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New Control4 system buggy between floors


Deserttech

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Hello all - I am brand new to the world of Control4. Went through an authorized dealer to install the Control4 system along with my new home theater. Prior to my install I already had in place Ubiquti network gear consisting of 3 AP in a mesh along with hardwired switches and the security gateway. Also, there is a Wink2 hub in the center of my home and Alexa for controlling devices using voice that are connected to the Wink2.

In my theater room (basement) rack there is a single EA1-V2, running OS2. I also have 2x SR260's and a Z2IO.

Withing 24-36 hours of the installation, the remotes are not able to fully control the equipment in either the theater, or the family room that is directly above the theater. Turning on/off SAT boxes does not work all the time, nor does volume control on the receivers. One attempt to raise the volume in the family room caused the receiver to jump to 100%, causing me to scramble for the receivers OEM remote.

My dealer sent someone out to make adjustments but things are still not right. I was informed it could be interference from my wireless AP's and the zigbee network, or that the Control4 controller is in my enclosed theater rack.

If most everything in my home is wired, is there anyway to have the controller use the wired network, or does it have to create its own mesh, and can my existing network be interferring with it? Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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Your controller should be as centrally located as possible. The worst place is the equipment rack typically. Or if you need to leave it there for other reasons (perhaps it is controlling devices in your theater via IR, serial, hdmi), then you probably need to add other devices (Control4 dimmers, keypads, etc) to help boost up your zigbee mesh or even add another controller to act as a zigbee access point (CA-1 is least expensive option for this at $350 msrp).

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

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Move to Zigbee channel 20, most of your your interferences issues will go away, do that first and try the system for a couple of days if you still have sluggish or slow remote operation then u have a weak Zigbee network and you do need to boost it!

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23 minutes ago, Deserttech said:

Ok - I will ask my installer what channel it's on, see if there is way to possibly mount the controller to side of rack, and possibly extend the range of the mesh via other devices. Thank you all for the feedback and suggestions.

I would consider adding like a C1 or some smart lighting on other floors to improve the mesh....

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  • 2 weeks later...

So here are the issues I see and my recommendations:

1) If you have a full Ubiquiti network, your dealer should have warned you up front it is on the Control4 do not use list for very good reasons. Without getting into the specifics in this thread, it does NOT play well with Control4 gear largely due to its implementation or lack thereof of multicast. While your problems appear to be Zigbee-specific, end-to-end Ubiquiti is a major red flag for Control4 systems. We have worked extensively with a number of clients to solve these problems, but in each case the clients were very networking-savvy and we were able to collaborate to get things working.  Networks with just Ubiquiti APs and not routers or switches are less prone to issues. There are a number of Ubiquiti-specific settings we have worked on with our clients that address the network issues - YMMV.

2) Check the 2.4GHz radio settings on your Ubiquiti AP's. Make sure they are not set to Auto - set them to channels 1 or 6. I prefer to alternate channels 1 and 6 based on distance between the APs i.e. channel 1, then next closest AP channel 6, then next closest channel 1 and so on. 

3) Change Zigbee channel on controller to 25 - least likely to interfere with Wifi channels 1 and 6.

4) Absolutely use the Control4 3M antenna extender to get your Zigbee radio "out" of a rack or other enclosure.  Not using this cheap part in a rack or enclosure is asking for problems.

5) If you live in a particularly Wifi "busy" area you may need to use WiSpy or other Wifi spectrum scanning tools to adjust both your AP Wifi channels and your Zigbee channel so as not to compete with your neighbor's Wifi

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6 hours ago, AK1 said:

So here are the issues I see and my recommendations:

1) If you have a full Ubiquiti network, your dealer should have warned you up front it is on the Control4 do not use list for very good reasons. Without getting into the specifics in this thread, it does NOT play well with Control4 gear largely due to its implementation or lack thereof of multicast. While your problems appear to be Zigbee-specific, end-to-end Ubiquiti is a major red flag for Control4 systems. We have worked extensively with a number of clients to solve these problems, but in each case the clients were very networking-savvy and we were able to collaborate to get things working.  Networks with just Ubiquiti APs and not routers or switches are less prone to issues. There are a number of Ubiquiti-specific settings we have worked on with our clients that address the network issues - YMMV.

2) Check the 2.4GHz radio settings on your Ubiquiti AP's. Make sure they are not set to Auto - set them to channels 1 or 6. I prefer to alternate channels 1 and 6 based on distance between the APs i.e. channel 1, then next closest AP channel 6, then next closest channel 1 and so on. 

3) Change Zigbee channel on controller to 25 - least likely to interfere with Wifi channels 1 and 6.

4) Absolutely use the Control4 3M antenna extender to get your Zigbee radio "out" of a rack or other enclosure.  Not using this cheap part in a rack or enclosure is asking for problems.

5) If you live in a particularly Wifi "busy" area you may need to use WiSpy or other Wifi spectrum scanning tools to adjust both your AP Wifi channels and your Zigbee channel so as not to compete with your neighbor's Wifi

Well... my Control4 dealer did not forwarn me about using Ubiquiti gear. Multicast has been implemented in the Unifi series for a couple of years now and while it was not enabled on my WiFi settings, it is now, along with moving from Auto to channel 1 on the 2.4GHz network. Thank you for that suggestion.

They also did come and install an external antenna on the equipment rack and that appeared to resolve the issues as response is now immediate.

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13 minutes ago, Deserttech said:

Well... my Control4 dealer did not forwarn me about using Ubiquiti gear. Multicast has been implemented in the Unifi series for a couple of years now and while it was not enabled on my WiFi settings, it is now, along with moving from Auto to channel 1 on the 2.4GHz network. Thank you for that suggestion.

They also did come and install an external antenna on the equipment rack and that appeared to resolve the issues as response is now immediate.

Great to hear. It's the difference in the implementation of multicast that . causes the "friction" between Control4 and Unifi.

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