Flyingforme Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I see a lot of posts asking questions about integrating other lighting into c4. I know it can be done and I'm sure once i try it i can get it to work. I am building a new house and am mostly curious as to what other lighting solutions there are that work well with C4 and that may get me more for my money than 10-15 control4 lights/ dimmers.Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacdx Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Why would you want to? I debated this a little but the only thing I found that was more attractive, at least for a retrofit, was Lutron Homeworks (some nicer controls, fan controls, etc)...but the cost was crazy compared to C4. I think you'd have a hard time beating the value of C4's lighting though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFUG Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Lots of posts? I would guess these are folks that moved into a situation that had exisiting "other-guy" lighting controls and the HO wanted to use Control4 by choice. I'm one of them. My sparky sold & installed RadioRA. I then put them up against some AMX systems after the fact. But, when it came to my own home, he didn't get the RadioRA sale from me. I went Control4 straight down the line. To each his own but if you have a choice, I'd be going brand-loyal with Control4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 The hard part is 'more for your money'.Control4 can control lighting by Vantage, Lutron, and LiteTouch, but none of them are less $$$ than Control4 (I believe all of them are considerably *more* $$$ than Control4).Where the 3rd-party lighting solutions win is when their form factor (external look and feel, typically) is preferred by designers and wives to Control4's look and feel. The complaint is usually that Control4's in-wall dimmers and keypads are not terribly elegant or customizeable. Lutron, for example, has hundreds of color options, or you can order them in your own custom color. They have options including brass, silver, aluminum, etc. faceplates. They have 'centralized' solutions, where you have no dimmers on the walls, they're all in the basement (must be hard-wired before construction), etc., etc., etc.Good Luck on your project.RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFUG Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Yeah, your right but I still never consulted with the wife on tactile feel or color palet of wall plates Maybe I'll give her a stainless steel, triple-gang wall plate for Valentine's Day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 ^Diamond plate....that'll score you some points =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyingforme Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 Wow! Thanks for the input guys!I wasn't sure if there was something else that would be less $ on the large scale 15+... I am happy with my control4 and intend to build my house around it but I'm not sold on Proprietary devices. For example: if the control 4 light switches could be controlled by another device somewhere down the road it would be more appealing. For my Distributed audio I am not going with control 4 product I am leaning towards a Nuvo Grand Concerto and the extra vegetables driver for 2way communication with the control4.And yes most of the posts I did find were.... "I bought a house and it already has...."As far as the wife goes.... she got to pick out her kitchen, she has no input on my audio/video.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Ahem... 15 devices does not really make for 'large scale'... You *can* control Control4 dimmers with another device down the road.Control4 comes out with new controllers all the time... Seriously, your concerns are certainly valid. Control4 dimmers *are*, however, HA-compliant dimmers, and the dimming functionality should be able to be controlled with a 3rd-party HA-compliant ZigBee controller. As of right now, there aren't all that many of them.Another option would be that you could keep a Control4 controller dedicated to running lights, and integrate it in with whatever you put in *after* Control4. This is really not much different than using a Lutron / Vantage system, as it has it's own dedicated controller.RyanEEdited to add: Another smiley face, as I was just joking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyingforme Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 Sorry let me clarify, I want to do the entire house which will be well over 15, more like 40-60, but it isn't cost effective at around $100 a switch.I like your last idea there of at the worst always having control 4 for lighting and integrate something else with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyingforme Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 Oh, and 40-60 lights would be large scale for me, I understand that in some markets that is a medium install. I've been installing C4 for a few years now and still have yet to install more than 4 lights in the same house. (kinda sad) As for my house this is all going in a 2100 sqft ranch. main floor finish only for now. i'm planning on the nuvo and possibly some sort of a component switcher 8x8 i'm thinking. I've considered the Cables to go 3x5 and doing 2 of them since i think i could live with 3 comp.vid. sources.Not sure, I need to keep this cost as low as possible but I WANT IT ALL!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdvr Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 So, you have been installing Control 4 for a "few years now", and with all your experience you decided to come to the public forum and ask how you can install lighting for less?As a installer of Control 4 did you not familiarize yourself with the competition?I think all installers of Control 4 would know the cheaper equiptment, x10 zwave etc. and know that they maybe "cheaper" in price, but come with their own problems.Just curious Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacdx Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Yeah, but who considers X10 as viable these days. That was my first home automation technology, and having lights come on randomly at 2AM even with power filters was enough to drive me away permanently. I'm shocked that crap is still around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyingforme Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 I've been installing not selling..... so no I did not take the time to familiarize myself with the competition in lighting. We won't install lighting anyhow, just program it into the C4.and yes i came to the public forums to see what others have seen and done. I'm hoping to not be installing for too much longer, that is one of the reasons i don't want a proprietary system and the main reason i haven't upgraded to 2.0, i can keep my copy of 1.8.2 when i quit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Just set your project up before you quit, fully updated on 2.0 and then get a copy of HE. You'll still have friends at the dealer that'll help you add a device or change a connection when needed. I thought I had a decent sized system, then I met a guy in my neighborhood. Over 550 zigbee devices, 16 controllers and something like 22 touch panels. Crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdvet30 Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Dan550 zigbee devices is impressive. Are they all C4 devices? If not, does C4 control them all? I am frustrated with the lack of third party devices I can use with Control4 (perhaps there is a list out there someone has compiled).I was hoping that going to Zigbee Pro 2.0 would open up my world to a plethora of non C4 devices that could be controlled Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Dan550 zigbee devices is impressive. Are they all C4 devices? If not, does C4 control them all? I am frustrated with the lack of third party devices I can use with Control4 (perhaps there is a list out there someone has compiled).I was hoping that going to Zigbee Pro 2.0 would open up my world to a plethora of non C4 devices that could be controlledWhat devices specifically disappoint you - lighting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Dan550 zigbee devices is impressive. Are they all C4 devices? If not, does C4 control them all? I am frustrated with the lack of third party devices I can use with Control4 (perhaps there is a list out there someone has compiled).I was hoping that going to Zigbee Pro 2.0 would open up my world to a plethora of non C4 devices that could be controlledWhat were you hoping to control? They're peru much all dimmers, switches, keypads, SR-250's and a few Card Access pieces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdvet30 Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 How about irrigation and landscape lighting controllers? How about more companies that make Card Access type products so we get some competition in the marketplace. How about making C4 plug & play with all Zigbee Pro certified devices. Just got off the phone with yet another company that has tried contacting C4 about 3rd party relationships - they never hear back. This company is simplehomenet and they have several Zigbee devices. For some reason C4 must think they must be the start and finish for non a/v hardware. Last summer I spoke with an irrigation control designer that has shipped devices to C4 for review - and after a year was still waiting to hear back. Apparently there is a place on the C4 website for third party product line managers to contact C4.....perhaps a black hole.I think as a company - instead of having programmers write GUI interfaces for 3rd party Zigbee devices - they figured they could get people to come up "Apps" and post them at the website. I call this the "cheap" approach. It also doesn't help the dealers at all (I am an end user). If C4 actually developed interfaces for more devices - dealers could earn money installing the devices and programming them!Interested in some of the devices certified by the Zigbee alliance? http://www.zigbee.org/Products/CertifiedProducts/ZigBeeSmartEnergy.aspxI can't tell which one of the products at this site interface with C4. It would be in the best interest of the customers if the C4 site identified every product that interfaced and gave the consumer tips on how to incorporate them into their homes....thereby helping the dealers stay busy and profitable! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chadburn Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 Hoping someone can help me on this topic...I installed an automation systems (Be@Home) that has since gone belly-up. I'm interested in Control4, but have invested heavily in a RadioRa system and would prefer not to have to replace it.I've seen some discussion (going way back) about RadioRa integration of Control4 with IR etc.... I'm wondering if there has been any progress or if someone could point me to ANYTHING that would help me.Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Do you have Ra2?Lutron made a Control4 driver for Ra2.2-way and everything.RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chadburn Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Hi RyanE,That is the issue.... I have been using my RadioRa system for about 8 years now and LOVE it... I've looked through these forums and there have been several discussions about RadioRa (including using an IR from C4 to the RadioRa system) but I haven't seen anything that just solves this problem... seems like there should be something out there... RadioRa was so prevalent and so many other automation controllers support it...c Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ms2bmw Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 My dealer is selling RA2 now and wants me to go down that route instead of C4. Its a bit more pricey than C4 lighting. I like the fact that you can still use all the light switches/keypads when control4 goes down. That to me is worth the extra $. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Your Controls dimmers and switches also all continue to work even if the controller goes down.I don't know much about Ra, unfortunately.RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chadburn Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 RyanE,Actually I'm looking to see if Control4 can control the RS232 interface to RadioRa... which it seems like others have done successfully. I don't need full access to every RadioRa device... just the interface and it's limited number of phantom buttons. Any assistance from the forum would be greatly appreciated.Chadburn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ms2bmw Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Your Controls dimmers and switches also all continue to work even if the controller goes down.I don't know much about Ra, unfortunately.RyanEIf you have a light that has 3 switches, As I understood it, control4 requires that one be a C4 switch and the other 2 as keypads. So are you saying that the two keypads will function as normal switches when the C4 controller goes down? My dealer is saying that with a RadioRA2 system, switches and keypads will operate normally if C4 goes down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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