Interface and gateway

To connect the KNX bus to Control4 today two options are available.

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  1. KNX network driver from Control4. It connects to standard KNX IP interfaces. Suitable for small installations or where the connection between KNX and Control4 is not system critical. Please contact Control4 for more information.
  2. Driver from Genesis technologies AG and Gateway from b+b Automations- und Steuerungstechnik

Where the native Control4 implementation fails, our driver/gateway combination is the solution. A few reasons why we have changed our mindset here in Switzerland in terms of using a driver/hardware combination instead of a software-only implementation:

  • Bus management: The hardware gateway is able to actively manage the traffic on the KNX bus. As well it provides several bus status messages back to the driver which are used to optimize traffic flows
  • Access speed: Inside the gateway a proved firmware and a native KNX chip provides queues and logic to make sure the KNX bus does not overflow and is used in the fastest possible way. On high bus load this gateway/driver combination is up to 20 times faster
  • Reliability: As the bus utilization and health is consequently managed and monitored no bus messages are lost. Also repetitions of commands and the complete timing are done on hardware chip basis in real time. Reliability tests over a long time could not find a single command lost
  • Real time bus communication: Control4 is built on a non-real time Linux and drivers that run in the DriverWorks sandbox are again one step back.
    No native software implementation on C4 ever will meet the defined KNX standards for bus timing. On high bus traffic all software implementations miss commands or fail to send. Therefore the gateway overtakes the real time job and provides a non-time critical interface for the C4 driver.
  • Datapoint support: We can add all datapoints to the driver. No matter how exotic, we can add it very fast. Let us know

The gateways we use for our driver is from b+b Automations- und Steuerungstechnik GmbH, a German company which is widely known as KNX member and leader in  hardware and software design for KNX bus devices. In the driver store the both drivers are available, the gateways can be ordered directkly from the manufacturer, see the manual for more detailed info on this.

Be careful when selecting the driver:
GTSGC4ZBBKMTGI is the driver for the current KNX Medientechnik Gateway
GTSGC4ZBBEMTGI is the driver for the legacy EIB Medientechnik Gateway IP

Driver download GTSGC4ZBBKMTGI (Version 28.7.1): (login needed, unzip into the drivers folder)
knx_eib_medientechnik_gateway_ip_b+b_steuerungstechnik_28.7.1
Documentation download:  knx_eib_medientechnik_gateway_ip_b+b_steuerungstechnik

Driver download GTSGC4ZBBEMTGI (Version 29.1.3): (login needed, unzip into the drivers folder)
knx_medientechnik_gateway_ip_b+b_steuerungstechnik_29.1.3