I bought a nuvo essentia amp/controller only, no keypads. Plan was to control via CQC.

I hooked up the CQC driver, I can connect. As far as I can tell I can turn zones on and off, change sources and set the power.

Only problem.... nothing is happening at the amp. Best I could get after 2 hours was once I had the zone 2 green light on and a super quiet sound coming out the speakers.

When I run the command
*Z01CONSR<CR>

I get back
#Z01PWRON, SRC1, GRP1, VOL-25

Should I have a green light on the amp for zone 1 at the point?

If I didnt get the green light to turn on once I would think the amp was broken...

Is there some special command I need to run to reset it, or to get it ready to run without keypads?

Unfortunately, my opinion hasn't changed. I think you got a bum unit. My suggestion is to give Nuvo a call and ask for Watt (nickname Kilowatt) in tech support. He's the man when it comes to Nuvo products and can immediately direct you to what's going on. It appears from your symptoms that the controller is working fine, but the amps are not. You might try opening the unit and reseating all the amplifiers. I believe they use card slot connectors and maybe something shook loose during shipping. However, a word of caution. I once bought an Extron unit from an unscrupulous ebayer and got express consent from them to open the unit up to diagnose a power supply issue. When I found that the PS was DOA and filed a complaint with Ebay, they argued that I opened the unit and broke the PS myself. Fortunately, my neighbor builds power supplies for a living and replaced all the Caps and all was well.

Thanks.. I actually tried to call them last night but by the time I got home from work but they were already closed...

I did open it up, the amp cards are screwed in and everything looked well seated and brand new. Not even a spec of dust inside.

I spoke to someone there who wasnt really sure but thought that if I did a *Z01On I should see the zone light come on.

Sounds like it might be time to send it in or send it back.

One thing he did say was that I could take it to my friends house and swap it out with my friends Grand Concerto amp. Does that sound right? I know the keypads are certainly differnt.

Can an essentia and a concerto really be just swapped out? Last thing I want to do is fry my friends keypads/ezport.