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Dimmers?


Notguilty

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Are there any other dimmer switches other than the Control4 brand that work with control4? I ask for two reasons. First, I don't particularly like the look of the dimmers. Second, at that price I doubt I would change many lights other than the ones in my theater. Thanks

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The only 3rd-party dimmers currently fully supported are lighting systems, not individual dimmers.

They include: Lutron, Vantage, and I believe LightTouch.

All of them are *more* expensive than equivalent Control4 dimmers, and require a separate lighting controller to boot.

RyanE

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There are the one's Ryan mentioned that are full supported.

The OP asked if there were others that worked. Some will just work and others will work well. I was more trying to get the point across that in comparison to the others C4 was very cost competitive and perhaps less expensive in the long run. If $139.00 per load is too expensive than many other solutions will be just as expensive or more expensive in the long run.

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Any idea how Lutron and others support n-way loads? If they work like C4 switches/dimmers do, then it makes sense to stick with C4. Otherwise, it is worth considering even at an additional expense.

Tx,

AC

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They support the 'other end' with a keypad, just like Control4 does. They also will not work if the master controller is out of the picture.

That doesn't mean that there aren't differences in their approaches:

The main difference is, lighting control processors are *much* simpler systems, and thus, typically more reliable. The chance that your Lutron processor won't be available to control the 3-way depends on basically one thing: That the controller has power. They don't use IP to control the devices, the controller doesn't care if it's on a network or not, and typically, it's the only device needed to do that (communication) function between devices.

The Control4 master controller typically uses other controllers on the wired or wireless network for communication with end nodes, and if one of them is unavailable, may not be able to route ZigBee nearly as well (or at all, if the coordinator is AWOL). This means that it depends not only on the main controller being up and the slave controllers being up, but also the network.

If any of them are down, you may not have 3-way control.

That said, the Control4 solution is still extremely reliable, I can't remember *ever* not having the 3-ways work, other than one case when the power supply on my coordinator device gave up the ghost. A simple replacement brick (which I could've gotten at Radio Shack if needed) and I was back in business.

RyanE

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I would stay away from other brands, you aren't likely to get the integration you are looking for.

C4 dimmers are expensive but that's the way it is. In my opinion they could make more money by lowering price and thus spurring increased volume. Right now the price is so high that most people only do just a few lights, but a price drop would spur a lot of people to do the whole house.

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^Have to agree with that comment, if only they were lower priced, I would have spent more doing my whole house..... Can't really complain though - it a great product!! - and value for money for sure!!

So much easier to use C4 dimmers and switches than try to integrate others - it is so simple to achieve anything you want.

Slightly off topic - but I'm told you guys in the USA have a quirky law saying face plates must be screwed in and have the screw visible ie: the decora style - is this true??

We in NZ have nice flush face plates that just slides on top of the dimmer, looks great.

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Slightly off topic - but I'm told you guys in the USA have a quirky law saying face plates must be screwed in and have the screw visible ie: the decora style - is this true??

We in NZ have nice flush face plates that just slides on top of the dimmer, looks great.

Not true at all. C4 (for example) sells a screwless faceplate. There are many other screwless faceplates available.

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The LDZ102W is the newer model. They have a little more memory, better tactile feedback, and an antenna that can be extended to improve range.

I also believe that is when the larger variety of colors were introduced.

There may be more differences as well, that is just what stands out off the top of my head.

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