Anyone here used Control4?

[signal15]

http://www.control4.com

I saw a blurb the other day that said they would release some Zigbee switches soon. I called them, and they said their stuff has been Zigbee for the past couple of years, but wasn't quite compliant with the spec. And it will be compliant shortly.

Has anyone used any of their stuff? I asked them if it was server based, and they said every touchscreen panel was a server. It seems to me like this could get very expensive in a hurry.

 

[dutchyn]

A large local AV chain vends the Control4 stuff. I steered away as soon as I discovered that programming was limited, remote access was through their internet service only, and at a fairly steep price. The upside (which applies to a large audience) is the great integration of lighting, media, and security. As long as you're happy with a dealer-installed, canned solution, Control4 is very appealing.

 

[electron]

Control4's ZigBee hardware has been out for a while indeed. The new stuff they are talking about is ZigBee Pro. The probem is that they aren't targeting the DIY market, so you would have to pay a lot of money in order to get your hands on the hardware.

 

[signal15]

They told me the list prices on the dimmers is $130 each. That's a fairly steep price considering Insteon dimmers can be had for $45 each or even less. I don't think I want to pay nearly triple just to have Zigbee. It's not even clear if it would work without their other stuff.

I know many people have had issues with the Insteon switches, but the people I know that have it haven't had any issues.

Looking at the list of shops that carry the Control4 stuff, and knowing some of these shops, it's definitely targeted to people with way too much money to spend. I know one of the shops that carries it won't touch a project under $100k, and some of their projects have been $7-15 million dollar projects.

Many of these companies that only sell to dealers and installers are screwing themselves. Technology-wise, the average person is a lot more adept at this sort of thing than they were 10-20 years ago. I would say your average person who buys DIY stuff at Home Depot could do most of this stuff provided with the right instructions. But these guys don't even want to tap that market.

 

[Neurorad]

It's expensive to market to DIY'ers, in the form of tech support. And, it's difficult to protect the installer, the primary customers.

The company gets bad press when the install isn't easily accomplished by a noob. There are a few, but most DIY'ers don't attend classroom seminars, either (though I understand much of it is marketing).