Control4-CA-1 stuck in loop. Keeps flashing blue light continuously.

[IcarusSixx49]

Hello all.
 

newbie on forum.

So I have a Control4 CA–1 unit. It is one of those white boxes that controls all the lighting in my house for all my multi switches. I developed a problem with it when I flipped my breakers on and off to find a certain circuit. After the breakers were tripped the control4 CA-1 unit had an issue of not controlling the lights.  I pulled the power cord on the unit and waited five minutes and then plugged it back in. Reboot did not fix my light switch controls. The only thing that happens on the controller box is a lightning quick flashing red or orange light and then instantly it goes into a flashing blue light upon powering it off then plugging it back on. The blue light flashes continuously and at a steady rate forever. Seems to be stuck in a boot up loop. Unit is not being detected on my Netwerk. I have power cycled it off using the ID black buttons but the buttons does nothing. Buttons will not allow unit to be turned off. I have to unplug. I have tried holding the ID power cycle button for up to 40 second or more and it still just continuously flashes blue light. I have unplugged the power cord and while holding down the iD reset button plug the unit in and still nothing different happens. Just keeps flashing blue light.I wonder if anybody has any ideas on how I could proceed. I have been waiting on a technician for the last three days to come and trouble shoot it (fix it without charging me for a new unit). I do not want to reset it by putting a paper clip into the reset hole and deleting my configuration file. I have no way to upload my configuration file once I delete ( erase ) it from the unit. My understanding is that only an authorized technician can do this file upload. Any advise or help would be appreciated as I have had no lights for three days now in certain parts of my home. The ( wall switch with six buttons ) only ( allows )  has one out of six buttons working on it. Any idea how to get the unit out of the permanent ‘blue light blinking’ loop? Thank you in advance for your help. Excuse the grammar errors as I am not wearing my reading glasses and am frustrated (angry)  at this time. Please help if you can. Located in Vancouver BC. Canada. I do have a configuration file in the home owner registration web site. Small file 19k.  

[Amr]

On 12/8/2022 at 9:17 AM, IcarusSixx49 said:

Hello all.
 

newbie on forum.

So I have a Control4 CA–1 unit. It is one of those white boxes that controls all the lighting in my house for all my multi switches. I developed a problem with it when I flipped my breakers on and off to find a certain circuit. After the breakers were tripped the control4 CA-1 unit had an issue of not controlling the lights.  I pulled the power cord on the unit and waited five minutes and then plugged it back in. Reboot did not fix my light switch controls. The only thing that happens on the controller box is a lightning quick flashing red or orange light and then instantly it goes into a flashing blue light upon powering it off then plugging it back on. The blue light flashes continuously and at a steady rate forever. Seems to be stuck in a boot up loop. Unit is not being detected on my Netwerk. I have power cycled it off using the ID black buttons but the buttons does nothing. Buttons will not allow unit to be turned off. I have to unplug. I have tried holding the ID power cycle button for up to 40 second or more and it still just continuously flashes blue light. I have unplugged the power cord and while holding down the iD reset button plug the unit in and still nothing different happens. Just keeps flashing blue light.I wonder if anybody has any ideas on how I could proceed. I have been waiting on a technician for the last three days to come and trouble shoot it (fix it without charging me for a new unit). I do not want to reset it by putting a paper clip into the reset hole and deleting my configuration file. I have no way to upload my configuration file once I delete ( erase ) it from the unit. My understanding is that only an authorized technician can do this file upload. Any advise or help would be appreciated as I have had no lights for three days now in certain parts of my home. The ( wall switch with six buttons ) only ( allows )  has one out of six buttons working on it. Any idea how to get the unit out of the permanent ‘blue light blinking’ loop? Thank you in advance for your help. Excuse the grammar errors as I am not wearing my reading glasses and am frustrated (angry)  at this time. Please help if you can. Located in Vancouver BC. Canada. I do have a configuration file in the home owner registration web site. Small file 19k.  

Some one reached out for you and fixed this right? You may have a network issue or worse, CA-1 doesn’t see the director and therefore keeps flashing blue instead of solid blue!

[IcarusSixx49]

Hi . Happy holidays. thank you for reply ;info.

No one has helped yet as my authorized dealer is too busy until way after the new year in bigger project they said. Every one else is busy I guess with holidays and health. 
 

if you can help, please let me know. I have tried resetting my modem and the CA-1 pops up on it setting for about three to five minutes then disappears again unless I unplug the CA-1 fir over an hour. Same thing happens but it never connects . Like you said it’s either net work or a Director issue. I’m starting to think it’s a Director issue. But I have no way to fix that or know how to. If you have any advice I’d appreciate it thank you kindly wish you the best

 

dal 

[RAV]

Where's the black Cat wire go?
It's in the serial jack. No chance the wires got moved around right?

Unplug the black serial cat cable, reboot.
Connect a laptop to the yellow and confirm wired network works.
If no network, or not sure, move unit to the main network switch with a different cable and see if it boots properly there.
 

[IcarusSixx49]

Will try that in 8 hours . Had to go to work. I did completely remove the black cat wire and then unplug and wait 5 minutes then plug the CA-1 back to restart it. Never checked the actual yellow cat wire for internet speed as I assumed if CA-1shows up in the modem setting for 3-5 minutes then it must have internet. I did however plug in a brand new cat cable directly into the CA-1 while the black cat cable was still plugged in and try to get CA-1 to establish internet connection. No luck then but will do exactly as you suggested and see if that work. Could the battery inside the unit have died and cause a backup loss? I was told the unit has a mini watch battery inside it. Unit is 2/3 years old only. Thanks you again . I appreciate it 

[Cyknight]

Any chance that network cable goes to a poe switch? I've seen that cause some odd issues (PoE and adapter both connected) where controllers seem to get in a reboot cycle.

As per above, power down, take cat out and power up ca1 with power first, then reconnect network cable (or leave power out and reconnect cat)

[IcarusSixx49]

I tried the suggestion. Nothing changed. Verified internet connection. Cable is good. Plugged in directly to modem with brand new cat5 cable and got a new ip assigned by the modem to the CA-1. Still same state. CA-1 shows up as ‘connected’ for two minutes in modem device(s) setting and the CA-1 goes into ‘Inactive’ mode in settings again. The CA-1 did get assigned different ip every time. It was 192.168.1.78 then got new ip of 192.168.1.108. This was all done without the serial connection plug connected and disconnected. Tried to reset network by holding the push button ( 30 sec ) on CA-1 while plugging in power cord. No changes in unit. Blue light still flashing non stop. Nothing changed at all. Tried it a dozen times with power off for 5minutes and CA-1 powered in for an hour every time. Still stuck in boot mode or director issue. Thank you all for your help. Will keep trying all suggestion and appreciate the help a lot. 

[Amr]

21 minutes ago, IcarusSixx49 said:

I tried the suggestion. Nothing changed. Verified internet connection. Cable is good. Plugged in directly to modem with brand new cat5 cable and got a new ip assigned by the modem to the CA-1. Still same state. CA-1 shows up as ‘connected’ for two minutes in modem device(s) setting and the CA-1 goes into ‘Inactive’ mode in settings again. The CA-1 did get assigned different ip every time. It was 192.168.1.78 then got new ip of 192.168.1.108. This was all done without the serial connection plug connected and disconnected. Tried to reset network by holding the push button ( 30 sec ) on CA-1 while plugging in power cord. No changes in unit. Blue light still flashing non stop. Nothing changed at all. Tried it a dozen times with power off for 5minutes and CA-1 powered in for an hour every time. Still stuck in boot mode or director issue. Thank you all for your help. Will keep trying all suggestion and appreciate the help a lot. 

You need a field visit, I think you should plan it with your dealer, its shooting in the dark really ...

[IcarusSixx49]

If the dealer would only commit to providing service. They charge ridiculously charges and still refuse to service. To wait over a month for connection and simple file reload is absurd. Can not even do remote service on device because dealer has not authorized it. Wow. Only support I got is from this forum. Even the Control4 tech support guy says call dealer to service. Thank you for helping  

[Amr]

15 hours ago, IcarusSixx49 said:

If the dealer would only commit to providing service. They charge ridiculously charges and still refuse to service. To wait over a month for connection and simple file reload is absurd. Can not even do remote service on device because dealer has not authorized it. Wow. Only support I got is from this forum. Even the Control4 tech support guy says call dealer to service. Thank you for helping  

Well its absurd you can't get the service or been treated like that, I belive C4 can help you allocate and move your account to another dealer, U can do it youeself from customer.control4.com! I'd say the issue you have might be not C4 related, but any knowledgable dealer can help you even remotely if you can provide a helping hand with troubleshooting!

[msgreenf]

this is more challenging remotely if it's not online and if the project has been wiped by doing the improper reset too...

[Matt Lowe]

I would suggest contact dealers using the dealer locator on control4.com This behavior is not appropriate and i am sure you can find a local dealer. If you original dealer owes you a warranty or any kind of service you can try contact control4 customer advocacy and they might be able to assist you with some more creative solutions.  As others have said controller may need to reformatted and it was likely corrupted when the power was cut. Hope you can get back up and running.