I've recently started learning how to develop Control4 DriverWorks drivers. My goal is to become a DriverWorks expert and see what doors that capability opens up. Having just wrapped up my last driver, I am looking for some fresh ideas for what to tackle next. And, if it's something my fellow Remote Central members could use, all the better.

So, if any of you have the need for something or have an idea for a driver that you've been wanting to see, please feel free to hit me up. Depending on the request, I may be able to whip something up that you can use on a project or just for troubleshooting/administering projects.

For example, so far I've created drivers in a few categories:

1. Control of third party gear

2. Providing functionality that is not available through Composer (i.e. a "virtual keypad" driver that can be used to unlock doors, etc.)

3. Simplifying Composer programming (i.e. building a variable that lists the status of all lights and thermostats in a project. For use in email notifications)

Nice! A couple immediate pain points I have that are cloud based would be MyQ and Honeywell WiFi and straight integration with Elan S/M86 units. I recently looked into Clareone and noticed they have a MyQ driver but it’s paid to MyQ which explains ALOT with C4 integration.

I really need a driver for this system, if it’s possible. I know I can just use DMX to control it, but if I can have a native driver that would be awesome. I’m not the only one that needs this! Quite a few guys on the C4 FB group have asked for control of dock lights!

[Link: lumishore.com]

OK, I might be able to help with this one. Might you be able to put me in touch with the dealer you purchase from? I need to get my hands on the protocol documents, etc.

UPDATE: I just sent a note out to their headquarters (UK, I believe) to see about getting the info and support I need to develop a driver. I will also call their Florida sales office later this morning.

So, the CEO of Lumishore wrote back and said they don't have the time to invest on this.

I'm not a customer of their system, but if you and others using their product would like to push on this through the sales/support channel, I'm happy to invest a couple of days to get a driver out to you all. I just did this with a theater optical lighting system product (StellarSky) and it was a win/win/win for the manufacturer, Control4 dealer and me.

BTW, who is their biggest competitor? I'm curious to know if they have Control4 integration.

Do they not have an API? They have to since they pair with simrad, furuno etc displays and systems. I find it hard to believe that lumishore wrote the integration?

Their closest competitor would be ocean LED. I can tell you to save some time there is not a single company in this space that offers a C4 driver. Thanks to Duct Tape, he helped me with sourcing yacht lights that had DMX so I could control it.

I am having to adapt these lights to work on a dock, any of the other “off the shelf “ dock lights don’t offer a way to control the colors, they use the toggle (on off) system to select your colors. They also get out of sync too.

I told the CEO, Eifrion Evans, that I would develop a basic driver for free if he sent me the API doc and perhaps answered a few questions. He replied that he didn't have the time for this.

He was pretty arrogant, too. He wrote in his email:

"Yes, our stuff is world leading but only so much we can deal with at any time and 30% growth compound per annum is keeping us more then happy."

I understand that businesses need to prioritize, and it seems like this is a relatively low priority. But, I thought his attitude was a bit surprising.

Yes please.

Notes
Doesn't do anything.
You drop it in like any other device in the tree, ability to change it's name in the tree, and a couple fields in properties (who, when, why) window to type notes in. Never shows up in navigator, or anywhere else.

Idea being, you can add it to design under an item, and it allows you to add notes about that other item. Say the light switch is in a stupid place, or you add a fake driver to breakout audio from a source, or just a place to leave a note behind on why something exists or how you set it up.

Sure there's way's to do Rem in programming windows, but looking for the ability to leave myself and the next guy a note on why this or that exists in design, or where something is located in the house. (Mostly for light switch physical locations.)

Wow, that is beyond arrogant. Shocking really. Could you PM me his email? I’m not going to call him out obviously but maybe if he heard from a few dealers it would be good.

Thanks for reaching out though!

OK, PM sent. Good luck and please keep us posted if you make any headway.

The Global Cache GC-IRE would be a great product to solve the following issue.

Older Control4 controllers (HC200, HC300, and HC500) have the ability to allow the use of 3rd party remotes via a built-in infrared target and internal Pronto hex codes. Over the past few years the hardware target in newer controllers has been changed and the only way to use 3rd party remotes with Control4 is by using older controllers. This is a problem, as we often like to use waterproof 3rd party remotes.
If you could write a driver for the GC-IRE that allows it to be used as a target for newer Control4 controllers it would be so appreciated.

OK, I'm not familiar with this functionality, but I can imagine a few different incarnations of this.


OPTION 1:

The driver would have a read only property called something like "Last Received IR Command." It would also have read/write properties called Command 1, Command 2, ... Command n. You could copy/paste from "Last Received IR Command" into "Command 1". Now, in programming, when Command 1 was received, the event "Command 1" would be triggered, etc.

OPTION 2:

The driver has a property called "Room to Control" and another property called "Remote Control Model." When a command is sent to the GC-IRE from a given remote control model, that command is automatically past to the specified room.

OPTION 3:

This option automatically passes IR commands to the specified room (like option 2), except the mapping from IR commands to room commands is done in the driver's properties window. In other words, there is a property called "Command 1 IR" and another property called "Command 1 Room". Whenever the command "Command 1 IR" is received, the room is automatically fed "Command 1 Room". For example, "Command 1" may be "1,55,6,7,88,4,33,55,6,76" and "Command 1 Room" may be VOLUME_UP. Now, when "1,55,6,7,88,4,33,55,6,76" arrives at the serial port, VOLUME_UP is past to the room.


Are any of these options what you have in mind?

Also, what if you could do this with the GlobalCache IP2IR product instead of using the GC-IRE?

C4 is working with LiftMaster/MyQ directly to develop an official driver. Liftmaster is apparently dragging their feet but someone from C4 said they should know more next month.

Drivercentral.com has a driver for the Honeywell Redlink T-stats, but there’s nothing for the non-Redlink stuff.

Have been hearing about the MyQ driver for quite awhile, guessing it’s more of a $ issue than technical.

As for the Honeywell side, I replaced my TouchPro tstat years ago with the newer Lutron WiFi unit a few years back and am still limping along with the Houselogix driver but it’s flaky. Still genuinely peeved at Lutron over the mess and peeved at myself for not replacing it yet. Lol!

I'm not sure which one would be best, but I don't think the IP2IR would work because it appears to send IR instead of receiving IR. The problem is that Control4's controllers no longer receive IR input for 3rd party remote control.