Do all Zigbee products work?

[timelinex]

I have an EA5 and zigbee server running on it that controls my theater screen.

 

Can I get any zigbee enabled device and it will work and can be controlled (without paid drivers) by my c4 system? Or is it still only certain compatible devices and I need paid 3rd party drivers for them kid even available).

 

Right now I'm looking at a GE light switch on Amazon, but this question is for all zigbee products too.

 

Thanks!

[sonic30101]

Only zigbee Pro devices are native to control4. To use something like that you need a third-party hub to integrate. I use a Vera Plus Hub and have about 15 of those GE Z-Wave dimmers and switches and they work pretty well

[timelinex]

1 hour ago, sonic30101 said:

Only zigbee Pro devices are native to control4. To use something like that you need a third-party hub to integrate. I use a Vera Plus Hub and have about 15 of those GE Z-Wave dimmers and switches and they work pretty well

Is the vera plus a native driver or paid? How well does integration work, smooth or buggy? What else does adding a vera plus hub give me? (Just zwave integration or other procotols)

 

Lastly, is there an option other than vera plus, its $100+ which isnt too crazy but I am sick of paying more and more just to overcome c4's crappy compatibility with literally everything but their own overpriced things.

 

Thanks

[sonic30101]

Free driver, biggest downfall is scene Ramp rates on dimmers and double and triple tap programming is not available but I do have a few configurable keypads peppered in in strategic locations to overcome this. Reliability has been surprisingly good, I also have recessed door sensors, motion sensors, voltage meters on the washer and dryer and a few other knick-knacks that are fun to play with

I believe wink and fibaro are two other options out there but I haven't worked with them so someone else will have to chime in there

[timelinex]

On 11/23/2018 at 3:51 PM, sonic30101 said:

Free driver, biggest downfall is scene Ramp rates on dimmers and double and triple tap programming is not available but I do have a few configurable keypads peppered in in strategic locations to overcome this. Reliability has been surprisingly good, I also have recessed door sensors, motion sensors, voltage meters on the washer and dryer and a few other knick-knacks that are fun to play with

I believe wink and fibaro are two other options out there but I haven't worked with them so someone else will have to chime in there

OK thanks for the info.

 

I think I found another way. SmartThings controls Z-Wave/Zigbee items. I have an Nvidia Shield and I can buy a $30 usb addon that will make it into a SmartThings hub. I'm already getting a IFTTT driver for my C4 and it seems like with IFTTT I can control SmartThings integrations. So in that way I should be able to do this.

If anyone has done this already or thinks it won't work, let me know!

 

[msgreenf]

Don't expect speed

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[sonic30101]

You can do this I set it up previously, the main reason I went with a Vera hub over SmartThings is that the IP driver for Vera has two-way feedback. If you use IFTTT it is one way from control4 to the Samsung hub and there is not a very clean way to show feedback of the light status without a lot of conditional programming and workarounds and it wasn't worth it in my opinion

[timelinex]

5 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

Don't expect speed

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 

I suspected as much, but what kind of delay are we talking about realistically? An educated guess would do, just so I know the ballpark.

 

4 minutes ago, sonic30101 said:

You can do this I set it up previously, the main reason I went with a Vera hub over SmartThings is that the IP driver for Vera has two-way feedback. If you use IFTTT it is one way from control4 to the Samsung hub and there is not a very clean way to show feedback of the light status without a lot of conditional programming and workarounds and it wasn't worth it in my opinion

I believe something like Pushover allows for 2 way integration with IFTTT. As far as I know, Pushover is included with the IFTTT driver?

[msgreenf]

I have seen ifttt lags of seconds to minutes.... remember for now ifttt is free...no SLA

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[timelinex]

10 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

I have seen ifttt lags of seconds to minutes.... remember for now ifttt is free...no SLA

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 

Seconds is what I was hoping for (which is fine for things like turning off lights). I hope not minutes!

 

Thanks for the info

[mstafford388]

I've also seen minutes on certain IFTTT.  Really no way to know until you try that specific integration. 

[sonic30101]

4 hours ago, timelinex said:

believe something like Pushover allows for 2 way integration with IFTTT. As far as I know, Pushover is included with the IFTTT driver?

The best way I am aware of doing it which is janky IMO. Is to purchase the IR to light driver from chowmain, set it up to send ifttt commands in c4 and then on the ifttt side when the light changes state send pushover messages that also change the device in c4 and conditionals if it is already on or off to stop the script to avoid infinite loops. Not true feedback and completely reliant on the cloud where vera hub is local network, not cloud based and true feedback. I started with smartthings years ago and ditched it because it was a total rube goldberg science fair project that was meh at best