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Dr. Venkman

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About Dr. Venkman

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    Control4 End User

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  1. So, is the C4 keypad a 6 button keypad dimmer or a standard APD/FPD 120? Either way, is it possible that you’ve still got the local load connected to the keypad button, as well as the scene you want to control? I think you’ll want to have the keypad buttons function as a true keypad and not control the local load
  2. I think it's roughly the same thing, but our gateway (Arris 5268) calls it DMZPlus. All incoming traffic (any protocol, any port) is forwarded to the router, and the router does get the public IP. But the uverse gateway is still running its own network, and the set top boxes are on that network. I believe I was told once that if you only have internet, you can put the gateway in a true bridge mode (or maybe eliminate their gateway altogether in favor of a modem only), but with the IPTV boxes needing the gateway, you can't. It's not so bad, it's just a little annoying.
  3. We have Uverse. If they have the fiber available in your neighborhood, the internet connection is great, but if you're limited to the ADSL, not so much. They'll terminate the fiber into your house in an ONT, which needs to be powered (it's just a tiny little power supply, but you do need to locate it where there is power available). And if you're trying to have your Internet connection backed up on a UPS, it will need to be part of that. An ethernet cable runs from the ONT to the Uverse gateway. We like the guide/tv just fine, but that's probably because we're used to it. I think, generally, people believe DirecTV has a better picture. Integrating Uverse with C4 is not quite as simple as I would have hoped: Control of the boxes is IR only. IR control of our DVR works flawlessly, but the other boxes miss channel/page up and down commands occasionally. Our dealer tinkered with the IR blaster settings in the driver and got it about as good as we could, but you might find it annoying. It doesn't bother us too much. You have to use Uverse's gateway, and there's no true passthrough mode. If you want a better router to run your network, you're going to have to either run double NAT or put your router in the DMZ and send all incoming traffic to it (what we did). The set top boxes are IPTV boxes and basically join your network (either over Ethernet cable or coax). The biggest problem with them is the way they multicast (if you connect them over ethernet) - if you just stick them in your switch, they're going to destroy your network performance. The Uverse gateway has the handling for that built in, so you're going to want to plug those directly into it (or into their own switch that is plugged into the gateway, I guess). If you're running double NAT or DMZ mode, that puts the boxes outside of your LAN. That hasn't really been a problem for us. Essentially, our setup had to be this: ONT ---> Uverse Gateway ---> Router in DMZ ---> LAN, with the set top boxes plugged into the Uverse Gateway outside of the router. Overall, we like it fine, but it's certainly not the most convenient setup to configure. We may not be doing it the best way, so if anyone else wants to say we're making it too complicated, I won't be offended. 😄
  4. Just for another data point - we NEVER use the on-screen navigator. We have 4 TV's in a video matrix, and all of the TV's have navigator available to them via the single EA-5 that runs our system (we have no EA-1's). I was worried before we got the system (2 years ago) that our TV's might "fight" for that single OSD feed, but I don't think we've called it up once since about the first week or two we had the system. One use I could see would be if you're using navigator to view those cameras on the TV, but for source selection, etc. we use either the remotes or our phones. Also (as eggzlot referred to), depending on your DVR/NVR and your video distribution setup, you may be able to put your camera feeds on the TV without relying on navigator (if you even care about that).
  5. Timely for me! I’m working on getting some controllable outlet stuff set up, and I have a couple of questions, if you don’t mind. Given that you’ve written the drivers for both, do you have a preference between Wemo and TP Link? I really like that TP Link would now allow for fewer WiFi devices than Wemo (given that these new devices can control multiple outlets), but if Wemo is a better product/experience, I’m fine with one outlet per device. Does your TP Link driver control the devices on the local network, or does it go out to the internet? Thanks much.
  6. I know it’s not the question you asked, but Plex should work over the VPN you have set up. Mostly the only devices we use to play plex content while away are our phones, so we just connect to the VPN with the phone and Plex away. As far as the Plex app/server are concerned, it’s a local connection, and it works great. We’ve never even enabled remote access on the Plex server. If you really want to port forward, I think Plex forwards the request from the same place every time (maybe plex.tv; I don’t remember), so you could figure out the IP address of that server and restrict port forwarding to just that IP address. That way at least it’s not open to anyone else.
  7. What happens if you take the remote out of the equation and execute the macro from composer (while on YTTV)? You could also try putting a pause between commands in the macro to see if it’s moving too fast for YTTV. Also, have you tried it in a different ATV app?
  8. Does anyone have any ideas on how to determine when a power outage has occurred? I’ve got a some components on a UPS that I would love to be able to shut down after the power has been out for a minute or two (to extend runtime for the C4 controller and other critical equipment). I was thinking I would start a timer when the power goes out and have C4 turn off specified outlets on the PDU when it expires. When the power comes back on, C4 could turn the outlets back on. The UPS is not connected to the network or C4, so unless I want to replace it with a UPS that can connect to C4, I’ll need another way to sense the outage. Thanks.
  9. Also, I’d have to assume that the mechanical switch has a higher load rating than the existing wireless switch. I believe the current switch is limited to 1/2 horsepower motors. If you’ve got switched outlets on which you might want to run power tools, the zig bee switches often won’t cut it.
  10. Re: Amazon It doesn’t appear that there is any access to it in programming, so I’m guessing that you can’t start from a favorite (i.e.by pressing a keypad button). It looks like you have to go thru navigator. So you can’t cycle thru favorites or use it in a series of sources that you cycle. Still nice to have, but it would be great if you could start a favorite by pressing a keypad button.
  11. So maybe I have two questions... We have the VT4315-PRO, and the driver our dealer has installed is for the M4315-PRO. I can't seem to get C4 to control it at all - is it just not set up correctly, or is the VT not controllable by C4? The extent of my ability to troubleshoot: It is connected to the network, and BlueBolt works just fine (outlets can be turned on and off via BlueBolt). I watched my dealer set up the connection in C4, and the IP address is correct (and has not changed). In the Monitoring section of Composer HE, the debug mode is set to print, and on the Lua tab, it just keeps repeating the following: OnConnectionStatusChanged[6001/23]: OFFLINE OnBindingChanged[6001]: Not Bound
  12. Is there a good way to control Panamax outlets in navigator? Certainly, we could run commands for on/off by using custom buttons, but I'm wondering if there is a way to be able to control the outlets and see the state in the iOS navigator. I was thinking there may be a way to do it with a generic switch or as a relay. The on/off commands are there, and the feedback is there in the form of a variable on the Panamax driver, so I figure it should be possible, I just don't know how to tie it all together. Thanks.
  13. Yes, so long as you've configured the LED to "Follow Connection" in the keypad's properties (the LED Behavior drop down). You mean if the scene is not bound to the button, but there is programming on the button to activate/deactivate the scene? Yes, you'll need to set the LED to programmed and then create the programming to have the LED do what you want. I would vote strongly for binding the scenes to the buttons (and having the LED's follow the connection). You don't have to do any programming on the button at all. Press and hold functionality is automatic for dimming The ramp rates for your scenes stay intact (though this may be the case if programmed to turn on/off, I'm not sure). I believe that you can also press the button once to begin the ramp up/down, and then press it again to stop it (similar to the functionality on a dimmer). You don't have to do any LED programming. It probably gives a bit quicker response, and it's probably a little more reliable. The downside is that you need your dealer to add it (also, you can't see it in composer, so keeping the keypad buttons named properly or documenting the connections is important). I've made my peace with that, and there are a few workarounds to let you do a few things without bothering your dealer just for a couple of connections: If you just want to move buttons around from within a single keypad, you can reconfigure the keypad in composer and it will move the connections from one button to another. If you want to remove a connection, you can do the same, but just not map the connection you want to remove over to the new configuration When I added some keypads and didn't know exactly how I wanted them set up, I created a few empty scenes and had my dealer bind them to the keypad buttons. That let me tinker with the underlying scenes over time, and the binding was already there. I have also programmed a couple temporarily, and just waited until the next time my dealer was in the system to have him make the connection.
  14. Thanks! I'll get him to install the driver, and then I'll program the switch/scene to follow each other (unless he can accomplish that with connections, which I was assuming was not possible).
  15. Thanks. Do you know the name of the driver, so that I may point my dealer in the right direction?
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