Don Cohen

Thanks - will do!

Is there a consensus in terms of whether it is best to (either manually or automatically) update all the drivers within a given project? With other types of technology (computers, TV's, etc.) updates will often introduce new issues even as they address previous issues. Some therefore take an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" attitude, and recommend doing updates only if you're having issues, and especially if the change-log for the update indicates this is actually being addressed. What is recommended here for Control4 drivers? I haven't seen any easy way to access change-logs to determine what is actually changing, being fixed, added, etc. Thoughts?

Thanks. We actually have 2 garage doors, so my description of the actual names above wasn't 100% accurate. At first I went with "Janice's Door" for hers, since that's her name, but Google kept thinking we wanted to hear music by "Genesis"! We ended up changing to "Garage Number One" and "Garage Number Two" - very creative, right!? So now it's just "Turn on Garage Number One", etc. I do have an Alexa scene "Lock the House" which does turn off lights, locks doors, etc. when we leave, but doesn't do anything with the Garage Doors. Will have to give some thought to whether or not to change that, since we just have to hit the Visor button to close it as we leave. But this is the cool thing I love about Control4, made even better now with Alexa and Google integration - you're only limited by your imagination in terms of what you can do.

I just upgraded from 2.10.6 to 3.1.0, and everything is working fine. One feature I wanted to utilize is the Google Assistant integration. I had previously discovered that Google Home functions can be initiated when driving, through Android Auto. I have a Google Nest Hub in our Bedroom, controlling some Bulbs (installed previous to Control4). Just for kicks, I told Google to "turn on the Bedroom Lights" while I was driving, and I was surprised to find that it worked! That got me thinking. I just added control of our Garage Doors to our home, and my goal was to be able to tell the Google Assistant while I'm driving, and getting near home, to "Unlock the House" and it would open my garage door, unlock the door to the house, and turn on selected lights. This would be pretty slick! The Garage Door Controls don't show up as controllable devices within Google Home, so I had to figure out another way to get this working. In Composer Pro, I found Google Assistant available as a separate Driver, so I created a Voice Scene there, and programmed it to do exactly what I outlined above. I went to the Voice Control section of the customer Control4 portal, hit Discover Devices, and it found this new voice scene. I saved changes, and after playing with the syntax, found it worked. If I'm in my car, with Android Auto running, I just hit the button on the steering wheel to activate Google Assistant, tell it to "Turn on Unlock the House" and it does exactly what I wanted: opens the garage door, unlocks the garage door lock, and turns on selected lights. I don't care for the Syntax, having to say "Turn on unlock the house" rather than just "unlock the house" but that's a fairly small compromise to get this working. I don't recall seeing any posts on using Android Auto to work with Control4, so thought I'd just put this out there. Don

Makes sense - thanks.

Thanks, and understood. What confused me though, is that, using your analogy, I was flipping the light switch, but the light wasn't turning on or off. This is presumably because I had the drivers set to 'Normally Closed', so that it was already closed, and the button push therefore didn't have any effect, as suggested by ILoveC4, above. I would have guessed that if the relay was mistakenly set to NC, that would correspond to the circuit being closed, and the light being on, using your analogy, and the garage door would continually be opening and closing. How then does the Garage Door relay system work differently from the light switch?

Ok, did some reading about NC vs NO circuits, and it's all beginning to make sense. The Generic Garage Door Driver I'm using doesn't have an "NC vs NO" option as such, but it does have a checkbox to "Invert Relay" which I've read is basically the same thing. I think I may have checked that box as I was playing around in the beginning, trying things out. That must have put the switch into an 'NC' position, explaining why pressing the regular button didn't have any effect. Been an interesting learning experience! Thanks for the help here.

In the course of figuring something else out, I solved this mystery. "Lock the House" was created as a 'Routine' within the Alexa App, and *not* as a Voice Scene. Or perhaps it worked better as a Routine, so I deleted the Voice Scene. For ease of use, I normally open Alexa on my PC, but forgot that creating Routines, for whatever reason, is not an option there. 'Alexa Routines' are a more convenient way to use natural English to issue commands: with Voice Scenes, I'd have to say 'Alexa, turn on lock the house' while with a Routine, I can simply use "Alexa, Lock the House" as the trigger phrase. And any Voice Scenes within Control4 can be added to any Alexa Routine, so it does give me all the flexibility needed. This was driving me crazy - hopefully this will be of use to somebody else.

Thanks. Here are the drivers I'm using: For the Z2IO: Device File: C4-Z2IO.c4z For the 2 Nyce Sensors: Device File: GarageSensor_zb_nyce_3014.c4i For the 2 Garage Doors: Device File: relaycontact_garagedoor_c4.c4i The Z2IO Driver has 2 Relay Controls, along with a single Contact_Sensor and some temperature, IR and Humidity Controls, not in use. The Nyce Drivers each have a single Contact_Sensor Control The Garage Door Drivers each have both a Contact_Sensor and Relay Control The Relays in the Z2IO and Garage Door Drivers are Connected The Contact_Sensor in the Nyce and Garage Door Drivers are Connected Any wrong choices here?

Actually that does make sense. It also raises the question of how a basic switch like this works: I had visualized the pressing of the button as temporarily closing the circuit, and that closure event is what triggers the motor to open (or close) the door, after which the circuit would be open again, 'waiting' for the next closing event. But if your logic is correct, then it must work differently than this simple model. Otherwise, if the circuit were closed all the time, it would continually be opening and closing the door. I guess I need to do some reading on basic relay/switch operations. If there is an obvious answer to my point above, certainly let me know. Thanks.

Thanks ILoveC4. I find I learn the most about things when something goes wrong, or at least there is an unexpected result. So this just has me curious. My knowledge of the basics of electronics is fairly rudimentary, but it just seems so strange that closing the circuit with the button push can somehow be defeated by the Control4 circuitry also connected to those same contacts. Oh well; at least it's working as it should.

Thanks for the reply. I'm not seeing that option in either the Relay Properties for the Z2IO, or the Garage Door Driver which has connections for both Contact Sensor and Relay. On the Z2IO, it does have Relay status, but no NC or NO choice. Regardless, though, it is now functioning correctly. My main question concerns what could prevent the original Button from properly operating the Garage Door when it is pressed. You press the button, it closes the circuit, and triggers an action. How can configuration, or misconfiguration, on the Control4 side of things prevent that from happening?

Thanks for the reply. I assume you mean the Z2IO itself? If so, the LED is Off, and other than when I added it to the Project to begin with, I don't recall seeing it on. In its Properties in Composer the LED is set to Off (by default, apparently, as I didn't make any changes there). What is your thinking here, as I'm not following where you're going with your question?

Still hoping to understand this better. Any ideas, especially on the 2nd question in bold, welcome. Thanks.

Ok, it occurred to me in the middle of the night that I inadvertently created some redundancy, by following the Instructions for each device blindly, too literally: Since the 'Generic Garage Door Sensor' Drivers (that I added for the Nyce sensors) contained both a Contact Sensor *and* Relay control connections, for each door, that adding the 'Generic Door Lock' Drivers (recommended in the Z2IO Instructions), which had only a Relay control connection for each, was unnecessary, and created a redundancy. When I had the Relays for both of these Drivers connected to the Z2IO, it created some type of conflict. And since I removed the connections for the 'Generic Door Lock' Drivers, that Driver now does nothing: no connections, no function. So they can be deleted without impacting anything. Correct? But that still leaves the original question, of how and why, under certain circumstances, pushing the actual original garage door buttons did not open or close a door: no response at all. I can understand how my misconfiguring Drivers and Connections could screw up Control4 operation of the Doors, but how could this misconfiguration prevent the original door button from closing the circuit, and triggering the door to open or close?? I'm new with this, so be patient - simply trying to learn by reading, trying, experimenting, etc. Thanks.

I installed, configured everything today, and it's all working as desired. 2 Garage Doors. There is one glitch that I think I've eliminated, but can't understand the basis for it, so: Hardware: 1 Z2IO 2 Nyce Garage Tilt Sensors, 1 for each door Drivers: 1 for the Z2IO 1 Nyce Driver for each Tilt Sensor 1 "Generic Garage Door Sensor" for each door (each with a Contact and Relay Connection) (as recommended by the Z2IO and Nyce Install PDF's) 1 "Generic Door Lock Driver" for each of the Door Motors (as recommended by the Z2IO Install PDF) Connections: Z2IO: SPST Relay 1 to "Generic Garage Door Sensor" #1, Relay SPST Relay 2 to "Generic Garage Door Sensor" #2, Relay Nyce Sensor #1 to "Generic Garage Door Sensor" #1, Contact Sensor Nyce Sensor #2 to "Generic Garage Door Sensor" #2, Contact Sensor "Generic Door Lock Driver" #1 and "Generic Door Lock Driver" #2 - no connections "Generic Garage Door Sensor" #1, Relay connected to Z2IO SPST Relay 1 (as per above) "Generic Garage Door Sensor" #2, Relay connected to Z2IO SPST Relay 2 (as per above) As I said, everything works perfectly. I can open/close each door from my App, which shows the correct open/close status for each door. But: At one point, neither garage door would respond when the actual regular physical button was pushed. If I then opened or closed the door from the App, the button would again become responsive. It seemed that it occurred after the doors were programmatically closed from Control4, but I'm not certain. But it did happen more than once. Initially, I had both the "Generic Door Lock" Drivers and the "Generic Garage Door Sensor", connected to the Z2IO Relays. I *think* that the problem stopped once I removed the Generic Door Lock Driver connection. My question is how is this even possible? What could be happening within Control4 that would prevent the actual Garage Door buttons from functioning normally?? Thanks!

Just to report back: I copied the Binary 3x1 HDMI Switcher driver to the appropriate Control4 folder, then added the driver to my Project. I configured all the connections as they were with the original one, deleted the original driver and connections, and everything is working perfectly. Ready for the 3.1 upgrade now. Thanks for the advice and help freely given here! Don

Gotcha - that's what I was thinking. This is the one you're recommending, right: "avswitch_Binary_B-220-HDSWTCH-3x1.c4i" And just out of curiosity, would the Binary B-520-MTRX-230-4x4 [IP] also work, or is that for a different application?

Would this one do what I want? As per my post above, I'm not finding any described as 3x1 or 5x1 when I search within Composer Pro. Model Binary B-520-MTRX-230-4x4 [IP] Or would you recommend a different driver, and if so, is it found through a Search or some other means? Thanks.

Thanks msgreenf. On the SnapAV site, I found "avswitch_Binary_B-220-HDSWTCH-3x1.c4i" - is this the one you're talking about that is 3.1 compatible? Searching in Composer Pro, I'm not seeing that one. When I limit the search to AudioVideo Category, A/V Switch for Type, I'm not seeing that one specifically. There's a bunch of B-500, B-520, 4x4, 8x8, etc. - which would be appropriate for my situation? Thanks.

Thanks. I'll look those up, and see if I can figure out how to configure this right! I guess it would make sense to replace the driver now, before the upgrade.

I am currently on 2.10.6, wanting to upgrade to 3.1. One Driver in my current project is not compatible: "Key Digital HDMI 4x1" avswitch Driver. This is for my Theater. I use the Panasonic UB820 UHD Player for 3 separate functions: Regular Blu-ray UHD Blu-ray Netflix I basically wanted these treated as 3 different 'inputs', so I can program different functionality into each, and have these take place automatically. So for example, when I play a UHD Blu-ray, one of the programming steps is issuing a command to my JVC Projector to go to the HDR Picture Mode. Similarly, when activating the Regular Blu-ray 'input' it chooses a different picture mode. I have it integrated with Alexa, and it works quite well: "Alexa turn on the UHD Blu-ray" and all necessary devices get turned on, appropriate inputs and modes are selected, etc. Similarly with "Alexa turn on the Blu-ray." The guys who set this up to begin with achieved this functionality by adding the Key HDMI Digital Switcher, using it as a Virtual switcher. This Driver is apparently not compatible with 3.1, so it will have to go. So my question is whether or not there is a 3.1 compatible Virtual HDMI Switcher/Driver that would function as the current one does? Alternatively, is there a different way of achieving this type of functionality, to be able to treat these 3 separate functions of the Panasonic Blu-ray player as different for the sake of differential programming? When they installed the system, they said there was no direct way to do that, but thought I'd take another look at that as well. Thanks!

Of course, thanks. I opened up the backup done the same day as my post stating that I had created the Voice Scene. I opened one after that as well. Same thing as what I'm finding now - no Voice Scenes seemed to be present, and no Programming was found for Voice Scenes either. Very strange. And yet it works. Does anybody know how I can check behind the scenes with Alexa, to see how and where it is processing the command, which doesn't seem to be showing up in Composer Pro, or in discovered devices and scenes in Alexa? (And just to explain, I wasn't hired to do Control4 Installations, but since we did an installation at my home, to be used as a showroom of sorts, since the main one is an hour away, I'm wanting to become as knowledgeable as possible with Composer Pro. I did the online training for the 'Associate Installer' certification, but haven't yet done the in-person training (which I would like to do). So I'm reading, experimenting, following posts here, etc., to learn what I can.)

That's a good thought. There actually were 2 voice scene drivers present. When I clicked on the first one, that showed no scenes or entries. When I clicked on the second, it said something like it was a duplicate, and it recommended deleting it (which I later did). I had checked both in Programming, and found no entries for either of them, as best I can recall. I do have periodic backups, which I could look at. But what happens if I open up an older backup - does my system revert back to whatever configuration and programming was in place at that time? Or is there some way to just examine it, without impacting the actual system in real-time. I would like to double-check, as this does seem like a reasonable thought, but don't want to create more problems than I solve!

This is a strange one. In a previous thread, on Alexa and Programming, I created a Voice Scene which I called "Lock the House" which accomplished exactly what I wanted, activating a particular set of programmed instructions. It still works fine. I wanted to tweak the programming a little, and somehow this Voice Scene is no longer present in Composer Pro. I go to the Voice Scene Driver, which is where I created it to begin with, and find nothing there. If I go to select a voice scene to delete, for example, the drop-down list shows nothing present. And when I go into Programming...Voice Scene... there is no Voice Scene listed. And when I log into my Alexa account, and look through all the scenes and devices, it is not present there either. All of the others are present, but nothing named "Lock the House" or anything that would be providing that function. And yet, when I issue the Command, "Alexa, Lock the House," it activates the programming I created for this scene - turning one light on, then a sequence turn-off of lights, then locking the garage door. Am I missing something obvious here? How can I troubleshoot this? I can't find the Voice Scene in Composer Pro, nor in the Alexa scenes and devices, and yet it still works. I've been driving myself crazy trying to figure this one out!