Guidelines of system design

Consider the following items before you start to design a project for a Control4 automated home.

  • Use existing or custom device drivers—Every device in the system needs a corresponding device driver so the Control4 system can control the device. When designing the system, each time you add a physical device to a room, for example, a DVD player, the corresponding device driver must be added to the project in the project tree. Device drivers for Control4 products are installed in Composer Pro. Device drivers for hundreds of third-party devices are available through an online database, and can be added easily to the project when the driver is available. If a driver for the model of a device does not exist, you can use the Driver Creation Wizard (available through a menu option) or DriverWorks (a free add-on utility) to create a custom driver.
  • Connect and identify the devices to the network—In the Composer project, you identify all physical connections to the system, including control, AV (audio, video), network, and other connections. Use to the Connections view in Composer to complete this task.
  • Register the system at my.control4.com—Control4 recommends that you register each system you install at customer.control4.com so you can maintain the system software using the online downloads.

    • Important: Only registered systems can use all of the media services that are available to Control4 customers. System registration is one of the essential steps in enabling remote access to the system.

  • Set up the media—Identify any existing media on the system using the Media view in Composer. The Media view helps you search or scan stored media and auto-generate a list of local broadcast channels and stations. After you’ve searched or scanned in the existing media, you can test the Media access through the navigation devices (also known as Navigators), and you can create playlists also.
  • Configure properties—Manage a device’s settings in the Properties pane.
  • Program events and actions—Define interactions between system events and the actions of other devices in the Programming view. For example, when a projector turns on, it can trigger other devices in the Home Theater to turn on or off causing an event to occur.
  • Create variables and agents for use in programming—Advanced setup options are available in Composer: string, Boolean, device properties, variables, delays, and agents. Using these options, you can configure, for example, a 3-way switch, turn equipment on and off with proper delay times, create lighting scenes, and other customized programming between devices.
  • Customize the Navigators—Complete the registration process and enable remote access. Work with your customers to set up screen savers and other custom functions.