Control 4 issues, help please

[Dave D]

I had control4 installed in my house a few years ago, I pulled out a Crestron system to put this in, due to the lack of customer service, and was told Control 4 was user friendly, talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

My system is quite large, on a rural property, has Cbus lighting, garage doors, AC units, TV stick Amazon, and my property cameras being Dahua cameras with PTZ control via the control 4 on our TVs.

In the years I have had this, I would have fixed this roughly once every two months, I have spent a fortune on this, double what I paid for Crestron with 10 times the headaches.

The issues I am having are devices stop working, biggest being the cameras lose PTZ control, I have heard every excuse possible mostly blaming the cameras, I had cameras pulled down and tested, changed models, only to find out it was a Control4 setting or driver, the latest was how auto update was clicked, and this stops the control.

In the last few weeks, I have lost control of the Air conditioning, all the fire TV devices PTZ control on half of the cameras, its never ending and sadly all I get is excuses and blaming others, like the cameras or the router - network. When I contact my C4 contractor he just blames me, then logs in and sends me another bill, thousands and thousands of dollars spent fixing the same issues every time, now he won’t fix anything because I had the hide to question him, sadly this is what you get when there is a lot of work around and companies don’t deal with the consumers.

I even changed my entire network to ensure its right and no one can blame others, the IT guy said the switch that was installed by control 4 was managed and always on via the cloud and people had logged in via this, most likely the Control4 people, so I pulled it all out.

I had enough and reached out to Control4 head office in Melbourne, who bumped me off to their guy In Sydney, who wouldn't help, he just backed the contractor and said try others from their list. the other contractors didn't really want to know about me, as the good work$ were done, and they see my job now as picking up the crumbs. I was told by a friend Control 4 contractors needs to buy over 35k worth of gear to be allowed to do their works, and how Control4 are dollar driven and don't care about customers, he said dump it and use the TV apps.

My problem is getting a decent Control4 contractor who will actually help, and sadly I don't think this exists in Australia, does anyone know if I can use someone from the USA or another country who knows what they are doing, and can fix and advise on this, by doing it remotely, this is all the local guys do anyway, get real expert advice once and for all

I am now at the point of just pulling this out, the money is one thing but the stress these guys cause is far worse. I say the product is junk but when I read up its mostly says the gear is good, it’s the installers who are bad, and in Australia most of these guys are not skilled enough to understand how the control 4 system really works, and in AU it’s based on selling gear and no real skill required.

Sorry for the long-winded post, it’s my first time doing this sort of thing, it’s extremely frustrating dealing with this gear and more so the so-called C4 contractors.

Any help or a good available honest contractor would be appreciated.

 

 

[Shoe]

32 minutes ago, Dave D said:

he just blames me,

Can you be specific about what they say you did or are doing to be the source of blame? No hyperbole. Just matter of fact please.

[Dave D]

With the cameras, he said its the camera and not control 4, that he just jumps off the back of the NVR, I then get the camera guy out to check the camera, he tells me me there are 3 inputs, Main, sub1 and sub2, he thinks the C4 is on the wrong input. Then checks and finds issue and fixes. 

It goes again, and again, last time, main drama, one morning cameras have no PTZ control, I call him, he tells me its all good on the C4, must be cameras. I get guy out again to check and swap a new ptz over to the older one we had, still the same, he then takes it down again to send back to be tested, all tests are good, the Dohua people call a C4 contractor who says try using a chowmein driver? he does this and one worked but no others, I then swap camera over with a camera they had spare, and still no good. he tells me he had to contact Control4 in the US to get them to log in to check the system???? Still no good and he sends me another 2 bills, about $1'000 worth. I question him on how this can keep happening and why the bills when you don't fix anything, he sends me on my way, I actually think it was his wife doing it.

I managed to get a guy look at it, he said you would not believe what all this was, he had the auto update clicked and this stops the ptz working, he fixed it in two minutes. But sadly they have gone again,.

[Dave D]

Also, its not just cameras, there is always something wrong, some lights don't work properly, he says that Cbus is no good anymore, so use the C4 to control it? The Amazon fire sticks always fall off the system.

I was told my wifi network could be the problem, its Ruckus and rock solid, then it was my router, so I just spend thousands to upgrade my it network and gear, so they cannot blame others, but sadly they still will. 

You sort of get the felling after awhile you are dealing with dodgy people or the product is garbage, I don't know if its one of these or both. So this is my last cry for help, but I wont be holding my breath hoping too much when it comes to C4, sadly. 

[Dave D]

 

 

[Shoe]

7 hours ago, Dave D said:

So this is my last cry for help,

So the list of issues is:

Camera PTZ control via Control4

AMAZON Fire sticks falling off.

Some issues with cbus.

 

Does PTZ work from the NVR?

Fire sticks suck more and more these days. Wired Roku or shields seem more stable.

Are you using the chowmain cbus driver?

 

Your choices are to take a chance with a new dealer or hire a consultant to evaluate your system without making changes to potentially help your dealer. It is true when you have more than one "guy" messing with a system that they will point fingers. Nature of trades people. It is also true that because each aren't skilled in all components that they can cause issues. So the finger can be correct.

You are not the first person to struggle with a system with issues and feel frustrated or beholden to a questionably skilled dealer or dealer staff. It's is also true there are bad customers. If you are solution focused you will take action and spend money. Get tactical.

[Dave D]

Yes, the cameras work fine on the NVR, it also did on the Control4, but it randomly drops off and I have to pay these people to try to fix it, after they blame others before they do anything.

They tried the chow driver but only one camera worked, as mentioned it was a box being ticked about updating that stopped them working, so I am being told, but they fell off the system again.

I don't have more then one guy messing with my system, as I noted I had Crestron, and had the rack cleaned up and new IT gear put in, but the one guy done all the Control4 and Cbus, until I questioned him, he then took his bat and ball and went home, he was making good money fixing nothing.

Why would;d anyone pay a consultant to advise the installer, the installer should not be allowed to get away with this, why would I do this and pay him more, sadly control4 don't care about the customer, they couldn't careless about these issues. They should be the ones checking it for free, I purchased enough of their gear?

I just want to know if this will keep happening and if they are control4 issues or the installer, from the replies including the private message, it sounds like its the comtrol4 gear? This is enough to show me the gear is no good and it will most likely keep happening, and sadly control4 doesn't care, they simply wont last in this country with what they allow to go on, its not America where the gear and installers are much cheaper, and a lot more experienced with a lot of competition, hence my question for help?

For the record, I have spent close tor 100k on this garbage and, i have had automation for over 15 years, I went from Creston to this nightmare, like jumping out of a Ferrari onto a pushbike. We live and learn.

I will keep reading and weigh up my options, thanks for your reply.

[Shoe]

You don't seem solution focused to be honest.

[RAV]

That's a juggling act not many are going to want to be involved with.

When multiple contractors are involved in an integration project, it compounds the problems.
Sounds like you have a network guy, a CBus guy, a cameras guy, a Control4 guy, and you're doing the network.
And on top of that, you have multiple brands that require a third part developer to write drivers for Control4 to work with it.

[Topfox]

For what it’s worth of everything you’ve mentioned, FireTV integration leaves a lot to be desired with Control4 integration. I used to be a heavy Fire user and eventually left that platform for Nvidia Shield due to the poor Control4 integration. The most consistent luck I had was using IRUSB to control Fire, but it had some slight annoyances to at times because it has to launch an app to start working. 

[therockhr]

Who picked the NVR, Cameras, Fire TVs and CBUS lighting? You, the control4 dealer or someone else?

[Dave D]

Rav, is this not the reason why you install automation, to simplify all the devices on to one platform and, there are 2 people, One does cameras the other C4 & lighting.

The system is about 3 years old, in this time it has been fixed about 30 times, things just fall off the C4 system and no longer work, every single time it was the Control4 issues, but the installer blamed others, I wasted my time and my money getting things checked when it was C4 the entire time.... How long do you put up with this garbage for, I thought I paid experts to do this? Keep in mind I have reached out to Control 4 for help and they just fobbed me off, ZERO CUSTOMER CARE. And, this is why I am at my end with this BS.

I am an end user who paid so-called experts to install the Control4 gear, I like anyone else. I showed these experts what I have and they do their thing.

All the Cameras, Fire TV & Cbus lighting was installed when the house was built, it was automated with Crestron. The Crestron gear was originally installed almost 20 years ago, it was run over coax, I had slowly patched things and replaced the coax with Cat6 as time progressed with some more modern crestron gear, but it all needed to be updated. To be honest it was rock solid for those 15 years. it never missed a beat, but this was the good old days when people knew what they were doing and cared, in Australia today its the opposite, there is a lot of work around and they simply don't care, too good for too long.

I then got Automation people in to advise and price up the best way to get things modernized. This is where I stuffed up, the Crestron prices to update were expensive, and along came a guy who did Control4, promised the world and delivered Tasmania, I have had over 3 years of dramas where things just fall off and don't work. 

The is a Rural Property, its Not a house, it has cameras, alarm panels, pumps, lighting and a number of TV's and devices, its why you put in Automation, to make things central and easier.

Shoe, as for your comment, there is a simple question in my post that you obviously didn't read, you like many others are why people don't post on places like this, they are taken over by people who are great at telling others what to do but have no answers or anything constructive to say, bored low iq idiots with too much time on their hands.

Because Control wont help me, I just wanted to know is there an expert in Control4 out there who could advise on these issues, is it the gear or the installer, will these issues keep happening.

 

[c4toys]

your not going to get help like that. We all have plenty of pleasant customers to work with! Nobody here "needs to help you". You may want to play a little nicer, if you want results

[Dave D]

Did you read my question and the comments, Nothing constructive, just like your reply. If you have no answer or a question back, why bother writing anything. I did explain in detail my situation.

I am wondering what I should say when someone writes, "You don't seem solution focused to be honest" why would you even bother writing this sort of stupid thing?

I am getting the felling all the old Twitter keyboard warriors have maybe moved to here.

Please, no more replies required, I will ask Chatgpt,

[msgreenf]

Firetv is the worst media player option. Sorry that you don't want to hear that but it's the least reliable. 

Roku, Apple TV, shield. Last fire tv. 

This isn't due to c4. Amazon rapidly updates the device and doesn't rest enough 

[Dave D]

msgreenf, yes mate I do want to hear this, I am simply trying to work out why i keep losing these devices off my C4. and what is the best way to stop this happening, my guy said they are fine, but it sounds like they are not. My C4 guy said apple was no good, I pulled them out, something to do with the drivers?

Sadly we don't have Roku in Australia, I do have a couple of them via a vpn but they are hard to sign up with here in AU, you guys have sooo much more then us, and a lot cheaper.

Do you know why the cameras would stop working, they work fine on the C4 but they keep losing the ptz control, they go for a month or so then some stop, could it be Control4 updating, any suggestions?

[Time2Jet]

What controller are you running and on which OS?

What drivers are you using for the Camera>Control4 integration and for Lighting>C4 integration.

Sadly, FireTV is not a great media player option. As mentioned above, that’s on Amazon, not C4. Can you try AppleTV or Shield? Both work nicely, (though Roku is still the deepest solid integration) and with the addition of the new IR fallback option for AppleTV it should be more solid.

What brand is your TStat?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dave D]

Hi Time2Jet, its an ea5, I really dont know what drivers they are using, I know they tried a chowmein, is that right, it worked on one camera but ptz control still stopped working.

The lighting system is Cbus but not sure how they drive it,

Sorry mate i really dont know the answers to some of your questions, not sure what Tstar is, I am just the guy who pushes the remote buttons and complains when they don't work.

It sure looks like the fire TV sticks need to go, and I need a better VPN for the Roku.

[msgreenf]

53 minutes ago, Dave D said:

msgreenf, yes mate I do want to hear this, I am simply trying to work out why i keep losing these devices off my C4. and what is the best way to stop this happening, my guy said they are fine, but it sounds like they are not. My C4 guy said apple was no good, I pulled them out, something to do with the drivers?

Sadly we don't have Roku in Australia, I do have a couple of them via a vpn but they are hard to sign up with here in AU, you guys have sooo much more then us, and a lot cheaper.

Do you know why the cameras would stop working, they work fine on the C4 but they keep losing the ptz control, they go for a month or so then some stop, could it be Control4 updating, any suggestions?

I have never seen that problem with cameras before. Do you know what driver you're using?

[Dave D]

I think they changed one to a Chowmein, does that sound right? But I had a different C4 guy look at it who said my Control4 guy had auto updates clicked and this stops the control of the ptz, he fixed it but sadly it went again. I tried to reach out to this guy but he is away until; the end of the month.

I had my IT networked checked, as my control4 guy said it could be the router or the poe switches, but it was all good. But then the guy said it was this update box being clicked, i had them here together. We thought it was fixed but it went again.

I have 30 cameras on the property, 11 are ptz controlled, too expensive to change them over. I have spent a fortune trying to find the issue, but "they" seem to think its a control4 issue, it maybe updates and changes settings, does this sound possible?

[Topspin14m]

2 hours ago, Dave D said:

I think they changed one to a Chowmein, does that sound right? But I had a different C4 guy look at it who said my Control4 guy had auto updates clicked and this stops the control of the ptz, he fixed it but sadly it went again. I tried to reach out to this guy but he is away until; the end of the month.

I had my IT networked checked, as my control4 guy said it could be the router or the poe switches, but it was all good. But then the guy said it was this update box being clicked, i had them here together. We thought it was fixed but it went again.

I have 30 cameras on the property, 11 are ptz controlled, too expensive to change them over. I have spent a fortune trying to find the issue, but "they" seem to think its a control4 issue, it maybe updates and changes settings, does this sound possible?

So you can view the camera feed, but you cannot control the PTZ?

[Shoe]

5 hours ago, Dave D said:

Shoe, as for your comment, there is a simple question in my post that you obviously didn't read

There isn't a single question mark in your post.

 

4 hours ago, Dave D said:

why would you even bother writing this sort of stupid thing?

Because you keep complaining instead of addressing facts and looking for solutions. You want to vent. You want people to magically tell you what's wrong with your system. That's not solution focused. That's emotional ruminating. Go read my posts again and see if you think you were answering me directly. Put your big boy pants on and quit complaining. You are getting free advice and a forum that is not affiliated with c4.

 

 

 

[Dave D]

Hi, yes i can still see the cameras.

[Dave D]

1 hour ago, Topspin14m said:

So you can view the camera feed, but you cannot control the PTZ?

Yes i can still see them, no left, right, up or down control, but it does allow me to zoom?

[Dave D]

Shoe, to write that you obviously have some issues going on, take your pills and have a lie down...