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annex⁴ - FREE Driver Development Ideas

annex⁴

By annex⁴
in General Control4 Discussion

What FREE driver should we develop?  

56 members have voted

  1. 1. FREE Driver Development options

    • Kodi
      25
    • Wink
      16
    • CyberQ - BBQ Controller
      5
    • Stoker II - BBQ Controller
      1
    • GlobalCache IR Input Driver
      3
    • RING - Doorbell Notifications
      6

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THEORY Rising Star

THEORY

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, alanchow said:

Not going to develop an LG driver.  We have been asked to by several dealers but we arn't going to for certain reasons.

Yes you are right.  It will drive innovation and drive pricing down so win win for users:)

I'm not saying that.  I'm happy for you to write a kodi driver and other drivers we have created.  I even voted for it myself.

It is obvious from your posts that you guys are being malicious.  Even before i posted on this thread others have commented on what they are seeing.

Lastly I can't speak for driverCentral.  Thats AJ.  We don't have an account on your portal.  We don't want to reverse engineer or decrypt code (Seems like you guys have though).  

We try to refrain from bad mouthing others but in this case you guys have just pushed it too far.

Anyway there is no point in arguing on the internet.  Actions speak louder than words so i'm going to stop now.

Wow, it's interesting to pull a post out from the past so many users don't know the context.  We were very clear that Control4 was aware we, and they told us others had the ability to decrypt.  We also only mentioned it because we have 10's of thousands of dollars of development stolen, and knew full well we had done nothing malicious with the ability, and if need be could show are code against others.  We were also very clear that nothing was ever done malicious to anyone, and would put our code beside anyone else's to prove such.

I would be more then willing to buy you a beer and show you code beside anything you think may have been ripped off from you to prove we have never done such a thing.

There is nothing malicious about our intent of providing a great deal of new solutions that overlap many that already exist.  We do try to provide new twists or extended features. We also try to do that at prices we feel are affordable, I am sorry if that hurts your bottom line, but that is business, it's not a personal attack.  We know you build great solutions, if we can make something similar and it has a place in the market and sells for us this isn't an attack on you.  We look at what something takes us to make and if we can make a return, nothing is hey lets copy that.

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Rexabyte Community Regular

Rexabyte

Posted
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If anyone wants to talk to us direct or know what we're working on you can chat with us at chat.annex4.link. We offer real-time support and private messaging through there as well as email/phone.

Every time we post something we get toxic responses about seemingly stepping on toes. Despite some people saying they support competition their actions and responses have proved otherwise.
 

21 minutes ago, alanchow said:

I'm not saying that.  I'm happy for you to write a kodi driver and other drivers we have created.  I even voted for it myself.

 

34 minutes ago, alanchow said:

You are correct competition drives innovation.  I've talked it over with other developers you have pissed off and we will create better versions of every product you develop past and future.  It may inhibit the organic growth of our roadmap of new drivers that have yet to be developed but if that's the game you want to play then we are all down.


If you need to get in touch do so through the aforementioned site as I won't be responding further on this thread.

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THEORY Rising Star

THEORY

Posted
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@alanchow

I'm aware that some that make money at this are going to be upset at the overlap.

Here is an example of my logic, a camera driver is a few URLs, a purchase of a device or a user with a device to test, and about 20 minutes of driver creation.  Some of the prices I see being charged are insane, over $100 for an NVR driver with a few URLS, or customers with various camera brands have to pay a few hundred extra for drivers to span those brands plus dealer time.  Our solution is one price for all camera drivers, and we can create any need very rapidly.  Yes that solution is less then a single camera driver from any other developer we have seen.  But it is a business model we feel works for us and the feedback of the dealers we have spoke with has been this is a great idea.

Now this wasn't done to attack the major provider of camera drivers, he seems like a great guy and very helpful to users.  It's simply a matter of maximizing our investment in tools that have just now been completed to accelerate our development cycle exponentially.

I truly hop this spawns a cat and mouse of innovation, because I hope that this ultimately pushes the Control4 platform to have new features and the cycle to keep growing.

I don't know any of the other developers here personally, nor do you know me.  Being astute in business and out spoken has allowed others to judge only what you see online, and we all know most people are nothing like what they are perceived to be from an online presence.  I can guarantee I have no ill will towards other here, nor would I in person and would gladly sit down and talk to anyone from here regardless of what has been said, and would provide help to anyone here that asked.

Free beers at CEDIA for anyone willing.

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THEORY Rising Star

THEORY

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, neil12011 said:

I'll be at Cedia, though I have no quarrel here, I did see something about free beers?  You had me at free beers.  Please put me down for feee beers.

Neil I will gladly buy you a beer or 2, and I was just doing a post for our Facebook page where any of our dealers that wants to chat with us at CEDIA we will also give you our Business card with direct contact info, cell phone and all, with a code for 50% off all drivers for the ENTIRE week after CEDIA.

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neil12011 Proficient

neil12011

Posted
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5 minutes ago, THEORY said:

Neil I will gladly buy you a beer or 2, and I was just doing a post for our Facebook page where any of our dealers that wants to chat with us at CEDIA we will also give you our Business card with direct contact info, cell phone and all, with a code for 50% off all drivers for the ENTIRE week after CEDIA.

Buckmann also said that steaks were on you.  I'm sure you're good for it sir.

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South Africa C4 user Grand Master

South Africa C4 user

Posted
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Wow guys!

I don't know the history here (and don't really want to!).  Personally I love this forum and don't think that the direction this particular thread has taken is doing anyone much good.  Apart possibly from those who get the free Beer and Steaks... wish I was going to be at CEDIA.

As an end user, I have drivers from all the major players (and some of the minor ones) that participate on this forum and from other developers that don't and I appreciate the support that I get from all of you.  The one exception is Annex4 whom I have not yet bought a driver from but I look forward to doing so soon (and am sure their support will be first rate also).

Reading this thread and the older one posted by Alan, all I can say is that I have little doubt that all parties are in the wrong in some regards (and in the right in others).  And two wrongs don't make a right...

Maybe we should all take a breather... hold back on posting negatively on this particular topic. Turn the passion to what matters...

That all said, competition is good guys,  I am all for all of you writing better drivers, competing drivers and lowering the price. I'm in!

And finally, thank you to all of you who do develop these great drivers (Alan, Blackwire, Mitch, Domosapiens, Annex4, Epic etc. etc.).  In many cases it is your drivers that make our systems great. Keep them coming!

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zaphod Grand Master

zaphod

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On 8/21/2017 at 11:55 PM, Kevin L said:

Also not sure how I had anything to do with Irrigation Caddy? The company had a good product, it took a negative turn and they went out of business. My driver worked fine.

Why are you talking so much trash in this very small community? 

Whoa - when did they go out of business?  I use one of these for my irrigation system and it still works, including the cloud service.  Any idea if & when the cloud service will get shut down?  I guess the local web UI should continue to work forever.

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LKP Newbie

LKP

Posted
Posted

We are invested in z-wave light switches and chose Wink to control them. Vera is just too slow to market with new features. So a reliable, stable, Wink driver would get my vote. Regardless the "winner" -- how will this work? Instructions on how to watch forthcoming? Harvey has canceled our outdoor activities this weekend.

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Elvis Mentor

Elvis

Posted
Posted
On 8/23/2017 at 0:54 PM, seth_j said:

But I think someone already has a wind driver. I have no idea how well it works but Google pointed me over here

Good luck with that. It brought my system to a standstill. Removed that driver and my system came back to life. Not sure what's going on with the original developer.

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annex⁴ Rising Star

annex⁴

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We want to thank everyone that showed up for the Livestream on the weekend.  The videos can be watched over on our YouTube channel.  If there is enough interest we may do this regularly (once a month) if there are more ideas for drivers keep suggesting them here.

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VINCELdUB Mentor

VINCELdUB

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, annex⁴ said:

We want to tank everyone that showed up for the Livestream on the weekend.  The videos can be watched over on our YouTube channel.  If there is enough interest we may do this regularly (once a month) if there are more ideas for drivers keep suggesting them here.

Link to the channel?

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vitali Proficient

vitali

Posted
Posted

Have some issues with "free" drivers and etc.

Hi, it is only my opinion.

stuff always changes, any of IP controlled devices can get new software, firmware, whateverware update and changes (Sonos, MyQ, etc.) and will stop working. in that case dealer needs to deal with happy clients ( only few in good case, or it can be 20-50 ). So, all those drivers good to have on my own backyard with free provided equipment. might be Im wrong.

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annex⁴ Rising Star

annex⁴

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2 minutes ago, vitali said:

Have some issues with "free" drivers and etc.

Hi, it is only my opinion.

stuff always changes, any of IP controlled devices can get new software, firmware, whateverware update and changes (Sonos, MyQ, etc.) and will stop working. in that case dealer needs to deal with happy clients ( only few in good case, or it can be 20-50 ). So, all those drivers good to have on my own backyard with free provided equipment. might be Im wrong.

A driver being free or not has no bearing on API changes.  Even official devices get updates and have functionality break and need some sort of update.  This has happened with drivers right from Control4.  When there is an ecosystem of multiple devices from multiple companies working together this is bound to happen.

I'm not sure I understand the last part of what you are saying.

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David Paxton Enthusiast

David Paxton

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, annex⁴ said:

A driver being free or not has no bearing on API changes.  Even official devices get updates and have functionality break and need some sort of update.  This has happened with drivers right from Control4.  When there is an ecosystem of multiple devices from multiple companies working together this is bound to happen.

I'm not sure I understand the last part of what you are saying.

 

Any news on when the driver will be up for us to have a play with

Thanks 

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Rexabyte Community Regular

Rexabyte

Posted
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I'm making a few more changes I consider core functionality. After that I'll start releasing beta builds so people can get their hands on it and suggest features. Today I wrapped up grid view for movies and added a detail screen to show some movie information much like "My Movies".
 

moviedetail.png

moviegrid.png

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VINCELdUB Mentor

VINCELdUB

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Awesome work! I'm excited to check this out. I use the other Kodi driver on a daily basis. Grid view is much more user friendly for the Kiddo's.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk



I have a Pi running osmc kodi on v15
And a mac running krypton. Need a beta tester, here I am!




Happy Automating!!
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