cnicholson

On 11/22/2023 at 7:29 PM, Leighm0 said:

Control4 Enphase Envoy/IQ Gateway Solar Driver

Driver works great.  I use the Janus BMS Monitor driver for several things and was hoping that it would recognize your driver as an "energy" device, but it doesn't.   I use their generic variable logger to record data from your driver and plot charts / history (see below for a lame first example).   The Janus BMS Monitor also has a built-in energy dashboard, but it seems to only want to be fed by drivers it views as "energy" devices.   It would be cool if somehow you guys and Janus could compare notes so they could consume data from your driver.

Just a thought.  I realize that I am probably a weird outlier / edge case.

 

Awesome!  I just installed!   Going to integrate with Janus BMS driver for custom views and logging.  Thanks!

Have you tried just installing Homebridge / Plugin directly on a machine to rule out Docker-specific issues?  I originally installed on an old Pi 3 and was having some performance issues and was going to try Docker on a beefier server, but I ended up just installing on a spare MacMini and have had no problems.   But let us know if you get Docker working-- would be more elegant (and energy efficient) for sure.   

You may need to assign custom ports on both ends, but it seems like if *anything* is working then they are "talking" and *everything* should work, right? 

9 hours ago, jillmark99 said:

Which iPhone app did you use to survey your windows?

I use "Theodolite," but looks like there are many other cheaper apps that do this.

15 hours ago, eon said:

Which driver do you use to expose homekit devices to Control 4?

DTI Siri Voice Module.   It's really a C4<--> HomeBridge <--> HomeKit "bridge."  Once you expose stuff in HomeKit, the "Siri" part is automatic.    Although exposing C4 devices in HomeKit is fully supported/automatic, the reverse direction needs programming.  You access HomeKit stuff in C4 indirectly via dummy devices and programming. For example, when you want to open a garage door from C4, you change a HomeKit dummy device on the C4 side (using DTI driver) and then, on HomeKit side, watch that dummy device and control the "real" door using HomeKit programming (simple If/then).  HomeKit can "see" (and control) the MyQ device by virtue of the MyQ plugin in Homebridge (at least when the MyQ API is working, which is currently isn't).   A bit kludgy, to be sure.  But, when MyQ/Homebridge API is working, it all works great!  

(As an aside, MyQ reports door status, so you can maintain two-way state so C4 knows if door is open or closed on a verified basis and not just assuming state based on last command sent).

I was JUST looking at this yesterday.  I have been using the HomeBridge MyQ driver for about a year (exposing MyQ devices in HomeKit and then I use a C4-HomeKit bridge to expose to C4) and it seems like the various API hacks might finally be dead for good.  It stopped working for me about a month ago.  Apparently, MyQ has implemented a new intrusion detection scheme that will shut off repeated API calls.  So any future workarounds are likely to get detected and shut down automatically for the popular hacks in use now.  So I'm losing hope / giving up.

It seems like the Home Assistant community are fans of Ratgdo, but I am also curious about how to integrate with C4.  I have nine MyQ devices so I'm not super excited about having to get nine of those gizmos and installing them cleanly with power supplies, etc.

I also saw reference to MyQ potentially offering a paid solution that integrates directly with HomeKit (which would work for me), so wonder if they are going to offer a paid API option more broadly.   I already use their (paid) Tesla integration.   Obviously, yet another subscription payment is super annoying, but I would consider it if it actually works.

Ditto.  I use the beta driver to control three groups of shades so far (many, many left to do).  Pretty flawless once you dial it in.  Because I am lazy, I do wish that the driver itself incorporated more "logic" around controlling shades and not just sun position.  That said, the core "where is the sun right now?" function is awesome, and the programming is pretty straight forward.  After some tips from the developer, I got an iPhone app that makes it easy to "survey" your windows (in terms of where, in terms of azimuth and altitude, the sun enters and exits the positions when it will be annoyingly shining directly through window) and then do the programing around these events.   Makes shade automation "set and forget" instead of my prior delta-from-sunrise/sunset approach that required seasonal tweaking.

I also pull weather forecast and solar radiation / brightness from the Tempest weather station driver and use as conditionals so shades don't close when it's cloudy or cold.  Works like a charm.

I keep expecting Apple to implement this on HomeKit, assuming you have an AppleTV and/or HomePod in the rooms you want to track (and people have iPhone and/or Apple Watch with them).  I'd then use a Control4/Homekit bridge driver to expose this info to C4.  This has got to be on Apple's roadmap.

If you find something deployable out-of-the-box now, please let us know.

If an Apple-centric client, I know you can use Shortcuts to kick off actions based on connecting/disconnecting to a selected Bluetooth device.   It could be anything.  So you could buy a cheap bluetooth device for each person you want to track entering the target room, pair it to the phone and then, when you walk into area, it would connect and then you could program off this connection event.  For example, you could then toggle a dummy device in HomeKit that was synced to C4 via HomeKit bridge driver and do your further programming on C4 side.  Not elegant (to say the least), but depending on how many rooms/people you want to track, you could, in theory, make your magic happen this way.  Obviously not viable to track 20 people and 20 rooms.  But 2-3 people and 2-3 rooms (not within bluetooth range of each other), then maybe doable?

Press and hold Power button until given the option to restart

Yep. Bummer, as a lot of people are constantly asking for this.

I think the closest "standard" way to access Apple Music via Control 4 is by putting a Sonos Port gizmo on you matrix and connect your Apple Music account to Sonos.  You can then access playlists/favorites via native C4 interface.  For more detailed browsing / discovery, you'd need to access the native Sonos app on your android phone.    I have a Sonos Port and use this technique occasionally.  Bit of a hassle, but at least you'd have a single source library for you favorites, etc.

There are other more expensive specialty products that (apparently) can get you closer to a fulsome integration.

Goes without saying but your stated reason for preferring Apple Music is better sound quality (Atmos/Lossless/etc.), this would not apply to Shairbridge or playing via Sonos Port.

How are you powering the WAPs.  Looks like UDM-Pro doesn't have POE ports.  Are they connected to another switch or multi-port injector?   I once had an issue where some CCTVs and UniFi WAPs were connected to a switch with insufficient POE power budget and the WAPs would go offline based on what the cameras were doing.   Just a thought.

I don't think DHCP would ever cause a WAP to go offline-- perhaps unless you have more than one device handing out IP addresses.

If you turned off auto-configure, did you manually set them to use different channels?  Still shouldn't matter in terms of there ability to talk to your UDM (hardwired).

Maybe plug you POE injector(s) into a UPS battery just to rule out a power delivery glitch?

Good luck!

Maybe you can describe in more detail what you are trying to accomplish and what isn't working for you.

Natively in C4 you can set up different (logical) Buildings, each with different rooms.   Physical separation isn't an issue if you have a network link.

You would have your project running on one of your controllers and the other controller(s) would just be slaves and everything will "just work."

I have two building locations about 300' apart and each has a Lutron processor (not sure, but I suspect that these are paired "behind the scenes" on Lutron side as fair as C4 is concerned--- I did not set that part up myself).  I'm on one system (CA-10 + Core5 in main house and EA-5 in other building).  All seems to work fine (including sync'ed digital music sharing between buildings, which can be handy).

I looked and could not find this a while ago.  I made my own with a variable "HoursSinceReboot" that I reset on project load and then increment hourly with a timer.   I realize that "Project load" is more of a "warm boot" event and not a hardware level uptime, but it did what I wanted.   I also have a reboot count variable.  I used this while my system was flaky to see how maybe times it was rebooting itself and time since last reboot.

WAC support will email it to you if you request.  It's free.

Congrats on your retirement.   Unless you have issues or are looking for new functionality, I wouldn't be looking to fix what's not broken.  Here's some thoughts:

1.  Core3 will be faster at everything, but EA-3 should be able to do OSD fine, so I would not be eager to upgrade is that is the only thing that doesn't feel snappy.

2.  Other than voice control of your Comcast box, if you are happy with SR260, no need to upgrade.

3.  You should upgrade to OS 3.4.  Why not?  No need to buy new controller.

4.  Although not optimal, this network setup is prob fine.  The daisy chain will increase latency a tiny little bit (not humanly perceptible), but the main thing is the bottle neck between multiple high-bandwidth devices from on switch talking at same time to multiple devices on another switch (bottleneck is the interconnect link).  Highly unlikely that you have this in your system.   If you have 10G uplink ports on switches, use those.  Otherwise, you are fine.  A "star" configuration would be marginally better for some edge cases, but, again, if you aren't seeing issues, not necessary.

5.  If everything is working, no need to change anything else to static IPs

1 hour ago, Elvis said:

it disrupts the 2.4ghz band

2.4G only used 40MHz bandwidths, so this error must relate to 5G--- so prob not related, assuming you have remote connected to a 2.4G-only SSID.  As an aside, setting 5G channels to 160MHz is generally not worth it for real-world reliability and throughput, so prob best to set it to 80MHz.  I have found 160 to be good for benchmarks but not everyday use.  Will depend on how many APs you (and your neighbors) are running.

55 minutes ago, BY96 said:

Is your Apple TV one of the later models?

Yeah.  Latest and greatest one, but I don't think that would matter

Never tried this before (Airplay audio from movie playing on Apple TV to Shairbridge), but just did and it works fine-- but (no surprise) has serious lip-sync issues that you can maybe dial out (I didn't try).

Your other alternative should also work.  I have several "puck" model Airplay Express Units in another house that work great as AirPlay2 receivers.  I think I paid like $20 on EBay.

I assume this would have occurred to you and I must be missing something, but I'm curious why not just drive speakers from AVR and feed EA5 output to AVR input (directly or indirectly via Matrix).  Audio would play in "Multi-Ch Stereo" and video would use Dolby (or whatever). 

I've been deploying Room Control Driver (along with the excellent Domosapiens Keypad Audio Control driver).   Works great with streaming sources, and several sources (Pandora for example) allow you to pick playlists/stations as "Media Selection" sub-selections.   When you select "My Music" as a source, however, it doesn't allow you to pick a certain playlist.  

Am I doing something wrong?  I haven't spent much time with My Music / local music collection configuration, so I may be missing something basic.

The general idea is that Preset Source 1 would be Pandora, with a Media Source of a particular Pandora station and Preset Source 2 would be My Music with a certain playlist.  Is this possible?   Other ideas on how to get a set of MP3s be a Preset with Room Control Driver?

  My actual specific use case is to get one of the selections on Room Control Driver to be White Noise that plays all night (I would tell people to cycle through until you see a blue LED for white noise, or whatever).  I tried and failed with streaming services so thought I could just download some white noise MP3s and do it as above, but other suggestions to make this work would also be welcome.   I know I can do this as programming, but was hoping to do it as part of the general Room Control button UI.

On 9/14/2023 at 12:45 PM, Elvis said:

Wish voice worked on mine. Wish mine would stay on the network.

I, too, am still not able to get voice (Apple TV) to work reliably.  My network issues have improved A LOT with recent firmware updates so my Halos (touch and hard button) are now reliable as remotes, but voice super flaky / basically non-functional.  We have an open support case that has been escalated, but still no resolution.   I have 17 Apple TVs and, even though C4 insists that there is no limit, as part of diagnostics, we removed all but one from system.  That worked.  Then added one more.  Works.  Added two more.  All broken.  So that seems somehow relevant?  IDK.  Frustrating.

I'm on Ubiquity but, again, connectivity seems fine now and voice DOES work with one or two Apple TVs in the system. 

20 hours ago, chopedogg88 said:

Anyone know if that fan is compatible with Control4?  I see that it is "smart" with integration to alexa etc, but not sure if that means it also will work with the Control4 WAC-Modern Forms IP driver or if there is a different flavor required for that (or has to be Modern Forms)?

I don't know if this particular fan uses the same WiFi module / driver as the other Modern Forms (WAC) fans but, if it does, I have some experience.  I have ~12 of them.  I don't want to bad mouth them, as my issues may be specific to my network/setup, but the fans tend to go "offline" periodically and require a power cycle from breaker or factory reset to get them back behaving.  Sometimes they completely drop off WiFi (can't ping) and sometimes they show as "on the network" but don't respond to commands from C4 driver and/or native WAC phone app.  They provided a new C4 driver, which bricked my controller.  No joke-- restore from backup situation.   Anyway,  just my experience.  I have heard that people like Big Ass Fans--  I wonder if they are more bullet proof.

29 minutes ago, ekohn00 said:

I have a Unifi aggregation switch

Ditto.  I was going to mention this.  I have a cheap ($270) UniFi eight port 10G Aggregation Switch to let three fast servers talk to each other at 10G.  My main switch is 48-port 2.5G POE to support 6E WiFi.  Generally no need to have more than a few 10G ports in a residential application.  Sometimes you can get away with just the four SFP ports you get "free" with your main switch(es)-- use two for interconnect and two to connect your fastest clients to each other).
 

27 minutes ago, BY96 said:

I also discovered there is a version of it in the MacOS store.

This has been available for a long time (no Mac OS app as such, but M1/M2 macs have been able to run iPad app for years now).

In my experience, the iPad C4 app on M1 mac often get's "out of sync" and you need to force-quit and re-launch (simple "quit" doesn't seem to *really* quit).  Maybe just me.  Or maybe they have fixed this glitch in 3.4.  IDK.

17 minutes ago, Amr said:

Is it me or is any one else notice huge IOS app improvements with 3.4? Main Director on EA5, sec controllers EA3/EA1’s

I also noticed a big "snappiness" improvement, but since they didn't tout this as feature I wonder if it is attributable to a good old "clear out the cobwebs" reboot and not actual software improvement?

(I'm on CA10)