chudel

Replying to my own note since I've now personally used and compared both the Finite Labs and Varietas Driver versions.  Here's my limited assessment:
 
Cost
FiniteLabs list price on Driver Central is $250 Varietas Driver is listed as $200.  Strongly encourages use of a custom Raspberry Pi image for setup & management.  (Or buy a pre-installed Pi for $225) Support
Both provide quick responsive tech support to email requests Both provide support for the lights/switches that I use in my system - I have UnifiProtect for cameras which I manage using a separate Homebridge plugin Ease of Use
Finite Labs is the clear winner here. My reasons are: Integrates with stock homebridge (so you can easily use homebridge gui to manage set of C4 and non-C4 plugins Loads the homebridge gui right from within the C4 management gui no extra plugins/custom pi images to manage I didn't do benchmarking, so this may be inaccurate but the FInite Labs -feels- more responsive. (Could be my imagination)  

I haven't done a detailed comparison because I'm not an Apple guy, but I've used both for various clients over the years and the feedback seems to be that the Finite Labs one is much easier to setup and maintain, and everyone seems to prefer it.

I did but against DTI, search for it.

Bahhh! 🤦‍♂️  I can be such a dolt sometimes! lol

And you're right on the other thing too - just pick one switch and apply to all other lights in the project. 

Lighting defaults just sets the default for any new devices added after that.  I'd have to double check gen 1 to make sure they have this (I think they do), but in the properties of the dimmer/switch/keypad you can change the LED values then apply to all the other lights in the project.
For the scheduled event thing, can't you just program what you want to happen then hit execute?

Delete the app and reinstall it. Sorry for the inconvenience. Resetting the app doesn't actually remove the database. It just clears it out. Deleting the app and reinstalling it will fix that migration problem.

Ive used this multiple times. https://www.control4.com/development/promotions/
 

After doing months of research, testing, and implementing my own DIY smart lighting system using Philips Hue and Apple's HomeKit, I decided to embark on my Control4 lighting journey this past September. This post is to summarize what I was aiming for, what I did, and the outcomes for the benefit of anyone that might want to do something similar. I'd also like to emphasize the limitations and issues with the current Control4 Free Philips Hue driver, those limitations being a significant impediment to reaching my goals with the system.
I'm new to the forum and Control4 and have read through much of the content available on implementing Philips Hue lighting in C4. Many of the issues I see people dealing with are related to the issues I've found with the C4 Hue driver, and could be fixed with a better implementation of the Hue API in C4. Although I'm not a C4 dealer, I am a fairly technical user with software and hardware design experience. My C4 system covers a home theatre, lighting, and security (Overhead garage door control, locks and doorbell camera). This post will be focused on specifically the Philips Hue lighting integration with C4, so on to that.
Requirements
Overall I wanted a lighting system with:
Automatic time of day brightness and warmth (color temperature) control, so that the lights are less bright in the morning and at night, and also warmer when less bright full color lighting in some rooms, e.g. bathrooms and bedrooms have dim red light by default when activated late at night so as not to disturb sleep, and some rooms have full color scenes for relaxing ambiance and dance party purposes Control via any app (C4, Hue, HomeKit, etc) and physical switches to replace my existing switches (i.e. no hue dimmer switches fixed to the wall next to my dumb switches with tape or some barrier preventing the power being cut to the bulbs) A great user experience consistent with normal light switches, as no one is interested in having to read a manual prior to using the lights in my home A way to turn off the power to the bulbs when necessary, from the physical light switch Consistent aesthetics for the switches around the house, especially with multi-gang switch banks Occupancy on, occupancy off, and vacancy mode in most rooms, with intuitive automatic switching between the different modes Compatible with my existing home as a retrofit As cost effective as possible while nailing the above key features I started building this system with HomeKit and Philips Hue and ended up with 1 Hue bridge, 45 hue bulbs, 3 Hue motion sensors, and 5 Hue dimmer switches.
The system worked reasonably well but I quickly ran into the limitations of HomeKit which prevented reaching my ultimate goal. Those limitations that C4 (at least on paper) addressed were:
No way to backup the programming, so if anything went wrong with the AppleTV HomeKit Hub I'd have to start from scratch again No physical switches available that satisfied my requirements for aesthetics and function No customization of circadian (HomeKit's "Adaptive Lighting") schedule Limited capability for implementing advanced programming and variables (to some extent addressed by HomeBridge) Limited product integration support (although this is completely addressed by setting up a HomeBridge server for HomeKit) Random glitches that are intolerable for mission critical applications like door locks and primary lighting Me being solely responsible and able to fix the system when broken Implementation
After looking at options for physical switches I decided on using Control4 essential switches which have the following advantages over other options out there:
Can be set as keypads to control the Hue lights while maintaining power to the bulbs, so that I can control the bulbs via control4 and other means (e.g. Hue app, HomeKit) Can be set up with consistent functionality for single, double, and triple tap on the bottom and top switches, along with other non-hue lighting circuits Can also control the load to the hue bulbs so I can turn off the power to them completely if I want or need to Can be tied into the control4 system seamlessly to control or be controlled by other control4 devices Are aesthetically pleasing especially compared to putting hue dimmer switches beside the load switches or covering the load switches in some way Are a good price for the functionality they give, about half the cost of the regular C4 switches. Mainly the difference (for the switches, not dimmers) is the essential switches don't have advanced control of the LED lights on the switch itself like the regular switches do For the circadian schedule I used a driver from Janus Technologies (Control4 Circadian Lighting (drivercentral.io)). I also installed ceiling motion sensors from Nyce which worked alongside my existing 3 Hue motion sensors. I recently learned about a Hue motion sensor driver from UnilogiQ (@Bogdy, Control4 drivers | UnilogIQ) and will update when I get that installed and configured.
Outcomes and Issues:
Initially the implementation was a disaster. The lights were unresponsive and unpredictable. When the switch was pressed to turn on the light, the light would usually turn on, but to a dim level for a brief moment and then to some other brightness. When the switch was pressed to turn off the light, the light would usually turn off, but sometimes it took a while, sometimes it would just go dim and not off, and sometimes it would go off but then come back on a few seconds or so later. When the switch was held to dim or brighten, it was laggy and would continue to change brightness for moments or even several seconds after the switch was released. One and two bulb groups were not too bad, but above that, and particularly with my 6 bulb group, it was very laggy and quite annoying. Not a good long term option. Overall the user experience sucked. It sucked to the point that my wife tried to convince me to ditch the C4 switches and go back to the old regular dumb switches. However, I knew my $30 Hue dimmer switch was doing a much better job so there was no excuse for the poor performance. There had to be a way to make it work.
After some troubleshooting I figured out the root cause was the way in which the free C4 hue driver implements the Hue API to communicate with the bridge. The driver was sending many individual requests when one or maybe a few requests would do it. In other words, there was no attempt by the driver to minimize the number of requests to the bridge, and with the size and scope of my installation that meant that C4 was flooding my bridge with requests and overflowing the buffer in many cases. That meant that sometimes requests were getting missed or were delayed in being executed, hence the intermittent and unpredictable results when pressing the buttons on the switches to turn on and off the lights. In addition to those problems, I found a bug in the C4 hue driver which caused the color temperature to lock at the default level when turned on, so that the circadian driver could not control the color temperature of the bulbs without first manually toggling the color temperature driver in Composer. 
With this root cause determined, I was abled to set up the required groups and scenes in the Hue app and implement custom programming on the C4 switch buttons to solve the problem. Turning on and off the lights was done with the  There is still room for improvement, and I'm missing the dimming functionality on the switches still, but the overall user experience is currently more or less on par with the similar C4 switches I'm using to control the load on the non-hue lighting circuits. In other words, everyone in my household is now satisfied with the user experience of the switches and feels it's an improvement over the regular dumb switches we had before. In addition, the way I implemented the programming solved the problem of the circadian driver being unable to control the color temperature, and it now works perfectly. And the circadian lighting schedule is awesome - I highly recommend the Janus driver (Control4 Circadian Lighting (drivercentral.io) when implemented in this way.
This post is already long enough so I won't get into the details of the programming here, but I'm happy to discuss further with anyone who is interested.
Next steps and Improvements:
Although the core functionality is there with the above, there are still issues that a significant update of C4's hue driver or another driver would solve. Those are:
dimming by holding the C4 switch buttons. This is done with a simple Hue API call and could be easily implemented in a driver or even custom Composer programming if there was a driver that enabled PUT requests to be sent from code in Composer. The amount of custom programming required to implement my solution is excessive. Each button event needs to be programmed separately. A good driver that implements the above and that links to the switches would be a great improvement. Turning the bulbs on. Currently this is implemented by activating Hue scenes using UnilogIQ's Hue Motion Sensor driver (@Bogdy, Control4 drivers | UnilogIQ), but a better way for just turning on the switch would be just to turn on the group using a simple API call ({"on":true}) so that the lights would turn on to the most recently used settings rather than go to a defined scene. This is especially important in a circadian application since the color temperature and brightness are constantly changing through the day. Overall, with the improvements above this would be a great way to implement Philips Hue and/or circadian lighting for retrofits and smaller homes with lower budgets that don't allow for the fully wired solutions.

UPDATE: Unilogiq now has functioning brightness control in their driver and I have implemented smooth dimming using C4 switches and custom programming with the Unilogiq Hue driver. In addition, they have implemented the Hue {"on":true} API call, so I've implemented that as well, which is a big improvement. Now when I press the switch or a motion sensor turns on the Hue bulbs, they go on to their last used state which is usually closer to the circadian default than activating a fixed scene. But the activate scene feature still has it's place and is very useful.
Code example:

Driver update just came out

I just installed and got this working over the weekend. I agree that it takes trial and error - also, not sure if this is applicable or not but it seemed like the first time it took a while to get the connection established.  I think I was too impatient -- got distracted for 5-10 minutes and found that it was working!  So try 1,2,5,6 in the C4 driver first, reboot the security panel and wait. Repeat.
It seems to me that in your case, the AUI # is incorrect (either in the panel or in the C4 config), if you are getting all of the other right messages.  I also recommend ensuring the serial connection is accurate by connecting to a computer and verifying you actually see the data (or have your dealer unbind the serial port and use a terminal window to run minicom against the port [/dev/ttyUSB1 in my case]) to ensure traffic is flowing properly.

Adaptive Phase if you want future flexibility.  Otherwise, you can save some $$, but you have to make sure you install the correct bulbs/loads.

That is some sweet sweet button action!  I'm just here with my ancient 6-button keypads. I'm jelly.

www.alarmsystemstore.com is a good DIY supplier. But a web search will give you others.

That is great news!  Since I've set of blinds on Ezlo that don't otherwise integrate with Control4 without some XML hack.  It would also be nice if C4 let us write ZWave drivers.

That is great news!  Since I've set of blinds on Ezlo that don't otherwise integrate with Control4 without some XML hack.  It would also be nice if C4 let us write ZWave drivers.

I know, right?  Roku gotta open up their API so we can get these cool features natively ... increasingly I am using only the Roku and its mini-apps.  I'm only using the Roku now for Tivo and the odd BlueRay/DVD.  It sucks I can't get visual volume control (I don't have an SR260).

Only Android or FireTV models right now (TVs that allow our overlay on their HDMI inputs). 
You CAN overlay over any source or on unsupported TVs by using an extra hardware piece  (Z9X android streaming box with HDMI in / out).  https://splash-tiles.com/help/hdmioverlay.php
It also works on Shields or Firesticks, but in that case you are putting the overlay on that device output.

Yes it automatically figures out what to use. Digitsl cables get used before analog. 

ASG can be assigned, and will only be triggered when designated outputs are turned on. This would be used in some scenarios such as when only zone 1-4 are going to an amp that needs to be triggered, while other outputs go to receiver.

No. It's just a neeo and 260 feature. 

They seem to have updated quite a bit of the internals. For example, Node went from v6 to v10. Hopefully they did a general O/S update as well, and pulled in all the latest (and more secure) Samba and File system drivers. 
With the Node update, I wonder if they're considering running Homebridge on the EA1/3/5. That would bring a huge new feature set...

Click on the (4) -> Settings -> Preferences.  Top line says "About" and has the Version number underneath it.

Amazon, these camera power distribution boxes are plenty and they work great.

Credit card is 3-5%. And the computer to process it costs money. You have to buy it. You have to have internet. Someone to ring it up... Power.

And Mitch