Requirement for amazon Alexa

[amzscam]

Hi I have an existing control 4 system with hc250 and hc800  controller in my 3 story house basement included.I was wondering what are the advantages of having Alexa . And what are the setup requirements, do I need to buy the hub and the Dot speakers ? 

And how many are required ?

i was good that the drivers for Alexa are with control 4 therefore you do not have to pay a third party for the same .

 

thanks 

[Cyknight]

First of all note that there are two drivers.

One is C4's own driver. While it does not require you to pay a 3rd party for the driver - it DOES require that you have the (paid) 4Sight subscription. Note also that the C4 driver requires an internet connection, and a reliable one to work. It is also limited in it's locale as it uses official Amazon skills tat C4 has to get approved (ie if you brought in an Alexa from the US to say Brazil, you'll have to muck around to get it set to the US throwing off functions like weather reports etc)

The second is by Epic systems. That one is a paid driver, but doesn't require a subscription - in essence, it's cheaper after the second year of use IF your only function for 4Sight is Alexa. I believe the Epic driver does NOT require a (constant) internet connections to talk to Alexa. This one doesn't care about locale - Epic can chime in and correct me if I'm wrong  but I believe it uses a backdoor by using the HUE Amazon skill. This MAY cause issues if HUE or Amazon decide to make changes to that skill set. It's been stable AFAIK mind you, but right now a similar situation has crippled their Google Home driver preventing new setups from being made.

As for numbers, you need only 'need' one Echo or DOT - how many you want is up to you.

There are many more details on differences between the two - google "Epic Systems Control4" and you'll find their site which lists some of them, though the list is naturally somewhat skewed in their favour.

One advantage of the C4 driver that they do not list. is that it can 'learn' some of your lighting automatically creating functionality that requires no dealer or even user setup - though it should be said that this is limited in scope.

[South Africa C4 user]

Just to add to this... Epic Systems driver may not require a constamt internet connection but Alexa does (at least Echo and Dot anyway) so I cannot use the Epic driver if my internet is down.

I use the Epic driver, the C4 driver and the Chowmain IFTTT driver (which can also be used to link into Alexa).  The key advantages and disadvantages of each (my personal view) are:

ADVANTAGES

1. Epic Systems has the fastest response times by far. Probably because it does not go out to the internet and back (I think).

2. Native C4 sets up all your lights and lighting scenes in minutes (the other options could take hours and I mean many hours if you want to automate hundreds of lights and lighting scenes).

3. The Chowmain driver is not restricted by reserved words (this is a bigger problem than you may think at first). This driver is by far the most flexible.

DISADVANTAGES

1. Epic Systems only disadvantages are the converse of the advantages of the other two drivers - see above.

2. Control4 native is quite slow (at least in South Africa) even though I have a 100MBps line.

3. Chowmain is also quite slow and requires (comparatively) a lot of programming (both within C4 and in IFTTT).

[zaphod]

I could be wrong but I think that Alexa always needs the internet to process your voice input.  There isn't enough hardware in the unit itself to do voice recognition and interpret what you are saying.

[Cyknight]

4 minutes ago, zaphod said:

I could be wrong but I think that Alexa always needs the internet to process your voice input.  There isn't enough hardware in the unit itself to do voice recognition and interpret what you are saying.

Yes, I meant that using the C4 adds another layer of internet reliability, didn't mean to imply it's a huge difference between the two.

[amzscam]

Thank you all for your input.  i have a constant 150 mbs connection here in Canada, the control notifications have been pretty spot on with a delay of 10 seconds . I already have a 4 sight subscription which i pay yearly of around 100 $ , will the Alexa services be included in that or do in need to pay separate and how much do you think it would cost to integrate to an existing system. 

 

[msgreenf]

Thank you all for your input.  i have a constant 150 mbs connection here in Canada, the control notifications have been pretty spot on with a delay of 10 seconds . I already have a 4 sight subscription which i pay yearly of around 100 $ , will the Alexa services be included in that or do in need to pay separate and how much do you think it would cost to integrate to an existing system. 
 

It's included with 4sight. For basic integration you do it yourself at customer.control4.com. If you want more controller there is a driver your dealer can install.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[brucecampbell]

Alexa is working well so far in my house.

I have two echo dots only - nothing else from amazon. (no hub, no amazon speakers)

I'm not in USA, so had to sign up to Amazon using a US postal address, otherwise it's difficult to set up the dots.

We use the dots everyday for lights and security and also have some music options for adding zones or starting music in different zones.

I use both C4 and Epic drivers, I have found C4 best for lighting and the Epic driver best for adding any other specific programming.

I have a lot of lighting scenes which are not needed via alexa, so I disable them from alexa via the mycontrol4 account. Mainly scenes used by the motion sensors.

 

[zaphod]

On 26/11/2017 at 5:00 PM, amzscam said:

Thank you all for your input.  i have a constant 150 mbs connection here in Canada, the control notifications have been pretty spot on with a delay of 10 seconds . I already have a 4 sight subscription which i pay yearly of around 100 $ , will the Alexa services be included in that or do in need to pay separate and how much do you think it would cost to integrate to an existing system. 

 

I have had Alexa working with my system for about a year in Canada - I live in Toronto but I tell Alexa that I am in Youngstown NY - right across the lake.  I have been mainly using the Epic driver but I recently signed up to 4sight so I may also try out the C4 driver. I think the C4 driver used to only work if Alexa was supported in your country but that may have changed.  Technically Alexa isn't supported in Canada for a few more days but last week I was able to change the address of one of my Echo Dot's to my real address.  You should be set to go.