Control4

[CaptainDram]

Is anyone using it? Be interested to know what the cost was and what sort of setup you have?

[Thorfun]

I looked at it. Very nice system but expensive and a closed system that needs the installer to make changes. 
 

decided to go with a self-install of Loxone instead which allows me to tinker to my hearts content. 
 

I have a very long thread on here about my Loxone journey. 

[Kelvin]

I just googled typical Control4 costs. Take this with a pinch of salt obviously but bloody hell it looks very dear. 
 

https://mwsmarthomes.co.uk/control4-installation-cost/

[Pocster]

Control4 is mega money and I can’t see the real benefit for the cost .

Depending on what you want to automate I can recommend home assistant.

Edited November 25 by Pocster

[G and J]

10 hours ago, Pocster said:

Control4 is mega money and I can’t see the real benefit for the cost .

Depending on what you want to automate I can recommend home assistant.

When I googled home assistant the first thing I saw was a Raspberry Pi so I freaked and took another tablet.

 

On my second look I’ve found a home assistant green which looks like it’s a hive home hub equivalent.  Is it?

[Pocster]

6 minutes ago, G and J said:

When I googled home assistant the first thing I saw was a Raspberry Pi so I freaked and took another tablet.

 

On my second look I’ve found a home assistant green which looks like it’s a hive home hub equivalent.  Is it?

Yep . Any Linux hardware will do it . Depends how much you want to do …

[G and J]

3 hours ago, Pocster said:

Yep . Any Linux hardware will do it . Depends how much you want to do …

I’d like a few lights to be automated so they can come on and go off at set times. If those lights could also be wall switch controlled I’d be pleased. 
 

Our current hive system is like an app controlled old fashioned wireless thermostat for the oil boiler heating and hot water, but we won’t need such function with an ASHP plus solar and suitable tariff.  Maybe app based target constant temp setting at the very most.  But we’ll need timing and boost control for the bathroom UFH electric mats.  
 

I guess the bedroom fancoil will need a stat in the room for cooling, maybe for heating on rare occasions. 
 

Hmmm, maybe there’s more to control than I realise…..

[Pocster]

8 hours ago, G and J said:

I’d like a few lights to be automated so they can come on and go off at set times. If those lights could also be wall switch controlled I’d be pleased. 
 

Our current hive system is like an app controlled old fashioned wireless thermostat for the oil boiler heating and hot water, but we won’t need such function with an ASHP plus solar and suitable tariff.  Maybe app based target constant temp setting at the very most.  But we’ll need timing and boost control for the bathroom UFH electric mats.  
 

I guess the bedroom fancoil will need a stat in the room for cooling, maybe for heating on rare occasions. 
 

Hmmm, maybe there’s more to control than I realise…..

This is the thing . What starts off as just a few lights on when you enter a room becomes ; control the heating , control music , alerts from cctv etc etc etc 

I would certainly try home assistant ( it’s free ) on maybe your laptop ( so no dedicated hardware ) just to test it and see . It’s a steep learning curve for more complex tasks though .

Edited November 26 by Pocster

[Russdl]

8 hours ago, G and J said:

li’d ike a few lights to be automated so they can come on and go off at set times.

A Shelly relay may be right up your street, sale on now. 
 

[Pocster]

1 hour ago, Russdl said:

A Shelly relay may be right up your street, sale on now. 
 

This would be a nice easy and cheap way to automate. Personally I’ve not had good experience with Shelly’s .

[Russdl]

I’ve got all sorts of different Shelly stuff dotted around the house and I’ve never had any real problem with any of it which is a minor miracle as that sort of stuff is way out of my comfort zone. 

[Pocster]

44 minutes ago, Russdl said:

I’ve got all sorts of different Shelly stuff dotted around the house and I’ve never had any real problem with any of it which is a minor miracle as that sort of stuff is way out of my comfort zone. 

Yeah . I’ve seen plenty of photo of burnt out Shelly’s / capacitors blown . They claim they didn’t overload it .

My experience was a dimmer relay ( in a ceiling void so lots of airflow ) powering some lights ( max 20w - relay spec much higher than that ) . After 3 hours the Shelly shut down with overheat warning . Yet too see a zigbee or zwave device ‘panic’ over that . So I removed it . I only use Shelly’s for simple on/off ( so not on for long periods ) and where I have no choice I.e WiFi signal strong but zigbee weak .

[Super_Paulie]

I have pretty much every switch in my house running through Sonoff minis. So as well as potentially burning the house down im also sending everything I do to China. 

 

However they haven't let me down, work perfectly, and my bank balance remains at £0 so I haven't been robbed yet. 

[JohnMo]

45 minutes ago, Russdl said:

I’ve got all sorts of different Shelly stuff dotted around the house and I’ve never had any real problem with any of it which is a minor miracle as that sort of stuff is way out of my comfort zone. 

I'm the same have a few Shelly Plus relays, with add on for temperature measuring and H&Ts.  You can track these in the Shelly App, but the detail drops to historically record in hourly steps - so pretty rubbish.  However in they automatically integrate into Home Assistant and the logging is every few seconds. The only switching I do with a small relay like a Shelly is a circulation pump on the heating system (max 33W) and zero volt switching.  Have a smart solid state relay for the immersion, but that about 40 times the size of a Shelly. Once you get your head around automations in Home Assistant its quite easy to do basic stuff.

[Bramco]

27 minutes ago, Super_Paulie said:

I have pretty much every switch in my house running through Sonoff minis.

Ditto - and if you just want to turn lights on and off etc., then they can be included in Google Home (or I guess Alexa) and then simple things like turning some lights on at dusk and off on a command are v easy to do without having to get into Home Automation which is pretty techy by comparison.

 

The only mistake I made was to create an command/automation 'OK Google good morning' which turns on a light, says 'where's my tea' on the Google speaker in the main room and starts to play radio 4 on the speaker in the main bedroom. (I get up earlier than my wife).   So it's a bit like those bell systems in old country houses, to summon the butler...  I should never have done it as a demo of what automations can do......

[Pocster]

3 hours ago, Super_Paulie said:

I have pretty much every switch in my house running through Sonoff minis. So as well as potentially burning the house down im also sending everything I do to China. 

 

However they haven't let me down, work perfectly, and my bank balance remains at £0 so I haven't been robbed yet. 

Sending stuff to China ( or wherever) is becoming more of an issue . Home assistant is all local . Also they have been working on their own Alexa type hardware . So you can have voice control without telling mr.chim all your details . BTW - it’s me that’s been monitoring your Alexa ; I have all your details and PIN code . To prove it I’ll empty your bank account . You ready ? . Here goes !

Done !

Ah (expletive deleted) ! Your account was empty anyway ! 😊

Edited November 26 by Pocster
Bank account hack

[Pocster]

2 hours ago, Bramco said:

Ditto - and if you just want to turn lights on and off etc., then they can be included in Google Home (or I guess Alexa) and then simple things like turning some lights on at dusk and off on a command are v easy to do without having to get into Home Automation which is pretty techy by comparison.

This type of thing is quite easy in HA .

I did have a quite complex thing running but it just kept failing .

So “ Alexa play a random album by Coldplay in the kitchen “

My local music library was used ( no Spotify shite ) - would choose a random Coldplay album and play it on my music system ( raspberry pi to powered speakers ) in the lounge . 
It was awesome - for the record you could obviously say ANY artist in my music collection .

So I need to look at that again once their Alexa variant comes out .

I did have working temporarily when I go downstairs in the morning ( based on my having my phone ) . Alexa asks me without prompting “ do you want the radio on ? “ . An answer of yes did it . Stuff like that is a bitch as you need an Amazon developer account and is a royal pita . Not reliable ! Also of course using Amazon cloud based spies !!

Soon all that and local !!

Edited November 26 by Pocster

[Super_Paulie]

i will move onto HA when i have finished building the place, but for now Google does what i need it to do (barely) like open the velux's and turn on lights that have no switches yet etc. All my Sonoff minis can be flashed to work locally, so when i have the time i'll move onwards and upwards.

[Pocster]

4 minutes ago, Super_Paulie said:

i will move onto HA when i have finished building the place, but for now Google does what i need it to do (barely) like open the velux's and turn on lights that have no switches yet etc. All my Sonoff minis can be flashed to work locally, so when i have the time i'll move onwards and upwards.

No no no . You play with HA to avoid doing the build . Trust me on this 😊

[bmj1]

I got a couple of quotes on C4 (it's pricey).

 

However, I turned it down as I didn't want a single proprietary system being a key dependency for running our home.

 

It works on a dealer purchase and service/maintenance model, and the costs add up.

 

I'm using Shelley for the ETRs, Ra2 Select for the lighting, and planning on using Home assistant to tie all the different systems together.

 

[JohnMo]

Couple of things I have found with home assistant,

 

If I have a power cut, home assistant, stays shutdown, until I manually repower it.

 

If a sensor looses WiFi, automations can do strange things. So you may need to implement binary sensors so if a fault occurs the automation does something sensible.

 

You need a robust WiFi system throughout the area you have relays and sensors 

[G and J]

Forgive my ignorance.  
 

Am I correct in saying that I can add one of these devices into a standard wall light switch, continue to use said light switch manually, and in addition turn that light on and off using hone assistant?

[Pocster]

27 minutes ago, G and J said:

Forgive my ignorance.  
 

Am I correct in saying that I can add one of these devices into a standard wall light switch, continue to use said light switch manually, and in addition turn that light on and off using hone assistant?

Yes 

[Pocster]

32 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Couple of things I have found with home assistant,

 

If I have a power cut, home assistant, stays shutdown, until I manually repower it.

 

If a sensor looses WiFi, automations can do strange things. So you may need to implement binary sensors so if a fault occurs the automation does something sensible.

 

You need a robust WiFi system throughout the area you have relays and sensors 

Ups for home assistant is a good idea .

Also as you say if a device fails I.e becomes unresponsive you can get your automation to do something else ; at least send a notification of the issue .

[Kelvin]

On 25/11/2024 at 19:06, G and J said:

When I googled home assistant the first thing I saw was a Raspberry Pi so I freaked and took another tablet.

 

On my second look I’ve found a home assistant green which looks like it’s a hive home hub equivalent.  Is it?

It’s just a small Linux box with HA installed. They do (did) the yellow version which is more powerful/flexible.  You can run HA on pretty much anything though including an old laptop if you happen to have one but that’s an involved configuration. I run it on my Synology NAS for example.