Mosaic does it but dCS couldnât have been less helpful. They were unable to advise on any of the issues below:
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Mosaic control interface
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Does Mosaic use a documented or supported IP control API (HTTP/REST, WebSocket, or other) to control devices?
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If so, is there any developer or partner documentation available for this interface?
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Power management
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Input selection
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Advanced audio settings
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Status / telemetry
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Whether there are IP endpoints or mechanisms to query current state (power, input, sample rate, clock lock, etc.).
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Whether Mosaic relies on polling or event/notification mechanisms.
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Multi-unit stack behavior
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How Mosaic discovers and controls multiple linked units (Upsampler, DAC, Clock).
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Whether the Upsampler acts as a control master for the stack or whether Mosaic addresses each unit individually.
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Third-party control
- Whether use of the Mosaic control interface is supported or permitted for third-party control systems, and whether there are any restrictions or licensing considerations.
Which leaves IR control as the only option. And unfortunately their documentation provides IR codes in a format not currently supported by UC. Also, while codes from other legacy dCS DACs do work to some extent, they only cover about 70% of the Vivaldi functions and none for the streamer / clock. I checked GlobalCache, I checked Harmony etc. No database has codes specifically for Vivaldi. Which means I can not use Harmony to learn the codes. And the original dCS remote handset controls all components of the stack simultaneously - triggering a toggle on/off command sends 4 different IR codes at the same time: one for DAC, one for clock, one for upsampler and another for the transport. As I canât isolate these codes, I canât learn them.
So, as a last resort, I fired up ChatGPT, loaded the library of IR codes from the dCS manual and asked it to convert them to a UC compatible format. Four or five attempts later, it generated CSV files that UC accepted but here comes another twist in the story.
The screen on my remote started to bulge out recently, particularly on the left edge. I am not sure if there is a battery swelling up underneath, whether itâs some glue points failing (a glue spot is visible on the protruding edge of the screen) but I have looked after the remote well, I have never dropped it so I was not expecting a hardware problem after less than 6 months of light use. The remote is now with UPS on its way back to UC for âinspectionâ and the dCS project is on hold.
But overall I am in a much better place now than a few months ago and hopefully, assuming that UC and independent developers continue to work on the project, it will become a valid Harmony replacement at some point. This early hardware problem does raise some concerns for me as I have had Harmony remotes for years and they are still going strong. I would also like to see, maybe in the fourth iteration of the remote, a dedicated server hardwired to the network because one of the ongoing points of failure for the remote is internet connectivity, going to sleep in the middle of an activity, small antennas requiring a strong WiFi signal etc. Harmony, C4 - all the major installer platforms have a dedicated server connected to the local network by cable, the remote handsets being just control points. The remote handset running server means high power consumption, heat and limited hardware processing power because of space, cooling and power limitations. I also find the screen quality middling (I understand UC dropped the ball with the generation 3 screen compared to generation 2) and the button quality underwhelming from an ergonomic and functional point of view.
If the server was housed in a UC dock the hardwired Ethernet connection would have been bulletproof, always on, and the remote would have only needed basic Bluetooth and / or WiFi connectivity as a controller.
But all these issues aside, UC is now usable and, if the network connectivity would be more reliable, it would be a solid alternative to Harmony for me at this stage.