Joshua Pressnell

Have any of you found yourself wanting to integrate Control4 with other home automation systems or custom code, but don't know how to start with driver development?  I have expanded on my HomeKit driver to provide a basic HTTP API for controlling Control4 systems from anywhere, via any system.  With a little software knowledge, you can control an ever expanding list of devices from anywhere you can call a web URL!
For a preview of the driver API, check out this Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15csLkkoWDTZ691vxScvGrPdofYB7fSuYdBK6G6m34RM/edit?usp=sharing
The driver is going through some final testing now and I need to finish off the documentation and clean things up a little bit, but it's nearly ready for prime time.  Anybody out there interested?

Kaas,
I'll be expanding features as I roll along.  One of the key advantages of my driver vs. the one you listed is that I also support a feedback URL, so that you don't have to poll to get devices status updates (very inefficient).  

Kaas,
I'll be expanding features as I roll along.  One of the key advantages of my driver vs. the one you listed is that I also support a feedback URL, so that you don't have to poll to get devices status updates (very inefficient).  

You'd need to poke a port forward through to your driver port to allow outside control, but since I am including security as part of this interface, it's reasonably safe to do so.  You're correct, it won't be able to control the other HA system, but you will get full control of C4 and can get direct feedback via callback URL.

Have any of you found yourself wanting to integrate Control4 with other home automation systems or custom code, but don't know how to start with driver development?  I have expanded on my HomeKit driver to provide a basic HTTP API for controlling Control4 systems from anywhere, via any system.  With a little software knowledge, you can control an ever expanding list of devices from anywhere you can call a web URL!
For a preview of the driver API, check out this Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15csLkkoWDTZ691vxScvGrPdofYB7fSuYdBK6G6m34RM/edit?usp=sharing
The driver is going through some final testing now and I need to finish off the documentation and clean things up a little bit, but it's nearly ready for prime time.  Anybody out there interested?

Have any of you found yourself wanting to integrate Control4 with other home automation systems or custom code, but don't know how to start with driver development?  I have expanded on my HomeKit driver to provide a basic HTTP API for controlling Control4 systems from anywhere, via any system.  With a little software knowledge, you can control an ever expanding list of devices from anywhere you can call a web URL!
For a preview of the driver API, check out this Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15csLkkoWDTZ691vxScvGrPdofYB7fSuYdBK6G6m34RM/edit?usp=sharing
The driver is going through some final testing now and I need to finish off the documentation and clean things up a little bit, but it's nearly ready for prime time.  Anybody out there interested?

I think you sent me an email on this?  I've just been a little behind on catching up with emails this last week, as it's been one of those weeks.  I'll follow up with your email soon, but I'll need a bit more information from you to diagnose.  I'll need the output from http://<cr_director_ip>:<driver_port>/config and I'll need to know which devices are missing from that output (device type, and the device ID and proxy ID values from Composer, preferably a screenshot of the driver info from Composer for each).  For the GetVariable issue, I'll need to see your homebridge service logs (from all services if you have multiples) that are recording during a time period where that output in the driver happens, as well as the full driver logs.  If you'd like to just send me another email with that, that's good. Mostly put that here in case other folks need help with similar, as I'll need detailed information to track any issues folks might find.  :)
Best,
-Josh

I have thermostats in my system and haven't had any issues, so it could be specific to your thermostat model rather than universal. If you send me the homebridge crash logs, I can take a look and see if it's easily fixable.
As for Control4 scenes.... there isn't a way to "link" Control4 scenes to HomeKit scenes.  But you can use a "virtual switch" and C4 programming to tie a switch in HomeKit to C4 scene state and use HomeKit scenes to react to the C4 scene and do whatever you like.  Or use actions from inside HomeKit to trigger C4 scenes by turning on the switch in HomeKit.  There's lots of possibilities here.

1.  The complete list of supported device drivers and proxies is included in the driver documentation accessible via Composer after adding it to a project.  
2.  There's no special language for this driver in particular.  Siri is Siri no matter what is underneath reacting to her commands.  The best bet here is to review Google for Siri tips.
3. This is one of the most tedious parts of setup.  Unfortunately, there's not a good way around this yet.  If you think about it, there's not a perfect way to do this.  HomeKit lets you add devices, and individual devices (the lightbulb or switch) doesn't generally know where you've installed it.  So the HomeKit protocol doesn't have a way to pre-assign rooms based on pre-determined data or algorithms.  Thus, you must place each discovered device into a HomeKit room.  The best thing I've found to do so far is to make my HomeKit rooms match Control4 rooms, and I just put the devices there when I do the install.
4. I've personally found the best practice to be the following:  a: install driver and import devices to homebridge.  b: rename devices in the web portal to include room names and more descriptive text, which helps during HomeKit setup. 😄 pair the homebridge in HomeKit and use the long names to more easily place devices in rooms.  d: Once devices are all placed, rename in HomeKit to make customer happy.
5. Vince's guidance is definitely good.  Virtual switches are powerful concept that can be used for all sorts of things.

I plan to work on getting shade support eventually, but I've been a bit busy lately with day job and COVID stuff.  RE integration, my driver can only support exposing C4 stuff into HomeKit.  There's no way that I'm aware of right now to bring HomeKit stuff into C4. 

Can I quote you on my website?

Just have to contact me via email at the support address. The issue is that the pi OS needs an upgrade.  Homebridge evolved to the point where it needs the latest OS updates as well.  It's a very easy update for me to do for you.  

I have thermostats in my system and haven't had any issues, so it could be specific to your thermostat model rather than universal. If you send me the homebridge crash logs, I can take a look and see if it's easily fixable.
As for Control4 scenes.... there isn't a way to "link" Control4 scenes to HomeKit scenes.  But you can use a "virtual switch" and C4 programming to tie a switch in HomeKit to C4 scene state and use HomeKit scenes to react to the C4 scene and do whatever you like.  Or use actions from inside HomeKit to trigger C4 scenes by turning on the switch in HomeKit.  There's lots of possibilities here.

Yeah... I gave up on making this a real "product" when Amazon announced several months back that they were putting the buttons on end-of-life.  I have it all working in my system and I bought about 10 buttons to play with when Amazon was giving them away, but this will end up in the "interesting experiment" history books.

Hey everyone!  I just published version 1.1.16 of the homebridge plugin.  For those of you "doing it yourself", please make sure to upgrade the plugin version installed on your units.  For those of you with my OS licenses or hardware appliances, the web portal on your units will soon show you the available update.  Please make sure to install it.  I believe this update should correct *all* issues with errant status being reported as well as occasional issues where a command from HomeKit isn't processed.  

Hey everyone!  I just published version 1.1.16 of the homebridge plugin.  For those of you "doing it yourself", please make sure to upgrade the plugin version installed on your units.  For those of you with my OS licenses or hardware appliances, the web portal on your units will soon show you the available update.  Please make sure to install it.  I believe this update should correct *all* issues with errant status being reported as well as occasional issues where a command from HomeKit isn't processed.  

@zaphod, send me an email. I can arrange a time to login and get things updated. Sometimes a weird permissions issue happens and it’s easy enough to clear out from the command line. I can do that for you straight away. 

I'm still around.  Things have been really hectic in my day job and something happened to this forum's "facebook login" option which disabled my ability to login to the forums from my phone for a while.  I actually just got back from Amsterdam on a business trip, and will be headed to Budapest in a few weeks.  Fun times.
I'm still developing the driver when it needs it, but all in all things have been very stable.  I posted an update to the homebridge plugin a week or two ago to fix some issues with thermostat support.  Things are still moving along, just slower than I'd like because business is so good in the "real world".  I love this product and it powers my whole home, so don't be worried about it going away.  

I'm still around.  Things have been really hectic in my day job and something happened to this forum's "facebook login" option which disabled my ability to login to the forums from my phone for a while.  I actually just got back from Amsterdam on a business trip, and will be headed to Budapest in a few weeks.  Fun times.
I'm still developing the driver when it needs it, but all in all things have been very stable.  I posted an update to the homebridge plugin a week or two ago to fix some issues with thermostat support.  Things are still moving along, just slower than I'd like because business is so good in the "real world".  I love this product and it powers my whole home, so don't be worried about it going away.  

I've been working on developing a homebridge plugin to fully enable HomeKit control/reporting of various Control4 devices.  Initially I'm supporting lights, dimmers, door contact sensors, window contact sensors, generic contact sensors, motion sensors and security systems (because that's what I have in my home).  I'm also working on a Control4 driver that will communicate with the homebridge plugin for all system devices without additional programming needed.
This will give the benefit of:
* Direct control of Control4 systems via HomeKit w/ Siri voice control
* Remote access (if you have home hubs such as Apple TV 4 or iPad) without 4Sight needed
* Direct integration of "favorite" devices into the iOS control center views
* Control of all Control4 devices via Apple Watch
SO....a few questions:
1) Does anybody out there have interest in such a thing?  
2) Are there folks out there that might want to beta test?

Perhaps. Doesn’t mean I should add to the craziness. I far prefer the “elegant” approach. 
Not sure how many people out there want to integrate Harmony remotes... but conceptually, the driver wouldn’t be too difficult 

Perhaps. Doesn’t mean I should add to the craziness. I far prefer the “elegant” approach. 
Not sure how many people out there want to integrate Harmony remotes... but conceptually, the driver wouldn’t be too difficult 

I don't mind selling the driver to end users.  It's available through my website as well as through HouseLogix.  
In terms of getting the OS image setup, there's a little more to it than that.  Once you get the OS installed, you point your browser to http://homebridge.local.  The default user/pwd are listed in my users guide.  From there, you'll see a licensing page, and there's a button to click to run some post-install steps.  Click that button, and then *wait until the page reloads*.  That may take several minutes.  Trust me, it'll reload eventually.  Once the page reloads and the setup button is gone, then you send me the MAC address listed on that page, and reboot the Pi.  I'll generate your license, and you apply the license in the web portal, which unlocks the full configuration page.  From there, you can follow the instructions in the users guide.
It sounds scary... but Vince will attest that it's not too bad once you really look at doing it, and the web config portal makes dealing with setup and configuration VERY easy.

Exactly.  If you're reasonably technically savvy and provide (and support) your own Pi hardware, but don't want to go through the process of installing, configuring, and managing a homebridge server yourself, you can install my ready-made Pi OS image and license my software.  The result is a unit in your hands that behaves exactly like what I'd ship you, and you can follow the users guide from there.
If you're really technically savvy (and brave), you can build your own homebridge server, install my open source C4 homebridge plugin, do all the unix configuration and config file setup yourself, and end up with a working system for only the cost of the C4 driver.  There are folks on this forum that have done that... but my software package makes managing the details of homebridge and HomeKit much much easier.

In iOS 11 Apple is working to improve their GeoLocation capabilities in HomeKit.  I don't know exactly *what* they're doing under-the-hood, and your milage may vary.  
I do know that they've added the ability to keep track of which users are home, based on their individual devices.  So you can have triggers based on "first user home" and "last user left home", etc.  I would guess that they're using "significant location tracking" and "geo fencing" as the root of the feature, plus also possibly the combination of location updates with the device joining a known "home" wifi network.  Since Apple "owns" the OS, they can do things that mere 3rd party mortals can't when it comes to "home presence identification".
I can't vouch for exactly how well it will work for all users, as I've only played with it a little bit (iOS 11 developer beta), but I do know that they claimed at WWDC that this feature would be getting better.
To tie that into Control4, you'd use a series of "virtual switches" that represent Boolean variables in the C4 system.  Then use HomeKit's location triggers to turn appropriate "Is User Home" or "All Users Gone" states via the switches, and possible also trigger switches for when particular users are home, so you can have variable states (and thus programming) for states like "only my wife is home".