Joshua Pressnell Posted March 8, 2017 Author Share Posted March 8, 2017 12 hours ago, ILoveC4 said: I've got an extra Pi 3 kicking around...is it possible to try out your driver? What does just the driver cost? If you know your way around linux and using the Pi, you're free to use my Pi OS image to get things setup quickly. It comes pre-installed with everything you need, including my easy-to-use web portal software. If you want to use the web management portal, I license that for $50, but everything else in the OS image works without license. The driver at HouseLogix has a 48 hour trial period. It's $175 to purchase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Pressnell Posted March 8, 2017 Author Share Posted March 8, 2017 The Pi Zero image is here -> http://josh-firmware.s3.amazonaws.com/homebridge_1.0.1_pi0.tar.gz The Pi 3 image is here -> http://josh-firmware.s3.amazonaws.com/homebridge_1.0.1_pi3.tar.gz These are compressed and minimized images, so don't forget to login and do "sudo raspi-config" to expand the flash disk partition to fill your disk space. andre.baracat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andre.baracat Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 Joshua, how does your driver deal with Air Conditioning? My c4 controls two way 2 thermostats, would I be able to tell Siri to set my temperature to 75 for example? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Pressnell Posted March 9, 2017 Author Share Posted March 9, 2017 19 minutes ago, andre.baracat said: Joshua, how does your driver deal with Air Conditioning? My c4 controls two way 2 thermostats, would I be able to tell Siri to set my temperature to 75 for example? At the moment, I have my Nest thermostats integrated directly at the homebridge level, not by connecting to C4. Supporting C4 thermostats is on my to-do list. Once the thermostats are in HomeKit, you can certainly tell Siri to to set the temp to 75, or tell Siri to change the AC mode to heating. andre.baracat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andre.baracat Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 At the moment, I have my Nest thermostats integrated directly at the homebridge level, not by connecting to C4. Supporting C4 thermostats is on my to-do list. Once the thermostats are in HomeKit, you can certainly tell Siri to to set the temp to 75, or tell Siri to change the AC mode to heating. Interesting! This is kind of a deal breaker to me as of right now I wanted to set a scene with lights and ac when I enter / leave the house. My AC is not nest, just a regular c4 integrated solution Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Pressnell Posted March 9, 2017 Author Share Posted March 9, 2017 2 minutes ago, andre.baracat said: Interesting! This is kind of a deal breaker to me as of right now I wanted to set a scene with lights and ac when I enter / leave the house. My AC is not nest, just a regular c4 integrated solution Yeah... thermostats are a little more complicated in terms of devices in HomeKit, but this is the next device I'm going to be working on, so stay tuned. andre.baracat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andre.baracat Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 Yeah... thermostats are a little more complicated in terms of devices in HomeKit, but this is the next device I'm going to be working on, so stay tuned. Cool! Keep us posted. As soon as you have that figured out I'll place the order for the kit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackfiveo1 Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 Can I install this on a jailbroken apple tv4 thats running homebridge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Pressnell Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 Just now, blackfiveo1 said: Can I install this on a jailbroken apple tv4 thats running homebridge? Don't see why not. You just need to install the homebridge-control4 plugin and use my driver to configure the devices properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackfiveo1 Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 hmm just tinkering with this I wonder if I could install this without jailbreaking the appletv with like a sideloader VINCELdUB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prabeau Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 What is the basic difference and ease of integration if you compare Alexa in C4 or this Homebridge driver and my Apple devices. Was about to commit to Alexa with the drawback of being in Canada. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Pressnell Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 I haven't played much with Alexa, as I'm a completely Apple household, and I didn't want more devices in the home to overlap with what I already had. I think there's some pros and cons to both. Apple/Homebridge: * Directly integrated with Apple ecosystem and functions natively in all Apple devices. * Not a cloud-based service * Responds and updates very quickly. * Extremely easy to setup, with no C4 programming required. * Limited to fixed HomeKit commands and can't include custom variables in speech (but can use custom values for known hardware, such as dimmers) Alexa: * More open ecosystem with a variety of 3rd party "skills" and plugins. * More configurable and can include custom "variables" in spoken text. * Can use programming to create complex interactions. * Can integrate more interestingly with IFTTT. * Relies on Amazon's web services and may be delayed by round trip networking requests. Bottom line in my opinion is that there's a lot of personal preference involved. I really like my HomeKit setup and don't really see a need for a bunch of dots around my house, since my phone and Apple Watch or Apple TV are always handy to take commands. But some folks really want the open nature of Alexa and the more expansive nature that "skills" offer. turls 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhendriksen Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 When using your product can you string things together? IE: Hey Siri, turn off the kitchen lights and bathroom lights, and turn on the back deck lights."? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prabeau Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 Thank you for that information. I am all Apple here and apreciate this info. I have a small (house ) project and one Echo would do the job mainly because the better half still needs to be sold on Automation. After reading your reply I have a tough decision to make ! Thanks P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Pressnell Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 16 minutes ago, dhendriksen said: When using your product can you string things together? IE: Hey Siri, turn off the kitchen lights and bathroom lights, and turn on the back deck lights."? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk That's going to be dependent on HomeKit, not my product. My product exposes C4 devices as HomeKit devices, which respond appropriately to HomeKit commands. The entire front-end is handled by Apple's stuff. That said, I haven't tried chaining lots of commands into a single Siri request. Depending on what you're doing, you might use HomeKit scenes to make that simpler, or use a virtual switch in your project to trigger C4 scenes. But what you want may work already. I'll give it a try when I have a chance and post back. Even if it doesn't work now, Apple may add that in the next iOS update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhendriksen Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 That's going to be dependent on HomeKit, not my product. My product exposes C4 devices as HomeKit devices, which respond appropriately to HomeKit commands. The entire front-end is handled by Apple's stuff. That said, I haven't tried chaining lots of commands into a single Siri request. Depending on what you're doing, you might use HomeKit scenes to make that simpler, or use a virtual switch in your project to trigger C4 scenes. But what you want may work already. I'll give it a try when I have a chance and post back. Even if it doesn't work now, Apple may add that in the next iOS update. I understand it's Apple and not your appliance that dictates that, I should have phrased my question differently but I appreciate you answering. How much is your plug and play appliance and corresponding driver? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Pressnell Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 21 minutes ago, prabeau said: Thank you for that information. I am all Apple here and apreciate this info. I have a small (house ) project and one Echo would do the job mainly because the better half still needs to be sold on Automation. After reading your reply I have a tough decision to make ! Thanks P You're welcome. I'd far rather you get what works best for you than sell you something that's not what you're looking for. I will say that the most frequent comment I've gotten is "It responds so much faster than I was expecting". With my HomeKit setup, the system responds almost as fast as using the native C4 app manually. The other thing you can do is use Apple's automations in HomeKit. You can trigger things on arriving or leaving home, for example, which uses Apple's internal location monitoring to trigger things. msgreenf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Pressnell Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 7 minutes ago, dhendriksen said: How much is your plug and play appliance and corresponding driver? The device is $225. You're welcome to setup your own (free) or use your own hardware and my OS image ($50) as cheaper options. The benefit of my plug and play option is ease of setup and configuration. The driver is $175. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekohn00 Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Hi Josh, I've been using the Beta driver....love it! Just realized I have to move to the new driver and looking at my options.... Just to confirm, the device for $225 does NOT include the driver, correct? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Pressnell Posted March 21, 2017 Author Share Posted March 21, 2017 Correct. Although if you've been using the beta driver already, you likely have everything you need setup already and just need the released copy of the driver itself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schrady Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Josh, First of all, everything works AWESOME!!!!! Except for the thermostat, I'm 100% sold. The problem is you expired my driver April 1st and it took me 2 hour to figure out why it woulndt work (I hate that) How about an email or heads up the driver is ging to expire. I rely on my for everything from evening scenes to garage doors. Anyway, no on should have any issues iwth this . User easy and actually WORKS!!!!!!!! Buy It. I sent Alexa back in 2 weeks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Pressnell Posted April 2, 2017 Author Share Posted April 2, 2017 37 minutes ago, schrady said: Josh, First of all, everything works AWESOME!!!!! Except for the thermostat, I'm 100% sold. The problem is you expired my driver April 1st and it took me 2 hour to figure out why it woulndt work (I hate that) How about an email or heads up the driver is ging to expire. I rely on my for everything from evening scenes to garage doors. Anyway, no on should have any issues iwth this . User easy and actually WORKS!!!!!!!! Buy It. I sent Alexa back in 2 weeks I did state in my post when I released the last update that it would expire April 1. :-P Ya know... first taste is free. Glad to hear you're enjoying the setup. I've got some bigger issues to deal with first, and then I'll get on the thermostat connection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turls Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 On 2/26/2017 at 10:28 AM, Joshua Pressnell said: , triggering scenes when iOS detects you've arrived or left home (more reliable than other geo-location methods) Can you or a user elaborate on this? I've been burnt on SmartThings and a third party driver for Geolocation. I want a solid solution. What makes this more reliable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Pressnell Posted July 26, 2017 Author Share Posted July 26, 2017 In iOS 11 Apple is working to improve their GeoLocation capabilities in HomeKit. I don't know exactly *what* they're doing under-the-hood, and your milage may vary. I do know that they've added the ability to keep track of which users are home, based on their individual devices. So you can have triggers based on "first user home" and "last user left home", etc. I would guess that they're using "significant location tracking" and "geo fencing" as the root of the feature, plus also possibly the combination of location updates with the device joining a known "home" wifi network. Since Apple "owns" the OS, they can do things that mere 3rd party mortals can't when it comes to "home presence identification". I can't vouch for exactly how well it will work for all users, as I've only played with it a little bit (iOS 11 developer beta), but I do know that they claimed at WWDC that this feature would be getting better. To tie that into Control4, you'd use a series of "virtual switches" that represent Boolean variables in the C4 system. Then use HomeKit's location triggers to turn appropriate "Is User Home" or "All Users Gone" states via the switches, and possible also trigger switches for when particular users are home, so you can have variable states (and thus programming) for states like "only my wife is home". turls 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitaltrader Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 Your driver is amazing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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