Dr. Venkman

It arms fine from the alarm keypads - active motions don’t prevent arming in either stay or away/exit.

From C4 (via the 584), it won’t arm either mode while motions are active.

The same behavior was true of the keypads years ago when it was first installed (even though motions are bypassed in stay). In short order, the alarm company changed the arming behavior of the stay and exit buttons to allow arming with active motions.

I’m trying to figure out if the arming behavior of the 584 is similarly programmable, but configured separately from the keypads. If so, I expect I could just have the alarm company apply the same changes to the 584 module. 

Originally, our Interlogix alarm wouldn’t arm (using the stay and away buttons) if a motion detector was sensing motion. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it was mildly annoying to have to stand still at the keypad for a few seconds before pressing the arm button. Our alarm company changed the arming programming so that it would arm, even if there were motion zones active, which made us very happy.

When we had the NX-587 virtual keypad, it behaved the same way, but now that we have the NX-584, C4 can’t arm the system via the 584 if there is motion.

Is this something that can be addressed in C4, something that our alarm company can program into the arming behavior of the 584, or is it something that can’t be fixed at all?

Thanks much. 

20 minutes ago, ajd123 said:

Does DSC have functionality to allow a zone to be armed/disarmed while the rest of the system stays active.

I don’t know the answer to this, but bypassing zones after the alarm is active feels like it runs counter to the idea of arming a security system in the first place, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it was impossible. It’s akin to disarming the system, so I would guess the DSC would prefer to just be disarmed, then rearmed. In any event, it’ll likely require a disarm code, which you probably don’t want stored in C4 programming. 

26 minutes ago, ajd123 said:

Another workaround I came up with was to use C4 to program the blinds to open/close at sunrise/sunset rather that the somfy app itself (the native app for the blinds).  This way I can have the C4 system disable the routine to open/close the blinds in the rooms where the motion is triggering when the alarm is armed.

If you can’t get the motion detector fixed to not be triggered by the blinds, having C4 skip the raise/lower if the system is armed sounds much better to me than trying to bypass an armed system. 

I gather the problem with the motion being sensed is that it’s setting off your alarm?

The logic/programming in C4 shouldn’t be hard, but can your alarm even handle a request to bypass and then re-activate a zone while the system is already armed?

Have you asked your alarm company if the motion sensor can be configured (or moved) so it doesn’t register the blinds opening and closing as motion at all?

Thanks. Is the C4 iOS app (OS 3.2.x) pretty good at giving you an alert and getting you to the live feed quickly when the doorbell is pressed?

If so, this sounds like a good setup for me, and I just need to settle on the best NVR, regardless of C4 integration. 

The more I think about it, the less concerned I am about C4 navigator or motion trigger integration. It would be nice, but not necessary. 

Ease of viewing the feeds (primarily on iOS app) and managing the system are more important. It’s also important that we can get to the doorbell feed as quickly as possible when someone rings it (less worried about monitoring doorbell motion).

The one C4 integration I would really like is the doorbell. I would like to be able to program off of a doorbell ring and potentially be able to pull up the doorbell feed on a tv. 

My improved focus raises a technical question about the C4 Chime doorbell:

If using Chime with another NVR (say Uniview), does C4 need to go thru the NVR at all, or can it get button press info and a live feed directly from the chime device without integrating the NVR at all (and without impacting Chime’s relationship to the NVR)?

10 minutes ago, penn65000 said:

IMO Blue Iris sounds great but your host PC will prob get blue screen of death at some point.

Which has always been my primary concern with BI. I’m absolutely not going to check in on the host computer every day to make sure it didn’t crash or restart. 

13 minutes ago, penn65000 said:

I’d go #3. Have your alarm co install Hik then have your C4 dealer link to C4…Best to get DVR same brand as cameras just to save headaches. 

Which raises the question of doorbells. Still go C4 Chime and connect them to the Hik NVR?

Thanks, both. I’ll expand on my thinking a little, in case someone wants to let me know I’m approaching it all wrong.

I sort of group camera solutions into four categories:

1. “Native” to C4 - Pakedge & Luma. Dealer-based, theoretically more tightly integrated and at lower risk of things like changing API’s.
2. Cloud-based consumer setups (Nest, Ring).
3. other NVR solutions. Might be a closed system (UniFi), or might be something more flexible (Hikvision, Dahua). 
4. Computer running NVR software (Blue Iris).

I have always had a natural aversion to #2 (maybe undeserved), and I don’t particularly want to maintain the computer required for #4. 

I have always liked the theoretical advantages to #1, but I understand they may be more theoretical than actual. 

I know next to nothing about the options in #3, or what C4 integration looks like. I like ubiquiti, in general, and their interface looks slick (but I think no hdmi output on NVR).

I would like to (at minimum) be able to have C4 know the doorbell rang (hence the chimes), but I’m 100% open to primary viewing being in another app, if that’s what’ll be best.

We’re finally getting around to installing video cameras. 2 chime doorbells, 3-4 IP cameras, NVR. Don’t expect to be super users of the video system - record on motion, look who is at the door, run the NVR output to the video matrix, so it can be displayed on TV (maybe not too often). If we can program on motion events, I’m sure I’ll play with it, but it’s not obvious to me that we would be heavy users. 

Would like something that’s easy to navigate (though I don’t expect to be doing much video review). It would be nice to add a camera without too much trouble. It’s not imperative that our primary viewing method be the C4 iOS app, but it might be nice. 

My wife, especially, is going to prioritize ease of pulling up the cameras.

My dealer is recommending Luma cameras and the Luma 510 NVR, but there seem to be mixed opinions on Luma on here (with at least a couple opinions being that the best place for Luma equipment is the trash can).

I would love some current reactions to my dealer’s recommendation of Luma and/or some suggestions on what might be a better fit. 

Thanks much. 

The commands in the lower portion need to be nested under the conditional, as they are in the first one. Just drag the commands to the question mark, and it will nest them.

As it is right now, it's checking the condition, then there's no programming on the condition, then it's moving on. It's running the lower commands every time (well, until you get to the first "Stop"). 

We recently (finally) replaced the NX-587 virtual keypad for our Interlogix Alarm with an NX-584 and upgraded to OS3. I've come across a few things in the 584, and I was hoping for some guidance/reaction:

• Everything came in on partition 1 - I assume that's normal and/or fine? It's a pretty basic alarm system, Stay/Exit arm settings, 3 motion sensors, 5 door sensors, and a few glassbreaks and fire/heat sensors.
• When arming the alarm "Stay," there is no delay from the time the command is given and the alarm is armed (because there's no need for it to wait for you to leave).  However, the C4 driver/app assumes there is a delay and counts down 45 seconds, as if there was a delay and we were leaving. Is there a way to have the C4 driver not assume the delay?
• Silent and Instant aren't arming modes we're ever going to use. I assume there's no way to exclude them from the list of available arming options?
• The Function and Emergency buttons make me nervous. We aren't going to use those, and I'm worried about them being hit on accident. No way to get rid of them, right?

Thanks much.

Is there an experience button with three states (i.e. on, off, dim)?

I'm trying to improve our use of favorites in OS3, and in a lot of cases, I would like to (mostly) remove the lighting from the favorites screen. A favorite to toggle the lights on/off works great, but in some rooms, I would love it if there was a way to toggle between three states, rather than just on/off.

In my head, a three-state experience button would be perfect. I picture a light bulb icon that is lit, off, or halfway - if such functionality existed in an experience button, I could probably come up with the icons and give them to my dealer to put in the driver.

The Mockupancy button has three states and it looks like it cycles through three icons, but it also has other programming associated with it, so I'm not sure it would be a good fit.

If anyone knows of one or has any ideas, I would appreciate it.

7 hours ago, lippavisual said:

Is the switch being power protected?  Do you have surge suppression in all the HDBT lines?

stuff quits all the time and 90% of the time it is electrically related. 

The switch is plugged into a Panamax power conditioner/PDU that sits behind a UPS. 

The individual Cat6 HDBT runs just go straight from the matrix to the balun, as directed in the instructions. Again, though, three of the ports that failed didn’t have anything plugged into them. 

If surge suppression on the individual HDBT lines is needed, you would prefer that be built into the matrix, but at a minimum, the instructions shouldn’t explicitly state that nothing should be between the matrix and the balun. 

I understand that things happen, and if I just got super unlucky, I can live with that, but I’m getting the sense that my experience isn’t as rare as it should be.

I don’t mind a piece of equipment being expensive, and I don’t mind it being complicated or finicky to set up, but Control4 should probably find another solution if they’re going to be this fragile and prone to permanent failure. 
 

Maybe failures like mine and yours are one in a million, but it sure doesn’t sound like it. 
 

If there’s not a solution to be found, 4 of 6 HDBaseT ports have permanently failed (inside of four years) on a several thousand dollar piece of equipment that has been professionally installed and serviced, as required. It sits in a rack in a closet and is never touched. If that sort of failure is anything other than shockingly rare, they should probably not be selling the product (or they should be standing behind them when they do fail).

Again, maybe I’m nearly the only case like this, but I would guess if that were the true, they would probably have a longer warranty. 

Thanks.  The firmware is up to date, and my dealer calibrated it after the firmware update this week. He also made sure the driver was up to date (version 325).

It quit working properly out of nowhere - at the time, it had been probably two years since a cable had last been touched.  I can't 100% guarantee that my dealer never hot swapped back when the rack was set up, but that would have been years ago (they probably didn't - I just wasn't watching 100% of the time).

Three of the HDBaseT ports that aren't working have never had a cable plugged into them. 

I cannot, for the life of me, think of a reason four HDBaseT ports and one balun just quit working. Nothing in the entire C4 system had been touched, changed, etc. in months. I think the last change was an update to 2.10.6 quite some time ago. 

Do you know how long the warranty is on the unit?

Hi, all.  I'm hoping I can get a little advice on what may be wrong with my LU-862.

We have had four TVs hooked up to it for several years, and all has worked well (3 over HDBaseT, 1 on an HDMI output). The other day, two of our TV's quit working.

Our dealer swapped things around enough to decide that:

• 1 of our 3 HDBaseT baluns is bad
• The only HDBaseT outputs that work on the LU-862 are outputs 2 & 3 (if you put a known good balun on output 3, it works fine, but not on output 4).

Any idea what could cause something like that or how it can be fixed?

Thanks much.

21 hours ago, LollerAgent said:

When I hold the button down, instead, the light load connected directly to this keypad (Island Cans) comes on, as do the "Dining Chandalier, "Island Pendants" and "Kitchen Cans" loads.  They slowly ramp up to 100%.  Now, the LED on the keypad button associated with the "Relax" scenes turns off as well.

 

So, is the C4 keypad a 6 button keypad dimmer or a standard APD/FPD 120?

Either way, is it possible that you’ve still got the local load connected to the keypad button, as well as the scene you want to control?

I think you’ll want to have the keypad buttons function as a true keypad and not control the local load  

16 hours ago, Adidaswood said:

so if the scene is bound to the button, the led will change just based on the loads reaching the designated state in the scene's properties.  no further programming required

Yes, so long as you've configured the LED to "Follow Connection" in the keypad's properties (the LED Behavior drop down).

16 hours ago, Adidaswood said:

if the scene is called in programming you would still need to change the LED based on the triggers.

You mean if the scene is not bound to the button, but there is programming on the button to activate/deactivate the scene?  Yes, you'll need to set the LED to programmed and then create the programming to have the LED do what you want.

16 hours ago, Adidaswood said:

right now I'm just trying to get status on a few scenes on a button LEDs, as I'm just starting to think more about living with scenes instead of individual loads.  So much like an LED might follow the load on a single light.  I want my LED to follow the scene on or off status.  and I'm trying to decide if I should bind the scenes to the buttons.  

I would vote strongly for binding the scenes to the buttons (and having the LED's follow the connection).

• You don't have to do any programming on the button at all.
• Press and hold functionality is automatic for dimming
• The ramp rates for your scenes stay intact (though this may be the case if programmed to turn on/off, I'm not sure).
• I believe that you can also press the button once to begin the ramp up/down, and then press it again to stop it (similar to the functionality on a dimmer).
• You don't have to do any LED programming.
• It probably gives a bit quicker response, and it's probably a little more reliable.

The downside is that you need your dealer to add it (also, you can't see it in composer, so keeping the keypad buttons named properly or documenting the connections is important).  I've made my peace with that, and there are a few workarounds to let you do a few things without bothering your dealer just for a couple of connections:

• If you just want to move buttons around from within a single keypad, you can reconfigure the keypad in composer and it will move the connections from one button to another.
• If you want to remove a connection, you can do the same, but just not map the connection you want to remove over to the new configuration
• When I added some keypads and didn't know exactly how I wanted them set up, I created a few empty scenes and had my dealer bind them to the keypad buttons.  That let me tinker with the underlying scenes over time, and the binding was already there.
• I have also programmed a couple temporarily, and just waited until the next time my dealer was in the system to have him make the connection.

12 minutes ago, blackfiveo1 said:

I have ATT U-Verse Gateway(Fiber)-> Asus NT66 Router -> Cisco Small Business 24 port POE Gigabit switch -> Unifi ACPro POE WAP

 

Do you run double nat behind the U-verse and Asus routers, or did you put the Asus in the U-verse’s DMZ?

It hasn’t caused us any problems, but it annoys me that we’ve got to have 2 gateways. 

44 minutes ago, rf9000 said:

Something like this for the 16 port POE Switch?: US-16-150W

But that switch is managed. It seems most Unifi switches are managed. Is there a better choice for a 16 port POE switch to use with the Unifi Router and Access Points? Also, if I have a 16 port POE switch and another 24 port non POE Switch, how are they connected to the router if only one LAN port?

I believe all unifi switches are managed.  If you want unmanaged, you'll have to go with another brand.  Any good switch should do.

The router will connect to one switch and then that switch will connect to the 2nd switch.

10 minutes ago, rf9000 said:

Also, please help me out with some general Unifi questions. So I would have cable box from service provider --> Unifi 48 Port POE Switch--->??

Cable Modem <----> Router (Unifi USG, for example) <----> Switch <-----> Everything else (including Access Points)

10 minutes ago, rf9000 said:

If I wanted to stay with all Unifi products, would I need a central Unifi router? Are do these provide WIFI? Then how do the ceiling mounted units work with the router?

You need a router; it doesn't have to be unifi.  Lots of people use their AP's only.

What you've probably got now is a router/wifi in one device.  That's not how the Unifi devices are going to work.  You'll have the router to do routing only, and then the AP's will just be on your network and provide access to wifi clients.

10 minutes ago, rf9000 said:

Do I run a Cat6 to each ceiling mount location too? And if so, do the ceiling mount units plug directly into the router or the 48 port switch?

Yes, to the switch.  The router really only has one LAN port on it, and you'll plug that into the switch.

Also with Unifi, you'll need to have a controller somewhere.  Right now, you probably log into your router to change settings, but with Unifi, there is a central piece of software that controls everything (USG, switch, AP's).  You can run the controller directly on a computer, or you can get a Unifi Cloud Key - it's basically a little linux appliance on which the controller software runs.  When you need to get into the settings, you go to the controller, and it communicates the settings to all of your Unifi equipment.

50 minutes ago, eggzlot said:

Install what your dealer knows best and where his/her comfort level is because they are building and supporting it.

But at the end of the day, this.  If you're comfortable owning the network performance, use whatever you want, but if you're going to rely on your dealer to manage and troubleshoot, let them sign off on the equipment.