Auto-Room locate w/ C4 mobile App?

[HomeAutomationNerd]

Anyone know a way to have the C4 App on my phone automatically figure out what room I'm in? 

Wifi+GPS would be fine. I could stick an ultrasonic in each room if that would do the trick. 

I'm continually shuffling through the room list to find the right room to do something. Some of this I can solve w/ custom buttons, but if the app just defaulted to the right room much would be better. GPS + Wifi location seems accurate enough to do this... 

[RyanE]

If you're on OS 3.0, you can favorite certain rooms, and then just swipe back and forth between rooms.

I have mine setup on my phone as Office, Master Bedroom, and Family Room, which are the rooms I use most often.

The swipe is pretty quick.

I don't know that there are any good ways to locate inside a building, and there's no way to programatically change the room on the app, so even if you could find the location, you can't make the app switch.

RyanE

 

[HomeAutomationNerd]

Thanks @RyanE

I think Wifi Assisted GPS, Bluetooth beacons, and Ultrasonic would be suitable and quite cheap. It would take a bit of work from the C4 App team though... 

Ah well. I do have rooms favorited, but the problem is I have many favorite rooms.  

[zaphod]

There is a product with sensors in each room.  I remember a discussion here and I think that they were working on drivers for C4, or had drivers.  Unfortunately I don't recall the name of that product.  Hopefully someone will pop in to the thread and give their experiences.

[jlemonakis]

RoomMe, but like someone else said, don't think there's a way to switch the mobile client over to a different room in the way that you want. 

[Amr]

On 7/31/2020 at 2:17 PM, zaphod said:

There is a product with sensors in each room.  I remember a discussion here and I think that they were working on drivers for C4, or had drivers.  Unfortunately I don't recall the name of that product.  Hopefully someone will pop in to the thread and give their experiences.

RoomMe, it has a driver from Chowmain, but It’s bulky, if you don’t mind a size double that of the standard Smoke detectors then go for it.

[Amr]

On 7/31/2020 at 1:56 AM, ChrisM said:

Anyone know a way to have the C4 App on my phone automatically figure out what room I'm in? 

Wifi+GPS would be fine. I could stick an ultrasonic in each room if that would do the trick. 

I'm continually shuffling through the room list to find the right room to do something. Some of this I can solve w/ custom buttons, but if the app just defaulted to the right room much would be better. GPS + Wifi location seems accurate enough to do this... 

GPS won’t work for room locations, better use Bluetooth for that for its short range which is exactly what you need for exact room detection.

[HomeAutomationNerd]

I'm fine installing Bluetooth Beacons in the relevant rooms, or using an existing COTS package. 

The question I've really got - does the C4 IOS app support any of that? When I launch the app, I would love "auto-room detection". If that means installing Beacons that's fine. 

[msgreenf]

RyanE who works for control4 already confirmed the app doesn't work like that.

[RyanE]

18 hours ago, msgreenf said:

RyanE who works for control4 already confirmed the app doesn't work like that.

At least not that I've seen.

RyanE

 

[zaphod]

This should be something that C4, and others, are working on as it would be very useful for end users and also a good source of revenue as people with big homes would be buying a whole bunch of hardware.  Or add something like beacons to C4 devices like dimmers/light switches so that it auto-locates to the room of the closest C4 device as determined by signal strength.

[RyanE]

This is a surprisingly hard problem to solve correctly, even with beacons.  Reliability isn't really there for internal location, from what I've seen.

The biggest issue is that you pretty much need to be right 100% of the time.  If the customer expects their app to come up on the right room, and the app does 80% of the time, and the 20% when it doesn't, it comes up on a room that's *right*, and then immediately switches to the incorrect room, or you were just using it on the correct room and it comes up on the wrong room, that's more frustrating than knowing you have to change rooms and using the swipe.

RyanE

[Neo1738]

On 8/4/2020 at 11:15 AM, RyanE said:

This is a surprisingly hard problem to solve correctly, even with beacons.  Reliability isn't really there for internal location, from what I've seen.

The biggest issue is that you pretty much need to be right 100% of the time.  If the customer expects their app to come up on the right room, and the app does 80% of the time, and the 20% when it doesn't, it comes up on a room that's *right*, and then immediately switches to the incorrect room, or you were just using it on the correct room and it comes up on the wrong room, that's more frustrating than knowing you have to change rooms and using the swipe.

RyanE

I can see the issue. It's so hard when it's based on something wireless. 

[RyanE]

36 minutes ago, Neo1738 said:

I can see the issue. It's so hard when it's based on something wireless. 

And when house construction techniques and materials can vary so much, along with items *in* the home that also can affect wireless propagation, etc.

RyanE

 

[HRT]

There's no chance this would work with current technology. Let's say you are 12 feet from the "beacon" device in the room you want. You could also be 12 feet away from it in a room below, above, or to the side. This best solution is for the app to be sub system based and not room based which makes way more sense in other control systems that have it that way.

[RyanE]

4 hours ago, HRT said:

This best solution is for the app to be sub system based and not room based which makes way more sense in other control systems that have it that way.

That is how Control4 works for Lighting, Shades, Contact/Relay devices, etc... You can select 'all rooms' and also filter for only devices that are on.

AV devices are inherently room-based.

I personally (and I'm biased, of course) think it's a good mix.

RyanE

[HRT]

12 hours ago, RyanE said:

That is how Control4 works for Lighting, Shades, Contact/Relay devices, etc... You can select 'all rooms' and also filter for only devices that are on.

AV devices are inherently room-based.

I personally (and I'm biased, of course) think it's a good mix.

RyanE

It doesn't really work like that though. That's a feature only in 3.0, and can easily be defeated by unclicking all rooms and still has you putting the devices in there said rooms and on deeper dive shows the rooms things are in inside other rooms (locks and sensors etc). It makes way more sense if each user saw what you wanted them to see in the subsystems. So if you hit lighting you then choose a floor, area, room etc. Same if hit comfort or security. Then instead of a watch/listen you hit rooms and the rooms are only A/V selections. This is way more logical. Take a look at how the Elan app works (overall not a better or worse system with its own problems and limitations) it flows much more nicely.

[RyanE]

Yes, it's a 3.0 feature.  Not sure why it's "defeated" by unclicking all rooms...  You certainly can decide to only show sensors / lights / etc. in a single room...

I disagree that functional then location is inherently better or more logical.

RyanE

[msgreenf]

IMHO selecting a room and seeing everything related to that room is logical

[mstafford388]

1 hour ago, HRT said:

It doesn't really work like that though. That's a feature only in 3.0, and can easily be defeated by unclicking all rooms and still has you putting the devices in there said rooms and on deeper dive shows the rooms things are in inside other rooms (locks and sensors etc). It makes way more sense if each user saw what you wanted them to see in the subsystems. So if you hit lighting you then choose a floor, area, room etc. Same if hit comfort or security. Then instead of a watch/listen you hit rooms and the rooms are only A/V selections. This is way more logical. Take a look at how the Elan app works (overall not a better or worse system with its own problems and limitations) it flows much more nicely.

That's kind of a personal preference between the flow of the interfaces, and in OS3 you can get interfaces so dialed into specific needs that with a little love you can have a seriously easy to use and effective interface.   Just my opinion though.  Funny thing is with OS3 favorites you can basically do exactly what you like about the Elan interface where when you go to the room you only see AV or commonly used devices then bury the rest (lighting, locks, etc) under the C4 button.  

[HRT]

35 minutes ago, mstafford388 said:

That's kind of a personal preference between the flow of the interfaces, and in OS3 you can get interfaces so dialed into specific needs that with a little love you can have a seriously easy to use and effective interface.   Just my opinion though.  Funny thing is with OS3 favorites you can basically do exactly what you like about the Elan interface where when you go to the room you only see AV or commonly used devices then bury the rest (lighting, locks, etc) under the C4 button.  

Kinda but not really the same thing at all as those "hidden lighting, security, comfort are still roomish based. You are correct it is a preference, but also easier for clients to grasp. You search all of your lighting rather than choosing a room then lighting. Rooms as A/V only makes way more sense. I never have to reteach clients the Elan app, the control4 app takes a few weeks/months before I stop getting all the silly questions.

 

[msgreenf]

I don't think it's necessarily easier to grasp. It's just different