jfh

Played around with the Chime (PoE) today.  I’m not going to install it outside until the mounting accessory kit is available so for testing and getting the programming ready it’s in my office.

Initial impressions - this is going to displace Ring and other video doorbells in C4 households.  Video quality is very good even at the lower resolution defaults and sound quality during intercom calls between the Chine and T3 is light years above the Ring Elite (also PoE).  Still some delay and audio is not perfect but you can reasonably have a conversation with someone at the door.  I have not tested response remotely via 4Sight yet but I don’t use that for cameras often.  My wife was impressed with the audio/video improvement over Ring and WAF is always important.  
Also looks nicer than I expected.

You lose some interesting functions the Ring has, but I think the response time in actually answering the doorbell press, direct integration with C4 and the new history function will be worth the trade offs.  Establishing a video chat session on a doorbell press seems to be slightly over 2 seconds and an intercom session from a wireless T3 slightly faster.  The Chime will definitely sell T3/T4s.  Haven’t tested sessions from a wired T3 yet.  And a big plus for not having to use another external ap for looking at the doorbell view which can now be on the camera screen with the other cameras.

I still need to test motion and zones and configure the Chime to work with my LUMA 510 but just knowing I will be able to record locally instead of having the separate sub for the Ring cloud is exciting.  Being able to show snapshots or video clips in the history screen is awesome.  I think I like video better but will have to extend the default clip duration.   
 

I will miss the Ring Chime unit though.  Don’t know if there is a comparable C4 device.  I don’t / won’t have an external doorbell chime hooked up and would like to have a similar device to augment announcements played over the in ceiling speakers.
 

So far my biggest gripe is that there is no way to programmatically force the camera into day (color) or low-light (b/w) mode.  The camera seems to aggressively force the camera into b/w mode even when there is more than enough ambient light.  There needs to be two additional device specific commands and a way to determine what mode the camera is in.  I would also like to see a way to record video without a button press (could be there, but not obvious).   And C4 gets points deducted for not having any of the mounting accessories available at release.

I’m playing around with a Chime PoE before trying to mount it outside.  Haven’t done much but I love the picture quality.  Local intercom session starts very quickly.
 

Can anyone tell me what the API password is used for?   I reset it thinking it was something else and wondering if that will mess something up.
How do I get video to record on a LUMA 510 NVR?

Haven’t played around with motion detection yet.  Supposed to have 5 zones but can’t see where/how they are configured.

This looks like it could be a very useful device.

Note that the accessories (single gang cover and angle mounting wedges) are not available until late November

1 minute ago, RyanE said:

Sounds to me like it could be a hardware issue.

You may need to get your dealer involved to do an RMA if it doesn't resolve itself.

Sorry.

RyanE

That’s what I’m thinking.  Going to arrange support call with dealer.  

Trying to turn on my Neeo.  Took it off the cradle, pressed the power button and it just keeps flashing the white Control4 logo with 1/2 of the blue ring below.

If I put it on the cradle I get the charging logo (full power version) flashing every few seconds.

any idea what’s wrong and how to fix or reset it?

Tried factory reset; software reloaded but went into same loop.

Also reentered my network credentials.  Neeo had me select my controller and then tried to reboot.  It looks like the loop I described is in the Reboot process.

24 minutes ago, RyanE said:

I've never used any other doorbells other than a physical button before this one, so unfortunately, I can't compare.

The local intercom starts up a 3-5 seconds after pressing the button.

The snapshot notifications I have for motion and button press are also fairly quick, although I haven't timed them out, and of course, they're slower if I'm getting the notifications over 4Sight as opposed to at home.

Can you disable sending notifications and other traffic through 4Sight and force them to local only?  
How is the audio quality when answering the doorbell?  My Ring sounds like a discussion with Charlie Brown’s teacher and is pretty much unusable.

3-5 seconds doesn’t sound like an improvement over other wireless options.  Hopefully the PoE version is faster.  A 5 second delay is an eternity for a doorbell so I want to do everything I can to minimize the delay in getting an intercom session started.

20 minutes ago, RyanE said:

I've had a beta Chime in since February, running on 5GHz Wifi, and it's worked flawlessly.  My access point is fairly close, though.

Of course, your mileage may vary (especially with Wifi).

RyanE

Can you compare Chime wireless performance to that of any other wireless doorbell? (Your own opinion, not a C4 one).   I would hope there is a significant difference if Chime is processed locally.  

22 minutes ago, drmark12pa said:

I had emailed Control4 about the password issue and there is an updated Composer HE for download and it did indeed fix the issue!

You emailed Control4 and got a response?  

4 minutes ago, dinom said:

Ok was wondering if anyone started to install and try one out yet. Maybe some real world pictures too.

Personally I’m waiting for the black color, but haven’t decided between WiFi or POE. It will be challenging to run Cat6 to the front door area, but not impossible. 

I’ve never been happy with a wireless video doorbell; Chime might be different since it supports 5 ghz. If you get past the wiring challenge knowing that it’s always powered and has the best bandwidth is worth it.

1 minute ago, RAV said:

Since we're going hollywood hacking....  remove chime, power chime on a separate network, scan, bingo, IP and MAC to spoof.

Fortunately I don’t live in Hollywood

Anyone have thoughts on physical security?

1 hour ago, ekohn00 said:

There's a couple of things you can do to secure an ethernet port

1. MAC filtering. (only allow the Mac of the doorbell)

2. 802.1x (if the doorbell has it).

3. Use a static IP address on that port and block DHCP.

4. guest VLAN (of course you need connectivity to C4 world).

 

Thanks.  I like #1 and #3.  I had thought about #1. 
I would already have a static IP.  When you say “and block DHCP”, isn’t that done by forcing a static IP?  I use DHCP but most devices have an assigned IP reservation.

1 hour ago, ejn1 said:

Can someone shed some light on how a stolen chime with then allow someone to comprise your network?  

It’s theoretical.  The potential security threat isn’t the Chime itself but the Ethernet cable running to it.  Take the Chime off the mount and someone could simply plug the cable into a laptop and be attached to your network.   

5 minutes ago, Dunamivora said:

For 2). If you completely isolate it on a vlan, that defeats the purpose of integrating it since you would need it accessible by other devices and let other devices see it.

If you don't already consider your internal network as insecure, then I would suggest doing so and put passwords on everything.

Wouldn’t it only need to be on a VLAN with the controller and the NVR?  
 

I do have passwords on everything but just never thought about segregation.  I’ve always had my PCs and IOTs and C4 and A/V gear on the same network and prefer wired to wireless.

I’m going to be replacing a Ring Elite with a Chime.  Looking for opinions on how to handle security;

1) Physical security - how to keep the device from being stolen

 2) Network security - don’t know why I never thought of this before but since it’s PoE if someone takes off the camera they have easy access to your LAN.  Could this be prevented by configuring a VLAN?

I realize the likelihood of both are small but wondered what others are going to do to protect the Chime.

What are people’s experiences so far with 3.2?

Notice any issues or annoying bugs?

Anything noticeably improved from 3.1.3?  Are the announcement bugs fixed?

I know it’s early but wanted to see how the early adopters are doing ... I suspect I’ll get upgraded soon (have a Chime coming), but it seems like the Chime and T4s are the major reasons to upgrade.

1 hour ago, AVNeeds said:

So wait.. its a ceiling fan with built in light any nothing else? If the C4 switch still operates the fan the switch is fine. 

Not a ceiling fan - a bathroom vent fan with a light with the fan and light wired to separate C4 switches.   The C4 switch for the light can do taps and communicate with the controller but the light (load) does not turn on.  There are two bulbs in the fixture so unless both bulbs shorted at the exact same time something else happened.  

Thanks.  The light is in a combo fan/light fixture.  The fan still works.  The C4 switch on the light  is a SW120277 not a dimmer.  I think it’s halogen bulb  but not sure.  If it’s a short in the wire from wall to fixture I’ll have to call an electrician.  My first thing to try is to replace the C4 switch with a dumb switch to see if the bulb actually works, if not change the bulb, then a replacement C4 switch.  I just don’t want to put in a new C4 switch and then have it blow again.

The switch had been working for over a year.  Do the switches just go bad or is more likely there was some sort of over voltage that fried the switch?  Electrical stuff has never been my strong suit.

How would I test the switch with a meter to confirm the switch is bad?

I have a bathroom fixture that has a C4 switch controlling the light and one controlling the fan.  They each have an LED indicating on and off.

I just turned on the light and saw a quick flash of light at the top (on) position of the switch, heard a small pop and noticed the fixture light did not go on.  The on/off LEDs on the switch still illuminate and C4 senses when the switch is on or off so I presume the switch is ok and the ceiling light just burnt out (don’t remember it it is halogen, incandescent or LED).  What concerns me was the quick bright flash.  Can anyone tell me what that could have been and if there is an easy way to tell if the C4 switch is damaged?

14 minutes ago, chopedogg88 said:

for the mechanical doorbell chime wires - just like your Ring Elite.

Thanks.  No longer panicking.

We never hooked up the doorbell wires, but I use an announcement anyway.

It looks like the Chime has two connections.  One is for Ethernet.  What’s the other one for?  I thought all I was going to need was the Ethernet/PoE cable.  Not going to be happy if I need separate wire runs for audio.  

6 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

They are not shipping till Nov

That’s the wireless version.  I’ll have a PoE version next week thanks to an awesome dealer (Ari).

Talking to someone about getting a custom mounting plate made (plastic) that could be used temporarily until a metal one can be fabricated but need exact product measurements first.

17 minutes ago, ILoveC4 said:

I’ve not seen the manual but I’ve got the product right here, and it’s indeed surface mount.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Does it come with the mounting plates described in the review (specifically the single gang plate)? 

2 minutes ago, ejn1 said:

I was thinking you could just make a concrete/mortar smooth square/rectangle area around a single gang box.   Might not look bad if done right.

That doesn’t help much if you have siding or other finishes.

31 minutes ago, Jane M. said:

And what are the changes they release a Chime doorbell which has the DS2 backplate?

Everyone who had Control4 now had a huge hole next to their front door.  Its hard to believe they wouldn't release a version which solves that problem for all their old loyal customers.

There needs to be a plate that will cover the door station boxes and a plate that covers a single gang box.  Major fail for Control4 if they don’t have such plates available.

31 minutes ago, drmark12pa said:

So restored my backup project that I did before I upgraded to 3.2 and my GE Concord is back online.... so until some of these 3.2 bugs are worked out, I would recommend avoiding!

The downside is now I'm stuck on firmware 3.2 and can't use Composer to do any programming.

Since restoring the backup got your device back online on 3.2 I’m not sure how that translates to “avoid 3.2”.  

I’ve had to restore a backup after a system upgrade before so it’s not anything unique to 3.2