Hi all,

Is there any way I can control 2 zones with 1 keypad with the grand essentia? And can it be programmed using the keypads only, I didn't buy the EZ learning station or software.

I non elegant way I've found is to just switch the Zone, but a) the zone i've switched from stays on (music keeps playing) and b) takes a while to switch zones.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi there -

I do this with my Essentia (it is either the Grand Concerto or the Essentia). The Master Bath and Master Bed are both controlled by the 1 keypad in the Master Bed. I made the Bath Zone a "slave" to the Bedroom Zone using the configuration software. You don't need the learning station to do this, you just need serial connection from your PC to the Nuvo. The software can be downloaded from the Nuvo Pro Zone if I'm not mistaken.

The net result is that when I turn on the Bedroom keypad, it turns on both Zones. Volume and Source are the same for both. It is possible to connect or disconnect the audio adjustments for both zones in the software as well.

i hope this helps,
Chris

Thanks for the reply.

That's pretty close to what I want. Ideally though I would like to be able to turn one zone on and and leave the other off, and vice versa. But now that i know I can connect serially and download the software I have something to mess around with!

Thanks a lot!

ok, now i see what you are trying to do. I don't know of a way to do that, but if you find out let me know!

If you put a volume control in each room you can essentially turn any given room "off". While the single NuVo keypad can control source selection and transport for the primary zone and all the slave zones, the volume controls give you independent volume control in each sub zone.

FWIW, there is an easy way to do this if you're using a PC for home automation. It's what I do.

I setup one of the non-powered zones that i'm not using as a "ghost" zone in the NuVo software, meaning it's not actually hooked up to anything. It's zone 7. I want to turn on Zones 5&6, change sources, etc, when I press that keypad.

What I did was to setup my Home Automation software to monitor Zone 7, and if it ever does what I'm monitoring, then to repeat that function for Zones 5 & 6. In my case I chose to monitor power, source, and volume. I only monitor for power-off, not power-on, so that way the keypad can easily turn both zones off.

I use a touchscreen if I want to independently control zones 5 & 6, as I preferred to not have keypads in those zones.