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Moved into a Control4 house, nothing works


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If I look at the video of the HC300 it says the IP is NOT ASSIGNED.  I think it has a problem with the Eero's acting as DHCP servers.  I can sort of force it by running a dhcp server on a laptop (but then it still doesn't show the IP on the screen).  The control4 dealer said they had good luck with Eero's before so I am surprised, they don't give you many options for advanced settings.

I am at 2.5.3 according to one of the wireless ipad things.  When I spoke with the installer they looked it up and said that I was stuck at the latest version this would run.

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12 minutes ago, Luke said:

Dude, don't wait 2 weeks for a some dealer and quit screwing around yourself because it's locked up and you will not make any more progress. Pay one of these guys $75-100 to log on to your system and tell you what you are working with. You could have $20k worth of automation gear or just a pile of trash. The only way to know 100% is to have a pro look at your system. 

How are they going to help remotely?  The damn thing can't get to the internet!  When I plug in the rest of the network it forgets its IP address.  I have tried setting it to several different IP's, it keeps forgetting what it has.

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55 minutes ago, RussDraper said:

How are they going to help remotely?  The damn thing can't get to the internet!  When I plug in the rest of the network it forgets its IP address.  I have tried setting it to several different IP's, it keeps forgetting what it has.

It needs to be online first. Controller might be disconnected from switch, it might have static IP with different subnet, it might be faulty, you might have some stupid "smart switch". if you can't get it online it might be hard to help you. It is possible even with wrong ip subnet, but if controller is disconnected or faulty, remote access will not help. You can do network reset....

 To reset to network defaults (wired connection), power cycle the HC-300 and hold the identify button until the Data, Link, and Power LEDs are solid blue, then immediately release.

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7 hours ago, RussDraper said:

I don't doubt a lot of money was spent, but I used LinuxMCE in the past with ZWave devices for not much money.  I was able to control lights, media, door locks and even had the system VoIP call me when someone was at the door!  Granted I had to do the configuration myself vs paying a dealer.

I didn't choose the house because of Control4, it was already installed and if I can make it work I will keep it.  I plan to add all lights in the entire house to the system, garage door openers, window blinds/motors, integrate with a security system and a door lock.  If it is going to cost me thousands more to do this with C4 I'll remove it now and start with something that doesn't cost me to add to the system!

I presume it isn't getting an IP because it doesn't like the Eero DHCP server, I'll try directly connecting to it and setting an IP to it and running a packet sniffer again.  The system is looking for DHCP, I already ran a packet sniffer and I see it sending out DHCP requests, it is not set static.

Use angry ip scanner it's probably on a different range. 

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Just network reset your controller back to DHCP like Vitali said. Better yet, if you are a techie DIY geek, which clearly you are, just hack together your own system and forget c4 because you won't want to pay a dealer to help you and no dealer will want to help you anyways because you are the know it all type.

 

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

 

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1 hour ago, chopedogg88 said:

Just network reset your controller back to DHCP like Vitali said. Better yet, if you are a techie DIY geek, which clearly you are, just hack together your own system and forget c4 because you won't want to pay a dealer to help you and no dealer will want to help you anyways because you are the know it all type.

 

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

 

+1

Keys to a successful C4 system:

 

1. Spend money

2. Trust your dealer

3. Like your dealer

4. Be able to learn from your dealer

5. Spend more money

6. Program on your own

7. Spend more money because now you can program :D

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5 hours ago, abovedeck said:

+1

Keys to a successful C4 system:

 

1. Spend money

2. Trust your dealer

3. Like your dealer

4. Be able to learn from your dealer

5. Spend more money

6. Program on your own

7. Spend more money because now you can program :D

And i thought it was complicated :P

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8 hours ago, chopedogg88 said:

Just network reset your controller back to DHCP like Vitali said. Better yet, if you are a techie DIY geek, which clearly you are, just hack together your own system and forget c4 because you won't want to pay a dealer to help you and no dealer will want to help you anyways because you are the know it all type.

 

 

No kidding.  You aren't going to want to pay to even get it up and going, just rip it all out and eBay it.  Threads like this are pointless.

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I agree with these comments, if you are a DIY'er C4 is a TOUGH product. It can be done, but if you like Control of your system, pun intended, Control4 isnt it. If you want things to just work and stroke a check, control4 is great

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I agree with these comments, if you are a DIY'er C4 is a TOUGH product. It can be done, but if you like Control of your system, pun intended, Control4 isnt it. If you want things to just work and stroke a check, control4 is great

And the latter is why it is great unless you are single.

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Why is everyone trying to persuade this guy??

he obviously wants to install/program on his own.  Stop beating a dead horse. 

OP, Sell your stuff on this site or eBay and get it over with.

doubtful that the money you recoupe from selling will pay for a lot of replacements.  You will end up paying more in the long run.

another thing, Eero is crap.  Get a real network in place and you may be able to chug your science project along. 

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I like how several of you guys replied without reading much of the thread.  I already tried network reset, it doesn't work properly.  I can sort of force it to get an IP with a cheapy little DHCP server program running on my laptop, but as soon as I plug that switch into the rest of the network it seems to request a new IP from the Eero and that doesn't work.  I can disable the DHCP server but it still forgets its IP assignment after about 15 minutes.  TTL is set for 24hrs in DHCP.  I ran a packet sniffer, it really does forget and starts sending out DHCP requests again.  I tried swapping the switch to a known clean Layer2 switch with no effect.  I gave it a different IP via DHCP in case something else was using that IP and same end result.  Perhaps this controller is dead, or if I had the software I could do something with it.

I want this to work because there are at least 30 light switches and at least 10 6x panels already in the house in addition to a huge amount of electronics gear.  I am not sure why I would need to upgrade the controller, I don't need a faster controller just to send serial connection or IR to devices in the house!  I agree it would be nice if it was all HDMI, but I'm not in a position to rip open the walls to replace the huge amount of cabling already there so the component switcher is going to stay for now.

The original installer is supposed to come out in a week or two and they said they have the config, so in theory I could get them to write it to a new controller.  I did notice there are a bunch of smaller devices that could potentially be HC200B's (going on image search), they are in each area for additional IR inputs so I didn't think they were the master controller.

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11 minutes ago, RussDraper said:

I like how several of you guys replied without reading much of the thread.  I already tried network reset, it doesn't work properly.  I can sort of force it to get an IP with a cheapy little DHCP server program running on my laptop, but as soon as I plug that switch into the rest of the network it seems to request a new IP from the Eero and that doesn't work.  I can disable the DHCP server but it still forgets its IP assignment after about 15 minutes.  TTL is set for 24hrs in DHCP.  I ran a packet sniffer, it really does forget and starts sending out DHCP requests again.  I tried swapping the switch to a known clean Layer2 switch with no effect.  I gave it a different IP via DHCP in case something else was using that IP and same end result.  Perhaps this controller is dead, or if I had the software I could do something with it.

I want this to work because there are at least 30 light switches and at least 10 6x panels already in the house in addition to a huge amount of electronics gear.  I am not sure why I would need to upgrade the controller, I don't need a faster controller just to send serial connection or IR to devices in the house!  I agree it would be nice if it was all HDMI, but I'm not in a position to rip open the walls to replace the huge amount of cabling already there so the component switcher is going to stay for now.

The original installer is supposed to come out in a week or two and they said they have the config, so in theory I could get them to write it to a new controller.  I did notice there are a bunch of smaller devices that could potentially be HC200B's (going on image search), they are in each area for additional IR inputs so I didn't think they were the master controller.

It sounds like you inherited a solid system even if some things are dated. You really can't do much until you get a controller online and if the installer has the project already that will save you a lot of time instead of starting over.

I think you'll get an idea pretty quickly once you get up and running if this type of system is right for you. I have a technical background too and it can be annoying to have a dealer do work for small things you get, but at the end of the day control4 integrates everything together seamlessly so I eventually get over it.

Your controller cannot upgrade to the later OS, you can see if the updated features mean much to you or not to upgrade.

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well, did you get the old customers login info to their Control4 account? Did they have a site license?

 

hipefully the dealer on site can do a better job of convincing you to do some upgrades. 

 

Or or you could bandaid it and use it for a while at about 80% capacity. 

Then when the eBay 300 you installed dies and you finally upgrade to an ea3 (you would've got the 5, but you already spent $500 on the bandaid) and see how much more responsive and function the upgraded controller is you'll wish you had done it from the get go. 

 

NOT posted from an iPhone 5

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1)  I tried swapping the switch to a known clean Layer2 switch with no effect.

2) I want this to work because there are at least 30 light switches and at least 10 6x panels already in the house in addition to a huge amount of electronics gear.  

 

3) I am not sure why I would need to upgrade the controller, I don't need a faster controller just to send serial connection or IR to devices in the house! 4) I agree it would be nice if it was all HDMI, but I'm not in a position to rip open the walls to replace the huge amount of cabling already there so the component switcher is going to stay for now.

The original installer is supposed to come out in a week or two and they said they have the config, so in theory I could get them to write it to a new controller.

1. Have you tried the dumbest of dumb $30 wired consumer grade switches yet not software on a pc?

 

2. Sounds like a good start. Just need a working controller. Also sounds like a lot to be running on a 300. Even back the that should have likely been specified with an HC1000

 

The 200/300/500/1000 range of controllers is old. They were supersedes with the 250/800 with are now end of sales but still being updated with latest software builds.

 

Then the EA1/3/5 came out.

 

So this is like complainging that iOS 8 runs like a dog on your iphonr5. In fact for customer satisfaction C4 limited these to 2.5.3. Now we are on 2.9.1.

 

To use much new functionality including Alexa you need 2.8.2+

 

4) in time. How is the component run. Over Cat. If done properly so no need to rip cables out of walls.

 

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