Aayush Arya

IP control trumps IR any day of the week, and twice on weekends. @JakeFromSF I'd listen to the advice on offer here if I were you. Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

Which country do you reside in? Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

There are two reasons to use the Stop command: 1. To prevent the program from progressing further if certain conditions are met, because you only want the commands outside the conditional to execute if it isn't met. This would be strictly necessary to do because if the program was allowed to proceed, it would have unintended outcomes. 2. If you have a fairly complicated program and you want it to stop executing once a certain condition is met, because you know that executing it further is worthless. You'd be doing this just as a way to reduce the computational load on the system, because letting it proceed would have no user facing effects. The Stop command simply stops the program from being processed further. In your case, your programming will not achieve what you're trying to achieve. The first two Stop commands will prevent the third IF condition from executing if the thermostat is set to either cool or heat, so you should get rid of them. Since the cool and heat modes are mutually exclusive, you can add an Else condition to your first If condition, and nest the second one inside it. This makes it slightly more computationally efficient, because the controller won't bother checking if the thermostat is set to cool if it is set to heat. It's not a big deal the way it is currently set up either though. The most serious problem with your program, however, is that the third condition will only execute a single time when the user taps on the experience button, and never after that while the house is unoccupied—and that too only after you get rid of the first two Stop commands. The program is executing based on the event that the button is turned on once, not continuously as a result of the button's state being on. This is the fundamental conceptual problem with your approach. Get rid of that last conditional and select both the doors (one at a time) from the devices column on the left. Using the door open event for each door, program it to fire the email based on the condition that the vacation mode button is in the on state. Again, no Stop commands necessary there either. Please let me know if you run into any problems or need clarifications. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

If you tell us what you'd like the vacation mode to do and how you're approaching it right now, perhaps we can help you as you set it up. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yes, we've done that as well. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yes, you have two ways to do that: 1. You can command the Echo Show to play music through the rack Echo Dot. For example, if the rack Echo is named "House Speakers", you may say "Alexa, play some ’80s rock on the house speakers". 2. You can set up the Echo Dot to be the default playback device using the Alexa app, and then all you'd have to say to the Echo Show would be "Alexa, play some ’80s rock". You can also use audio sensing to automatically turn on audio zones when the rack Echo starts playing music. Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

We do have Security showing up on the TV in our installation. You have to navigate to it from the menu on the left of the Home screen. Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

Sounds very interesting indeed. Z-Wave integration would make Control4 much more accessible. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We typically set up the same keypad configuration on both sides of the bed in each room for our clients. It will have five single height buttons followed by the down/up keys. Its entire list of functions is complicated to explain but intuitive to use once they start using it. Here's what it looks like: 1. Lights: Turns on the middle one from among five lighting scenes we set up (if none of the five is currently turned on). The five scenes correspond to five stages of overall brightness in the room. Double tapping this button turns on a different scene (outside of those five) and pressing and holding that button for a second enables night mode (lights off, essentially). 2. Fan: Turns on the ceiling fan on a single tap and turns it off if you press and hold. A double press action is usually configured to toggle the window shades. 3. AC: Turns on the thermostat, with a long press to turn it off. The indicator LED uses a colour code to indicate the current temperature range, and a double tap will set it to default settings. 4. Playlists: Pressing and holding this button while a Spotify playlist is playing will favourite it to this button, and tapping it once will play that playlist. Double tapping it will cycle through the playlists preset (configured using the Room Control driver). 5. Play/Pause: Single tap to turn on the room and play music using the following order: (1) through the Chromecast if something is being cast to it, (2) join another preconfigured room if something is playing in it, or (3) cycle through the Room Control preset. If something is already playing, it will toggle between Pause and Play. Double tapping this button will skip the track and triple clicking it will skip backwards to the previous track. Pressing and holding it will turn the room off, and pressing and holding it along with the Playlists button will turn the whole house off (if the user wants it). 6. Down/Up: They will always control the level of the last used button, including the lights, fan and thermostat. If you pressed the Lights button last and they're currently at level 5, the down button will bring it down to 4 on a single tap; if the thermostat is set to 24°C, it will bring it down to 23, etc.. I hope I've been able to explain it properly. It requires a fairly complex programming setup but it works. Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

drivercentral.io Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

Thank you. I guess we will steer clear of the Apple TV then. I have a question about the reliability of the Fire TV’s integration with Control4, but I have sent it to you in a private message so as not to completely derail this topic.

If I were to use this driver, and I was using the Alexa in the master bedroom, would I be able to say "turn on the pendant" and "turn on the ceiling light" to turn on those specific lights, instead of a single "turn on the light" command that turns on all the lights in the room at once? Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

As someone who currently has a Roku and was considering getting an Apple TV, can I not use Control4's universal mini app drivers to directly launch Netflix or YouTube on the Apple TV? (Sorry for going a bit offtopic.) Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

Also, it's always a good idea to have your dealer program the really destructive functions on the keypad (like a nighttime function that turns off everything on another floor) to activate only upon pressing a non-intuitive combination of buttons (pressing and holding two buttons on the keypad simultaneously for three seconds, for instance, or double pressing and holding a button). Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

Different projects have different devices, of course. In this specific instance, it's an LG IP controlled TV running the Netflix app. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I understand that, but in my capacity as a dealer, I'd rather offer less automation than less reliable automation. If there's no way to reliably get the paused state, I'll let the user do it manually. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

This won't work because it will inevitably go out of sync, usually in the first instance itself. When you are browsing the list of movies, both Play and Select on the remote can be used to begin playing it. If I program it based off button presses, it will work for one scenario but not for the other. Same for when a movie stops automatically without having to press either button and you later start another by pressing the Play button. Is there any other way? Isn't there a straightforward way to configure it so that the Pause function only pauses and the Play button only plays? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We've done that too. I'll post screenshots later today. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I want to trigger scenes based on when the user has paused or played something on Netflix in a home theatre, but I'm unable to do it reliably because both the buttons on the remote (as well as through programming in Composer) perform both functions. Is there any way within Composer for me to reliably know when a video is paused or playing? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Just an update: I was able to do this after all. This is how the system is programmed: When there is no media playing in the living room, if I were to say, “play music in the living room”, it will check to see if the audio input on my EA-3 can sense audio from the Chromecast connected to it. If yes, it will start playing that music in the living room. If not, it will check to see if any of the other rooms are playing music, and join one of those ongoing sessions if one is active. Lastly, if none of those conditions are true, it will just play a preprogrammed Spotify preset. This works for all zones, so “play music in the master bedroom” will do the same there, and “play music in the kitchen” or “play music everywhere” also work. The reverse “turn off music everywhere” or “stop playing music in the living room” all work. So, in essence, I am now able to do 99% of multi-zone music control via intuitive voice commands and it all works reliably. The only thing I need the Control4 app for is if I need to something specific like join the living room to a kitchen Spotify session while something is already playing via Chromecast in the master bedroom.

Given the launch of the Echo Studio, I'm curious if anyone here thinks Amazon is continuing to encroach more and more on Control4's space? In configuring a client's 8 audio zones with an 8-zone matrix amplifier, I kept thinking to myself how much cheaper and simpler it would be with Echo speakers or even Echo Inputs connected to other speakers, all controlled through the Alexa app or voice commands. What do you guys think?

Experience buttons only work inside the Control4 app. I'm talking about accessing controls from your phone's Home screen without having to launch the Control4 app.

Is there a better, more secure way to put virtual buttons for your Control4 installation on your Android phone's Home screen in the form of widgets, so you don't have to go into the app?

I have set up the Chowmain Advanced Custom Buttons driver with a few custom buttons on my Control4 installation. The original intent was to do it to create more advanced buttons for access from within the Control4 app on my phone and tablet, but I later realised it only works with T3 touchscreens, which I don't have any of right now. In the process of setting it up, however, I now have a webpage accessible on my local network that can be opened on my phone in a browser, set as a live widget on the Home screen or even accessed through a smartwatch that gives me direct control of and feedback from my Control4 system. This is pretty terrific! I now need to figure out a way to make this local IP address accessible through the Internet (in a reasonably secure, password protected manner). I'm not quite up to snuff on my networking skills, so if someone can point me in the right direction, that'd be quite something.

We have the exact same experience. It's quite astounding that a premium platform like Control4 has such a poor experience with voice control when even the cheapest IoT automation platforms have it down pat.