AtlantaSteven Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 Hi, I am about to be a new Control4 user. Our home theater will be installed in a couple weeks with control4. My plan is to eventually add light switches to be controller by Control4 as well as my ecobee thermostats and Honeywell Vista-20P security panel and maybe even Hunter Douglass PowerView controlled blinds. My question is: Should the home theater company where I purchased my electronics and control4 hardware, charge me a fee every time I add a device even if I add the device myself? Is there much involved to add a new device, configure it, etc.? Since I am very technical (a software engineer), can I add devices myself? thanks in advance, Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullseye Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 25 minutes ago, AtlantaSteven said: Should the home theater company where I purchased my electronics and control4 hardware, charge me a fee every time I add a device even if I add the device myself? Is there much involved to add a new device, configure it, etc.? Since I am very technical (a software engineer), can I add devices myself? Yes, your dealer will charge for adding any device or change of any equipment ( lets say a tv). Control4 is a dealer dependent system. Some devices are pretty simple to add, but there are some that are a little more involved. You could get ComposerHE and do most of the programing but still will need a dealer to add new stuff. You could use a remote dealer to help you. There a few very helpful dealers in here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtlantaSteven Posted June 8, 2016 Author Share Posted June 8, 2016 My local dealer sells Qmotion blinds/shades but they are very expensive. My wife found many sets of blinds she likes from Hunter Douglas. What is a reasonable amount for them to charge to add the HD blinds to my C4 setup? I never knew about the remote dealers. How do I get them to service/control my system after I bought it from a local place? What do they charge to add a device such as a tstat, security system, lights, etc? thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggzlot Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 3 hours ago, AtlantaSteven said: My local dealer sells Qmotion blinds/shades but they are very expensive. My wife found many sets of blinds she likes from Hunter Douglas. What is a reasonable amount for them to charge to add the HD blinds to my C4 setup? I never knew about the remote dealers. How do I get them to service/control my system after I bought it from a local place? What do they charge to add a device such as a tstat, security system, lights, etc? thanks. Remote dealers vary just like local dealers. My remote dealer won't charge for simple things. If I buy a handful of light switches new from him or when I purchased 7-8 motion sensors and install myself physically he doesn't charge me for the 10 mins of work for getting them in my system. Had I purchased the switches or sensors used on eBay or this forum then yes he would charge me a nominal fee to program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funnyfarm299 Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 Is there another dealer in your area that sells the Hunter Douglas blinds? We started selling them because the local blind shop did such a piss-poor job on the few installs we integrated. On a different note, before you install Ecobee thermostats, check with your dealer on the cost of the driver. There's only one company making the driver, and it costs at least 75% as much as the Ecobee itself. Nest driver is free from Control4, and of course there's the Control4 thermostats made by Aprilaire. Your dealer might be willing to give you a break on labor charges if you have some of the work done beforehand. For example, most of the time spent setting up a Vista panel is programming the security panel and wiring in the 4232. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtlantaSteven Posted June 9, 2016 Author Share Posted June 9, 2016 The problem is that my home theater dealer, who is great, by the way, sells Qmotion blinds which are very expensive and overkill for my application. My wife likes the Hunter Douglas. I found a local blinds company who sells and installs Hunter Douglas but my theater company doesn't want anything to do with Hunter Douglas. Plus the blinds company isn't too interested in Control4 as they want me to control the blinds with their own app. What am I to do? The same with the Honeywell Vista. The home security company wants to sell me their automation system but I want Control4. My home theater company wants to work with the security systems they know. As for the Ecobee, I'll probably leave it out of the Control4 system. I'll use their app as well as web-based interface. I happen to love ecobee. I had them in my other home for about 6 years. I just bought a new home. I purchased 2 ecobee stats with several wireless sensors before I even moved in. That's how much I like ecobee. Besides I never cared for Aprilaire anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 While not ... great ... the HunterDouglas ones will be powerview - which is fairly easily integrated into C4. Go for the blinds you like best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funnyfarm299 Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 You're the one with the money. If your dealer isn't going to play ball with your equipment, go somewhere else. There's plenty of great dealers in Atlanta (assuming that's where you live). Same thing with your security system. If they don't want to play the game, go elsewhere. A Vista panel is easy enough that anyone with decent tech skills can monitor with a DIY monitoring company. But here's the thing about Hunter Douglas. You need their app to set up your blinds. Once that's done you import the scenes into Control4. You don't have to have your blind guy touch anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 Is there another dealer in your area that sells the Hunter Douglas blinds? We started selling them because the local blind shop did such a piss-poor job on the few installs we integrated. On a different note, before you install Ecobee thermostats, check with your dealer on the cost of the driver. There's only one company making the driver, and it costs at least 75% as much as the Ecobee itself. Nest driver is free from Control4, and of course there's the Control4 thermostats made by Aprilaire. Your dealer might be willing to give you a break on labor charges if you have some of the work done beforehand. For example, most of the time spent setting up a Vista panel is programming the security panel and wiring in the 4232. Nest sucks as a thermostat. Sorry. Ecobee is much better. You can buy the driver direct from thedriverslab.com with no markup and have your dealer install. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtlantaSteven Posted June 9, 2016 Author Share Posted June 9, 2016 The problem I'm having is that the dealer I bought my control4 system from along with a lot of other home theater electronics, won't deal with installs of drivers they don't sell and are not familiar with. I'd do it myself if that was possible as I am a software engineer. I am new to the Control4 space. What does a consumer do when he wants to add a device that their dealer doesn't deal with. Do I switch back and forth from dealer to dealer? Since its a new house that we just moved into, I plan to remove the builders thermostat and install Ecobee myself. I am a dedicated Ecobee customer as I've had their stats in my previous home for over 5 years. Love it. If I can't get Control4 to work with it, I can still use the Ecobee app which is great. But if I can connect it to Control4 that would be preferable. thanks, Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 The problem I'm having is that the dealer I bought my control4 system from along with a lot of other home theater electronics, won't deal with installs of drivers they don't sell and are not familiar with. I'd do it myself if that was possible as I am a software engineer. I am new to the Control4 space. What does a consumer do when he wants to add a device that their dealer doesn't deal with. Do I switch back and forth from dealer to dealer? Since its a new house that we just moved into, I plan to remove the builders thermostat and install Ecobee myself. I am a dedicated Ecobee customer as I've had their stats in my previous home for over 5 years. Love it. If I can't get Control4 to work with it, I can still use the Ecobee app which is great. But if I can connect it to Control4 that would be preferable. thanks, Steve There are other dealers on here that will charge you a nominal fee to install the driver. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtlantaSteven Posted June 9, 2016 Author Share Posted June 9, 2016 Being new to the Control4 space, and not having my system installed yet, how do I switch dealers? If I have Dealer X accessing my system, do I need to grant access to Dealer Y and remove access for Dealer X? Or do I just give the password to a new dealer? Sorry for the "dumb" questions. And what is considered a nominal fee? And how are these remote folks paid ? Paypal? thanks. Steve P.S.: Maybe I should become a remote dealer? This is fun stuff. Are there remote programmers out there that just configure new devices remotely? Sounds like a fun job or sideline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegreatheed Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 change your dealer of record inside your customer.control4.com account. that gives the new dealer access to the system. some remote programmers prefer that you add them as an external user instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StroTek LLC Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 2 hours ago, AtlantaSteven said: P.S.: Maybe I should become a remote dealer? This is fun stuff. Are there remote programmers out there that just configure new devices remotely? Sounds like a fun job or sideline. the same dealer requirements are in place... so you will have to sell and install product to keep your dealer license Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmarenda Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 There are Somfy blinds from Costco (not sure of you're a member) that are usuallu priced pretty well. Twice per year they will have a 10% off sale. There ia an adapter you can get online that would connect to C4. I am pretty satisfied with mine. The price point was great with the 10% discount really making the difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshMania Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 16 hours ago, jmarenda said: There are Somfy blinds from Costco (not sure of you're a member) that are usuallu priced pretty well. Twice per year they will have a 10% off sale. There ia an adapter you can get online that would connect to C4. I am pretty satisfied with mine. The price point was great with the 10% discount really making the difference. What brand are the Somfy blinds from Costco? Bali, Graber or Veratex? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmarenda Posted July 26, 2016 Share Posted July 26, 2016 On 7/8/2016 at 2:08 PM, AshMania said: What brand are the Somfy blinds from Costco? Bali, Graber or Veratex? Bali... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vstar Posted July 26, 2016 Share Posted July 26, 2016 On 7/7/2016 at 9:31 PM, jmarenda said: There are Somfy blinds from Costco (not sure of you're a member) that are usuallu priced pretty well. Twice per year they will have a 10% off sale. There ia an adapter you can get online that would connect to C4. I am pretty satisfied with mine. The price point was great with the 10% discount really making the difference. for Canadians Costco.ca is currently having 20% off the Bali (Somfy) blinds until Aug 7, just looking at some myself currently, I realize this is only useful if you are in Canada but I know there are a couple on this forum who may find this useful. You can't beat the price and it is nice that the driver is native once you have the supported interface. Manufacturer: Somfy Model: RTS [16 CHANNEL] [Serial] Creator: Control4 Modified Date: Thu Feb 01 02:30:22 MST 2007 Device Type: BLIND Control Method: Serial Version: N/A Certified: FALSE Supported OS Version: All Control4 OS versions 1.7.4 and above Driver Type: C4I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derickson1472 Posted July 26, 2016 Share Posted July 26, 2016 On 7/7/2016 at 6:31 PM, jmarenda said: There are Somfy blinds from Costco (not sure of you're a member) that are usuallu priced pretty well. Twice per year they will have a 10% off sale. There ia an adapter you can get online that would connect to C4. I am pretty satisfied with mine. The price point was great with the 10% discount really making the difference. I'm interested in the Costco Somfy blinds, do I just buy the blinds from them, and then the power box that lifts and integrates with control4 I buy from someone else (what is that part)? Thanks Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vstar Posted July 26, 2016 Share Posted July 26, 2016 i don't know how it is on the Costco USA site (if you are in the USA) but I went through it on the Canada site this morning the motor and power is an option you add when building your blind order. the option is only available on some of their blinds but it tells you when you select motorized blinds under menu at the top. i selected 2" wood then configure, and motor tilt was an option along with either battery tube or ac/dc adapter. it then gives you the option to chose remote type, you need a remote that will handle multiple blinds in order to program the motor initially (they sell that). then you just need the serial interface that they do not sell (at least on Canadian site) to integrate it to control 4. please keep in mind i have not done this yet, i am in the process so maybe someone will chime in if i am accurate or not? I am going by what i have uncovered in my research. interface model: https://www.somfysystems.com/file.cfm/URTSI_2_Operating_Instructions.pdf?contentid=199789 sold at newegg and many other retailers (you will need a custom serial cable (rj45 to db9): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA8DH2YX6787 the remote you need to assign ID to blind that costco sells as option: https://www.somfysystems.com/file.cfm/Telis_RTS_Programming.pdf?contentid=199529 there is another thread that seems to discuss it more in depth: hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vstar Posted July 26, 2016 Share Posted July 26, 2016 just came across this document also. seems like there may be some other options i was unaware of. may be of some use. https://www.somfypro.com/documents/531668/3349736/Control+4+Wiring+Diagram personally i will stick with the urts ii interface when i get mine setup as it seems to be what most have used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StroTek LLC Posted July 29, 2016 Share Posted July 29, 2016 I prefer the QMotion shades.. they seem to just work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshMania Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 anyone try the new Somfy zigbee interface instead of the RTS interface? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAA Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 On 6/9/2016 at 7:47 AM, msgreenf said: There are other dealers on here that will charge you a nominal fee to install the driver. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Where can i find remote dealers to help add new devices..? Can any message me..? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StroTek LLC Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 6 hours ago, WAA said: Where can i find remote dealers to help add new devices..? Can any message me..? Thanks. PM Sent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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