My husband has a Quartet environmental unit: http://tinyurl.com/dlmpk8 He's had it for almost 15 years now. It is still funtional but it is becoming less and less useful over time. It can control any device through an X10, like a fan or light, and that all still works. It can also operate a phone by directly hooking it up to the phone line and using a mic. It can also work with a bed (hospital style with up/down type controls), TVs, cable boxes, stereos, VCRs, etc. It uses infared to talk to electronic devices, just like a remote control does. All that worked great.
Until.
It doesn't work with alot of newer stuff. For electronics, the technology is based on input codes, so if you have a Sony TV Model 12.7B, then you can program in the corresponding code for that into the ECU. Or, if your code isn't in there, you could 'teach' the ECU using your remote. But over the past 15 years, we have replaced every piece of electronic in our house except the cable box (which will be upgraded by the cable company in a few months) and now none of them are compatible with the ECU. The TV, the stereo/receiver, the DVD player, the BluRay player, nor the bed. We have tried everything - 'teaching' it with our new remotes (nope), calling the company, tough luck they said, and there are no new models coming out ... actually, they were very sympathetic but said there is no way around it and they get calls about it every week and it will only get worse.
So my husband has become less and less able to control his environment, which is very very frustrating to him - he has virtually no control of his surroundings. If he wants to change the channel, I have to do it. If the volume needs to be up or down, I have to do it. If the bed needs to be lowered or raised, I have to do it. And you can probably guess, that is very aggravating for me. I'm not mad at HIM about it, but it is so annoying to have to stop what I'm doing so many times to do what he needs. I work from home, so I'm here all the time and can do it, but it is extremely distracting and makes me less productive. So he basically doesn't ask for much, which is nice of him to do for my sake, but sucks for him because then he is just stuck staring at a wall, or uncomfortable, or watching a show he doesn't want to watch, etc etc.
So, any ideas on a new ECU? Not that we have the money to pay for it. But we have to do something. Keep in mind he can only shoulder shrug and turn his head.
