C4 DIY.com

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So, I have been thinking about it, and I have decided C4 DIY should have a fun and cool logo. I know some people in the logo design business, and will probably reach out to them in the next couple of weeks when I get caught up. For now, I figured I might ask if anyone out there does it for a hobby (or a profession) and might be interested in putting something together for use on the site?

If so, shoot me an email (dan@c4diy.com) and we can discuss it further.

Dan

This site hasn’t really launched yet, I have a bunch of fun things in store. If you have any ideas or suggestions feel free to send them to suggestions@c4diy.com. Stay tuned, and check back often. You’ll see some serious changes take place pretty rapidly…

I’m working right now to restore my old posts…those should be coming back online pretty quickly.

I’ll make sure this site continues down the path I intended it to last time.

Fill out the form to the right to sign up for email announcements and I can keep you informed about changes (I won’t clutter your inbox – I promise).

C4 DIY