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 Posted: Friday Sep 13th, 2013 07:37 pm
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lwillerton
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If this helps these guys write drivers for Control 4

http://www.extravegetables.com/

I have tried contacting them, but I guess as a potential buyer I don't have much power to drive a business decision to write the driver.

Maybe if someone senior at cytech contacts them as another manufacture they might listen.....



 Posted: Saturday Sep 14th, 2013 03:34 am
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ident
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What did they say when you contacted them? Did they ask for $$$?



 Posted: Saturday Sep 14th, 2013 07:35 am
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lwillerton
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Hi Ident,

Hope you are well.

They never came back to me, I should really try again I guess.

Regards

Lee



 Posted: Tuesday Oct 22nd, 2013 09:31 pm
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ident
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i-Coders have just announced a Comfort driver for Control4, please see http://i-coders.com/index.php/product/detail/12



 Posted: Wednesday Oct 23rd, 2013 07:07 am
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lwillerton
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Fantastic news.



 Posted: Sunday Oct 27th, 2013 10:56 am
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slychiu
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Let us know how it works
Also maybe some feedback about how you would like Control4 and Comfort work in your home, how tying the two systems would give you



 Posted: Tuesday Sep 16th, 2014 11:27 pm
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Howser
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I am interested in getting Control4 to interface with Comfort and CBUS. It seems having an Electronics background and being a Programmer by day is not good enough for Control4 DIY.



 Posted: Wednesday Sep 17th, 2014 06:27 am
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ident
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You mean Control4 is too difficult?



 Posted: Wednesday Sep 17th, 2014 10:05 am
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Howser
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ident wrote: You mean Control4 is too difficult?
No, it's not that difficult. Dealers and the local distributor are not willing to allow this. It's shame though, cause it looks like a capable system. 



 Posted: Thursday Sep 18th, 2014 04:54 pm
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Howser
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I even suggested doing any formal training they required. 



 Posted: Thursday Sep 18th, 2014 04:58 pm
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ident
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Dont worry, Comfort can do almost anything they can do and more, and it costs a fraction of their cost



 Posted: Tuesday Sep 27th, 2016 10:55 pm
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lwillerton
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Hi All,

Sorry this is a long one :-)

After several years of thinking about buying Control4 I engaged with a dealer and set about designing my install. However, after a few emails and a bit more research I started to feel that Control4 is not the answer, you may ask why and its simple really, I though it had a large amount of drivers that could easily work network connected kit like TV, Amps, the truth seems to be lots of drivers are rs232 or IR so functionality is limited. The forums are also saying they are unable to program the kit so every change has to go through the dealer. I have also seen posts suggesting that customers have spent tens of thousands on Control4 and where looking to bin the system as it did not deliver to the customers expectations. The common theme is you need to get the right installer and if you don’t and it doesn't work Control4 themselves don't seem to want to help. My Control4 contact is great and even if I don't buy control4 off him I will continue to buy my AV, CCTV kit from him. Finally i-Coders seem to be the only Cytech drivers for Control4 and is a rs232 connection with limited functionality.

Why was I looking at Control4 and that is also simple the user interface looks great for all functions, and is a one stop shop for home automation.

Having decided Control4 is not for me right now (guess it could work for the right customer) I would like to put it out there to see what people think I should do next. I may need to break this down on the Cytech forum as different projects I will take admins advise on that but for now:

I would like jump to all automation functions on a great app also I would like to pull the app up on my TV similar to the Control4 solution. Most of what I am going to describe I can think of way to achieve the project, but I need to jump in and out of different apps which is not ideal.

In no particular order

Project 1
I have never got my CCTV cameras working in the Comfort app, beyond that I would like to access my NVR (QNAP) on the app and review recordings.

Also I would like to at the touch a button fire up my CCTV cameras on my TV’s and preferably have access to the NVR on the.

Project 2
Somfy RTS blinds - I want to be able to control bedroom blinds based on alarm status e.g Night Mode - Blinds closed and Vacation / Away mode open / close blinds deepening on time of day / day of week. I don’t want to use IR if possible so are there any plans to make a Somfy (or equivalent) UCM’s

Project 3
AV Control to reduce the number of remote controls each item below has one (plus) remotes. The plan is to have TV’s in all bedrooms but for now I have:
 
Lounge TV Sony KD-65x8509c
Kitchen,Master and Guest bedrooms Samsung TV’s

Yamaha RX3020 great amp great app, it has a 2 port HDMi matrix switch HDMi1 feeds the lounge and HDMi2 feeds the kitchen/master bed so I can watch the tivo in the lounge and play on the xbox in the kitchen or master bed. It also has 4 audio zones 1,lounge 2, kitchen, 3 conservatory, 4, outside.

On the RX3020 HDMI inputs 
1 Virgin Media TIVO1
2 Virgin Media TIVO2
3 Apple TV gen2
4 Xbox
5 Sony BluRay
6 M8 android media player mainly used for Kodi
7 Available

I would like to open up the comfort app or use a scene switch / remote to select a room chose a source turn on the TV set the volume level set the mood lighting etc. then without having the go into another app select another channel. Control4 does this well and has all the channel icons in the app, not sure about TV guides.

I could program this but it will take hours capturing all the remote IR codes which I will do if I have to, however my Samsung TV’s which are very different models one 5 years only the other a month old work with either remotes / IR commands, therefore could Comfort add pre-configured IR codes? or could a UCM be created to manage network connected TV’s AMP’s etc?

Project 5
Heatmiser interface - covered by UCM

Project 6
Aircon control - again IR code which I can teach the system to learn but without a slick looking app the best I will achieve is a PIR trigger or a scene switch which really is not worth it may as well stick with the remote.

Project 7
Use a SIP connection to make calls rather than the traditional phone network. We get loads of value from the system when a delivery man contacts us through the door station, but this costs us £10 - £25 a month on the home phone bill calling mobiles.


I believe Comfort is capable of doing 75%+ of the above, but it might be worth understanding the road map so if I look to buy a bigger HDMi matrix switch to replace my amp to feed more TV’s for example I buy something that comfort can control out the box. Please do’t take the wrong way but I would like to suggest Cytech share a road map of touch screens and scene buttons, I think the cosmetic look of these types of items is moving constantly in the market. I not seen one in the flesh but the cytech touch screens and switches look a bit dated.

As I am not going for Control4 I want to develop a personal solution that ticks as many of my boxes possible. Which looks great and works well and with everyone support I am sure this is very achievable.

I will be contacting cytech support with a list of kit I am going to buy for my Comfort system to get some of these projects off the ground, but I think the AV / CCTV opportunities are limited at present.

Finally I would love people to share what they have done with comfort systems and if anyone has looked at doing some of the projects I am considering and have any constructive advice please let me know.

Best Wishes

Lee



 Posted: Wednesday Sep 28th, 2016 05:42 am
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slychiu
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Thats interesting perspective about Control4. How much would your original plan have cost, out of interest?

We can give you inputs on your projects of course



 Posted: Wednesday Sep 28th, 2016 11:38 am
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lwillerton
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EA3 - £730 + vat middle of the road control unit
EA5 - £1460 + vat high end controller
4Sight Subscription - £99 per year remote access

Plus you would need IR units about £100, relay units and labour on top. This would give me AV control in the lounge, open / close gates / maybe heatmiser integration. I have most of that working it's just the AV stuff I want to build.

I think for my 4 bed house I would have to pay £5000 - £10000 possibly more to achieve the above in Control4

I think on top of my current investment I may need to pay £500 - £1000 with cytech.

This would buy a load of kit from cytech and with a bit of time I think I can do a whole house solution for less that their high end EA5.

The only limitations from what I can see is the possibility to bring up the cytech app on my TV, to review zone status for example.

I would also like to see swipe action for volume or dimming levels within the app and maybe access to to guides.

I have found a post I put on the forum a while back where Ident suggested a Harmony remote for AV so going to take another look here, but that would be a fantastic UCM either to interface with Harmony or one that has the same IR / wifi device control of devices.

Last edited on Wednesday Sep 28th, 2016 11:39 am by lwillerton



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