alanchow Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 Overview Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform that allows users to control and automate various smart home devices from a central hub. Developed by a global community, it supports integration with over a thousand different products, including lights, thermostats, sensors, cameras, and more. One of its key features is the emphasis on local control and privacy, enabling users to manage their smart home devices without relying on cloud services. This not only enhances privacy but also ensures that automations and controls remain operational even if the internet connection is lost. The platform is highly customizable, providing a web-based dashboard where users can monitor and control their devices. Automations can be created through a visual editor or by using YAML code, allowing for complex interactions based on various triggers and conditions. Home Assistant can be installed on multiple platforms, such as Raspberry Pi, Docker, virtual machines, or as a dedicated Home Assistant OS. The active community contributes to extensive documentation, forums, and custom add-ons, extending the platform's capabilities. Designed with security in mind, Home Assistant offers features like encrypted communications and user authentication, making it a robust solution for smart home management. Driver Features Auto-Setup (One-click discovery and commissioning of supported Control4 drivers) Binary Sensors - Easy Push notifications (No Programming needed) (4Sight required) Custom command calls to devices not discovered but present in Home Assistant. This allows you to control devices that are not yet supported by this driver suite. Entities Supported Light Switch Cover Lock Climate Binary Sensor Sensor Fan FAQ Why is this product so exciting? As of writing Home Assistant has a total of 2778 integrations. Some of these integrations cannot be integrated easily into Control4 natively due to limitations in Control4's DriverWorks SDK or limitations in hardware (eg Zigbee / Z-Wave / Bluetooth radios). As such by adding a Home Assistant installation into Control4 we can expand and add new devices to the Control4 eco system that we could not integrate before or have not had the time and resources to integrate yet. Some notable integrations include Matter / Thread Ring Ikea Tradfri TP-Link Tapo Tasmota Tuya SmartThings Homekit Home Connect Google Nest Netatmo Bluetooth Zigbee Z-Wave KNX Xiaomi Miio Aqara You can find a full list of the Home Assistant integrations here. What hardware will this work on? This driver will work with any hardware running Home Assistant. If you don't want to mess around and want something that is affordable and plug and play then you should go with Home Assistant Green. If you want something more advanced go for Home Assistant Yellow The other big difference is that Yellow comes with support for Zigbee 3.0 and Matter-over-Thread. You will need a Raspberry Pi Compute Module and SSD for the Yellow however that can be purchased bundled together. Green can also use these protocols by adding a SkyConnect Alternatively if you wish to build your own then please visit the Home Assistant Installation website. Note that some Home Assistant integrations require additional hardware Bluetooth Z-Wave Zigbee Do you offer any other cool drivers? Control4 is a major part of our business. We develop new drivers all the time. You can see all of our drivers on our website (http://www.chowmainsoft.com). Sign up to our newsletter to get notified when new drivers out. I want to try this driver out before buying it? All Chowmain drivers for Control4 come with a 90 day trial. Where can i find out more? You can find out more about the driver from the following link. Driver Product Page Mike_S, turls, Dueport and 1 other 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
booch Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 for developing this. Currently using open source/custom-stack stuff for my secondary HA install and (despite much respect for community) glad to see the major/top C4 dev. get in and support it. Will be interested to check it out. HA, while not C4 in terms of customer and experience, is amazing for breadth, depth and time-to-'market' re: integrations. Plus the edge capabilities like BT proxies which enable amazing stuff for those who enjoy/are willing to put in effort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tripleC Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 This will allow for some things I wished were in Control4 that is not like robot vacuums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted May 29 Share Posted May 29 This looks awesome and seems to be an easy way to integrate all kinds of devices into C4. I have a bunch of smarthome stuff that I only use a bit. I don't want to be paying $100/driver for things that are pretty minor and that I only use occasionally. So having this driver seems like I can just use the C4-HA integration to control things like LED light strips, Tasmota devices, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elvis Posted May 29 Share Posted May 29 How does this compare to Josh's HomeKit appliance as far as getting C4 switches/dimmers/keypads into Apple Home? turls 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted May 30 Author Share Posted May 30 5 hours ago, Elvis said: How does this compare to Josh's HomeKit appliance as far as getting C4 switches/dimmers/keypads into Apple Home? This driver does not allow for control over Control4 devices in Home Assistant. It will allow you to control Home Assistant integrated devices in Control4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted May 30 Author Share Posted May 30 7 hours ago, zaphod said: This looks awesome and seems to be an easy way to integrate all kinds of devices into C4. I have a bunch of smarthome stuff that I only use a bit. I don't want to be paying $100/driver for things that are pretty minor and that I only use occasionally. So having this driver seems like I can just use the C4-HA integration to control things like LED light strips, Tasmota devices, etc. We can't integrate every device out there but the idea is that we can keep working on this integration to fine tune it to be better and better over time. Much like what we have done with Shelly and other drivers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdonohoe Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 Hey Alan, This driver is fantastic. It's dramatically improving the reliability and performance of my hybrid Control4/Home Assistant-controlled home. One question: why is "Home Assistant Switch" an Experience Button instead of a switch? I have a switch that I'd like to include in lighting scenes or bind to a keypad button, but Experience Buttons can't do either of those things (AFAIK). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 use Home Assistant Light Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdonohoe Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 I tried that, but it only shows "light.*" devices. I'm trying to add a "switch.*" type device. I suppose I could use a helper in HA to change the device type. Just curious why the Chowmain driver doesn't support switches directly as switches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 7 minutes ago, bdonohoe said: I tried that, but it only shows "light.*" devices. I'm trying to add a "switch.*" type device. I suppose I could use a helper in HA to change the device type. Just curious why the Chowmain driver doesn't support switches directly as switches. It should al lights Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdonohoe Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 It does show all lights. Home Assistant does not treat switches and lights as the same thing (hence their helper to turn a switch into a light). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted July 22 Author Share Posted July 22 2 hours ago, bdonohoe said: Hey Alan, This driver is fantastic. It's dramatically improving the reliability and performance of my hybrid Control4/Home Assistant-controlled home. One question: why is "Home Assistant Switch" an Experience Button instead of a switch? I have a switch that I'd like to include in lighting scenes or bind to a keypad button, but Experience Buttons can't do either of those things (AFAIK). I'm not the developer of this driver so not the best person to ask for advice on it. Best thing to do is reach out to our support desk via phone (AU / UK / US numbers), chat or ticket. Its manned 19 hours a day 5 days a week. See link below. https://chowmain.software/for-integrators/technical-support Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.