C4 DIY.com

Sorry it has been so quiet here guys.  I want to thank everyone for their kind and insightful emails, and I want you to know that although you may [...] Continue Reading…

I promise there are some cool things coming online soon, but for tonight all I have is an updated look.

Do you like it? Hit the read link below to leave a comment, or shoot me an email and let me know what you think.

Thanks for your feedback, and thanks for stopping by!

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Well, this week I decided to give a slingbox a try as opposed to buying another TV for my home office. I have plenty of monitor space, so I figured I could try and take advantage of that to save some money over buying a new TV, AND to be able to have the benefits the slingbox brings…being able to view all my sources from anywhere. So, I picked up a Sling Solo.

Hit the read link for the full story!

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Okay, so here is one that is extremely functional and will WOW your friends and family. Have you ver been watching a video in a dark room, hit pause so your friend could run to the restroom only to watch him trip on the step because he couldn’t see anything? Has this happened to you? Well, the best part about Home Automation is the automated part, and this is one I really like. This little tutorial will teach you how to have your lights automatically ramp up to a certain level you choose when your video source is paused, and then return to the previous light level once the play button is pressed. VERY COOL! Hit the read link and in 15 minutes or so you’ll be inviting people over for movie night to show this off!

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There have been a few requests for this, so here you go!

Do you have your Control4 system sending you emails when certain events take place? While having Control4 send me email when certain things take place, with how active my email accounts are I don’t always stay on top of them. On the other hand, my text message volume is much easier to stay on top of, and I am probably going to see a text before an email so having important things sent via text message sure is nice. This writeup will not only cover how to send you things via email if you aren’t already, but help you send things as text messages also.

Hit the read link for all the details.

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Having the functionality to press and hold a keypad or dimmer for a certain period of time to fire certain programming is one of my favorite things. I use alot of press and holds in my house to turn certain things or “modes” on or off, as well as other various programming tasks. At my old website I got a lot of requests for this, so I did a write-up on how to do it. Unfortunately that write-up got lost, and we’ve had some requests to do another here, so here you have it!

Hit the read link for the full writeup.

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Watch for a full review including installation, etc… coming soon.

Sorry for the poor quality pic, I snapped it quickly with my cell phone at my office. [...] Continue Reading…

One of the selling points of the C4 interface is the ability to consolidate your media, and view/call it via the cover-art selection screen. Many DVD changers and media servers are supported via a 2 way driver and work seamlessly through this interface. But what happens after you are done with that movie, and want to start another movie? You are now in control of the device playing your movie, and the guide buttons either does nothing (as it did with my 400 disc Sony Blue-Ray changer) or takes you to the menus of the device playing the media (as it did with my Netgear 9100 Express). These aren’t always as pretty, or as intuitive as the C4 cover-art screen. Also, this will tend to confuse the non-power user (such as my kids). It can become a little button intensive to return to the cover-art screen, which is why this little bit of programming can be a big convenience. For the full rundown on how to get the most out of the guide button and improve your families movie watching experience, hit the read link below.

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So, if you were a fan of my writeup “How do I…use a timer to close my garage door?”, but the additional functionality I talked about but didn’t explain was intriguing to you, this article will you get you that much closer to having all that functionality. Here I have covered how to create an override to stop the garage from automatically closing, as well as use the LEDs in your dimmer(s)/switch(s)/keypad(s) to indicate whether the override was put into effect or not.

If all that sounds fun and functional to you, hit the read link for the full scoop on how to make it happen.

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So, let me prefice this with one thing. I don’t want this site to be focused around news and rumors, but this one is big. I just got back from a busy day of running around with the kids and found a message from one of my connects that I thought you all might find interesting.

If you’ve got any interest in the iPad and the new ControlUI App, hit the read link for the news we’ve all been waiting for.

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