nwanerka

also one last note. Spectrum took there app off of Roku so thats a no go. Does spectrum have there app on Firestick? if thats the only way, but then again can you still get to the DVR recordings through the app?

ok so I figured since the title of this post has Spectrum in it, I would ask some of the experts on here for some major help. A little background on me might help so if someone can help me they know I'm not a total moron, only 50% moron lol. I have been installing and programming automation systems for years now. I mostly URC for many years but about 14 months ago I went Control4 and never looked back. We also use some Lutron products and integrate them into C4 and many other things but not important right now lol. Basically for this conversation i guess all you really need to know is that I have all 4 certifications from control4 including the PCNA in araknis, and I just got the PCNA about 1 1/2 months ago. I am very proud of myself sorry if it sounds like I am bragging. I hate people like me... But I digress. some of you guys on her like MSGREENF I truly look up to and admire. I can see you really have your sh*t together and I consider you one of the top pros. I look forward to seeing your answers and posts. Well enough of me kissing up to msgreenf so here is my problem. These customers of mine have spent a lot of money with me, they wanted the complete package of control4 , surround sound, networking, all engraved dimmer switches, cameras, distributed music everything in a new rack ,you get the point.... well we did everything they wanted and they are loving the look, the sounds ect... well then we get that dreaded phone call from an upset customer that they cannot control there spectrum cable box after only 2 days. So I went back and some commands worked and some did not. so i convinced them to go switch out there box that had a date on the back from 2018 that also said colorvision on it which after many hours of research i found who makes it and everything. so I had them swap it out for a new one. plus I told the homeowner to let them know at spectrum what we are trying to do and that your cable box will be on a rack in a network room that is not in the same area as the TV and using Control4 to control it. either IR or IP if they have a box that will do that. So they did and came back with a brand new one. The new one is the spectrum 210-H which is basically the same dam box but this time they gave them an IR extender. I already knew where to place my IR to! So i look up a driver and of course there are non for this box. so I said *uck it i will make my own using the control4 driver editor the basic one. So I used there factory remote and copied all of the commands and did everything I normally do when I have to make a driver using the remote. It worked great! I tried every command multiple times and finally, it was a done deal and the homeowners where happy again. 2 days later the phone rang again and it was them with the same problem. I go back and some of the commands stopped working. So I redid the driver and copied all the commands again and it worked fine again. Well this happed 4 more times and after 2 months of going back and forth and spectrum being 0 help, the customers make a comment that every integrator hates to hear. "If I knew that I would not be able to use control4 (or my Neeo Remote) to watch TV then I would have never even gotten Control4 or any of this". "I am having serious buyers remorse here , What can we do about this". I tried to explain how this really is a spectrum problem that we did explain from day 1 but give me a couple of days to do some more research and see what we can come up with. On a side note, everything else works Great! apple tv, his Roku, Xbox, everything. The lighting is perfect, cameras exactly what he wanted. even the music is more than he paid for. I felt bad about this situation and gave him a 4 zone autonomics amp for free, and even installed it and set it all up for free. He only bought a traid 1 zone amp for 5 zones because he did not want to spend anymore money (really his wife capped him) even though we told him a 1 zone amp is not the way to go ect.... He said it was temporary, and the 4 zone autonomics amp was an old one I had from another customer that gave it to me for free after he upgraded a bunch of things from us. I cant sell a customer something used so it was not to big of a deal. Back to the problem. So now I have these customers, who have spent a lot of money, everything else in the project is working perfectly but you know customers, if 1 thing is not right out of 1000 things, your shit in there eyes. So now I have to figure out how to make this spectrum 210 DVR box work correctly and consistently work. Please help! Also using the spectrum app is out they want a physical cable box to work because of the DVR recordings on it Thank you in advance Nick Wanerka

Did you check to see if it is connected to your home network? is it hardwired or wifi. Sometimes it will be knocked off your network for no real reason. Check your network, if you know the IP address then Ping it to make sure

The best one that is not only a great video doorbell but is also made by C4 is the Chime. I swear by it. Just like any other video doorbell there are plusses and minuses but this one will integrate right into c4 with a double click of your mouse. The second one i would recommend is the Clare controls video doorbell V3.

how much for the whole lot? also how much for just the ea5?

I have found this to be true with all apple products and C4. I have a customer that only has apple products. iPhone and iPad. It seams to always be a problems with c4's app and also the chime doorbell. With apple products you still need a separate app (intercom anywhere) to use the Chime, and cameras in the touch screens), but all androids you now dont have to, it all integrated into the 1 c4 app and it is much faster. I did a test at home, my wife and daughter have iPhone and I have a galaxy s20. When i rang the doorbell it immediately rang on my phone, where it took a good 10 seconds if not longer to ring on my wifes phone. We where on the same network and all other parameters where the same. The only difference was she had the iPhone and I had the android (Galaxy s20). Then motion detection with txt message alerts. I programmed c4/Chime to do multiple things when motion is detected. Kitchen lights, Master bedroom and bathroom lights and living room lights blink 3 times, also we get a snapshot txt message to our mobile devices. I would always get the txt message, Every time! but my wife would some times get it but mostly not. So then I did a test message in composer and hit send out test. We both got the test alert. She would always get the test alert. Sometimes it would take a good 30 seconds but she does get the test alerts. But normal motion activated txt message alerts where hit or miss with the majority being a miss on the iPhone. It is something to do with apple products. I even went onto the mycontrol4.com and made sure that everything was set up and correct there and that our insight subscription is all up to date and everything. Its just an apple problem, which sucks when I have some very picky clients that only have iPhone/Apple products and the system they paid very good money for does not work correctly on there mobile devices.

You have to go into composer and then into programing. These older c4 dimmers act weird when then are identified into a newer system. I am guessing that you are running a newer version of c4? if you are running 3.x then yes; after they are identified, then go to programing; on the upper left of composer you will see a box that says "device event". You will choose the 1st dimmer you added. You will then see below a drop down menu for button events. hit the drop down menu and choose the top, then below it choose pressed, released. single tap, double tap or triple tap. then on the right top side of composer you should see a box that says "Device Action". Choose the same dimmer and when you click on that dimmer to choose it you will see below it more options appeared. now choose for example under "the device name that you chose" actions: to be able to turn it on or off, or a certain level, ect.. So lets say you called it kitchen dimmer. Then under Device event you will choose that kitchen dimmer and now the box under Device event will say "Kitchen dimmer event". Same thing on the right side. When you choose the kitchen dimmer under the Device action box, then the box under device action will now say Kitchen dimmer action. If you have any problems or need more help, please don't hesitate to email me at my normal email Nick@wanerka.com I am a Control4 dealer but new to Control4. I have been certified in C4 for about 7 months now but have been doing automation for quite some time now. I started with all the "Homeowner" crap on the market, then stepped up to Clare home automation and then to URC Home automation (Just like C4) and also certified in all the Lutron lighting automations. Lutron Caseta, RA2 Select and Radio Ra 2. So I try to help others as it was very hard for me in the beginning to find other to help me. Just trying to give back and not charge for remote work like a lot of others are doing.

I don't know of a control4 driver for AT&T TV but as long as you have the factory remote that they give you, you can make your own basic driver and it is easier than you might think. For example; I have a customer that we have installed a decent size control4 system in. The customer spent a decent amount of money with us so we did not want to disappoint. I knew that they had spectrum for there TV services before we started so I did not even do the normal pre install research that I normally do before an install, (good to be prepared and have a lot of the programing pre done). So we arrive on site and start the 2 day install. Running wires, installing speakers, switches, dimmers, sub woofer, cameras, chime doorbell, bond hub for ceiling fans and blind integration, ect... so now we are on day 2 nearing the end. all wires are in place and everything is ran back to the rack that is in the home office. I now go to look at what model number there spectrum cable box is. Bam!!! there Spectrum cable box is over 6 years old, cant find a driver and I tried everything and anything that might be close as most times like TV models, the IR codes don't change. No luck, tried everything, tried probably 14 different drivers. Even tried different brands and different cable companies. Searched on line, nothing. Asked the control4 community and nothing. So now I am in a panic as its near the end of the install, the customer even upgraded the 2 remotes to Neo remotes and I still cant get there cable boxes to work. Tried ir direct and ir sensor and nothing. Well finally it hit me. They have the original remotes, why not just create my own driver? I have never made a driver, but I came from a URC total control 2.0 background so I knew the basics behind drivers. So i went into composer, then went to the tab next to file called driver, and then the first option was "create your own Driver". I was a little nervous, but I was more nervous that the customers would want there down payment back and not pay the final bill, so i pushed on. It was a breeze with the create new driver option. It walks you through each step. Basically i was just answering questions about the device i was creating a driver for. Then i also remembered during training that they said that all ea models have an ir capture capability built into the front of the units, and sure enough all I had to do was hit the button on the remote while pointing it at the ea-3. I just happened to be using the EA-3 but all the ea units have it. So it tells you to hit the certain button for 2 seconds and if it does capture the code, it then asks for you to hit it again and bam, on to the next button. You go through all the basic ones, but you can add and even omit certain buttons if you don't need them in the driver. Like some devices I just need on/off, volume, and input, and maybe one or 2 more like mute. you get the point. But basically composer makes it so easy to create your own basic drivers. Now I am in the middle of taking the driver creator classes they offer for free. Its way more advance and it is for the more advance drivers that you might need or want to create. But the basic create new driver tap/program in composer is the best for your exact situation. Word of caution, some remotes work off of radio frequencies or RF and some use a combination of IR and RF, then you will need the advance classes that I am in the middle of now. some Roku remotes are like that and also some DirecTV remotes too, but there are already drivers for those. Thank the C4 Gods for that. By the way; the Spectrum cable box I had so much trouble with was an old colorvision box that after researching it, was sold from colorvision to Texas instruments and then to 3 other companies and the IR codes would constantly change every time it got sold. So finding the hex codes was absolute impossible. Plus adding insult to injury, after spending a full day, oh yes a full 9 hours on site and then another 3 at night at home and then 2 more hours on site the next day. I got it working perfectly, it was a work of art. Then a week later the customer called us and informed us that he is getting all new cable boxes from spectrum. He said since he has all new everything else in the house, that why shouldn't he have the latest, newest cable boxes. I only suggested that to him 10 min after finding out that I could not find the drivers and before I spend all the time researching and creating a new driver, did he want to call spectrum for new boxes, and he said no at that point. It was only after all that hard, non billable time di he change his mind. UGH.... I was so mad, but you cant let the customer know that. We will just charge him to install the new cable boxes and programming. Wont make up for all my original time but at least I will get something back.

100% agree. It might not be the hardest class in the world but for some of us like me, that have a small start up business and went through all the work and money getting my electrical contracting license, workers comp, liability insurance, truck payments, truck insurance... the list goes on and on. Then I have to bid against a guy that has stolen software, and ebay products. It sucks , just do it the right way or go to another platform that is made for homeowners and does not need dealers. Even now I am almost done with my pcna course. Its $1300 plus , and I have to take a big exam at the end ... ugh lol

So I know this is a newbie question, but what is the big difference between josh.ai and Alexa and Google? So if I have a customer that says, why spend all the extra money on josh.ai, what can I tell them?

It can be done with physical speakers, and if you have any touch screens, I can come through that too

Honestly I have been using clare controls for awhile now and love it. It's sold by snapav, so very easy to get. There clareone panel integrates into control4 natively, even the clare controls (clare vision)cameras integrate into c4. Plus they are 1/2 the price for the same quality. The new line of clarevision cameras and nvr's are amazing and very fare on price. Clare controls has wireless to wireless translator and a wired to wireless translator that will make taking over an existing system a snap. I am actually doing a take over right now . They also sell wireless sensors, wired sensors, motion and smoke detectors. Everything the other companies have , just cheaper , better looking and quality and like I said. Integration into c4 is just 1 double click in composer. It finds it automatically. https://www.clarecontrols.com/ https://www.snapav.com/shop/en/snapav/clare Here is where to buy it from if your a snapav dealer, which if your low voltage guy is selling and installing c4 and alarms. Then they are https://www.snapav.com/shop/en/snapav/clare

Ok everyone. Here is my tutorial on how to do this. This might not be "the right way" to accomplish this, but it does work. Ok hope this helps: I am going to explain one of my wired (red wire to a light) 6 button dimmers. I have 4 buttons on it. 1st button is the hallway light(red wire controlling the load) : in system design I labeled it hallway, button behavior is keypad, led behavior is follow load. Under connections tab: I binded the hallway button with keypad dimmer light 3(which is my 6 button- now 4 button dimmer in the hallway) this will turn the hallway light on and off and if i hold it down it will dim up and down 2nd button controls another's room dimmer . "Nick's office" so it will toggle on/off another dimmer switch in another room In system design: labled it nicks office. Button behavior is keypad and tue led behavior is follow connections In connections tab: nicks office button link is binded to toggle button link recessed cans nicks office. Now at the end of the hallway is another 6 button programmable switch. No red wire, it does not get hooked up to anything but hot neutral and ground . The 1st button (top one, but you can do any one of them) controls thw hallway. Like a 3 way switch. System design tab: the 1st button I labeled hallway dimmer , led behavior is follow connections Then on connections tab: the 1st button which is hallway dimmer , it says hallway dimmer button link. I then binded it to the keypad dimmer light (My 6- 4 button with red wire) , I binded it to the toggle button link . Bam now when you tap that 1st button on the 6 button switch it turns the hallway light on and off, if you hold it down, it dims up and down. The second button on the 6 button switch says back recessed cans and it controls lights in another room that is mainly controlled by its own dimmer in that room . System design: labeled it recessed cans (obviously only so much fits lol) , led behavior is follow connections Then connections tab: choose that 6 button switch and the second button is now back recessed cans button link. Bind it to the back recessed cans toggle button link on the bottom menu . And now that second button controls on and off and dims lights in another room that is on a different switch. Hope that helps. I know that's a lot of info. Please let me know if that helps or if you need more assistance Good luck Nick wanerka

try using that amp on the ZigBee network instead of Wi-Fi I had the same problem in a customers house when they changed there network to a google mesh network. Changed the amp over to ZigBee and discovered it through the ZigBee network through composer and it worked like a charm. 5 months later and still working great!

if you need any other help, even how to program and or bind, you can private message me or email me at Nick@wanerka.com. Not looking to charge you pr anything, just looking to help out and expand practicing. I can always use more practice programming Control4. I came from a URC and Lutron automation background, and now I am all about Control4 and never looking back. Well maybe still adding Lutron ra2 select, caseta and Radiora 2 into control4. But I am leaving URC behind (Universal remote control). They do alot of what C4 does, even has a way larger ir data base, but c4 beats them out in so many other ways. anyways if you need anymore help, please dont hesitate to email me Nick Wanerka Wanerka Electric of Florida + Wanerka Security