South Africa C4 user

On 8/9/2017 at 7:15 PM, Cinegration said:

On the 260 issue, we've found that the Control4 does not transmit the % correctly to director.  The driver simply 'receives' the level from director then processes.  If we get incorrect data, we process incorrect data.  From testing we found that the 260's do not transmit their 'correct' % until you click on the driver in composer and wake up the remote.  This 'forces' the remote and director to re-sync.  We're testing some options as to how we can work around this.  Are your units battery or charger based?  All the other items (locks, shades, ca devices etc...) all correctly do what they are supposed to do from our testing.  It's just the SR remotes that we've seen this issue.

 

Thanks!

I have written a macro (long time back) with variables that allows me to pretty much do what your driver does (it is quite neat - probably not quite as simple as your driver - and I simply add three lines of code every time I add a new device (other than an SR260 which is more complex) with a battery needing monitored and hey presto I have everything working).  I had the same problem as you have with the SR260 but did find a work around.  Talking from memory (and this was over a year ago, so I may have things slight wrong here but it might point you in a useful direction), if I simply pulled the battery level at any point in time it would almost always show 100% unless I had recently clicked the driver in Composer.  However, I did find that the level updated from time to time (normally in the middle of the night - not sure why). What I did was use another variable as the SR260 battery level for my purposes and when ever the battery level changed to something other than 100% (like I say this happened at least once a day from recollection), I stored the battery level in my new variable and I used this as my actual battery level rather than the native C4 variable.  It does mean that the information is always a few hours outdated but not a serious issue for this purpose,

Just now, South Africa C4 user said:

To close this discussion off for anyone interested...

I bought a Tempur mattress but not the base so I am not integrating (trying to integrate) to C4 at present.  When we complete building our beach house next year, I may buy the full bed for down at the coast as it would be cool to tell Alexa to "turn on today" and have the blinds open and the bed move you into a seating position so one can see the sea...

In terms of sleep, the mattress is phenomenal and while we've only had it a few days, extra curricular activity has been great.

And no, that would not be solo extra curricular activity before anyone jumps back on that band wagon! 

To close this discussion off for anyone interested...

I bought a Tempur mattress but not the base so I am not integrating (trying to integrate) to C4 at present.  When we complete building our beach house next year, I may buy the full bed for down at the coast as it would be cool to tell Alexa to "turn on today" and have the blinds open and the bed move you into a seating position so one can see the sea...

In terms of sleep, the mattress is phenomenal and while we've only had it a few days, extra curricular activity has been great.

Thanks everyone... 

This thread has gone in a totally different direction than intended 

That said, thanks for all the advice! I have ordered a Tempurpedic mattress today. Not the whole bed, so I won't be able to try and integrate it into C4... I may do that as phase 2...

I will try and remember to report back on how well I sleep...

5 hours ago, ejn1 said:

Not to bring us in the gutter but Tempurpedic's are also known as the anti-sex bed (google it).... So you may get home "integration" but you wont get marriage integration! 

O no!

38 minutes ago, knowitall said:

Lol what?? Tempurpedic?

 

my bed does not have wifi, but can attest that the tempurpedic cloud supreme breeze medium hardness is the best $$$ I ever invested in my life 4.5 years later and still feels as good as the day it was delivered. Dog approves too

Thanks for recommendation... looks like I will be ordering one on Monday...

Intersting... I see that the company trades as Tempur in South Africa and Tempurpedic in the USA - I am sure there is a story there! 

I'm looking at buying a Tempur bed... the salesman did a good sales job on me today. Has anyone integrated one of their bed systems into Control4?

For that matter are Tempur mattresses that good that they justify the price tag?

Another option (if you are using a security system and driver that supports groups - e.g. DSC) is to create a group that includes all the relevant doors and windows.  When the group is activated (one open) you turn off the air con (or, if you want a 5 minute delay, use a timer and now check if the timer is running, if not start the timer - when the timer expires turn off the aircon) and when it is deactivated (all closed) you turn the aircon back on (and stop the timer if you are using one).

You (actually your dealer) can also link the group to an Experience button that will show you if anything is open or if everything is closed...

2 hours ago, ejn1 said:

You're right but popular typically means more potential buyers and more money to be made for developing something...  It's only been about 10 years since that EZtouch is out so maybe someone is getting around to it    Some of the stuff I've read is that the Pentair app for IOS and PC is really good so maybe not a big push to further integrate into C4.   

Pentair app is great! The only reason I use the C4 integration is for fun (definitely not necessary) and to schedule heat pumps (pool and jacuzzi) to go off and on when I am away on holiday and set a holiday variable to true or false in C4.

All other scheduling is easier and better from within the Pentair app itself.

There are two drivers for Pentair integration into C4. The free one (has a couple of bugs but does the job) and a Driverworks one (I think).  I had my dealer try and buy the latter one months ago but he never managed, so I have no idea if it is any good. As far as I know both require Intellitouch (as mentioned above).

As the OP on this thread, I must say that I am very happy with developments at C4 over the last 2 years since I posted originally.  The real break through was the advent of Experience Buttons last year and I am looking forward to seeing what else people like Blackwire, Mitch, Alan and others can do with them!

For when Control4 reads this, bookmarks (or similar) would still be nice to have.  It would be great to programmatically move to a given screen on any navigator.

26 minutes ago, Cinegration said:

Hello,

  The driver is available via the houselogix store.  Pricing is available there to registered dealers.  

https://www.houselogix.com/shop/battery-agent

 

Thanks!

Thanks... I have a quote from a dealer and am thinking about it...

17 hours ago, prabeau said:

 

I would also like to know

Thanks

Ditto

5 minutes ago, LinusBlom said:

Sounds exactly what I'm looking for then! That also means I don't need to get those inferior security cams from that are compatible with C4  Arlo can send IFTTT triggers.

Final question before I have my C4 technician get this driver for me - appr how much time (hours) do you guys that are familiar with C4 programming think it should take my technician to make the Arlo IFTTT trigger to work with a preset scenario in C4, if using @alanchow's driver? Just so I know how many billable hours to expect

It shouldn't take long... I've never used Arlo but have used various other IFTTT triggers.

I guess that it takes me 5 to 10 minutes to program a recipe in IFTTT and another 5 to 10 minutes to do the C4 side (assuming this is a preset scenario - macro or lighting scene etc. in C4).

It will probably take a good half hour to an hour to set the driver up (including setting up an IFTTT account and a Pushover account) if you don't have these already.

5 hours ago, LinusBlom said:

@alanchow: If I understand your driver correctly, I can use it to have my Arlo Pro security cameras trigger events in my Control4 system, right? Arlo Pro/Netgear have added IFTTT to their system.

What I'm looking for is a function that would activate a lighting scenario set in Control4 when my security cameras detect a motion outside the house, and currently Netgear's Arlo pro isn't compatible with Control4.

Would your driver make this possible?

If Arlo can send an IFTTT trigger when the security cameras detect motion then, yes! @alanchow 's driver can enable exactly what you want in C4.

My dealer just did a very brief sales job on me - trying to convince me to move to Zappiti (media player and NAS). Does Zappiti play nicely with C4? And is this a step up from a MyMovies / Synolgy/ Dune setup?

21 hours ago, DLite said:

Thanks, those are nice ideas.  Do you just use the standard C4 custom experience button for changing backlight colors?

Yes, it is quite a cool experience button for this sort of thing as you can choose which colors to allow and have it toggle through these.  As I recall (I programmed this when the Experience buttons were first launched 6 or 7 months back, so this may have changed), you cannot have the off option removed, only colours you don't want, so I programmed it to change to white when off is selected as a work around for this.  

I use 4 of the Experience Buttons... one for daytime upstairs, one for daytime downstairs, one for night time upstairs and one for night time downstairs...

It depends in part on the colour of your keypads...

I normally use white during the day and yellow or orange at night... A very dim orange works well in bedrooms at night... I use yellow in the rest of the house at night.  I do also have an experience button that allows my kids to change all the backlight colour settings (upstairs, downstairs, day and night separately).  I've given them access to blue, red, pink, green, teal, white, yellow and orange... but we tend to stick with my default colors of yellow, white and orange!

And using the native C4 driver, the spa controls are identical to the pool controls.  One just gets an extra (spa) tab as well as the pool and extras tab.

The biggest bug in the driver is that whenever the controller is rebooted (for any reason) the director forgets you have a spa and you need to go into composer and check the "Has spa" check box again.

I also tend to use the Pentair app (which can control everything) much more than C4. But I do find the C4 integration very useful for two things in particular:

1. Changing run times and turning heaters on / off when different modes are activated (e.g. I have a holiday mode, winter mode and summer mode).

2. Linking in Alexa controls so that I can turn on bubbles / jets / cannons by voice command while sitting in the jacuzzi

The Control4 driver works fine with the newer Pentair panels also (i10). Same bugs but they are relatively minor (document elsewhere in these forums - search Pentair).

The new (paid for) driver looks good but my dealer has tried to get a key for it a couple of times with no success (strange as he had no problems getting keys for all the other drivers I use). 

Pentair

On 05/11/2016 at 4:15 PM, ILoveC4 said:

I'm in for testing. Everyone here is all on Apple. I've been thinking about investing in Echo Dot to accomplish this, but if I can do it with our phones, watches and iPads even better. I have lights, locks, security, distributed audio, distributed video, climate control, etc...

I'd love to test this for you with the 5 members of our home that are all deeply ingrained in iOS.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Me too!

10 hours ago, alanchow said:

Yes we are going to announce those buttons today.  You will be able to integrate white goods/appliances via IFTTT or relays.   IFTTT supports integration of GE, Samsung, LG, Whirlpool, Bosch & Siemens appliances.  Some with feedback only others with control and feedback.  The experience buttons can be used for both one way feedback or control and feedback.

I don't quite understand what the day/night button would do... wouldn't that be automated by the scheduler's astronomical clock?

Sorry! I had not meant to jump in ahead of your announcement!  Keep up th egood work...

My thoughts on the day / night Button was really just an on/off switch where on shows a daylight picture (sun rising) and off shows a nighttime scene (moon and stars).  I was looking for an Experience Button like this when I was setting up some control for irrigation.  I have an option for morning or night and rather than using a radio button, I thought an icon swapping between day and night would work... I can see other uses for a button with 3 states, day, night and 24/7.

Hope that makes sense?

I see you've added some white goods Experience Buttons - very cool!

A day / night Button would be a very useful addition.

So would a countdown button where it counts down in days rather than hours or minutes.  Alternatively, a countdown button where the user controls when the number changes...

4 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

Just speculation but I think c4 was working on it today

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Interesting... And good!