RAV

You should wire any AUX switches as if they were manual 3ways. That way you could go manual. AUX still need neutral, ground and a 'traveler' or communication wire from their master. And many times the load is on one side and the feed on the other, the extra wire in the old school wiring way can get the load or feed to the KPD side as needed. In rooms, primarily I put KPD. If hidden, or a closet or there is already a KPD at a location and it's going to be a 2 gang or similar, then yes, an APD is specd.

As to the future and selling a home, I threw out my crystal ball years ago. There are many lighting systems today that could replace a Control4 without physcial wall intrusion. If you want to wire so that you can go back to manual, you can. You'll endup with a lot more wall clutter and 3ways and such. You would essentially wire for manual, than install Control4, as if it was a retro.

Code says you have to have a WAY to turn on the light.. A centralized system wouldn't be any different, the load is switched at the module, the keypad in the room switches the module. My recommendation is in places of safety, staircases, IF there was a problem with the processor, a AUX keypad wired to it's master would still function in that event. In a dining room where one keypad dimmer does the chandelier and the other the ceiling lights, either results in light to safely traverse the room.

Essentials: Switch, Forward Phase Dimmer, Outlet plug in Switch and a Outlet plug in dimmer. $85 MSRP Have it's own AUX switch for 3 ways. Ships in white: optional color kit for black, light almond, snow. NO Engravings One LED, blue only Slightly different look Requires OS 3.12+ Screw Terminals, not pigtail wires No snap off side heat sinks, fixed at width of dimmer Consume a little more power No secondary ZAP Coordinators allowed in project Plug ins have 2 receptacles, but both switch together as one load 120v

APD, KPD, SW - correct Aux keypads are for wired 3 or 4 way control. Where you want a physical way to switch the light. They wire directly to their master sw/dim. Use for stairways at least. A house should be liveable without programming, so for safety on stairs or the like, use a 3 way wired to a APD/KPD/SW. Aux keypads have no LED or backlighting. Cause they use a communication link not 120v. KC (keypad without load) are software programmed to do whatever. They can be used to fake a 3 way for a room, where one button is programmed to tell the master to turn on, BUT without the controller functioning, then it can't do anything! When programming KPD, you can set it so a button is physical, meaning, without the processor running, that button will still toggle the light. Laying it out. Put a KPD by every door/passage way, connect it to the most prime light in the room. If there's 2 entrys to a room, set the other KPD to do the next prime light. Outside doors, get 2 keypads, one for inside one for outside. Stairs, use an AUX on the other side, depending on location it might be a APD or KPD as master. Now what's left? Typically accent lights, and landscaping and fans. Ceiling fans get a fan controller, if compatible. Bath fans put a switch in the room or, hide. Other accent and landscape you can place at your discretion. Pantry's, coat closets, linen closets are practical, utility rooms for landscape, etc. Try to only have 4 in a hidden location. If you have a lot of accent and landscape than a panelized system should be considered. I like the top button to be a double height, and do the whole room. The next button down, the physical setup to do the prime light in the room. That way if aliens steal the processor, it's consistent to remember to use the same button on each keypad for the local room lights. And the larger top button, is a target for guests, press the big button for lights.

It's generational: Boomers - techless growing up, touch the stuff, still use physical media Gen X - grew up with remotes (and mice), use phones, but don't live in them Millennials - phone is life, but lots of introverts so talking is not big with them in any respect, it's not private Next Gen - voice, why not, first form of communication; I can't physically, Mom's busy, Alexa play ..... The aging in place boomer market is going to latch onto voice. As their mobility and dexterity decrease. Sure, it's still learning topday, but it's learning fast. Advice I received once: If you're going to do lighting control, it had better work. For a hundred years, you walk in a room, flip a switch and voila. That toggle switch works. 99.9% of the time, and when the light doesn't come on, first thought is the bulb, not the switch. That's hard reliability to match. However, someone restricted in a wheel chair, if you can provide him with a 80% solution, if they have to repeat a command once in a while, that's still amazing for them, because they had no ability before. Expectations.

Might want to hook up one of those Dots and see how it works before designing a system around voice. Voice is in it's infancy, it's like getting your dog to do something. Got to be specific, he has to know how to do it, needs training, and must be paying attention. And then maybe, he'll do what you ask. Voice control of music, easy is recall a favorite streaming station - that's preprogram stuff. Or, for dynamic, you need a product like Alexa or Google or Sonos that can respond to voice and search and that plugged into a matrix or similar. You still need to be specific with phrasing. You can have a couple echo's into a matrix, and use other dots to control that, but it's multiple commands and training.

I have more faith in Lutron Caseta than TP Link, long term. Twice the initial cost per switch. Pro bridge cost vs driver is almost a wash. But great Lutron quality vs TP Link, AND it's not 10 more things on your WiFi, and the Lutron Pico is a great remote for the cars.

It's NOT the roku, roku API (ok maybe a little) or the Control4 system that's prohibiting specific streaming cable channel selection (ie: CNBC). It's the streaming cable repackager (YouTube TV, Hulu Live, Xfinity, etc) that don't support it. Once one of them does, it will require Roku to update software, maybe they'll make a number remote, before they can be accessed through Control4. The ATT beta hardware and the Xfinity Flex hardware both have number button remotes; but zero API, and unlikely to have an API.

Try to ID it real close to the zigbee server it'll connect to.

ATT and Comcast will be the catalyst for direct channel access in streaming cable services. It will be their hook when the introduce their own 'little boxes' and remotes. See it's just like the big box, but smaller, same remote, etc. Since smart TVs will be Google etc primary target, and the vast majority of TV remotes still have numbers, it really wouldn't be difficult for them to implement. What we need is a TV brand to allow you to 'install' a default streaming cable services app, the way you pick a browser now. Then the old "TV" button on the remote would simply launch the chosen app, voila, watching TV like the old days without boxes. I wouldn't expect to EVER see streaming video services in a Contorl4 processor. Way too much support work for zero gain. Roku is so cheap, leave it separate.

https://sensibo.com/ with https://drivercentral.io/platforms/control4-drivers/climate-fan-fireplace/sensibo-control4-driver-chowmain/

No streaming cable TV service I'm aware of has direct channel access.

If I were to use it for the following, would I have to replace or upgrade anything? - Lights - Thermostats - Speakers No. That should all work once you resetup and make the network. And likely there will be audio sources already setup, use the touchscreen to pick a source, plug a phone etc into one input at a time on the amp, until you figure out which input is mapped to which source label on the pad. Plug your chromecast in, remember which 'source' on the keypad. System should work, short of having the wrong label.

If you want that level of control over your home system, then rip it all out. There's no sense going further. Control4 is dealer installed system, with end user adjust-ability. You'll need to establish a relationship with a dealer, or rip it out. There are a lot of threads here that discuss the reasoning and what not, so I'm not going to go into it. If you have a touchpanel with knob, that's old. And limits your system to 2.53 or earlier, which is before popular streaming services got added. The lightswitches talk zigbee to the processor, nothing to do with your home network. Want the popular streaming services, the touchpanel has to go. Want newest graphics and software the processor has to be upgraded. Presuming nothing is missing, hooking up the network, and the system should mostly function, mostly will be relating to music sources. Ditch the touchpanel, upgrade the software, two to three hours for a dealer to get you in a good place. Pickup a used Infinity Edge touchpanel on ebay for a hundred or so if you desire.

Do you have Control4 lighting and thermostats already? (Or for that matter, smart controllable lighting and thermostats, they may be another brand but compatible) Using Cat5 for speaker will affect sound quality, even pairs combined are only about 21awg. it's safe unless you put very large amounts of power through it, heating it to a point of failure. Usually gets used when they forgot a room, or hadn't planned, or it was a takeover from another audio system and that's all there was. From your photo, that's probably a C4-8AMP1-B. 4 input, 4 rooms. A HC250 would have upto 2 audio outputs available, one as an 1/8" jack, the other in the HDMI and require a breakout box. So you could connect typical rca or digital audio devices to it. (Dealer required to make changes) The controller is as much as 8 years old, and can run upto 2.10.6 (last before the change), so it's still useful. Hook them both to a switch, if they're DHCP, stuff should start working as was, not sure what other stuff you have. You'll need a dealer to add/change audio inputs, adjust streaming music accounts (Pandora etc) and the like. If they're static, a dealer would be required to change their IPs.

There is no "activation" fees, or monthlies, only a yearly $100 for remote access, called 4sight. On top of that the software as mentioned already. If it was a previously installed system, than it would still function as before, short of whatever the tenant took with them. Also, as Control4 is heavy in network communications, the status of networking will affect how functional the left system is. Just missing a modem, no big deal, modem router and switch gone, bigger deal if the current equipment was setup with static IPs. So you'll need to asses what you have, and what they took. If all they took was personal stuff like TVs and Sources, you'll need a dealer for a couple of hours to help integrate your TVs and sources and orientate you to the system. If they took processors and the like, router and switches, then depends on what was the value of what was left behind whether you continue or start over. Know that Control4 recently made a turning point with their newest software release. Older processors and touchpanels still work, but are left at a slightly older version. So if the equipment was several years old, it was less valuable to the previous tenant to take it with them. For more guidance from the group, it would help to have model numbers and counts.

Ron want's what he wants, there's nothing wrong with that. Crestron, RTI and URC are available options. It's great to be loyal and spokesman for the brand, but it does have UI limitations, and for those that want custom to their specifications Control4 is not the right solution. Some folks want fighter pilot design where they have control over every function possible. Other folks just want to start it up and let it go.

ANY dealer can sell it to you. It's a license that gets added to your account, the same way 4sight is done.

Control4 is programmed with Software called Composer. The Pro version is what dealers use, not available to end users. There is a Home Edition (HE) for end users. One time minimal fee. HE has limits, somewhat to avoid accidentally deleting the wrong thing. With HE the user can not add new devices to the system, or delete them, or rename them. Connections are how the audio video is routed, if you wanted to move your blu-ray from the DVD input on a receiver to the Video 4 jack, that requires dealer assistance. There was another version called ME, which was media edition. It was free, but only used to work with the music library portion. It's gone, but you may hear it referenced. (Its included in HE) So you can tweak things, program actions yourself, but you'll still need a dealer to add devices and some basic setup. Control4 is NOT intended to be DIY. Also, there is a portal for client to use. Control access to the system, so you can control if your dealer can remotely support your system, and also add users for the App and such. Recently Control4 added simple when/then programming abilities in the portal.

And timers, maybe 3 seconds long, at least as long as a full ramp up/down takes. When light level of A changes, start timer B. When timer B expires set light B to level of A When light level of B changes, start timer A. When timer A expires set light A to level of B

If your EA5 is in the center of a mesh, add CA1 or EA1 in the center of the rest and split in half as most practical based on environment. If your EA5 is in a rack, in the basement or other non central location, and/or running a lot of music; then add two CA1 or EA1 and move all zigbee off the EA5.

From Best Practices: Zigbee server should be in the center of it's mesh. Don't put it in a rack without an antenna AND racks are rarely in the center of a mesh, nor within 15' of an AP. Don't use multiple ZAPs unless absolutely require roaming remotes or large light scenes that must activate in time every time. IF multiple ZAPs, then each must be in proper radio range of the Zigbee server, don't stick them at the edge of a mesh. Use channels 15, 20 or 25 for zigbee relative to your 1, 6, 11 for WiFi, separate best possible. Don't have overlapping adjacent mesh on the same channel. Under 70 devices(nodes) per Zigbee server (ZAPS don't increase that number, servers do). If over 500 devices in a project, then ratio changes to under 50 per server. 5 meters between devices is recommended range, max 9 meters, it's environment dependent. End nodes are battery powered devices, including thermostats, they don't repeat/route signals, (and in my experience prefer, most reliable/responsive, if direct to a processor) Each mesh (server) can only support 32 end nodes. Each routing node (switches/keypads) can support 16 end nodes, or only 6 if Gen 1 lighting. CA10 should run director, someone else should run zigbee server. If only doing zigbee a 1 is as good as any other processor, so its about total processing requirements of the processor as to music, control, rs232 etc, as to which model should be selected. edit addition: Only channel 25 is outside of the WiFi range, BUT do to FCC (I think) it's also less powerful than the other channels.

There is a temperature driver to show the Z2IO in Navigators. Typically you would program the activate temperature in composer, if greater than x then turn on switch. If temp is less than y, start timer 5 minutes, timer expires turn off switch. (Timer to give sufficient time so doesn't immediately retrigger.) No easy way to adjust x or y from navigator. Or you could pickup a Gen 1 thermostat cheap. Run with a 24ac supply wart. Stick that in the cabinet. Then you can see the temp at the cabinet if you want, get a full display in navigator and use the setpoints to activate your programming as you request. When cooling activated turn on switch. When cooling deactivated turn off switch.

Yup.