ILoveControl

Looking forward to the update and agree with @Dunamivora if it has any of the "under the hood" improvements like what they did for the updated C4 app speed then I would be all in. 

For me not to interested in the new controllers the EA5's are doing a great job in my house. More interested in the integration of other devices into the system, the power of the system is with this not with propitiatory kit that everyone loves to hate.  Maybe the CA-10's are aimed at the commercial installs.

Given that the 2n Verso IP (aka, C4 Door station) is  such a complicated bit of kit and horrendously expensive (see my comments below) I am wondering with the intercom opening up to "normal" door stations, starts to show a move away from the 2n devices. I would of loved to see remotes tbh. As much as I love my T3's (well love is a strong word as they frustrate the @#@ out of me some times), I want something nice I can just pick up and use. The SR260 has been that for years but it almost feels like I am using a IBM Mainframe with xTerm each time to use a state of the art system .....

*Door station rant - is relevant to this post since they opening up intercom to other door stations* 

The C4 door station is an incredible bit of kit it really is, the actual features that it provides even if they not integrated into C4 is insane. The modules you get to add on to it are endless and frankly just sooooooooooo cool, I just bought the RFID tag and the touchscreen for it.

Here is where my hate comes in for it:

1. Support is sh1tty typical talk to your dealer (from 2n). You talk to a dealer its all software layer even if you know you have a hardware issue (in my case I was stupid and snapped off the connector that connects the keypad to the main board). The solution for the hardware issue is send it back to us and after 1 million weeks you will get it back. Mean while you install a $15 door bell and get use to it.

2. The main components (yes I did open it all up) are really top notch what you would expect from a $1700 bit of kit, and then they go use like 0.1c connectors they really crappy I am not saying that because I snapped it, I am saying that cause I love building my own electronics and know you can buy the 0.1c connector or the $10 connector or the $5000 connector. In this case even the $10 connector I would of rather paid for. 

I have eventually got mine back up and running on my own accord (yes I know warentee is gone etc but tbh warentee is sh1t starting off). I learnt every little bit of this thing what each track on the board does, what each capacitor, diode, resistor etc does. Was a great learning and now I can fix them

In relation to the intercom app being updated

Great move by C4 to open it up to other door bells I think 90% of the user base would use and be more than happy from normal doorbells i.e. ring type functionality. It also opens up a great niche for driver developers to integrate these doorbells into the system.

Would I still buy a DS2 - yes simply because I like gadgets

1 hour ago, chiAVguy said:

Neeo remote appears in composer express. Not in composer though. So it’s coming. 

Goood catch I thought I was dreaming .....

Thank you - EA5's with C4 3.0 and yes have about 8 T3's. Thank you for the direction of the navigation agent. Will try that tonight.

Hi all,

Been digging around with the programming a bit and found a clunky way to do this but was wondering what all you experts do for this. When someone rings my door bell wanted to open the navigator (OSD) with the camera. Lets leave out that I have a DS2 for now....

You order them like any other source in composer and refresh navs

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Hi all,

Trying to figure out of there is a way one can sort the cameras on the navigators. Reason added cameras and been testing but as I get the camera feeds as close to possible the way they show in the navigators is all wrong i.e. cam1 and cam2 cover left and right of a area but the one is first and the other is last on the navigators which means I have to scroll would like to bring cam1 and cam2 on the same line i.e. First and second.

@dcovach My opinion is BI is used by million of users. I think if C4 is up to it we should work with them to improve the lacking ( don’t want to use poor as I want to be positive here), implementation of cameras in the navigators. 

I feel that we have done every bit of testing possible on the client. It would really need C4 to step in now and help us. 

I know for one I would be up to supplying tech support with whatever logs etc they need. 
 

@LollerAgent indeed BI can expose any resolution that the camera can support and that the client (your interface) can view. My cameras I can use VLC or a browser to view full 2868 x 1xxx ( cant remember the second number). The image is crystal clear and the streaming it perfect from BI.

@dirtyceo I honestly do not think this is a BI issue as all other interfaces work. Chasing other interfaces will yield the same result. 

Ok so done extensive testing. 

BlueIris:

1. Works on all interfaces with all links that are applicable i.e. Snapshot, MJPEG, H264 and cameras that support H265
   1. i.e. VLC
   2. i.e. Link in any browser

ispy (like Blue Iris)

1. Works perfectly on all the interfaces as above (BI)
2. Doesn't work at all generic driver
3. Doesn't work of course in BI driver.

Control4:

1. The Generic driver - doesn't work. However I think its an issue of how the driver builds the URL 
2. The BlueIris driver - Works as we have been describing. 

My View:

1. It is a driver issue
   1. Why
      1. It is either mincing up the URL or using the wrong URL
         1. Due to updates to Bl

If all other interfaces work this points to BI. Unless we get a new driver that is well built and we can specify the URL we want to use and all it does is:

1. Uses the interface to specify the ip, port username and password. 
2. Then allows us to specify which link for which type of view
   1. Then doesnt mash up the URL
   2. Shows us the URL it is creating (not like the BI driver - have NO idea why they encrypted the URL, this would of helped us trouble shoot better)
      1. Any dealer know the driver manufacture maybe he can update and unlock those fields
3. Supports all the protocols -
   1. Snapshot url (then you could use these as well in the notification driver, the BI driver does not expose this)
   2. MJPEG
   3. H264
   4. H265 (for cameras or BI) that supports this.

For reference there is the URL's that I managed to get that the blueiris driver uses:

2 hours ago, alanchow said:

Not zigbee but my personal favorite is the KP200 as it just looks like any other outlet.  No smart plug here!

https://www.kasasmart.com/us/products/smart-plugs/kasa-smart-wifi-power-outlet-kp200

The question is for the 240v guys do they have a version for that to

Maybe a simple question but is there a variable that one can use to get specific times? What I am trying to do is run a specific announcement based on a door opening (contact) but only between specific times?

I have the "Attach Snapshot from a camera enabled" and it works well but there two questions

1. In iOS the notification does pop up in the notification menu, if you select it, it opens up C4 iOS app but doesn't show anything.... was wondering if it was suppose to.
2. I wanted to check what the camera requires to popup in the notification menu for snapshot URL. I have four out of 12 cameras that have this option so I was wondering what the differentiation was 
   1. The cameras that do is Wyze with @alanchow
   2. The cameras with the BlueIris driver, these don't show up for a snapshot URL in the notfications selection

The snapshot url in the test works. Not sure if there was suppose to be a variable exposed so the notfications could use it or not.

I went back to announcement and tried again and then it worked ....

When I see the behavior above is if I try "execute" the announcement to many times after another. I don't just do this for fun I do it as I am adjusting sound etc and testing.

Ok SCP is open on the controller, interesting on /mnt/mediashare/announcements the files are all there, so not to sure what the controller is doing with that error message.

Just now, Dunamivora said:

Wouldn't matter about the other controllers. If you watch the network traffic during an announcement, all devices playing it load the file from the primary controller every time.

If composer doesn't work, I believe you can drop the files directly into the announcements folder that is available in the SMB server of the primary controller.

OK cool let me try and open a SCP or SFTP connection to it. I am sure there is something available as you can SSH to it

Just now, Dunamivora said:

What Windows OS and what Control4 version?

If Win 10 and OS3, then you need to make sure Windows 10 has 'insecure guest logons' enabled in the SMB settings. Then make sure the network is set to private.

If Win 7, I'd update to Win 10, but as far as connecting with Composer for SMB, Windows 7 is completely fine.

Thanks for the reply. 

Yes:

1. OS - Windows 10
2. C4 - 3.0

I will go check that setting out (think I have that enabled for my other linux environments but let me go check that)

The other option  is I could (if the port is open) SCP or SFTP onto the control4 controller and  upload the file just wouldn't know where to and if it would replicate to the other controllers on the network.

Thank you. 

Hi all,

Wanted to setup announcements in my project. It is pretty simple to set these up. The one thing that always fails is if I try add a audio file to the announcement. I get an error saying the the file cannot be is not available (see pic below).

What I have tried:

1. I have removed and re-added the announcements agent
2. This has worked now once or twice when I have tested it. However I go and change something like the volume level etc then execute then I get the error. Uhhh but the audio file was there a while ago?

Would appreciate the help - system is on 3.0. Not to sure if this is a Windows and C4 issue with SMB or if this is some other issue?

Ok quick feedback Unifi Protect (their NVR) only works with Unifi camera's not surprised but never set it up so thought I would test it. Going to download ispy (I have a license for it bought it a while ago) will add just one camera for testing purposes.

@dcovach thank you for the link downloaded and will add to the tests

Thank you will do the testing today and revert. Just a note while we trouble shooting.

My wyze cameras with the dfang custom firmware work perfectly. The driver (from chowmain) talk directly to the cam stream not via BI.


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I am starting to think its got to do with the following, unfortunately its something C4 either has to advise or fix.

Advise: how each navigator works or what stream it needs. So driver vendors can adapt or change drivers.

Fix:

It seems like different OS have different requirements and could be how they interpret streams.

Example:

iOS all works as expected.

Same config on Android we experience the issue we currently have. Given the T3s are just a distro of Android its having the same issue.

If you remove all the different factors tested on Android devices:

Multiple drivers tested - same result

Configs on BI almost all exhausted - same result

Some OS work - iOS for example ( I am running the beta)

Blueiris mobile app works as expected

Blueiris web works as expected

Blueiris app works as expected

So unless we figure something out which unfortunately I doubt given the type of issue, I would hope C4 will sort this out.

I have the latest unifi NVR going to add a stream or two there and test. I cant find the generic camera driver can anyone post which one it is?



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Ok to get around the GStreamer issue (I had the same issue and posted the issue and fix two day ago) go to BI settings for BI not for a camera. Then go to users tab and enable the anonymous account. While I hate doing this with a passion it worked. Looks like it needs it and all the tests pass:) I still get static full pics on Android. Going to poke around now

Ok found the Android beta installed C4 3.0 beta for Android. Tested it - same issue. Weird it works on iOS beta and not on Android Beta...


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The Houselogix Blue Iris driver works.  I can see a live feed properly.  The same camera using the C4 native driver does not work, meaning I only get a static image.  No live feed. 

The Houselogix driver allows you to select which encoder stream to use in a drop down (plus a lot of other settings and feature).  The H264 stream in the drop down down doesn't display properly on a T3 (diagonal lines across the screen), but Encoder Stream  0, 1, and 2 display a live feed properly (as expected) because I set those to work within C4 recommended settings.

Hopefully its an easy fix for the C4 native drivers to work properly soon.  I'm not sure if its possible to buy a licence for the Houselogix version anymore.

Well as per above I just noticed the same outcome as dirtyceo. Now I am running the C4 3.0 beta for the iOS devices .... maybe they fixed it in the beta?

Someone did say the Android version is freely available but could t remember where otherwise I would install it and see if it is something they fixed.

The dfang driver works on all platforms ios C4 beta as well as stick c4 3.0 for Android

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Well here is something interesting not to sure if this is your situation or not. I use iOS alot in the house and this works in the scenario we discussing. Gave my domestic worker a samsung galaxy s3 (tablet) I tried it out now .... guess what confirm the images in “full view” are static .... on my iOS devices they fluid as per expectation.

Now the kicker went to check my T3 devices and they static in full view to never noticed as I re did my BI server last week.

It is def BI driver this is why. I have four Wyze cameras I just bought. I am using Alans Dfang / wyze driver. This stream works on all os’s and devices. These 4 cams don’t go through BI at the moment.

Which narrows it down to two things either BI itself or the BI driver. Going to do some more testing tonight as now you provoked my OCD




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I was able to successfully load the live feed in VLC.  It's the same URL that C4 is doing via the "Get H.264 URL".  Is there a way to force C4 to use the MPEG stream and not the H264 stream?  After reading your stream writeup, I'm still not able to get the live video to work on the the navigator and T3 devices.

ILoveControl - thanks so much for your insights. I'll look into these further today.  To your question, I get the thumbnails working just fine.  When I click into the thumbnail, I get a static picture, not live video of the actual camera.  I'm able to get the thumbnails to refresh.  I have the "Snapshot Refresh Rate" set to 1 second; however, it looks like the thumbnail actually refreshes every 10 seconds despite the 1 second setting.