Should I stay or should I go?

[msgreenf]

6 hours ago, Dunamivora said:

I will check if this has been put in our system as a request for the camera driver. Seems like a reasonable request.

It's not possible since unifi publishes the snapshot and h264 on different ips and today the proxy requires a single ip

[cdcllc]

21 hours ago, calcubot5000 said:

10 of the single-button switches are on the walls in the living areas. The other 10 are mounted on a wall in the utility room, but control lights in the living areas. From what I can tell, the 3- and 6- button switches wirelessly connect to the controller, and then the controller triggers the switches that are in the utility room.

Others can say for sure, but for folks without panelized lighting, I think this setup may be pretty common.  At least I have it.  Our dealer put several single switches in two closets (one at each end of the house) to directly control the respective loads as a "back up" switch in the event of a controller/LAN outage.  The backup switches don't require the controller to be online to work.

[Cyknight]

4 hours ago, cdcllc said:

Others can say for sure, but for folks without panelized lighting, I think this setup may be pretty common.  At least I have it.  Our dealer put several single switches in two closets (one at each end of the house) to directly control the respective loads as a "back up" switch in the event of a controller/LAN outage.  The backup switches don't require the controller to be online to work.

It shouldn't be common to have that many (the mentioned 10) in one place. Best practise is to limit the number of devices in a single spot due to ZigBee overlap and potential hopping issues.

It's perfectly fine to have 2-4 dimmers in a closet/out of sight area, indeed please do if you can, but 10 isn't advisable. I don't go over a single 4-gang if I can help it at all. Once you have a 4-gang there should ideally be 6-10f to the next bank.

[mstafford388]

To piggyback off of Cyknight if you need to cluster switches closely together like that try to have a controller running zigbee close enough so that those switches can talk directly to the controller.  This can help avoid a zigbee hop nightmare. 

[cdcllc]

Here's what was installed - same config both closets; 5 2-gang switches.  The closet in the picture is the same one with the C4 equipment rack; the other closet is at the other end of the house.  Good news is in 4+ years I think I've used them once.

 

 

[zaphod]

Here's my version - with one dimmer that needs to be replaced:

[Dueport]

2 hours ago, zaphod said:

Here's my version - with one dimmer that needs to be replaced:

Just curious from a design standpoint what is the intent for interaction with these loads? Is the idea that they are automated so no need to have an accessible switch? Or is it that you use a secondary control like keypad or TS? I can understand aesthetic desire to hide them but wondering how an integrator that does this intends for you to interact with the loads. 

[cdcllc]

All of mine have alternate "switches" (most always on a 6-button KPD) elsewhere in the house (in a convenient location relative to the load/s or scene function).  I think only 1 button on a KPD directly controls a load and all the others need the controller to cause the intended action.  I haven't counted them up, but we have way more than the 10 backup switches in the house (counting a 6-button KPD as 6 switches).

[zaphod]

12 hours ago, Dueport said:

Just curious from a design standpoint what is the intent for interaction with these loads? Is the idea that they are automated so no need to have an accessible switch? Or is it that you use a secondary control like keypad or TS? I can understand aesthetic desire to hide them but wondering how an integrator that does this intends for you to interact with the loads. 

These are primarily in my living room and dining room and are controlled by four six-button keypads in various parts of those rooms.  To be honest, the number or loads is overkill and more of these could have been grouped - my designer and/or electrician went a bit too crazy.  They control several zones of pot lights, sconces, lights hanging over the DR table, floor LEDs, etc.  I rarely get so discrete that I only want a couple of these on.

But how this works for the most part in real life - a scene automatically comes on at sunset. I may occasionally turn on an additional light or two.  At bedtime I hit an "All Off" button. Like a lot of HA the theory in terms of what you can do is a lot fancier then what you end up doing on an everyday basis.

[RyanE]

45 minutes ago, zaphod said:

...To be honest, the number or loads is overkill and more of these could have been grouped...

I think this is also more of an issue (overkill on number of loads) due to LED lights, which require much less power...

I've got rooms with multiple (2, typically) dimmers that in reality could be a single dimmer now with LED.  I have dimmers that used to get warm to the touch, that now are not noticeably warm.

Not that I'm complaining.  LED technology has come a long way, and I'm glad I skipped the CFL fluorescent in-betweens, which were pretty horrible in comparison.

RyanE

[zaphod]

8 hours ago, RyanE said:

I think this is also more of an issue (overkill on number of loads) due to LED lights, which require much less power...

While that is very true, and this was done about 14 years ago before LED was prevalent (hence the LDZ-101 1st Gen C4 dimmers), I don't think the issue was excess wattage on each load, it was to allow more granular lighting control.  About 90% of the lights, or 42 lights,  are ceiling pots/spots that use MR16 bulbs so those are, at most 50W when using halogen.  Wouldn't you be able to put at least 20 of those on one dimmer load?

Now with LEDs the issue is that these older dimmers (LDZ-101) don't fully shut off LED bulbs - that isn't the case in these rooms but it is in my laundry room.  Or maybe it is just the bulb that I have in this room?

[RyanE]

2 hours ago, zaphod said:

Now with LEDs the issue is that these older dimmers (LDZ-101) don't fully shut off LED bulbs - that isn't the case in these rooms but it is in my laundry room.  Or maybe it is just the bulb that I have in this room?

My house was built 20 years ago, and replaced with Gen1 dimmers 15-16 years ago.

Most dimmable LEDs work even on Gen1 Control4 hardware, but I suspect it's probably a combination of having a smaller load due to the smaller room (I assume), and also maybe the LED bulb(s) you have in there can't handle the low level.

Another thing to check is if that dimmer is wired 'switch-leg'.  Unless the dimmer has a neutral, it can't shut the load completely off.  All my dimmers have neutrals, and I don't know that I've seen the issue of a light load not being completely shut off.

RyanE

[Cyknight]

2 hours ago, zaphod said:

Wouldn't you be able to put at least 20 of those on one dimmer load?

As the old C4 dimmers are generally rated at 800W max (in single gang/with tabs attached), no.

[Cyknight]

1 minute ago, RyanE said:

All my dimmers have neutrals, and I don't know that I've seen the issue of a light load not being completely shut off.

I have, provided the load is low enough in wattage to not reach the threshold. The current APD it's 1W, but on the older dimmers it's considerably more, though I can't quickly find the number at the moment.

[zaphod]

3 minutes ago, Cyknight said:

As the old C4 dimmers are generally rated at 800W max (in single gang/with tabs attached), no.

So 16 bulbs at 50W each.  Or 22 x 35W. 

[zaphod]

6 minutes ago, RyanE said:

My house was built 20 years ago, and replaced with Gen1 dimmers 15-16 years ago.

Most dimmable LEDs work even on Gen1 Control4 hardware, but I suspect it's probably a combination of having a smaller load due to the smaller room (I assume), and also maybe the LED bulb(s) you have in there can't handle the low level.

Another thing to check is if that dimmer is wired 'switch-leg'.  Unless the dimmer has a neutral, it can't shut the load completely off.  All my dimmers have neutrals, and I don't know that I've seen the issue of a light load not being completely shut off.

RyanE

I will try a different bulb.  It is a small room - just one light.

I have also seen my LED Christmas lights not shut off completely - they are connected to a C4 Outlet switch LDZ-5S1-W

[RyanE]

1 hour ago, zaphod said:

I have also seen my LED Christmas lights not shut off completely - they are connected to a C4 Outlet switch LDZ-5S1-W

I'm really surprised at this, since an outlet *switch* should be a relay, which should be 0V or 120V.

RyanE

[drro]

I’d leave C4 for your use case. It’s not that many light switches. Spend your money installing Lutron Caseta replacements, and you’ll never look back.