Control4 Significant Shortfalls

[eggzlot]

17 minutes ago, rayk32 said:

The comparison is the mentality, not the products.  Earlier in the thread, I acknowledged that there are 3rd party ways to integrate Z-wave and further stated that the existence of this capability should not be used as a valid excuse to leave the HC250/HC800 out of the HCL.  Read thoroughly and understand thoroughly before you criticize.  

No one said that they don't like the product.  Every time someone on this forum questions Control4's practices, we see this same response ... "if you don't like it, go away".  If you can explain how this mentality helps anyone or anything make a positive progression, we'd all gladly entertain it.  I would also suggest that if we acted like that about everything, we'd be running away from every challenge and hurdle we encounter.

forum - a place, meeting, or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged.

 

Based on the above-referenced definition and the name of this website "C4FORUMS.COM" your opinion is diametrically opposed to and does everything to usurp the spirit and intended purpose of this website.

 

Oh, you have a reference to the word ZEALOT in your user name.

 

Again I cannot compare the mentality of two companies I dont know, dont work for, etc so find it pressing that you can speak on behalf of both companies and their pricing strategies.  I personally would not compare a luxury non essential item to life saving medicine, but that is my own decision.

do you not think IF C4 reads these forums they have heard your same requests ad nauseam?  We want more user control, we want geofencing.  All I am saying is I assume C4 has their target audience in mind and that is who they cater to, and you may not be their target audience.  They are dealing with a platform that touches people's houses with security, video, audio and other controls - lots of R&D and testing I am sure needs to be done and they arent Apple or Samsung with 1,000's of developers on staff programming and testing 24x7. 

Speaking of the C4FORUMS.COM - use the Wishlist area - it is for posting what you wish the system can do.  your post, no offense, is a repeat of many in the past but that is an area where it could be discussed (again).

 

[Cyknight]

7 minutes ago, rayk32 said:

"If you read the thread, you would have seen that I acknowledged that it was clear the controllers needed to be updated when the OS got to version 2.0.  This was around the same time that the HC250 and HC800 were released.  You can infer from my statement that the HC300 is probably not capable of handling this additional burden."

Sorry, I posted that on Control4's Facebook page, not this site.  I did not talk about that in this thread.

2.0 was out two years prior to the HC800/HC250, a little over 6 and 4 years  ago respectively.

[rayk32]

8 minutes ago, eggzlot said:

Again I cannot compare the mentality of two companies I dont know, dont work for, etc so find it pressing that you can speak on behalf of both companies and their pricing strategies.  I personally would not compare a luxury non essential item to life saving medicine, but that is my own decision.

do you not think IF C4 reads these forums they have heard your same requests ad nauseam?  We want more user control, we want geofencing.  All I am saying is I assume C4 has their target audience in mind and that is who they cater to, and you may not be their target audience.  They are dealing with a platform that touches people's houses with security, video, audio and other controls - lots of R&D and testing I am sure needs to be done and they arent Apple or Samsung with 1,000's of developers on staff programming and testing 24x7. 

Speaking of the C4FORUMS.COM - use the Wishlist area - it is for posting what you wish the system can do.  your post, no offense, is a repeat of many in the past but that is an area where it could be discussed (again).

 

5

This entire thread is called "Control4 Significant Shortfalls".  These posts are all within the scope of the topic.

[eggzlot]

12 minutes ago, rayk32 said:

egg ZLOT - I corrected it to say it was referenced.

"If you read the thread, you would have seen that I acknowledged that it was clear the controllers needed to be updated when the OS got to version 2.0.  This was around the same time that the HC250 and HC800 were released.  You can infer from my statement that the HC300 is probably not capable of handling this additional burden."

Sorry, I posted that on Control4's Facebook page, not this site.  I did not talk about that in this thread.

eggzlot - has nothing to do with what you referenced.  BBQ is my hobby and I cook on big green eggs, hence the egg and zlot is my nickname due to my last name.  Good try!!  

[rayk32]

2 minutes ago, Cyknight said:

2.0 was out two years prior to the HC800/HC250, a little over 6 and 4 years  ago respectively.

Correct.  It became apparent after 2.0 and a couple of software releases that the controllers needed new hardware.  Zigbee Pro probably contributed to that revelation as well.  If I remember correctly, Zigbee Pro was around 1.7 or 1.8.

 

 

[rayk32]

6 minutes ago, eggzlot said:

eggzlot - has nothing to do with what you referenced.  BBQ is my hobby and I cook on big green eggs, hence the egg and zlot is my nickname due to my last name.  Good try!!  

 

 

Awesome!  But, without the back story, anyone seeing that would think you're a zealot for eggs.  Just saying.

[eggzlot]

1 minute ago, rayk32 said:

Awesome!  But, without the back story, anyone seeing that would think you're a zealot for eggs.  Just saying.

So let's start a backstory thread of everyone's username.  I guess you wear Ray Ban sunglasses and your name starts with a K, hence the RayK.  Or wait, you are a big Mets fan and love Ray Knight, hence RayK.  this is a fun game.

[Cyknight]

3 minutes ago, rayk32 said:

Correct.  It became apparent after 2.0 and a couple of software releases that the controllers needed new hardware.  Zigbee Pro probably contributed to that revelation as well.  If I remember correctly, Zigbee Pro was around 1.7 or 1.8

Yes I know that was correct - and two years for new controllers to come out if 2.0 was the specific reason, not to mention that there was the HC1000 already, is nonsense. Pro was 1.8, another year prior.

Fumbling a handful of facts is not 'proof' of anything - in fact it weakens your argument.

 

[StroTek LLC]

6 minutes ago, rayk32 said:

Awesome!  But, without the back story, anyone seeing that would think you're a zealot for eggs.  Just saying.

I just assumed the loved eggZ a LOT

 

LOL

[Cyknight]

6 minutes ago, rayk32 said:

Awesome!  But, without the back story, anyone seeing that would think you're a zealot for eggs.  Just saying.

Nah, just thought he eats eggs a lot. Even then - what the heck does it mean anyway. Again, you're throwing out nonsense to deflect your lack of actual arguments.

[rayk32]

15 minutes ago, eggzlot said:

So let's start a backstory thread of everyone's username.  I guess you wear Ray Ban sunglasses and your name starts with a K, hence the RayK.  Or wait, you are a big Mets fan and love Ray Knight, hence RayK.  this is a fun game.

 

 

 

 

My name is actually Ray Knight.  That's me dunking on kid from Brown University back in the 80's and me as a freshman at Georgetown University, me on the cover of a book about my alma mater's basketball history and me with some of my awesome Georgetown Hoya teammates. 

 

[rayk32]

13 minutes ago, Cyknight said:

Nah, just thought he eats eggs a lot. Even then - what the heck does it mean anyway. Again, you're throwing out nonsense to deflect your lack of actual arguments.

No one is deflecting anything.  I just responded to him. 

Cyknight, you are entitled to opinions but don't try to denigrate other peoples' opinions.  If that is your purpose here, it doesn't help anyone.

[thegreatheed]

Calling out factual errors is NOT denigrating opinions.

Pointing out that arguments using factual errors are weakened by them is not attacking anything but poor logic.

[Cyknight]

20 minutes ago, rayk32 said:

No one is deflecting anything.  I just responded to him. 

Cyknight, you are entitled to opinions but don't try to denigrate other peoples' opinions.  If that is your purpose here, it doesn't help anyone.

Repeating the same flawed line of arguing won't 'solve' anything. I'm not denigrating your opinion at all - I'm mainly pointing out that it is just that - an opinion, and one you're trying to argue upon using incorrect facts and statements.

If you feel that is denigrating towards you, all I can say is that that is not my intend - I'm not 'attacking' YOU, just the incorrect facts.

[therockhr]

@rayk32 you aren't going to win with this crowd. your points are valid and have been brought up many times (they need to keep being brought up as that is the only way to make a change). I, like many others, have just come to the realization that the system, dealer model and company "is what it is". Control4 is a solid home automation system that works with more subsystems and vendors "out of the box" than all the others. C4 has been great for my family and it works a lot better than some of the other solutions we have tried.

[therockhr]

2 hours ago, eggzlot said:

I have a lot more to say but will keep my mouth quiet since there is no right or wrong answer.  I've just come to realize those on this forum likely make up 5% of control4's base.  its a free country, dont like the product, dont buy it.  have a better idea, go start your own company and beat Control4.

who exactly makes up "control4's base"? i have asked this before but never seem to get an answer.

[eggzlot]

3 minutes ago, therockhr said:

who exactly makes up "control4's base"? i have asked this before but never seem to get an answer.

There are 16,000 members here, at any given point if you look at the stats there are like ~300 members online in a given 24 hour period.  I dont know how many installs C4 has out there in the market place, but even at 16,000 members, I must think we are in the minority on this forum.  I dont have cold hard facts just trying to make some assumptions.

[rayk32]

My input was only to reflect my disappointment that my HC800 was left out of the Z-wave HCL.

[msgreenf]

I think control4 is in over 250k homes...i thought they said those #'s on the webcast.

[eggzlot]

20 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

I think control4 is in over 250k homes...i thought they said those #'s on the webcast.

so with 17,000 members on this board this board makes up about 7% of the user base.  so my 5% was not off.  I am sure there are people here who wanted more info on the system and didnt buy in - there are also multi dwelling units and who knows how they count those, etc.  Point is, the people on this board are the far minority of users in general, and there is only a portion of this board that is yelling and screaming for more.   Please dont get me wrong, I'd love to tinker more with the system.  but given the other options out there, I still would buy C4 again.

[digitaltrader]

I think the comments by the OP have been fair and I have been concerned about Control4's direction for several years now.  I want to see them succeed but have been disappointed with the progress they have made over the several years I have been a customer.  There needs to be an enormous leap in their technology platform in the coming 5 years for them to stay relevant.  I hope they can accomplish this, but it's not looking very good at this point.

[SMHarman]

  I must have have missed the EOL announcements for the 250 and 800s, like all the other information, support and marketing info they don't send me.

It's not EOL, just EO sales. No more being produced or sold. When stock ran out they were done.

Both will still get 2.9 and likely further releases for a while. Just like the 200/300/500 did all the way up to 2.5.3

[South Africa C4 user]

My dealer says that he hears more about new releases and changes from me than for Control4... 

So thanks everyone... you give me the info and I give it to my dealer...

[nevets23]

On 9/18/2016 at 1:06 PM, StroTek LLC said:

@nevets23 The control4 door stations do  UNOFFICIALLY support SIP to your phone/tablet using 3rd party software.. they even mentioned it during the 2.9 press release.. so that being said.. who knows how long till it works natively through the control4 app

 

I know thats really high on my wishlist

@StroTek LLC Are you referring to the 2n mobile app? If so, I have tried it, and it doesn't work well at all. The website suggested in another thread (I believe it was my2n.cz) doesn't work either. I did find a link on the company's website with some (albeit very crappy) directions on how to setup the mobile app, but it didn't do much good. I somehow managed to get the app to connect to my front door station when on my home wifi network, but it really wasn't working right and the picture kept cutting in and out. As far as I can tell, the 2n mobile app is also only supposed to work when your connected to your home wifi, not over cellular connection, which is really what I am hoping to accomplish. If anyone else has any knowledge on if that is in fact possible/how to set it up, that would be great.

One other point that I feel is worth making. While I realize that this has been touched on at least indirectly by other posters, I believe its worth highlighting again in the hopes that someone from C4 is listening and will force feed this to the CEO and other executives. For the love of god C4, in addition to addressing all the other issues everyone has brought up, please make it so end users can purchase directly from C4 and install some of the hardware themselves, or at least basic/easy to install items (e.g. dimmers/light switches, doorlocks, wireless cameras, etc). I have absolutely no problem paying someone, such as a dealer, to install stuff that either I feel is beyond my comfort zone or that I just don't have the time or desire to mess with, but one thing that I absolutely hate, which control4 has made me do repeatedly is pay someone else to do something I could easily and rather have done myself.....the hardware is already expensive enough, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to install a doorlock, yet I have to pay my dealer who charges me out the nose for something I could have done myself much quicker (since I wouldn't have to wait for my dealer to install).....I could have spent that money I needlessly have to pay my dealer on more hardware, but that is currently not possible. Making that adjustment would be EXTREMELY easy, and wouldn't even require them to provide direct customer support (although they definitely should as I've pointed out previously).

No joke, while I am extremely frustrated and mad about certain aspects of this system and C4, I will say that it did just make me laugh. As I was writing this post, I realized exactly how to sum up how this system makes me feel - blueballs.....everything starts out good, but it doesn't ever get you there and actually hurts after a while.

 

[South Africa C4 user]

11 minutes ago, nevets23 said:

No joke, while I am extremely frustrated and mad about certain aspects of this system and C4, I will say that it did just make me laugh. As I was writing this post, I realized exactly how to sum up how this system makes me feel - blueballs.....everything starts out good, but it doesn't ever get you there and actually hurts after a while.

 

Blue balls are the symbol for a rugby team (that's kind of like American Football for those on the other side of the ocean) here in South Africa. I am not a rugby fan but think that a rugby discussion would be a healthier direction for this thread to go. OK, OK, I am off to bed before I cause too much offense!