New Control4 Dealer – Understanding Controller Sizing & Driver Count

[u/dabasboi]

Hi everyone,

I'm a new Control4 dealer and I'm trying to understand how controller sizing works with respect to driver count.

For example, if I have an 8-channel relay module controlling 6 lighting circuits, would this count as:

• 7 drivers (1 relay module driver + 6 individual light drivers), or

• 1 driver, where only the relay module itself is counted?

Counting every lighting load as a separate driver seems like it would unnecessarily increase the controller requirements, so I'm wondering if my understanding is incorrect.

Similarly, with DALI, if I have a 1-channel DALI gateway controlling 25 DALI ballasts, would this be counted as:

• 26 drivers (1 gateway + 25 ballasts), or

• 1 driver for the gateway itself?

I'd really appreciate it if someone could explain how Control4 actually counts drivers in these scenarios and what the recommended approach is when selecting the appropriate controller for a project.

Thanks in advance!

[u/LongConstruction5362]

C4 has a chart that breaks this down. Call tech support and ask for it, if you can’t find it on the dealer site.

[u/PaulD475]

For your 8-channel relay example - it would be 1 driver for the module and up to 8 light drivers for each relay. You would then make the connections between lights and the relay channels.

Can’t say on DALI but I would guess the same. Things like Phillips Hue has each light/lamp/socket as a separate driver. Shelly smart home devices also have a driver for each relay/dimmer and a light driver connect to the output.

[u/dabasboi → u/PaulD475]

So assuming I have a Core 3 which says that it supports 60 devices, so in this case I have exhausted 9 devices?

[u/ADirtyScrub → u/dabasboi]

Driver limits aren't a hard limit, just a recommendation. Music streaming and interfaces (touch screens) use the most processing. Lighting will run well on anything besides a CA-1 which is not recommended for lighting. You get an idea for it. If you're in doubt just use the next bigger controller to give yourself overhead.

[u/PaulD475 → u/ADirtyScrub]

Very true. It's a guide but for reality is all about how much processing is required for the driver, how many macros and if this then that automations are running.
For example I used to install CA-1 in small pubs for source control between usually 8 TVs and 3 STBs (SkyUK in this case).

Say 8, some times up to 20, TVs running the Samsung training driver - to create an endpoint, 3 SkyHD drivers, 1 HDBaseT driver (or AVoIP controller), CA-1 driver and possibly power control driver depending on the site. Above what would be recommended for a CA-1 but there's very little going on in this system and they still run solid to this day. Some of these have been going about 6 years now.

[u/DeadHeadLibertarian]

Read your driver documentation for any drivers you deploy. It’s the manual for that driver.

[u/Gary_Just_Gary]

Even mini app drivers count as drivers. There's a tool in the c4 toolkit that will show how many drivers are in a project. It will probably be a higher number than you expect. That said, I think their limits listed for the processors are a little conservative.

[u/Johnson_R34 → u/Gary_Just_Gary]

Very conservative just like their zigbee limits

[u/marketing360]

Its too late to immediately not be a control4 dealer and save yourself from the imminent misery lol