SQ Blaster Plus

SQ Blaster Plus: The Wi-Fi to IR Control System

SQ Blaster Plus is a universal remote control accessory for your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

For in-room control, the Blaster Plus can be placed next to your equipment or accross the room. Alternatively you can send control signals via IR extender cables through one of the 4 external IR ports on the back of the device.

The Blaster Plus has 5 channel addressable IR, meaning that you can specify which port the IR should be sent on, so if you have more than one piece of equipment that uses the same IR codes, you can now make sure that the codes you send go to the device you want. Each line out can drive up to 3 IR emitters, meaning that you can cable up to 12 devices to the Blaster Plus.

Multiple Blaster Plus units can be run on the same network, so you can have one for each area that you want to control.

Each unit is controllable by multiple iPhone/iPod touch/iPad units.

Designed to complement your A/V equipment.

Connects securely and quickly to your network using a setup wizard via USB.

Uses 2 extensive IR databases and advanced IR learning to capture any missing codes.

How it works

SQ Remote on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad sends commands over your home Wi-Fi network to the SQ Blaster Plus. The blaster then converts these signals to IR control commands, which are then beamed (blasted) at your home entertainment equipment.

No more pointing your remote! SQ Blaster Plus allows you to control your equipment from anywhere within range of your home Wi-Fi network, and any iPhone, iPod touch or iPad in your home can now be used as a remote control unit.

Specifications

Wi-Fi, 802.11 b,g compatible

WPA & WPA2 Personal compatible. Note: WEP is no longer considered a safe network setting, as it offers zero protection.

IR blasting: 8x internal high intensity IR emitters

IR learning: Built-in receiver with on board IR code protocol analysis

Alternative IR control: 4x 3.5mm audio jacks - powering up to 12 external IR-LED emitters

Power: 5V, 1A max

Case: Polycarbonate

Dimensions: 96x96mm approx. (not including the antenna)

Height (including feet): 21mm (approx)

SQ Remote HD: The iPad and iPhone Universal Remote App

Get SQ Remote HD

SQ Remote HD 1.0 is released to the App Store

Square Connect are proud to announce the release of SQ Remote HD, a universal iOS application that has full native support of the iPad as well as the iPhone and iPod touch.

Here are some of the features and benefits of SQ Remote HD:

SQ Remote HD combines with SQ Blaster Plus to give you a fully flexible and completely configurable universal remote for your home entertainment equipment such as your TV, DVD player, TiVo, Blu-ray player, Hi-Fi system, cable box and more.

It also combines with MiOS home control systems, to give you control of your home - whether you are at home or on the move. Control your heating, door locks, lights wherever you are.

SQ Remote HD has been designed to allow you to set up your controls how you want them. Just add controls to the screen and drag them into place.

If you are fed up with universal remotes that don't have the buttons you need, or the controls you want, get SQ Remote and SQ Blaster Plus, and create the control experience that you have been looking for.

Full Native iPad Control Screens

Get all the controls that you need onto your control pads without compromising your layouts. Use all that extra space to get the control surfaces that you want.

Web views on your control panels now show in full iPad resolution

Keep compitbility between your iPhone and iPad screen sizes by putting essential controls in the compatible region of the iPad screen.

See examples of screens that our users are creating for their systems. If you have SQ Remote HD, why not share your own designs.

Themes

Personalize the look and feel of your application by downloading a theme from the SQ Website (from within the app), or create your own using SQ Designer.

You can then share your themes with other users. We will showcase themes that are submitted to us and add the best ones to the list of standard themes so that other users can beneift. You are of course free to share your themes through box.net with other users or to export them from SQ Designer.

You can download official and user submitted themes for SQ Remote HD and SQ Lite from the themes page.

Macro Jumps

Add 'jumps' to your macros to go anywhere within the SQ Remote User Interface. You can jump to any control pad and control panel within your setup.

Use macro-jumps to setup your own "Start Page", then jump back when you "finish" an activity.

You can also use jumps to simplify operations within your activities. For example, set up a macro to bring up the menu for your Blu-ray player and "jump" to your menu controls. Likewise jump back to your main controls when you are finished with your menu operations.

Channel Lists and Control Lists with Icons

Create your own lists of channels - then create sub lists for your favorites.

You asked - we listened - you can now add icons to any list item in your lists. You can add these manually or you can drag and drop icons within SQ Designer from your desktop.

List controls will also let you add Macros and Scene controls for MiOS systems.

Put all controls that you want to group together into lists to save space in your control pads.

Channel hop quickly and easily through the channels that you watch regularly.

Add as many lists as you need and add list controls wherever you need them.

Here are some more of the features and benefits of SQ Remote HD:

Flexible: Add and drag controls to put them where you want them. Select from many control sizes and types with over 80 icons to choose from - or add text labels.

Always-on: SQ Remote lets you set it to always on, so that when you are using your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch as a remote, it will be available when you need it.

iOS4 Multi-Tasking: Switch to your other apps, and then jump back to exaclty where you were in SQ Remote. No searching for the right control.

Macros: Program a series of commands for setting up your activites and then activate them with a single button touch. If you are using a MiOS home control system you can also add scenes to your macros. Hit one button to bring on the TV, switch on the sound system, fire up the blue-ray player, bring down the window shades and dim the lights.

Macro-Jumps: Program your macros to "jump" to any contol pad and control panel when they are complete! You can use this feature to create your own navigation around SQ Remote; start an activity and have your controls appear... all with one button press. Finished.. set up the "end" macro to take you back to your main control area.

Embedded Web Views: You can now create web views right within the app, and point these at any URL. Create screens that load your TV guide or point at a camera on your local network, or load your own custom web-info pages right into SQ Remote.

Channel Lists: Program a list of your favourite channels, create multiple lists for different members of your family, or one for sports, news, movies etc... You can also add macros and MiOS scenes to your lists.

Power Monitoring: View the kWh power use of Z-Wave devices that report energy use.

Built in infrared library: No searching online and downloading code sets. SQ Remote has an extensive built-in infrared code library built from 2 extensive code databases and includes many discrete codes that are used by professional installers.

Sharing: Share your configuration with your family. With just a few key presses, all your configuration information can be passed to anyone you choose.

Create your own control pads

In SQ Remote, control pads hold your controls. You can group your controls within each control pad in any way that makes sense to you.

You can mix controls for different equipment, macros, text, and controls for your home - all within the same control pad, and you can add as many control pads as you need.

Build them based on activity (like watching a movie), location or control type (for example: lighting control).

You can add pre-defined groups of controls to your control pads, and then edit them. Or you can create them from scratch.

Each control pad holds seven control panels. These are the areas within a control pad where you add your controls. There is one main panel and six side panels that are opened by tapping on the side tabs.

SQ Remote works with the SQ Blaster Plus to bring you the best infrared learning possible.

If you can't find a code set in the infrared library that works for your equipment, then don't worry.

The learning process within SQ Remote uses unique algorithms that don't just record the infrared signals, but identify the underlying protocols, including toggle codes.

You can be confident that SQ Remote with SQ Blaster Plus will be able to control your equipment.

Full MiOS home control integration

SQ Remote HD will also allow you to control your MiOS home control system (such as the Vera system from MiCasaVerde) directly from your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. No more messing with web interfaces. So if you have a MiOS system, your home control is in your pocket and on your iPad.

It controls your lights, doors, heating, ceiling fans, garden sprinklers, cameras and more.

Automatic detection and installation of MiOS systems
Runs with multiple MiOS installations.
Controls your home from anywhere. (iPhone and iPad 3G only)

If you don't yet have a MiOS home control system, you can find out more here.

SQ Remote Lite: The free iPhone app for the SQ Blaster Plus

Get SQ Remote Lite

SQ Remote Lite

SQ Remote Lite is a free, fully featured companion iPhone application for SQ Blaster Plus.

Together with the SQ Blaster Plus, it converts your iOS device into a remakable universal remote control for all your infrared controlled home entertainment equipment.

It includes all features and benefits that are included in SQ Remote HD including

Fully configurable control surfaces.
Fully configurable macros.
Macro jumps between control panels.
User definable control lists.
User definable icons for control lists.
Ability to install themes for personalisation of the user interface look and feel.

Please review the description of SQ Remote HD for further details of the features listed above or consult the user documentation for full details. The user guide for SQ Remote and SQ Blaster Plus can be found here.

The main differences between SQ Remote HD and SQ Remote Lite are as follows:

SQ Remote Lite has NO full native iPad support (SQ Remote Lite runs on 2x mode on the iPad, but includes high resolution graphics).
SQ Remote Lite has NO support for MiOS home control systems such as the Vera and Vera 2 systems from Mi Casa Verde.

SQ Designer: The Desktop Designer Application

Get SQ Designer

SQ Designer 1.0 Released

Square Connect are proud to announce the release of SQ Designer, a cross-platfrom desktop editing application that allows you to configure your SQ Remote HD and SQ Remote Lite exactly the way you want it.

SQ Designer has been developed using Adobe AIR technology, and will run on both Windows and Mac OS X environments. You can download and try SQ Designer for free. All features of the application are enabled except the ability to save your work.

License Fee

$30 (Allows up to 3 installations on separate machines) Purchase license now

Requirements

Adobe AIR run time environment 1.5 or better.

80 MB Hard disk space.

400 MB RAM (2GB or b.etter system RAM reccomended).

Here are just some of the features and benefits of SQ Designer:

Full Control Pad & Panel Editor

Drag and drop IR controls, labels, and MiOS controls copy and paste, multi select, align, auto distribute and more. All the tools that you would expect to have to help you get your layout just as you want.

Create control panels for your iPad or your iPhone screens.

Create templates for control panels and control pads.

Copy and paste controls between control pads and panels.

Full Integration with Box.net

Load your existing configurations directly into Designer from Box.net, and save your newly edited creations back to box.net ready for you to download to your iPad or iPhone. You can export your configurations to your local drives as well if you want to keep local copies.

Load themes direclty to and from your box.net account.

Add icons for lists and push these to box.net ready for you to import into SQ Remote HD and SQ Remote Lite.

Edit and Create New themes

Create anew theme at the press of a button.

Drag your control images and backgrounds over the standard images to cusotmise your new theme.

Preview your themes directly in the editor area of SQ Designer.

Export your themes to box.net for import into your iPad or iPhone.

Share themes with other users.

You can download official and user submitted themes for SQ Remote HD and SQ Lite from the themes page.

Import your MiOS system data to allow direct MiOS Control Assignment

Add home automation controls to your control panels and assign them to the devices that are connected to your MiOS system with just a few mouse clicks.

Preview how your controls will look - displaying the names of devices and scenes directly.

Copy and paste home automation controls, and have the assignments copied along, making the creation of your control panel desoigns a snap.

Learn, export and import IR code sets

No more messing about with arduous learning and cutting and pasting. Learn codes sets direclty within SQ Designer and build up your own library to complement the built in IR database.
Export and share your learned codes with other users.

Add IR code sets from the built in IR database

Add devices and code sets to your SQ Blaster or Blaster Plus devices and then assign commands to your controls with just a few mouse clicks
Re-assign multiple controls between devices (requires standard naming protocols to be used)
Test controls directly with your blaster.

Create and edit Macros

Create macros for your system directly within SQ Desiger.
Export macros, or save them to your local libray.
Assign macros to controls and test them within SQ Designer.

Create and edit command lists and assign icons

Import channel lists or create, export and share your own lists.
Create your own libraries of channel and command lists
Drag and drop icons to your lists, then save your icons to box.net ready for import into SQ Remote HD or SQ Remote Lite.

Create libraries of devices, macros, command lists and URL's

If you like experimenting with different configurations, or if you are an installer who wants to keep libraries of your most common settings, devices (code sets), channel lists etc, then SQ Designer allows you to create your own libraries of data that you can call on and add to when you are creating new configruations.