BertieB

Hi OP here Thanks for the useful feedback. A few comments & observations…in no particular order: Quite a lot of emotion around some of these threads! The Home Assistant integration I'm using is this one https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/control4/ - please don't turn it off I've just noticed it say you need to be on 3.0+ - which I'm not Most of my lights are (I think) wired to 3 x C4-DIN-8DIM-E - so I guess that unpicking that will incur some cost - so can't see the point of that…unless they break! Unfortunately not all of the lights are wired into there, probably as they are at the top of the house, so if I want to automate the remainder then I will have a mixed environment which will require integration There’s some talk about the stability of C4. To be honest, it’s not been that stable for me so far. Now that might be due to the original installation, or more likely the ongoing maintenance. For example it is on v2.10 - though I’m not sure on the implications of that. As I can’t currently do anything to the system myself, that implies that I have to pay a dealer to carry out regular maintenance to keep things up to date - with the risk that integrations fail. That sounds like an unbounded hourly rate kind of job I’d be happy to get quotes for implementing what I want - but at this stage I’m not really sure what I want. I’m new to automation - but I can see that might be additional devices in the future: power generation, more sensors, better cameras, better heating thermostats, locks etc - with automation around that. I know all too well from experience that’s a tricky requirement to scope and cost and possibly get someone interested in if you do it piecemeal I’m interested in how many dealers are interested in small pieces of random work rather than big installations? and what the going rate is My first hurdle seems to be that no one seems keen to sell me Composer HE - original dealer brushed it off I won’t mention the surprise that the gate intercom can’t be recorded - as that seems to have been done to death in another thread! It all has to be useable by the family - so Alexa integration is (probably) key to it all - the C4 / Alexa integration I had working could only see lights though I'm aware of the pros and cos of niche OS and "professional products" - I used to have a load of Squeezebox products - which were brilliant - but after the were taken over by Logitech they became harder and harder to use (by the non-techies) - so I ended up going down the Sonos route....now of course there are complaints from people who spent a lot of money of Sonos products to find out they are no longer supported and are expensive bricks ^ sorry that's all a bit random - it's been a long (working) day I have a dealer / electrician coming over next week so I will see where we go from there Thanks all - you might see me around!

Hi, I have inherited a Control4 system in our new house and slowly getting my head around it. There are a number of things that don’t work, such as alarm integration, gate integration, automations and references to the old occupants. In addition the 4Sight licence has just expired so Alexa control and When -> Then has just stopped working. I work in technology and have a pretty good understanding of technology (programming and networks) so having to rely on a dealer doesn’t really work for me. Especially as my local ones (including the one that installed it) all seem to be busy. I have built a Home Assistant instance and have integrated it to the lights using the Control4, which works ok - but it isn’t able to access other features (like relays, motion sensors and alarm) So I think my plan is: get access to Composer Home Edition, so I can start to take control of things - this seems to be easier said than done though, as you have to go through a dealer? Start replacing some of the direct integrations (like relays) with more open versions so I can integrate with Home Assistant e.g. Shelly keep C4 for the lighting, as the wiring is already in place around a 400 year old house I don’t use the video and audio streaming as mostly already have direct streaming with Sonos and Firesticks All help and advice gratefully received!