New to C4, Buying a house with it, know Home Assistant

[ejn1]

6 hours ago, wnpublic said:

Yes, nothing was wrong!  Foolish of anyone to think otherwise. 

The conspiracy theory gene is strong with you

[wnpublic]

5 hours ago, ejn1 said:

The conspiracy theory gene is strong with you

No, i just don’t fawn over corporations as if I were DPRK News to the Dear Leader.  Also: if you think it is normal for a C-level exec to bail on a tech co after a bit more than a year, you lack relevant experience that I have directly. 

[zaphod]

I think it was much more than a year.  He joined in Aug 2018 and left around Nov 2020.

[msgreenf]

13 hours ago, wnpublic said:

 Also: if you think it is normal for a C-level exec to bail on a tech co after a bit more than a year, you lack relevant experience that I have directly. 

Right - cause C suite never leave after an acquisition?  Half the C suite generally is out after an acquisition...

[zaphod]

Kindel left about 18 months after the SnapAV acquisition of C4, so there isn't an immediate reaction.

[Control4Savant]

47 minutes ago, zaphod said:

Kindel left about 18 months after the SnapAV acquisition of C4, so there isn't an immediate reaction.

Snap didn't just walk in the door July 2019 and go to work. Those acquisitions take time...  and yes IMO is the reason Kindel left. 

[ejn1]

On 5/31/2021 at 5:26 PM, wnpublic said:

No, i just don’t fawn over corporations as if I were DPRK News to the Dear Leader.  Also: if you think it is normal for a C-level exec to bail on a tech co after a bit more than a year, you lack relevant experience that I have directly. 

Is "Dear Leader" a combination of the DPRK Supreme Leader and Dear Abby?   CEO's leave all the time after an agreed transition period following an acquisition but who knows in this case.   Just saying you likely don't have the full reason of why someone is leaving so no need to always weave the negative spin angle...   

[Ron168]

Hi guys,

regarding the opening post, we're planning on building a new house and here, in the Netherlands, home automation isn't as big as in many countries abroad. I've been using home assistant for years and I simply love it. So I would like to continue to use it has the heart and brains of my house. Apart from that, I would like centralized control of lights/blinds/HVAC/audio/video. Everything should be wired and reliable.
What would you suggest is the way to go? I also don't like to have to call a dealer every time I would like to make a change to the infrastructure.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards

Ron

[wnpublic]

It's not clear to me what your specific question is, but it sounds like you already have your answer for the most part.  Lights, Blinds, HVAC are all easily centralized with HA, as you know.  Lutron stuff works great for the first two, but you could also go with just about any zwave solution for lights.  I'm using inovelli red for mine.  Ecobee is a good choice for thermostat but there are plenty others.  If you truly want central distribution of audio/video, C4 is really good at that and HA isn't - so you have to decide how much you want that v. how much it costs v. how much worse the alternative would be for you (for instance, an Apple TV or roku box slapped on the back of each TV.  Cheers -

[Amr]

7 hours ago, Ron168 said:

Hi guys,

regarding the opening post, we're planning on building a new house and here, in the Netherlands, home automation isn't as big as in many countries abroad. I've been using home assistant for years and I simply love it. So I would like to continue to use it has the heart and brains of my house. Apart from that, I would like centralized control of lights/blinds/HVAC/audio/video. Everything should be wired and reliable.
What would you suggest is the way to go? I also don't like to have to call a dealer every time I would like to make a change to the infrastructure.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards

Ron

You can’t DIY a C4 system, this is how they design it, but you can save a lot by deploying the equipment yourself and just have a remote dealer add the drivers and do the basic programing for u, or at least add the stuff and you do the programing via ComposerHE.

So what is missing in your HA that u need C4 to fulfill?

[tmj4]

1 hour ago, wnpublic said:

It's not clear to me what your specific question is, but it sounds like you already have your answer for the most part.  Lights, Blinds, HVAC are all easily centralized with HA, as you know.  Lutron stuff works great for the first two, but you could also go with just about any zwave solution for lights.  I'm using inovelli red for mine.  Ecobee is a good choice for thermostat but there are plenty others.  If you truly want central distribution of audio/video, C4 is really good at that and HA isn't - so you have to decide how much you want that v. how much it costs v. how much worse the alternative would be for you (for instance, an Apple TV or roku box slapped on the back of each TV.  Cheers -

I too was once in your shoes. However, I simply got sick of trying to figure out how to row my own and make everything work together with modifying XML/YML/etc and writing my own code/drivers. I do that for a living, I don't want to do that with all my free time. Wife approval factor is much higher with C4 as well. I would recommend finding a good remote dealer that can handle things with ease or very much on the cheap for you. Ari ( @chopedogg88) is my recommendation.

[RyanE]

23 minutes ago, tmj4 said:

I too was once in your shoes. However, I simply got sick of trying to figure out how to row my own and make everything work together with modifying XML/YML/etc and writing my own code/drivers. I do that for a living, I don't want to do that with all my free time. Wife approval factor is much higher with C4 as well. I would recommend finding a good remote dealer that can handle things with ease or very much on the cheap for you. Ari ( @chopedogg88) is my recommendation.

 

Charlie Kindel has a blog post about exactly this: https://ceklog.kindel.com/2018/05/24/concierge-home-technology/

 

And he's not exactly a slouch in terms of being able to make tech work...

 

 

Shortly after this, he joined Control4.  He's since moved on, but still uses Control4 to control his home.

 

RyanE

[wnpublic]

1 hour ago, tmj4 said:

I too was once in your shoes. However, I simply got sick of trying to figure out how to row my own and make everything work together with modifying XML/YML/etc and writing my own code/drivers. I do that for a living, I don't want to do that with all my free time. Wife approval factor is much higher with C4 as well. I would recommend finding a good remote dealer that can handle things with ease or very much on the cheap for you. Ari ( @chopedogg88) is my recommendation.

This badly misses the state of Home Assistant, whatever other point it proves.  You're neither doing much YAML or writing your own code, unless you are a project contributor.

1 hour ago, tmj4 said:

 Wife approval factor is much higher with C4 as well.

Not in my houses.

[Ron168]

Thanks guys for all the quick replies!

Sorry if my question wasn't complete.

So, in my opinion, what Home Assistant is missing, is out of the box 100% supported hardware. Apart from that, it would be my go to software. And indeed, like mentioned above, you don't have to write any code (if you don't want to) and automating is fairly easy.

Control 4 comes as a package, hardware and software. Home Assistant is great software and supports a lot of different hardware, and as a result I've no clue which hardware to pick (as we say, through all the trees, I cannot see the forest anymore). Most hardware can work with Home Assistant, quite often there are limitations and quite often it needs some fiddling around and in most cases I only find out when I'm also done integrating..

Most Home Assistant users seem to go for the quick DIY home automation solutions, like pluggable sockets, zigbee switches, wifi switches, etc. With as the backbone the "stupid" mains supply. I would like to use a bus system or something similar, so I don't have to automate on top of a "stupid" system. I think this is easier to use and most important, more stable.

What I'm looking for, is a system which I can build and install myself.

[eggzlot]

4 hours ago, Ron168 said:

Thanks guys for all the quick replies!

Sorry if my question wasn't complete.

So, in my opinion, what Home Assistant is missing, is out of the box 100% supported hardware. Apart from that, it would be my go to software. And indeed, like mentioned above, you don't have to write any code (if you don't want to) and automating is fairly easy.

Control 4 comes as a package, hardware and software. Home Assistant is great software and supports a lot of different hardware, and as a result I've no clue which hardware to pick (as we say, through all the trees, I cannot see the forest anymore). Most hardware can work with Home Assistant, quite often there are limitations and quite often it needs some fiddling around and in most cases I only find out when I'm also done integrating..

Most Home Assistant users seem to go for the quick DIY home automation solutions, like pluggable sockets, zigbee switches, wifi switches, etc. With as the backbone the "stupid" mains supply. I would like to use a bus system or something similar, so I don't have to automate on top of a "stupid" system. I think this is easier to use and most important, more stable.

What I'm looking for, is a system which I can build and install myself.

Not being rude but you would be better served at https://www.avsforum.com/forums/home-automation.162/ Which is a DIY Home Automation forum.

Home Assistant is not going to give you the full suite of products/power as C4, Savant, Crestron Home, etc nor the fluid media integration.  But it is also a fraction of the cost and it’s DIY.

The AVS forum will point you towards http://www.charmedquark.com and http://allonis.com which from my understanding are basically 1 person companies.  UI is eh, hardware is more limited in terms of having options from their own hardware or 3rd party hardware, but it does have media integration and will work with more things out of the box than Home Assistant.  Will likely take you time to do some learning/programming and you are responsible for 100% maintenance of the system (though I think Allonis allows for some paid support from the company directly as they are a small shop).

[msgreenf]

5 hours ago, Ron168 said:

What I'm looking for, is a system which I can build and install myself.

then you ain't looking for control4

[Amr]

Every echo system has its pros and cons.

A DIY system is fun for those who have the time and tolerance to always tinkering, trying things, fixing and updating all the time. On the other hand a Pro system is a solid one that have R&D money invested in keeping it running with no user intervention, this costs more money but have more polished user experience and is more stable IMO

[C4 User]

On 10/28/2021 at 1:55 AM, Ron168 said:

Thanks guys for all the quick replies!

Sorry if my question wasn't complete.

So, in my opinion, what Home Assistant is missing, is out of the box 100% supported hardware. Apart from that, it would be my go to software. And indeed, like mentioned above, you don't have to write any code (if you don't want to) and automating is fairly easy.

Control 4 comes as a package, hardware and software. Home Assistant is great software and supports a lot of different hardware, and as a result I've no clue which hardware to pick (as we say, through all the trees, I cannot see the forest anymore). Most hardware can work with Home Assistant, quite often there are limitations and quite often it needs some fiddling around and in most cases I only find out when I'm also done integrating..

Most Home Assistant users seem to go for the quick DIY home automation solutions, like pluggable sockets, zigbee switches, wifi switches, etc. With as the backbone the "stupid" mains supply. I would like to use a bus system or something similar, so I don't have to automate on top of a "stupid" system. I think this is easier to use and most important, more stable.

What I'm looking for, is a system which I can build and install myself.

Not sure I fully agree that Control 4 is not for you. But I am not a dealer, I am a user.

While Control 4 has a lot of its own hardware, it also supports a lot of different hardware through the 1000’s of drivers that are available. You will just need to ensure a driver is available for whatever equipment you want in your system.

With Control 4 you can do much of the install yourself. I do recommend that you have your dealer do the initial install of the basic system including your main tv/avr/sound, because it can cost you more in the long run if you mess it up.

The only caveat is you will need A dealer to add any drivers and new devices (after you install them) to Control 4. You can then complete most of the programming if not all of the programming (this assumes you know what you are doing). However, there is some programming that would be best done with what Control 4 calls Connections and only dealers can make connections.

Dealers can remotely add devices and perform programming and there are plenty of options on this forum to build a relationship with a remote dealer that will support you. In the end, I believe you will be very happy going this route as a DIY - even happier then doing a large system with a non-pro solution (i.e. video, audio, lights, cameras, shades, alarm integration, door locks, garage door, color lighting, fans, some fireplaces and more). Some on this forum also have their pools and aquariums integrated.

Good luck.