adding LED light strips to control4

[obas]

We have some LED light strips next to the stairs, leading up to the second floor. I want to add them to my C4 system. According to the C4 installer, the current controller is not compatible with C4 ( I think it's American lighting), so he suggested to put in a DMX controller. Those things are not cheap, and I wonder if it's worth spending $800 for the dmx controller. He also mentioned I need a rs232-ethernet and led zone controller. Not sure why those are needed since the current LED controller is already in the media closet, close to the C4.  Is this the best option or are there other solutions. I do plan to add more light strips in the near future. 

[poisenoire]

the Domaudio driver and DMX controller from houselogix is awesome.  I run several DMX subsystems off of it and never had an issue.  Definitely cheaper than the $800 you referenced.

 

 

[obas]

@poisenoire   on the proposal, it just says $800 for DMX led controller, but that doesn't include labor costs. I'm not sure what driver and controller that is. Are there many DMX brands/types and drivers and what is the difference between them, just quality or also functionality. I agree it's quite expensive just to add a fully functional led light strip (it has a remote control) to C4. Would it be easy ( and much cheaper) to add additional led lights to the system later on?

[poisenoire]

Hi Obas,

I believe there are a few DMX options out there but the only one I am aware of  but almost all C4 integration I've seen with DMX has been using the box and driver I mentioned.  I can't speak to your integrator's pricing and details, but I think it would be reasonable to ask them for technical details and model of the controller so you can evaluate.

The box + driver is an expense for a single light - no doubt, but it gives you the ability to control an entire DMX universe in the future and can be easily expanded.

Have a look at this thread discussing the same thing (and same solution).  

 

[tcwalker5]

How do you control the LED lights now?  Is it via IR remote or hardwire switch?  Do you want color changing, flashing, etc or just on/off?

[obas]

@tcwalker5 Right now, it's both a regular switch ( just regular one to turn it on/of) and a little remote control where I can control the color, set some programs ( remote is a TRULUX RGB & RGB+WW). Can also turn off the LEDs using the remote Not sure why the electrician decided to put both switch and remote when they installed it. For C4, I definitely want color changing and some programs.

@poisenoire. Thanks, makes sense, I will ask him to provide some more detail, and thanks for the links. For future expansion, I will only need the led light strips that can be connected to the controller, correct. The initial cost will take of most of it?

 

[tcwalker5]

Yah, It sounds like the switch is redundant.  

I haven't tried this, but is the IR receiver for the strip in a location that you could use one of these?  

https://www.control4.com/docs/product/zigbee-to-ir-module/data-sheet/english/latest/zigbee-to-ir-module-data-sheet-rev-a.pdf

Also saw this thread which sounds similar but with a different brand I think.

 

[poisenoire]

15 minutes ago, obas said:

@poisenoire. Thanks, makes sense, I will ask him to provide some more detail, and thanks for the links. For future expansion, I will only need the led light strips that can be connected to the controller, correct. The initial cost will take of most of it?

 

for the most part, yes just additional dmx-compatible lighting hardware (strips, power supply, whatever).  The only additional future cost you may have associated with the DMX device / driver would be whatever new programming + setup you would want your integrator to do (add a new light into C4)

[poisenoire]

10 minutes ago, tcwalker5 said:

Yah, It sounds like the switch is redundant.  

I haven't tried this, but is the IR receiver for the strip in a location that you could use one of these?  

https://www.control4.com/docs/product/zigbee-to-ir-module/data-sheet/english/latest/zigbee-to-ir-module-data-sheet-rev-a.pdf

Also saw this thread which sounds similar but with a different brand I think.

 

Houselogix also had an RGB IR light driver on their site for just this purpose.

[obas]

@tcwalker5 I'm not sure what you mean by " IR receiver for the strip in a location that you could use one of these". What is the IR receiver in this case? Currently, the led strips are hardwired to a controller (non C4 compatible, I guess it's Trulux one), the controller is in the media closet where the C4 and all the other stuff are. I would guess the current controller is at most 4 feet physically away from the C4). In my understanding, I would only need a DMX controller (box + driver). 

 

 

[tcwalker5]

I suppose I should have asked.  I assumed your remote was IR.  If that is not the case, then my suggestion no longer applies.

[obas]

@tcwalker5 I don't think the remote is IR, since the current controller is in the media closet and I can use the remote from the living room. I guess it's RF. I assume when the led strips are controlled by C4, I can use the C4 keypad and C4 app/OSD to control the leds  

Somewhat unrelated. When I want to expand the number of led strips, some of them can be wired to the media closet, similar to the current led strips ( where I want to add some of the led strips is next to the media closet) but some of the lights are in a different location. How to add those to C4 (wiring to the media closet is not a real option)

[tcwalker5]

1 hour ago, obas said:

 I guess it's RF. 

Yes, it would be if you can operate it without pointing it to the receiver.  

 

1 hour ago, obas said:

How to add those to C4 (wiring to the media closet is not a real option)

This could be where you use the IR repeater.  But after reading this thread you may want to reconsider the DMX option if you want to scale and have a lot of lights and not piecemeal it together.  I don't have experience with DMX, so my comments are just my thoughts.

 

[zaphod]

There are actually a bunch of options if you don't mind changing the controller, assuming that the strips are your generic four wire RGB strips.  You could get a $5 IR controller and use Alan Chow's driver.  You can get a Hue compatible controller for about $50 and use the C4 Hue driver as well.  I have both of these in my system.

[obas]

@tcwalker5 @zaphod Thanks for the suggestions. You are right, there are so many options. I guess that part of the C4 integrator to provide the options to the customer. $5 it controllers are hard to beat. How does it scale?

[tcwalker5]

Again, just my opinion... since each LED tape light will be in a different location/room, etc, I don't see a problem adding multiple IR controllers.  Each scene will be turned on/off independently, and if coordination is required, it can be done with an advanced lighting scene.  

That being said, I don't know what you can do with DMX that you can't do with basic LED controllers.  Nor do I know the cost of the Z2IR type solution.  

Good luck!!!

[zaphod]

9 hours ago, obas said:

@tcwalker5 @zaphod Thanks for the suggestions. You are right, there are so many options. I guess that part of the C4 integrator to provide the options to the customer. $5 it controllers are hard to beat. How does it scale?

The probably with scaling is that you need to get an IR signal to the controller(s).  And I am not sure if you can have multiple controllers in the same location displaying different colours as they likely take the same IR codes.  But if you want the same colour on all of the strips then you only need one controller, but you may need repeaters as the controllers can typically only handle 1-2 strips.

This is the sort that I am talking about:  https://www.amazon.com/EPBOWPT-44Key-Remote-Controller-Lights/dp/B01KJ4VLYA/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1544711946&sr=8-20&keywords=rgb+led+controller

There are also Wifi best controllers that are around $15.  The issue with them is that I don't think there are any drivers so you have to do some hacks to use it in C4, like using the generic IP driver.

[mindedc1]

I use a Zwave LED strip driver by Fibaro, a Vera controller, and the extraveg vera drivers. It shows up as 4 dimmers to C4 (RGBW) and works instantly. Vera is $80-100, LED driver was $60. I use superbright LEDs from Amazon ($20 for 15 feet with 300 LEDs) with an amazon 12V power supply ($30) and a signal amplifier ($10) because I am driving quite a few strips.

YMMV on C4 integration costs.

[obas]

 

@poisenoire

My C4 integrator finally installed the DMX controller. They used an Enttec with the control4 driver (as far as I understand). However, there is almost no functionality right now. It only has the sliders for RGB/W. The integrator is still working on it, he has done a good job to get things to work as much as possible I think. I wonder if the C4 driver just has very limited functionality, especially compared to the DomAudeo solution mentioned here ( and everywhere).  Is it better to swap out  the enttec with the domaudeo? Any suggestions? It's kind of a waste now, I paid $800 to get only a fraction of the functionality I had before.

 

 

[poisenoire]

Obas,

I don't have experience with the entec driver but the domeaudio allows for a colorwheel, various effects and of course standard light control.

I also use the sound to light feature in my theater which syncs various rgb effects to audio from C4.

I'm sure the entec is perfectly fine hardware but I doubt you can find a better overall solution and capability than the Domaudio setup

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[lippavisual]

You will not get smooth fading with the Entec box and driver, plus its pretty taxing on your controller running director for larger scenes..  My advice, swap over to the Engineering Solutions box and Domaudeo driver.  You will not regret it.

[Mlt245]

Is it possible to control savant DMX led strips from control4.  

It seems to me like any dmx controller should work.