Don Cohen

I have both a Panasonic UB820 and UB420, using an IR Driver, and they work well as players, and no problems with Control4.

This has happened to me a few times over the last several years. Generally, unlinking Control4 in the Alexa settings, rebooting the Controller, and then relinking, has gotten things going again.

Update: Looks like I needed to pop all 4 batteries, not just one of one pair. Once I did that, the LCD went blank. Left it that way for a little bit, and then reinserted the batteries. Everything seems to be working now. Weird.... I have no idea what might have triggered this, but it seems all is back to normal.

I have had the Control4 Aprilaire 8644C4 for a few years, and it has worked well. A rare loss of connection, but otherwise fine. I found this evening that while it worked in terms of controlling my HVAC - can put it on Cool, Heat, Adjust Temperature, etc. - it doesn't seem to be communicating with Control4. I noticed that it was on my Sleep Preset in the middle of the day. I touched the bottom of the 4 buttons on the right side, with the Star on it, but there is no response at all. It shows as offline on a T3 and Android Control4 App Troubleshooting steps: Rebooted the Controller (EA-3) as well as the EA-1 which serves as the Zigbee server Physically removed the front of the Thermostat, popped one battery. Attempted the various button press combinations to Identify (4 top), Reboot (15 top), Leave Mesh and Reset (13 top, 4 bottom, 13 top), and even Factory Reset (9 top, 4 bottom, 9 top). But there is no response. It's as if those buttons aren't registering. In Composer Express, it shows as being Online in the Identification section, with Optimal signal strength. But when I do an Action to Print Thermostat Status, it says "Thermostat is offline, no information is available at this time." I manually disconnected it in Composer Pro Network connections (where it also showed as being Online), attempted to reconnect by 4 top button pushes, but no response. I just manually re-entered the Address. It shows there as Online, but yet it doesn't respond. Is this a hardware failure, or is there something I can do to get it communicating again? I have an identical Thermostat elsewhere in the home which works and connects fine. Thank you.

When I first got my DS2 Mini, I used its motion sensor (which is optical, not PIR), and had the same exact problems. I concluded that they were unavoidable because of it being optical. So I ended up adding a regular PIR motion sensor. I got mine from Axxess Industries. This works dramatically better, with very rare false positives. I have it mounted above my door, pointed a bit downwards, and it has been very reliable. It uses batteries, but they're quite long lasting. I think it was probably more than a year before I received the notification that they needed to be replaced.

Pretty quiet. There is some 'squeaking' as the little rollers move through the track, but that seems to be getting less over time. With this type of design and moving parts, I would think some noise would be inevitable, but it's pretty minimal. Actually, I have a YouTube video of it in action, where you can hear it. This was right after installation, and it seems less noticeable now. Motorized Curtain Track As to whether they're using the same hardware, who knows! How is the pricing on the units you're looking at? I paid a little over $500 for mine, if I remember correctly, for a length of around 16 feet.

Interesting - the curtain track itself looks identical to the one I have. I've actually seen this same looking track sold under quite a number of different names, and I think they all originate in China. I do like having different control options besides the RF one. They do mention Zigbee, but since Control4 uses a different 'flavor' of Zigbee, I doubt that this would be directly compatible.

I went with a more 'DIY' solution, which certainly isn't in the category of a Lutron system. That said, for my needs, it works pretty well, and is dramatically less expensive. I have a Scope screen, and use black velvet curtains to mask the pillarbox bars on the side when watching content narrower than 2.35:1. I installed a motorized curtain track from Automatic Curtains. Here is a link to the specific track that met my needs: 920-A Single Track Motorized Curtain System I added a Bond Bridge, with Chowmain's Driver, and integrated it into my Control4 system. This allowed me to use my Control4 remote to select specific macros that closed the curtain to specific positions for 2.20:1, 2.00:1, 1.85:1, etc. I next added the madVR Labs Envy (a visual processor in the same category with the more familiar Lumagen), and with its recently released Control4 Driver, I now have this fully automated. When watching any content, the curtain will be closed to the correct position for any aspect ratio being watched. It works quite well. For what it's worth.

I've used 2 Drivers - one is based on the Panasonic DMP-BDT350 IR Driver, and the other was created from scratch. So you may need to 'teach' this, or any other commands that you need, using the actual IR Remote for the player, if the built-in one doesn't work properly.

If you haven't already, try this: In the Alexa App, unlink the Control4 skill Reboot the Control4 Controller Go back to the Alexa App and try relinking Hopefully this will get you going again.

I've run into this on rare occasion. Unlinking and then relinking will result in the Error Message the OP mentions - Unable to link, try again later. This happened to me today. I unlinked, and it wouldn't let me relink. I then rebooted the Controller, tried again, and it did relink this time. Could have been coincidence, but worth trying if you're still having problems.

I am considering adding a Sony X800M2 to my theater (it provides the ability to vertically shift subtitles, which not many players do), and would need a Driver. I have the X800 in another room, using the generic Sony IP Driver, and found the same problems reported by others in this thread - it doesn't consistently respond, sometimes require a power cycle, etc. Fortunately, I don't use it that often there. For this particular application for the X800M2, I'd be happy with an IR Driver - has anybody identified an IR Driver that works properly with this Sony model?

I have Roku Ultras in my Theater and Family Room. I have added Miniapps for all the common ones we use, and configured them for Voice control with Alexa. I have to use both the Alexa app to 'Discover' devices, as well as enable and configure them in the Control4 Customer Portal. I've configured it such that the 'default' is for my Family Room, so: "Alexa turn on (Netflix, Amazon, HBO Max, Disney+)" will turn on the Family Room, and go directly to the App I have invoked. "Alexa turn on Theater Room (Netflix, Amazon, HBO Max, Disney+)" will turn on the Theater, and go directly to the App I have invoked. I'm not sure if this is exactly what is being discussed, but this works perfectly for me, and I use it all the time, much preferring this to opening the App on my phone, using one of the SR260's, T3, etc.

Just as a general FYI: I just saw that Control4 has added Universal Drivers for both HBOMax and Peacock, which were not present previously. As above, a dealer needs to do this, but I'm glad to see this option now available.

Bingo - you're absolutely right. I hadn't explored those options, and getting rid of it there also got rid of it on 'Roku Channels.' Thanks!

That's the thing - Fandango is not treated the same as the other apps - it seems to be in a different category. See the attached photo I just took. Fandango appears to be at the same hierarchical 'level' as the Home menu itself. There is no Fandango app shown on the right at all. This photo obviously doesn't show all the apps, but when scrolling through everything that's there, there is no Fandango app as such. It is only accessed via the Menu on the left.

If you mean hide "Roku Channels" entirely from the remote, then yes that would get rid of Fandango. I was just wondering if there were some way to keep Roku Channels, but get rid of Fandango. Keeping the Roku itself accessible would give similar access to all of the Channels by displaying the Home Screen, so that still works. Just curious to see if there was some option I was overlooking. Thanks.

I have found an odd situation here. I have 2 Roku Ultra 2020's, and both show the same thing: when I select "Roku Channels" using either the SR260 or C4 Android App, that brings up a complete list of the subchannels available, as it should. The order of Apps here reflects the order I have manually created on each device using the Roku interface, to move Apps to where i want them listed. This is also as expected. However, the *first* App listed for both is Fandango Movies Now, which I never use. This App doesn't seem to appear anywhere in Composer Pro, so there's no way that I can see to change this. On the Roku interface, this Movie option appears on the 'main' Roku menu on the left, the same 'level' where the Home option appears, so it seems to be a different type of option than the 'regular' apps (netflix, amazon, etc.). Is there any way to remove this item, or at least push it further down the list?

Very interesting, and creative!!

Excellent!! Ironically, "Who Can it Be Now" is the phone ringtone I use for my wife! Great choice for your washing machine as well. Mine is a "dumb" dishwasher so can't do anything there.

Nailed it! I hadn't, just did, and it works fine now. I should have tried that before posting, but appreciate your reminding me to reboot when anything funky is going on. Thanks!

I just enabled online streaming access in my SiriusXM account, and want to be able to use Control4 to listen. I added the SiriusXM Driver (SiriusXM.c4z, Version 97, 1/02/2020) to my Family Room, Logged in successfully to my account using the Driver Actions, and connected the Digital Audio Output of the Driver to an available Digital Audio Input. It showed up and was kept visible in Navigator, Refreshed Navigators, and everything looked fine, and surprisingly easy to set up. Using the Control4 App on my Android phone, SiriusXM is there, and tapping on it, the Interface comes up, looks pretty good actually, and I selected one of the Favorites I had previously created. The Receiver turned on, switched to the correct input, showed a PCM stream, again everything looking as expected. But the problem is that the audio being played is very sporadic. There will be silence most of the time, with an occasional split second or few seconds of the audio channel selected from time to time. If I use the SiriusXM Android App on my phone, it plays perfectly. I then added the SiriusXM Universal Driver, binding it to an available channel on the Roku Ultra in this room, and it works just fine as well. But I'd rather not have to turn the TV on, and use that interface, to play the SiriusXM content, and prefer to use the C4 App (as we do with Tidal, which works perfectly). The Driver is current, everything turns on properly, so where is the problem arising? I don't see another Control4 Driver for it, and I'm not seeing any Properties in the Driver I'm using that could cause this, with very few options even provided. Nothing else is playing (Audio or Video) elsewhere in the house when I'm trying this out. Thanks for any suggestions.

Thanks for the quick reply. I guess I'll have to decide on the Nest Protect on its own merits, since I can't assume Control4 integration is coming. Any other "free-standing" smoke detectors that would have basic Control4 integration? My Alarm system is old, and not integrated with Control4. Down the road, post-Covid, I'll probably upgrade it to be able to do this, but not comfortable having people in our home just yet.

So what's the current status of Nest Protect and Control4? I have a very old Smoke Detector that I want to replace (not integrated into anything, just freestanding). The Nest Protect looks like a possibility, especially if there is Control4 Integration available. I've read that Control4 would be providing new drivers to work around the discontinuation of 'works with nest', but when I check the Control4 Driver database, the one for Nest Protect is from 2017. There are more recent "Nest Master" drivers, but it isn't clear if these would be used with a new Nest Protect. Any information appreciated.

My personal experience here: I have a Sony 900E series TV, which has the built-in apps. For the last year and a half that I've had Control4, I've used it with the built-in apps, and it works reasonably well. I had the TV before adding Control4, and everything was working, so I figured why make things more complicated, more hardware, etc. While it was reasonable stable and reliable, I did find there were times when it would glitch. For example, sometimes with the AcornTV app, the TV would become unresponsive, I couldn't change to another App or Source, etc. I had to shut down the room, and re-open it. With many more commonly used Apps (Amazon, Netflix), I would often have to hit a given command button twice before it responded, which sometimes resulted in selecting the wrong thing, since sometimes there was a log responding to the first one. These weren't deal killers, but were annoying. And there were times when a given App wasn't available for, or compatible with, my Sony TV. Not often, but it did happen sometimes, limiting my choices. I recently did some upgrades to this room, replacing a very old AVR with a newer Sony one, and decided to go ahead and add a Roku Ultra as well. I have used Roku in my Theater Room, which is much more complex, and had found it to be completely reliable. So I did that upgrade earlier this week, and so far the Roku has been completely reliable. So yes, you can use the built-in Apps, but in the long run, the experience might be more stable, reliable, and expandable by going with a Roku Ultra. My $.02 worth.