Chowmain - Internet Rebooter Driver for Control4

[alanchow]

Chowmain - Internet Rebooter Driver for Control4!

As integrators there are times where we cannot replace ISP provided hardware (eg Cable modem or NBN modem). As such we are reliant on the uptime of these devices and when they go down they take down many of the devices in the home. The Chowmain internet rebooter driver allows reboot of modems, routers, switches, access points and other networking equipment directly from Control4's built in relays.

The idea is that the driver will monitor a specific website periodically and if it fails to retrieve the content from that website multiple times it will execute the reboot sequence. Note that this driver requires wiring of Control4's relays upto the power supplies of the networking equipment.

Note Chowmain takes no responsibility for damaged hardware as a result of poor wiring.
Features

• Monitor any website for internet uptime (default is google)
• Power cycle up to 4 devices with different orders, delays and timing.
• Online and offline events means that you have the ability to power cycle via other means should you choose to.
• Experience button will allow a user to monitor their internet connection (online / offline) as well as initiate a manual reboot if required (They will need to confirm reboot with a secondary press)

FAQ

What is the point of this driver?

As integrators there are times where we cannot replace ISP provided hardware (eg Cable modem or NBN modem). As such we are reliant on the uptime of these devices and when they go down they take down many of the devices in the home. This driver is designed

Is there anything we need to be made aware of?
 

• The experience button on navigator requires a double press to reboot. This is to provide a confirmation to ensure that you don't accidentally initiate a reboot sequence.
• This driver only monitors connectivity to an internet website and performs the reboot sequence based on connectivity to the website. It does not cater for other network related issues such as DHCP server failures. You can however manually initate the reboot sequence through double pressing the experience button on navigator.

How do i wire up the relay?
 

• The driver allows upto 4 devices to be connected and power cycled (eg a modem, a router, a switch and an access point)
• If you are using a Control4 relay (eg on a controller, Z2IO or IO Extender) then split one of the wires (eg positive) and connect one side to COM and the other side to NC for each device

Does this driver have a safety net?
 

• This driver will only initiate the reboot sequence after the 'Number of failed tries before automatic reboot'. Basically it will poll once every 'Website Poll Interval'. If it fails it will retry x number of times every 10 seconds and if it fails it will then perform the reboot sequence.
• The 'Automatic Reboot Interval (minutes)' limits the amount of reboots to ensure that you don't get into a reboot loop due to something like an internet outage at the exchange or ISP.

How do I find out more information about the driver?
Please see the links below for more information about the driver.

Chowmain Website

How do I buy the driver?
This driver can be purchased from our distributor driverCentral.

Download Driver / Purchase Licence

Do you provide trial licences?
All Chowmain drivers for Control4 come with a 90 day trial.

Who do i contact for technical support?
We have two support desks. One in Australia and one in the US. Click on the link below for details.

Support

[zaphod]

Great idea!  I have a Web Loggers smart power switch and it has this functionality as well.

[alanchow]

Yep it works really well.  I actually developed it back in April but never released it as I wanted to test it.

Turns our it’s been working ever since and I just haven’t noticed as it’s silently been doing it’s thing.

i just so happened to catch it in progress on Sunday when the music stopped.  The driver kicked in and changed the icon in navigator that it was offline and rebooting.

i didn’t have to touch anything and about a minute later the internet was back up.

i only have it connected to the cable modem as the rest of my network is UniFi based (USG, 24 port switch and 2 WAPs)

Looking back at the event log driver I can see that the Internet reboot driver reboots the modem once every few weeks.