calcubot5000

As I've started to price out the cost of switching everything over to something else it's making me think I should give Composer Home Edition and see whether that scratches my itch for now. I'm going to need a dealer to grant me access to the account that they set up for the previous owner, correct? Like others have said I'm inclined NOT to use that dealer again given the crazy setup they've built here. Any advice for how to get this moving?

Long time lurker, first time poster. A little under a year ago I purchased a house that came with a Control4 system installed - lighting, sound, some basic automation. This is my first time using Control4, and I have mixed feelings. After waffling on what to do for months, I figured it was finally time to ask the experts. Let me give some background info and then I'd welcome thoughts / ideas / suggestions / pie recipes. First up, the current layout. C4-HC800-BL Controller C4-HC250-BL Controller (I'm unsure what the difference between the two controllers are. This one isn't hooked up right now so maybe it's just legacy?) C4-16AMP3-B Multi-zone audio amp hooked up to 16 in-ceiling speakers C4-WMB-B Wireless music bridge 20 single-button light switches 4 three-button keypads 3 six-button keypads 10 of the single-button switches are on the walls in the living areas. The other 10 are mounted on a wall in the utility room, but control lights in the living areas. From what I can tell, the 3- and 6- button switches wirelessly connect to the controller, and then the controller triggers the switches that are in the utility room. I've been pretty invested in the Sonos ecosystem for many years and have disconnected all the audio equipment and switched all the speakers over to Sonos amps (and have been very happy with the results), but leaving the gear in this list in case it's helpful. I'm a pretty technical guy - software engineer, love to tinker with home automation stuff, etc - and so it probably comes as no surprise that my gut is telling me I should pull the lighting system and replace it with something I can self-manage. BUT. I also realize that I'm frequently wrong, and maybe I'm not understanding the full capabilities or tooling available in Control4. Here are my concerns with the current (lighting) setup: I don't (think I) have access to the tools needed to customize or reprogram the lighting / switch setup. The previous owner didn't share any of his account info with me, so I'm stuck with whatever config he had. I think? I have a hard time swallowing the idea of paying someone to change the config of something that I already own. I want to replace some of my dumb switches with smart ones, but again, I don't want to have to pay someone else to do this for me. Most of the time the light switches work fine, but every couple of weeks a button will fail to register immediately, or won't work, or does something unexpected like switching off every light all at once. I'm a little rural and when we have a power outage the system doesn't always come back up seamlessly. I've had to flip breakers to get the 6-button switches to reconnect a couple of times. I'm concerned about the longevity of the system. It's already 7-ish years old and when the hardware inevitably breaks half my lights are going to stop working and I won't be able to fix it without calling in a third party. Seriously, I really hate the idea of relying on someone else to fix/change things that I could easily do myself if I just had access. So my questions for you are: Should I stay with Control4 or replace it with something else? If I stay, how do I address my concerns? If I go, how the hell do I replace the 3- and 6- button switches? Is there some other system that has multi-button keypads that can wirelessly trigger switches mounted somewhere else? Okay phew, this turned into a wall of text. Hopefully this explains the current setup and gets all my brain thoughts out. I really am open to ideas and suggestions here and welcome any and all input. Am I thinking about this wrong? Am I nuts? Help me, Control4 wizards; you're my only hope.