Every switch/dimmer can be programmed beyond just the switching

OK, caveats first: for dealers/experienced users this will likely not groundbreaking at all, but it's one of the things I've consistently found most useful for programming new functionality into our system, and for some folks newer to C4 programming they might not have come across it yet.

We have about 10 6-button keypads in our house which offer a lot of flexibility and programming, but they are only in certain places. On the other hand, we have 65 dimmers which can be found in literally every room of the house. There's always one nearby.

What I was thrilled to learn when I was just getting started tweaking our system is that the button presses on those keypads are also programmable. I've therefore taken advantage of the fact that when a light is already off there is no reason someone would be pressing the off button, and when its on (at 100%) there's no reason someone would be pressing the on button.

Instead of being a pointless press, I've programmed those presses to do other things. When you select the light whose switch you'd like to program in the left pane, you can then select below it for the top and bottom presses and releases and assign any programming you'd like.

For example, we have a dimmer as you walk into the mudroom. I go in there maybe 10 times a day, usually to so something very very quick. I'd always click on the light as I entered, do whatever I was doing, then a few seconds later press the switch again as I was leaving.

Certainly not tragic, but sometimes a pain if I had my arms full when I walked back out, or if I forgot to turn off the light. As of last night, those same up or down keypresses still work, but if the mudroom is off and I press off, it now turns on, waits 30 seconds, and then fades out slowly.

Similarly, in the garage, if I press the off button on a light that's already off (and which is normally off) it flashes that light, waits 5 seconds and begins to close the garage door. Much more pleasant than the old "press the button, run toward the closing door, hurdle over the electronic eye" method of my youth.

And until Control4 delivers my new favorite dream item: http://www.c4forums.com/viewtopic.php?id=1312 this will be my next best option.

If this sounds useful to anyone but does not make sense, please let me know and I can elaborate.

--Jason

That's thinking outside the box... Good job!

That's awesome man, what I did at my own place is make a script for our bedroom dimmer/switch...

When you hold the two down for "4" seconds, it turns the entire house off....I did just to see if I can do it and my wife actually uses it alot, I also set the led's on the dimmer/switch to turn red as each room in the house turns off...they all go red and then go back to the default colors to let you know that the house is "off".

I dig the outside the box type stuff, let me know what else you come up with.

That's awesome man, what I did at my own place is make a script for our bedroom dimmer/switch...

When you hold the two down for "4" seconds, it turns the entire house off....I did just to see if I can do it and my wife actually uses it alot, I also set the led's on the dimmer/switch to turn red as each room in the house turns off...they all go red and then go back to the default colors to let you know that the house is "off".

I dig the outside the box type stuff, let me know what else you come up with.

I did something similar for the delay mechanism which I wrote about here:

http://www.c4forums.com/viewtopic.php?id=1596

I'd be curious to know how your delay mechanism works!

I use the LEDs as an indicator for the alarm system. Green when disarmed, top and bottom both red when armed to away, and the default blue when armed to stay (the normal state when anyone's in the house).

It's a nice reminder to arm the system and a visual cue when coming home that through the window you can see if the system is armed. Also kind of a cool menacing look to peer in the house and see all these bright red lights everywhere. :mad::mad:

--Jason

sounds right up my alley!!! kudos on that...mine works off of a "timer".....when you hold down the buttons, a timer starts and evaluates every half second to make sure that the buttons are still being pressed, if you let go at 3 seconds, the "timer" checks and reports a false boolean variable....it took about an hour but works, and I even have a text to voice mp3 that says " system is shutting down" that plays throughout the house when the whole thing executes...I believe there are tons of features that dealers are not utilizing with control4...and I'm not talking about exotic programming either, just everyday little tweaks that make it that much more robust, and honestly WORTH the clients money....just my .02

Neil B

check this:

I did something similar for the delay mechanism which I wrote about here:

http://www.c4forums.com/viewtopic.php?id=1596

Does this work for 2,3,or 6 button keypads or just switches and dimmers?

Thanks