Thinking of going with C4

[AJF]

I think I'm finally going to go with Control4 and I have a few questions:

Do you always need to go through the C4 OSG or can the remotes can be programmed so that when you press the TV button, the TV turns on, sat receiver turns on. If my wife and kids have to drill down through a bunch of pages just to watch TV they won't be very happy; they already complain that they have to press TV power then Sat power to watch TV.

Can 2 remotes in the same room be programmed to operate differently? In our home theater, I'd like for my wifes remote to bring up her DVR, and my remote to bring up mine.

On the ethernet MTS, does it use the Cat5 wire for communication or just POE? Is it also wireless?

Is the LCD keypad wireless only?

How are the dimmers wired up in a 3way switch situation?

Thanks

[henniae]

I think I'm finally going to go with Control4 and I have a few questions:

Do you always need to go through the C4 OSG or can the remotes can be programmed so that when you press the TV button, the TV turns on, sat receiver turns on. If my wife and kids have to drill down through a bunch of pages just to watch TV they won't be very happy; they already complain that they have to press TV power then Sat power to watch TV.

Can 2 remotes in the same room be programmed to operate differently? In our home theater, I'd like for my wifes remote to bring up her DVR, and my remote to bring up mine.

On the ethernet MTS, does it use the Cat5 wire for communication or just POE? Is it also wireless?

Is the LCD keypad wireless only?

How are the dimmers wired up in a 3way switch situation?

Thanks

On the ethernet MTS, does it use the Cat5 wire for communication or just POE? Is it also wireless?

Is the LCD keypad wireless only?

LCD Keypad

Communications

• 10/100BaseT Ethernet (Ethernet version only)

• Wireless IEEE 802.15.4 mesh networking (Wireless version only) Power

Power Requirements

• IEEE 802.3AF compliant power over Ethernet, Control4 PoE injector (sold separately) or 3rd party PoE Switch (Ethernet version only)

• 120 or 240 VAC, 50 or 60 Hertz (Wireless version only)

Mini Touch Screen

Communications

• Wireless ZigBee™ (802.15.4) mesh networking

• Wireless IEEE 802.11g WiFi (WiFi version only)

• Ethernet 10/100base-T, RJ45 jack (Ethernet version only)

Power Requirements

• IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet (PoE)

• WiFi version: 100-240 VAC, 50-60 Hertz

How are the dimmers wired up in a 3way switch situation?

C4 dimmers need a hot and neutral wire. Because of this most 3-way setups will require a bit of rewiring. The extent of the rewiring is really dependent on how the original 3-way switch was wired. There is a good explanation of multi-way light wiring at (if you need it)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-way_switch#Multiway_switching

Here is a typical way to hookup C4 dimmers. One thing to note is that unlike a normal 3-way switch (as in the example above), only one C4 dimmer is attached to the load. The other C4 dimmers are only attached to hot and neutral and act as slaves telling the master switch to turn the load on/off and dim.

Hope this helps

Alan

[michelo76]

You do not always have to, but I do not think that your wife will have a problem with the C4 OSD. I have programmed my remote so that when I press DVR in any mode (except DVR) it will turn the TV, receiver and DVR on and set the inputs accordingly (no need to go tothe OSD). Similarly when I press PIP it will go to DVD.

Yes you can have two remotes in one room to bring up different dvrs. the trick woud be to make a different room for one of them.

example. one room would be AJF Theater, the other would be AJF_Wife Theater. have all the components in one room (AJF Theater) including both DVRs. in programmind you would issue the command at the room level. when Command DVR is received from AJF Theater choose DVR1 as the video source in AJF Theater, When command DVR is received from AJF_Wife Theater select DVR2 as the video source in AJF Theater...

you have to do all the bindings also in connections so the wifey remote will control the system too.

the Cat5 is used for both communication and power.

yes the LCD keypad is wireless only.

in a 3-way setting you have to use a dimmer and a 2 button keypad or a switch an a 2 button keypad.

let me know if that helps.

[AJF]

Thanks alot guys! That answers all of my questions. So far anyways. :-)

[RyanE]

Actually, a few of the answers were not quite accurate...

First of all, dimmers do not require a neutral. If they have a neutral, it's better, because the dimmer will only dim up to 84% if you don't have the neutral, since in a switch-leg wiring scheme without neutral, the dimmer has to maintain a voltage difference between the hot and load lines to power it's electronics, but it will work.

Control4 *switches* (which do not dim and are typically used for fluorescent lights or motors) *do* require a neutral connection.

Next, there *IS* a PoE version of the LCD Keypad, so if you have CAT5 there, you can get a PoE version, and the communications and power happen over the CAT5 / ethernet. It's preferable to use the PoE version if you have the wire, because communication will be quite a bit faster than over zigbee.

I believe the rest of the answers were great. Keep up the good work, guys.

RyanE

[R_Willis]

AJF: I sent you an email... Did you get it?

[AJF]

AJF: I sent you an email... Did you get it?

No, I had an old email address in my profile. Try it again.