therockhr

You are in a tough spot. With the age of your Control4 equipment you are certainly at a point where you could switch to something else but it sort of looks like your equipment is centrally located so you are going to need some kind of control system to control your AV gear and there aren’t really any DIY options outside an IR repeater. It may be worth contacting a remote dealer to get everything working while you do some research and what you want to do moving forward.

No there is not a room limit

These recommendations aren’t “technical” though. Devices can mean lots of things. CORE 1 and 3 have the same processing power. A core 1 can handle just the same as a core 3. It’s the audio and IO that are the determining factors on what to choose.

If you only need 1 stream of audio and your audio matrix supports an input of digital coax then you could just use a CORE1. Also depends on how many IO you need. There is no difference between the CORE 1 and 3 in terms of processing power.

How many streams of audio do you need? That will be the deciding factor.

The decision comes down so much on how you have your system designed. If you are using the C4 controllers for the built in audio, IO and the on screen display then you will definitely want the CORE5. The built in audio is definitely the biggest thing to consider. if you don’t use the built in audio, use something like Lutron for lighting and don’t care about the OSD, you would be surprised how much just an EA1 could do. Also if you don’t want to buy used then you for sure should just buy a core.

Thanks for the info. That cleared it up.

Not cheap but not dumb expensive either, at least for the regular Halo. I know different strokes for different folks but I just dont get the need for a touchscreen handheld remote. The whole appeal of a handheld remote is that you can look at your screen without looking down at the remote. This is why using your phone as a remote stinks. The new Halo seems to be the best compromise I have seen. Nice screen to view things if needed but its not a touch screen. If they get the voice passthrough for Dish network and/or Roku working on this I will definitely pick up one.

What is Android being used for then if not for the OSD? is it only on HC800? Sorry. I am a little confused by "The HC800 can not run an OS3.x Navigator. Android sucks up a lot of resources."

Thanks for the info. Is Android on the controllers only for the on screen display? If you all were looking to sunset something, the OSD seems a good one to go after especially with those new Halo remotes.

I remember the guy with the goatee on here who said he worked for control4 said that the HC800 was more powerful than the EA5 if you were just running a project and not using the integrated audio. Don’t know if that is true but both controllers use an intel atom processor.

I’ve noticed they are showing off the appletv integration in videos. Have they made changes with that for the Halo? I have never actually saw the problems with appletv that others on here have had with the official driver. Mine has never missed a beat since I started using it.

Ok I will eat some crow here... Just got on my IO extender (v1) and looked around since no one would say what processor was in there. Looks like its an ARM based processor as opposed to the intel based processors that the HC800 uses. I assumed that the IO extender used the intel processor as well (I assume the v2 IO extender has an ARM processor as well). With that being the case, it makes more sense to go ahead and EOL that line of intel processors. Could it technically be kept alive for IO only? Of course, but it doesnt make sense to keep that intel based systems around just for that (even though the EA controllers are all Intel Atom based as well). Edit: it looks like the HC-250 is ARM based and not Intel. The HC-250 is probably very similar in architecture as the IO extender. Go figure.

What processor and OS is the IO extender running (v1 and v2)?

This is something I would kind of like to start a new thread on but I wonder what you all think the biggest thing that has happened in the past 14 years for HA? For me its easy; the introduction of the smartphone. Streaming audio is probably 2nd but by a wide margin to the smartphone. The smartphone gave way to better and more standard UI's than the previous "roll your own" custom UI's that were built for every project and were only accessible on custom touchscreens. Control4 really made a name for itself when it was able to roll out a smartphone app better than the rest because they didnt rely on the custom UIs that others had. Their proxy design was ahead of its time. This gave them a huge advantage that others have now finally been able to equal (not top). I know that HA controllers are doing some more advanced integrations than they used to but in a way they are still doing the same thing they were 14-15 years ago. Still turning on/off TV's and AV equipment (streaming audio control is newish though), controlling lights/alarms/thermostats/relays/sensors. This was being done back then as well and probably with the same technology for the most part (definitely more 2 way integrations and feedback than there was back then). Yes I know I am over simplifying it but being able to pull out your smartphone and control your HA system from anywhere has been the biggest evolution of HA by far.

just to be transparent though, industrial control systems have also known to kill of products as well. I remember years ago when siemens bought Moore controls and at their user conference gave some presentation where they were going to "merge" the moore apacs system into siemens pcs. well that "merge" was to replace everything with siemens hardware. people were ready to riot. look, i get the reasons for them to EOL the HC line. they are past due to stop being a main controller (i wouldnt have put the HC800 on 3.3). my only point was that i thought it made sense to repurpose those controllers as dumb IO only devices. for one, it is a way to keep users in the control4 ecosystem. if someone has an HC800 and it needs replaced then they might be thinking its time to look at Savant, Crestron, etc. If a dealer could keep that HC800 in there and just add a CORE 1 on top then they can keep them locked in. But as someone said earlier, it is probably just as easy to pay 100 bucks for a used IO extender and get rid of the HC800. and i dont even have a HC800. I have an EA-1 and IO extender. The IO extender is only controlling 1 TV and alarm panel via serial and 3 garage doors. used to control 3 TV's. so it is getting less and less use.

I’m just glad this isn’t the only place to get c4 info anymore. And yeah, the HC line was very good.

Really? You don’t think the employees at Control4 could turn the HC line into dumb IO devices? Well unlike you, I believe they have enough talented people to do that.

That’s the point I’m trying to make; if they turned the HC line into just dumb devices they wouldn’t need to provide updates or support. It would just run and control IO like IO extenders or really like an old Siemens PLC does. Do you think they are providing updates for the IO extender? If you were adding a new line to an existing plant you wouldn’t add a new Siemens 505 PLC as the backend to a new PCS. You would add the latest S7 PLC but you also wouldn’t scrap the existing 505’s. You would keep those and integrate them into the new Siemens PCS. I hate analogies because every industry is different but I do get tired of always just hearing about Apple where it is common to update every 3-4 years. And to repeat myself again, the hc800 has had a long life as the main controller. I just don’t see why it has to end up in the trash heap when with a little work they could make it a dumb device that they wouldn’t have to keep updating.

What’s your point?

Unless it’s Honeywell you aren’t paying m&s to Siemens or Rockwell (Allen Bradley) directly. You are going through a distributor just like you do with Control4 (you don’t pay Snap/Control4 directly either). You also don’t have to have m&s either for the products to still work. You may have to pay for an upgrade but you don’t have to keep paying every year.

Good to hear. Hope to see more (Roku and Dish Hopper/Google).

Some do some dont. The Honeywell controllers from the 80s still get updates. They almost all though are still able to be used with modern systems without updates. I'm not saying control4 should do that. Im just saying when people throw out these analogies with iphones and computers there is another side as well.

i believe you are correct. No disagreeing on any of that.

Good catch. I guess I was assuming that they were just going to leave it as is.