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Control4 Remote Freezing


mfjv4

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Jim, HELP!

From your posts on the control4 forum I know you're aware of the remotes sometimes freezing up. I think it's important to put a couple 'safe guards' in place in the interim to maintain customer sat (end customers).

I was demonstrating the speaker point at loud volume for a customer when I needed to take a call. I went to lower the volume and the remote was 'dead' .. just the room identifier was showing.. it would accept any house or mute button depress-ions. I went to my laptop and refreshed navigators and it came back. By then the customer was unimpressed!

I don't know where the hang up is, i.e. in the remote, in the link between it and the controller, in the controller, etc, etc... I'd like to know if C4 is looking into identifying where the hanging is occuring. Can C4 provide in the interim a means to push a button or combination of buttons to allow the remote to re-establish connection and coherency with the controller immediately. We know that issueing a Navigator refresh does the trick, but maybe there are ways to restore the remote's control without going back to Composer.

Thanks for our help and support.. marcel

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I've never had that problem occur before... strange... I've never had a remote fail / lock up - OTHER THEN when I first update the Director - then the remote takes a few moments (30 seconds sometimes) to respond after the HTC or MC has been rebooted. But that is the only time.

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Jim, HELP!

Can C4 provide in the interim a means to push a button or combination of buttons to allow the remote to re-establish connection and coherency with the controller immediately. We know that issueing a Navigator refresh does the trick, but maybe there are ways to restore the remote's control without going back to Composer.

Doesn't it do it If you hit red 4 button 4 times ?

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Not if the remote iself has dropped its zigbee connection, which I've had happen. I've got one that drops out NON-STOP. Requires a power cycle (remove battery) to get it to come back. I added another remote to the room, which performs quite nicely.

It's just another example of the sub-par quality control so many of us have seen from C4 so far.

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I was always told to "harass" the C4 button. I was never told how many times I should press it.

In our demo system we have 5 or 6 System Remotes. Most work fine all the time. I have one where I need to "harass" the C4 button to get it to work. Thats a little frustrating when all I wanted to do is adjust the volume.

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We've got 3 here and they all work great... plus the ones the customers have (which I've only had to RMA one of them for a bad LCD screen). Yes - I agree with quality of C4 product needs to be GREATLY improved, but it sounds like they're aware of it and are trying to improve it (after all - shipping replacements next day air is going to hurt the bottom dollar and investors don't like that!).

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I know you occasionally see the icon (is it an hourglass) in the upper right of the display but I think that what we need is a bit more feedback.

Sometimes the remote just doesn't do anything and you don't know whether it's out of contact with the controller or if it's just being slow, if you hit the 4 button 4 times and it still doesn't connect it needs to let you know.

I have begun to doubt the whole idea of zigbee. The biggest problem with all the c4 stuff seems to be responsiveness. Volume control is pretty unsteady no matter what you do (although that happens with minitouches over ethernet as well); controlling dimming remotely is problematic as well. Amp and tuners are supposed to be able to be zigbee or ethernet but nobody really thinks that using them on zigbee only is very wise, even when the're in the same rack with the controller.

If you begin to question zigbee though, you almost question the whole foundation of the Control4 system. When we do a single room system using an HTC to control a single theater system with maybe a couple of light loads this stuff is a dream. As we spread out through the house my discomfort spreads as well.

I am waiting for 1.3 to see if some of these responsiveness issues improve, if not I'm going to sort of back off a little on some of what started as sort of a 'Control4 Everywhere' sort of attitude

Paul

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I know you occasionally see the icon (is it an hourglass) in the upper right of the display but I think that what we need is a bit more feedback.

Sometimes the remote just doesn't do anything and you don't know whether it's out of contact with the controller or if it's just being slow, if you hit the 4 button 4 times and it still doesn't connect it needs to let you know.

I have begun to doubt the whole idea of zigbee. The biggest problem with all the c4 stuff seems to be responsiveness. Volume control is pretty unsteady no matter what you do (although that happens with minitouches over ethernet as well); controlling dimming remotely is problematic as well. Amp and tuners are supposed to be able to be zigbee or ethernet but nobody really thinks that using them on zigbee only is very wise, even when the're in the same rack with the controller.

If you begin to question zigbee though, you almost question the whole foundation of the Control4 system. When we do a single room system using an HTC to control a single theater system with maybe a couple of light loads this stuff is a dream. As we spread out through the house my discomfort spreads as well.

I am waiting for 1.3 to see if some of these responsiveness issues improve, if not I'm going to sort of back off a little on some of what started as sort of a 'Control4 Everywhere' sort of attitude

Paul

Pkey I understand your concerns. I think these are all software glitches that will be worked out. Zigbee is an extremely new technology and from what I've seen Control4 has done an amazing job with it. They are pioneering alot of it, and with any pioneer there are always bound to be bugs that when they are solved they will be forgotten about. The equipment will just work :)

Give it time.

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I was always told to "harass" the C4 button. I was never told how many times I should press it.

In our demo system we have 5 or 6 System Remotes. Most work fine all the time. I have one where I need to "harass" the C4 button to get it to work. Thats a little frustrating when all I wanted to do is adjust the volume.

Yesterday i watched connection manager - remote 9 feet from HTC, shows offline. 4 clicks on C4 button - it's now online. So - it works.

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Kirill

I have done it like that as well and it does not always work. One of my biggest problems is the poor design in the remote, I know that is the majority, but when one day it works flawless and the next day it doesnt it gets pretty annoying.

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Kirill

I have done it like that as well and it does not always work. One of my biggest problems is the poor design in the remote, I know that is the majority, but when one day it works flawless and the next day it doesnt it gets pretty annoying.

I agree. I don't think remote should loose connection in the first place.

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It only loses connection after a firmware update. Unfortunately it takes about 2-4 minutes to reconnect after you press the 4 button on the remote. Or any other button for that matter.

Hopefully in the future it will be faster.

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I was always told to "harass" the C4 button. I was never told how many times I should press it.

In our demo system we have 5 or 6 System Remotes. Most work fine all the time. I have one where I need to "harass" the C4 button to get it to work. Thats a little frustrating when all I wanted to do is adjust the volume.

Yesterday i watched connection manager - remote 9 feet from HTC' date=' shows offline. 4 clicks on C4 button - it's now online. So - it works.[/quote']

The down side to this... I failed to metion this before... is when you're playing a CD in that particular room. Then, lets say you need to adjust the volume. If the only way to get the remote to reconnect is to press the C4 button then that sucks. Because once it connects, it will then turn your display on and you lose your CD.

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Doesn't the remote go to sleep after awhile? I think that's why it loses connection. Possibly another way to revive it without getting the navigator on screen is to use the "Home" Button and change rooms to that room that you want to control (even if it's the same room it's already in).

Eric

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Just push the cancel button. This wakes up the remote and tells you what room it is currently controlling. If you can get metadata on the screen either by pushing house and looking at locations, browsing music, or anything else then it should be connected. Yes, it goes to sleep but it shouldn't lose where it's at. I've never had these problems.

The only time I've had to push the 4 button 4 times is when I have just upgraded firmware or the power has gone out. If your remote is always losing the controller then you need a new one. RMA that thing!

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The only time I've had to push the 4 button 4 times is when I have just upgraded firmware or the power has gone out. If your remote is always losing the controller then you need a new one. RMA that thing!

Just one more thing to try - when you do system update - make sure remote is connected or its not going to be updated.

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I haven't found it to be a problem - as when the remote wakes up - then detects it's idle - I've seen them do the upgrade then. Sometimes a few days later - but it still does it w/o any problems... at least that I've noticed.

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