The system is an existing six-zone home home stereo system, controlled by two three-zone Preamp/Controllers, for a total of six-zones. Each zone has either a keypad or touchpad which is homewired to the preamp/controller. The preamp/controller has an RJ45 input jack where each zone is connected to, with the corresponding pin assignments:
pin 1 - Zone One IR;
pin 2 - Zone Two IR;
pin 3 - Zone Three IR;
Pin 4 - RS485+;
Pin 5 - RS485-;
Pin 6 +12 VDC;
Pin 7 - Ground;
Pin 8 - Page Control.
My desire is to control each/all of zones within the household stereo system through a C# program I've started. I believe I can mimic the appropriate control codes which I would like to send to the preamp/controller to control a zone; however I don't think there is a way to programatically designate the selected zone except by physically switching the output to the appropriate zone input wiring.
My hope was to design/create a six zone circuit with the C# application directing the circuit as to which zone to connect and forward the codes. Each zone would have three wires (RS485+, RS485- and IR) with a common ground (total of 18 zones). It appears that the RS485 input on the preamp/controller is not zone specific, and I wonder if that may mean that each zone may not need their own switching for the RS485. I admit that I don't know enough about your RS485 question blueroomelectronics to be able to adequately answer, and apolgize accordingly.
I hope that my question is clearer now. Please let me know if there is anything that I may have left out and I will attempt to answer.
Thanks,
Bill