Control 4 lights no longer with C4 3.3

[BeHappy2021]

The problem

Control 4 lights no longer working in HA since C4 update to version 3.3. Get two errors in the logs:

Unexpected error fetching light data: Empty response recieved from Director! The variable LIGHT_LEVEL doesn't seem to exist for any items.

Error while setting up control4 platform for light

What version of Home Assistant Core has the issue?

2022.6.5

What was the last working version of Home Assistant Core?

2022.6.5

What type of installation are you running?

Home Assistant OS

Integration causing the issue

Control 4

Link to integration documentation on our website

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/control4

Diagnostics information

No response

Example YAML snippet

No response

Anything in the logs that might be useful for us?

Logger: homeassistant.components.control4.light
Source: components/control4/director_utils.py:32
Integration: Control4 (documentation, issues)
First occurred: 17:17:14 (2 occurrences)
Last logged: 17:28:46
Unexpected error fetching light data: Empty response recieved from Director! The variable LIGHT_LEVEL doesn't seem to exist for any items.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/helpers/update_coordinator.py", line 191, in _async_refresh
    self.data = await self._async_update_data()
  File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/helpers/update_coordinator.py", line 150, in _async_update_data
    return await self.update_method()
  File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/components/control4/light.py", line 56, in async_update_data_dimmer
    return await director_update_data(hass, entry, CONTROL4_DIMMER_VAR)
  File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/components/control4/director_utils.py", line 32, in director_update_data
    data = await director.getAllItemVariableValue(var)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pyControl4/director.py", line 137, in getAllItemVariableValue
    raise ValueError(
ValueError: Empty response recieved from Director! The variable LIGHT_LEVEL doesn't seem to exist for any items.
..............................


Logger: homeassistant.components.light
Source: components/control4/light.py:107
Integration: Light (documentation, issues)
First occurred: 17:17:14 (2 occurrences)
Last logged: 17:28:46
Error while setting up control4 platform for light

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/helpers/entity_platform.py", line 249, in _async_setup_platform
    await asyncio.shield(task)
  File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/components/control4/light.py", line 107, in async_setup_entry
    if item_id in dimmer_coordinator.data:
TypeError: argument of type 'NoneType' is not iterable

Additional information

No response

[probot-home-assistant]

control4 documentation
control4 source
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[probot-home-assistant]

Hey there @lawtancool, mind taking a look at this issue as it has been labeled with an integration (control4) you are listed as a code owner for? Thanks!
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[jlbphotos]

Can confirm same issue have rolled back my Control4 to 3.2.4 no issues.

[gniting]

Same-ish issue. For me, after the update to OS3.3, the valid user no longer authenticates in the HA integration. Gives me an auth error but I am able to log onto the C4 system without any issues using the same credentials. Because of this, the entire integration is busted.

[BeHappy2021]

Instead of rolling back I'm now using the Control4 2way web driver

[safadig]

Same issue since control4 3.3. Can someone point out where to find roll back info?

[safadig]

Same issue since control4 3.3. Can someone point out where to find roll back info?

for anyone looking, it requires Control4 dealer access at control4. A utility called "C4 Device Image Updater V2"

[gniting]

Thanks for the hint. If you have a jailbroken controller, then you are out of luck?

[BeHappy2021]

It's not as easy to use but the 2way webdriver is written by the same person who made this integration and it still works to turn lights on and off and set/get brightness levels. Probably quite a bit easier than rolling back C4 unless you have a friendly dealer to help you.

[bdonohoe]

I was having the same issue as everyone else in this thread. I went digging around to see if lawtancool was showing any signs of activity and came across his hacs-enabled development repo. It hasn't been updated since January, but just for fun, I tried installing it, figuring maybe I'd at least get alarm and door/window sensor support out of it. But what do you know, as soon as I installed it, my lights started working again!

I don't know if there's anything light-related that's different from the HA core version, so it may be that just deleting my existing C4 integration and replacing it is what fixed it. I'd be curious to hear if any folks have tried that with the Core integration. But either way, my lights are now working again without resorting to the 2way web driver.

[bdonohoe]

Here's the repo in question, btw: https://github.com/lawtancool/hass-control4

[BeHappy2021]

Just had a read of the info on that Repo. Interesting part of the disclaimer.

This integration is essentially a newer version of the Control4 integration that is included in Home Assistant by default, and will receive new updates faster than the default integration.

Decided to install and it worked even without deleting the Core integration. Thanks @bdonohoe

Did you get the alarm or any sensors working with it?

[bdonohoe]

Sadly, no. No sensors or the alarm showed up as entities. Just the same set of lights showed up that I had before. Happy to have that fixed, but sad that no other devices come through yet.

[BeHappy2021]

So for now the best solution to this issue is as @bdonohoe said above:

Here's the repo in question, btw: HACS Control 4 integration

Install that repo from HACS either over the previous integration or instead of it. All the previous lights come back as they were before.

The 2way web driver allows you to read the status of a variety of other things - so I have used it to create a display of the status of my alarm - but doesn't work as well with the lights as the HACS integration.

[lawtancool]

Hi everyone,

As some of you have noticed, the integration at https://github.com/lawtancool/hass-control4 works with newer C4 versions. This is because it uses a new Websockets communication protocol with Control4, and it seems that C4 3.3 has limited the REST API that was used by the old integration. (actually, the new Websockets integration does call the REST API once during first setup and every time the Websocket is disconnected/reconnected, so I'm not sure how that works...)

If this works, it is the solution I would recommend for now. Unfortunately, I do not have the ability or time to jailbreak my C4 and update it to the latest OS version to test. Perhaps one day I will find some free time to get the Websockets changes merged into the official HA integration, but it requires quite a bit of refactoring.

[safadig]

The solution is a life saver and works great for lights. Lesson learned though.

[eonnet]

Maybe i can help, the change that Control 4 made in 3.3.0 is they changed the variable LIGHT_LEVEL with Brightness Percent so i guess that if you change this in the code it should work.
I’m here if you need a tester.

in the pre 3.3.0 this variable was LIGHT_LEVEL on V2 lights in control4.

On some V1 lights witch proxy was not updated to the latest are still LIGHT_LEVEL and those work fine in Home Assistant i can dim them unlike the new one with Brightness Percentage that i can only turn them on /off

best regards

…. never mind i tried the custom integration and it works better than the official one :)

[AWolvie]

I had to change my Control4 account password and obviously I lost the connection...
I couldn't find where Home Assistant keeps this information and I only solved it when I deleted and reinstalled the integration with the new password.
After spending some time reconfiguring, the lights started working again in 3.3.0.
To prevent having to reinstall again, could someone tell me where I can change the login and password of the integration with C4 in the home assistant?
Thanks !

[mlbfamily]

For what it's worth, the fact the lights don't show dimming support appears to be a bug downstream of the Control4 integration. Because when creating automations, you can set the brightness percentage as a device action, and it works! So the fact the rest of light controls are not registering as dimming-supported is some other bug unrelated to the C4 integration protocol.

[issue-triage-workflows]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. Due to the high number of incoming GitHub notifications, we have to clean some of the old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates.
Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍
This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.