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  • 3 weeks later...

For those of you that are interested in 3rd party drivers, here's a quick demo I programmed using Alan's (Chowmain) Advanced Announcement driver paired with his Internet Weather driver.  I know some dealers don't really get into some of the driver universe that exists outside of C4, but I happen to be a fan of the creativity coming from Alan Chow, and the other popular developers.  

 

 

http://youtu.be/7LM2cld8SdY

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  • 5 weeks later...

Another (belated) thumbs up for Neil. I wanted some third-party drivers installed/integrated into my system. My dealer dragged his feet for weeks then wanted to charge me for hours of "research" time before they would even give me a quote on the project.

My wife had given me an ultimatum that certain function had to be working by a particular date or we would do no more with Control4. Fortunately for me, Neil was able to make that deadline. And he not only did what I originally wanted, but quickly changed a bunch of minor items that were driving me crazy.

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Neil - are you around and still offering remote programming?  I emailed you at the email address you have listed in the first post in this thread but haven't heard back.

 

Let me know if you are still around and interested.   Thanks -

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  • 1 month later...

Very happy to see Neil is still helping people on this forum. I became a dealer in 2013 and he was very professional when I inquired about helping other customers remotely. Didn't try to push me off his "turf" or anything like that. As much as I want to grow my business and client base, it's nice to see integrators who share a passion for the industry and and are about taking care of customers not fighting over them.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Neil is the man indeed! Not only is he very knowledgeable and can help with pretty much anything, but he is also a great gentleman, patient and always eager to help. 

I have been working with Neil on my project for several months and he has always delivered, coming up with creative ways to solve problems as they appeared. I know that he has been incredibly busy and works very hard, round the clock. Some patience may be required but it will pay off and it will deliver great results in an always friendly environment. 

I am glad I changed dealer/installer and Neil rocks! I look forward to continuing with him for the years to come as I know I can count on him to update my install or do changes as needed.

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  • 2 weeks later...

For everyone that's reached out for service and assistance over the past week, I'll be getting back to you this coming week.  I was out a few days on sick leave, but I should be back to business as usual by tomorrow.  Thanks for your patience!  

 

-Neil

 

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On 5/28/2015 at 0:33 PM, neil12011 said:

For those of you that are interested in 3rd party drivers, here's a quick demo I programmed using Alan's (Chowmain) Advanced Announcement driver paired with his Internet Weather driver.  I know some dealers don't really get into some of the driver universe that exists outside of C4, but I happen to be a fan of the creativity coming from Alan Chow, and the other popular developers.  

 

 

http://youtu.be/7LM2cld8SdY

Nice work Neil.  We love dealers like you who push Control4 to beyond its limits.  Keep up the good work:)

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5 hours ago, alanchow said:

Nice work Neil.  We love dealers like you who push Control4 to beyond its limits.  Keep up the good work:)

Coming from you sir, that's a tremendous compliment!  I'll have more coming, it's just insanely busy right now.

 

Here's a quick vid of the Amazon Echo Driver in action for those who have not seen it yet.

 

 

 

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Hi all,
Just posting again how great it is to work with Neil !  He recently upgraded my system to 2.8, and helped us through a major bug in the new security drivers.  (In short, on installation C4 created a phantom partition that prevented the navigators from connecting to the panel correctly.  Neil investigated the problem and found the solution; he had to back out and re-do the driver installation to fix it.)  Thank you again Neil for resolving this issue!!

Frankly, if it weren't for Neil, I would be pulling out my hair regarding C4's bug problems with each new version. 

A Message to Control4: Your systems run our houses and security.  They're integral to our safety as well as the lifestyles for which we've paid you and your dealers lots of money.  When your updates break key components, it causes everyone headaches and wastes lots of time and money!  You need to take this more seriously!  Your releases need to be bullet-proof, not sloppy (like how I can't back up the project right now either!)  I get you have pressure to release new features to keep up with the likes of Google, Apple and other competitors, BUT, if your quality continues to decline, then you still lose in the long run as a bad reputation shifts future customers to other solutions and your business suffers..  Nobody wants that, particularly your existing installed base or dealers.  Therefore, please focus more on your testing and quality control so new releases are stable and something to look forward to, rather than nightmares that make customers nervous and cost everyone more time and money.

Thanks again to Neil for his help resolving these problems introduced by C4! They should pay him for how much he contributes solutions to the dealer network and helps keep their customers happy!!

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NO NO!!!! What NEEDS TO HAPPEN is that they PAY for the repairs that it COST US as buyers of a system! We spend a LOT of money on this stuff and can't do anything but pay out more money! If major companies did this nonsense without fitting the cost of a recall or repair they would be out of business!

I'm sure that Neils few hours to fix your stuff was not FREE NOR CHEAP!!!!

#FROMc4JEDI2C4SiTHinTHEmaking

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1 hour ago, calbear said:

 

A Message to Control4: Your systems run our houses and security.  They're integral to our safety as well as the lifestyles for which we've paid you and your dealers lots of money.  When your updates break key components, it causes everyone headaches and wastes lots of time and money!  You need to take this more seriously!  Your releases need to be bullet-proof, not sloppy (like how I can't back up the project right now either!)  I get you have pressure to release new features to keep up with the likes of Google, Apple and other competitors, BUT, if your quality continues to decline, then you still lose in the long run as a bad reputation shifts future customers to other solutions and your business suffers..  Nobody wants that, particularly your existing installed base or dealers.  Therefore, please focus more on your testing and quality control so new releases are stable and something to look forward to, rather than nightmares that make customers nervous and cost everyone more time and money.

Thanks again to Neil for his help resolving these problems introduced by C4! They should pay him for how much he contributes solutions to the dealer network and helps keep their customers happy!!

back up is fixed in 2.8.1  As for running your house security - it shouldn't and I don't think control4 would recommend it.  They supplement it.

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I understand what you're saying about not "running" the security -- I don't use C4 as the means to run the alarm or do self monitoring.  I have a separate monitoring service for that.  But there are many other features that are squarely in C4's responsibility that touch on the integration working as expressly sold by them and working just fine before the updates.  For example, I expect to get the notifications and alerts that the security integration provides.  I expect to be able to run outdoor security lights / pathway lighting and get text alerts when a fence is opened unexpectedly, based on the sensors and triggers set up in C4.  When all of those things break because of bugs they introduce in subsequent updates, it has real implications on security that the alarm itself isn't set up to cover.  I don't want to go back to individual motion-detector flood light units!  :-)

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23 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

back up is fixed in 2.8.1

And why/how was backup broken in 2.80!?!?!  That's a major function.  They just introduced cloud back up.  That's probably how they broke it, but you'd think that in releasing the new capability someone would have tested it and seen it doesn't work (cloud or PC!) before releasing 2.8. Or remove the feature from 2.8 until it's working.  Not roll it out and break everyone's ability to do backups!  It's called regression testing.  Breaking things that were working before is a serious engineering failure.  C4 needs to care more about their quality or they fully risk their reputations.  Competition is only increasing.

Anyway, that's for another forum.  This post is about how great Neil has been helping us out with these messes!  :-)

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9 minutes ago, calbear said:

And why/how was backup broken in 2.80!?!?!  That's a major function.  They just introduced cloud back up.  That's probably how they broke it, but you'd think that in releasing the new capability someone would have tested it and seen it doesn't work (cloud or PC!) before releasing 2.8. Or remove the feature from 2.8 until it's working.  Not roll it out and break everyone's ability to do backups!  It's called regression testing.  Breaking things that were working before is a serious engineering failure.  C4 needs to care more about their quality or they fully risk their reputations.  Competition is only increasing.

Anyway, that's for another forum.  This post is about how great Neil has been helping us out with these messes!  :-)

backup didnt break for everyone... my backup worked perfect in 2.8.0

 

its possible that they tried it.. and it worked, just like it did on my system. And then they went and released a FREE update 2.8.1 which fixes the issue for those people who had the issue. Some dealers even offered free upgrades to 2.8.1 (if you used them to upgrade to 2.8.0)

 

I get that you are frustrated at some of the things that happened with control4.. but I HIGHLY doubt that there is malicious intent behind any of it from control4.. I think they are truly trying to deliver a world class product, and for the most part they are succeeding in doing exactly that

 

 

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And why/how was backup broken in 2.80!?!?!  That's a major function.  They just introduced cloud back up.  That's probably how they broke it, but you'd think that in releasing the new capability someone would have tested it and seen it doesn't work (cloud or PC!) before releasing 2.8. Or remove the feature from 2.8 until it's working.  Not roll it out and break everyone's ability to do backups!  It's called regression testing.  Breaking things that were working before is a serious engineering failure.  C4 needs to care more about their quality or they fully risk their reputations.  Competition is only increasing.

Anyway, that's for another forum.  This post is about how great Neil has been helping us out with these messes!  :-)

I agree it was a lack of testing. I was just trying to let you know it's fixed. I have no insight into C4 internal processes for qa or anything.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

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Please know I don't think anything is malicious or intended.  Of course not.  But sloppiness or lack of investment in quality is an issue, particularly in a system that limits people's ability to help themselves.  For example, 2.8.1 might be a "free" update, but I can't do it myself.  And even if a dealer isn't charging for the update, it's still their time to go around doing it.  

So in that environment and context, I would just like C4 to place much more emphasis on quality control and testing....  It's a business decision, since they could be more bug free if they wanted to -- other industries are -- like Autos.  Remember when iPhones used to "just work," and then since Steve Jobs died, you've seen more frequent iOS updates with increasing major bugs and problems.  iOS9 so thrashed my out of warranty iPhone6 that Apple actually gave me a new one!

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