zaphod

Can you get devices like the Kill a watt that can wirelessly or use powerline networking to transmit data back to hub. That would be very useful if the per plug cost was reasonable.

Nice burn Dan!

Especially when I can buy a Raspberry Pi Zero W for $10 that has all the functionality that you would ever need to act as an interface. Companies like Pentair and Jandy/Zodiac need to start creating a basic standard that allows their devices to communicate to the rest of the world and stop trying to screw their customers out of $500-$1000 for a smartphone interface. Why is this any harder to do then something like a $15 Wifi LED controller that let's me control lights and change colors? Why can't the pool companies integrate the same types of I/O in their products.

Why is pool integration always so hard, so expensive and so incomplete? The last time I looked into this it would cost between $500-$1000 to get my pool system connected and it wouldn't allow me to control my Salt Water Chlorine Generator (SWCG) nor would it give me the status from the SWCG such as salt level, Flow on/off, etc.

Maybe not. Mine is like this and has an RF cheap remote. https://www.amazon.ca/ALOTOA-Changing-Security-Waterproof-Landscape/dp/B06X6H8X91 I was thinking dumb in the context of light strips where they dumb ones are just controlled by voltage and aren't individually addressable unlike something like Pixels where one of the lines is a digital signal. I wonder if something else, controllable from C4 or a PC, could send out the same RF signal as the remote?

What type of dumb RGBW and how are the lights controlled? I have one of these dumb ones and as far as I can tell it can only be controlled via a remote control which seems to be an RF remote.

How are folks using this driver? Is it being used to allow you to use HomeKit and Siri to control C4 devices in your C4 system? Or are people using it to allow C4 to control devices that are supported in HomeKit/HomeBridge but which aren't supported in C4? If it is the latter then I am thinking that this could be useful to allow me to control certain types of lights/lighting controllers that aren't supported in C4. And what about devices, like Hue bulbs, that aren't native C4 devices? Does it make sense to install the drivers for C4 or for HomeKit or both? Or does it matter?

Hi Joshua - whats the current status of this? I have a spare Pi3 - how do I get started? Do you have README or instructions posted somewhere? edit - And add me to the list of those that want a Docker version as I have an unRAID server that would be ideal for this.

There are a few other options as well. For the most part the strips are fairly generic - any controller can control any strip. The most popular RGB strips are called 5050 as the LEDs are 5mmx5mm. So you can use the cheapo $5 (or less) IR controller that Alan mentioned or more expensive controllers. There are some wifi controllers that cost about $15 that allow you to use the Magic Home app (or a command line) to control the lights. You could integrate these into C4 - I use Alan's Generic TCP driver to do so but it also requires running a web server on a RPi to handle the commands. My favourite option, although it is a little more pricey, is to use the Dresden Elektronik controllers. These are available on Amazon for about $50. These require a Philips Hue hub but you may already have one of those. Then you can just use the Philips Hue app, or one of the C4 Hue drivers to control your lights. You can also buy an official Philips Hue strip but it costs about $90 for a 2m strip. With the Dresden and generic strips you could get about 15m of strip for the same price. Note that you only need one controller for each colour zone that you want to have. You can generally drive 15-30ft per controller but you can get inexpensive amplifiers to fun an infinite length together. But you will need to run 12V DC power to the amplifiers every 15-30 ft depending on the strips that you use.

I am doing something similar - RGB LED strips along my pool fence and deck. I am just using the generic 5050 strips where you have to have the whole strip on one colour. I am using Dresden Elektronik controllers that make the strips appear as Hue devices.

I am in GTA as well. For irrigation I have had an Irrigation Caddy for several years but it isn't integrated into C4 but that isn't a big deal as the app is fine for the handful of times you need to access it. For landscaped lighting I use lots of light strips and I like the Dresden Elektronik ballast as it shows up in your system as a Hue light so you can control on/off and colours. I have Baldwin locks but I don't have my sliding doors on electronic locks and these are the bulk of my external doors. Other things to potentially integrate are gas fireplaces and blinds.

Can iAqualink get readings from and control a Jandy Aquapure 1400?

Exactly what controls are available? Can you also control your salt water chlorine generator, if you have one, from the apps or C4? I hope things have changed but whenever I revisit this the cost of automating your pool system is (a) ridiculously expensive, and (b) limited in its functionality.

Were you ever able to buy a Pi Zero - it seemed like vaporware to me as they were never available unless you wanted to pay $20 shipping? Hopefully they actually make a lot more of the Pi ZeroWs. The fact that a Pi ZeroW can cost $10 makes you wonder about how much you pay for some C4 devices which could be easily hacked together from a Pi Zero and a dollar or two worth of other hardware. Like the contact sensors/relays for example which are $150 or so.

Cool, I may try this when I get some bandwidth. I already use the Echo Dot driver and find that to be a huge enhancement to the system. I assume the image is for the Rpi 3? I have a couple of spare RPi3s sitting around.

Can you roll-your-own Homebridge hub using something like an Raspberry Pi?

Don't speak for everyone - I am guessing that some of the folks that want ComposerPro know way more than most C4 dealers about networking. My first dealer was an electrician who wasn't that well versed in computers and networking.

But in the past it appears that they would not allow the app to connect to a Controller if there was no wifi connection.

Faster upload speeds are beneficial if you use services like Backblaze or Crashplan to backup your data to the cloud. It is always nice to have faster download speeds when you are downloading large files like movies, games, Xbox updates, etc. And with my ISP with their higher speed plans you get unlimited data which is important since we average around 600GB/month with the kids doing lots of streaming on Netflix and Youtube.

Thanks, I don't have problems with the CLI, I had to SSH into my Unifi APs to reset them when I upgraded my controller this past weekend.

Getting a little OT here but does anyone know if the prosumer Ubiquiti routers (like Edgerouter X) can: (1) handle 1Gbps WAN-LAN throughput and (2) run OpenVPN server? My current router is an Asus RT-N66u running Merlin firmware. I run OpenVPN server on the router which is very convenient for VPNing into my network, especially for products like Control4 as it saves you $100/yr. My internet service is rated at 250/20 but speedtests at 320/22. But my ISP now offers 1000/50 service and I may upgrade to that but there is no point if your router can't handle those speeds. I was setting up an old PC to run pfSense but a Ubiquiti may make more sense and should integrate nicely into my network as I have the Unifi APs and am running the controller software.

I just upgraded from an older version of the Unifi Controller to 5.4.9 and you can now do this on a AP by AP basis. My old version was something like 3.2.7 and there it was only a global setting. There is also a docker container for the Controller which works well on my unRAID server.

My understanding is that this is a global option - you can't do it AP by AP. This may not be the ideal driver to do this but if a customer has many APs in their house you might be able to do in-house geolocation as I can see in the Ubiquiti Controller software when a user hands off from one AP to another.

I have taken the HC-300 apart and two of the larger capacitor that are close to the DC connector have bulges so I guess this could mean capacitor plague. The PS is made by Dongah and has a date of 2008-08-30. And to answer my own question, yes, you can just wire it up to the 5V line of a PC power supply. I did that and the controller came to life. Next step is to buy a power supply. Mouser doesn't have them but Allied does.