I am building a dedicated home theater in the bonus room above my garage. I will have sconces going up the stairs, two sconces on the screen wall and 6 can lights in the ceiling of the theater itself. I would like to be able to turn on the lights at the bottom of the stairs and be able to control them with a harmony remote from the theater room. Due to the slope of the roof, I am not able to hang a door at the top of the steps so would like to include the stair sconces with the scene presets in the theater room.
I would like to be able to have different scene settings such as full on, 50% on etc (probably no more the 4 settings). From reading similar threads it appears the Lutron Spacer system would work in my setup. However, I am not sure which switches I need (including the one at the bottom of the steps).
Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Ty

If you are planning on controlling the lights via IR with the Harmony, then you have a slightly cheaper (but equally effective) option.

Get the Lutron Maestro IR Dimmers (link (http://lutron.com/CMS/CMSSystem_entry.aspx?appid=1023&id=5520)) to specs.

I would use one of these Maestro IR dimmers for each light type (one for sconces, one for the cans, etc etc). Then, in your Harmony, you can program an 'Activity' (a macro) that will do whatever you want in sequence.

It's cheaper. The downside is that you don't get total control of the lights by using the switches on the wall... you would need to tweak each one independently etc every time, instead of having presets. But thats what your Harmony is there for!

I hope this helps.

EDIT: Just re-read your post... if you're planning on switching everything on from outside the room, then Harmony might be an issue... unless you get a $40 IR/RF converter, which I have on order ;)

What switch would I have at the bottom of the stairs? I would need to turn on lights in the stairway to walk up to the room. Then, if possible, I would like to be able to press play on the remote and have those lights dim with the lights in the room. When I press stop all lights would be full on. Is the ir/rf converter for the remote or dimmer switch and where are you getting it?

Tyrell,

OK, based on your recent input, we're on the right track! You can get the IR Dimmers, in 3-way versions. They are called 'Multi Location' switches in Lutron speak... Those allow you to have the master Dimmer switch (which supports IR) inside your theatre room, while your slave Dimmer (aka 'remote switch') non-IR at the bottom of the stairs.

Best place I found to purchase these after looking for hours was:
Union Lighting (http://unionlighting.com/lutron/lutron.html).
You want to look at the Mestro IR (http://unionlighting.stores.yahoo.net/lumair.html) series specifically. There are numerous versions in that page, depending on total wattage you want to load, as well as variants of the IR control (Low voltage compatibility, etc). Read and determine what you need. The Maestro dimmers can be purchased in just about any color you like, so that's a plus.

The slave dimmer would be just a regular slave Maestro (non IR)... can be seen in this (http://unionlighting.stores.yahoo.net/lutdimmaesma.html) other page. I think they call it 'smart remote'. It's basically the slave dimmer. Here again, you can get any color you want.

If you want to control your cans at a different dimmer setting than your sconces, then you will need a pair of dimmers switches for each circuit. (pair: One Maestro IR + one Mestro 'Smart Remote'). Note that the word Remote here has NOTHING to do with the infrared remote control! Remote is what Lutron calls the slave dimmer switch.

They also ship Lutron stuff for free on orders over $200 at this store.

One additional note about having multiple settings: The Maestro series will remember ONE preset setting for the switch/circuit. So if you want multiple configurations (like you mention in your original post) then the Harmony would have to be programmed quite cleverly. I think this can be a hit/miss because you would need direct line of sight with your IR switches (all of them, if you have more than one), and then would require you to program the Harmony remote to do several sequences of up/down on the dimmers to get them to your preferred lighting.

This can be a serious issue, in which case the Lutron Spacer would definitely be your best option -- albeit at a much higher price.

i'm using a multi-location spacer dimmer along with a spacer standard dimmer. the standard dimmer is at the theater entrance; one click and lights will go full on full off, use the remote control to the ir dimmer in the equipment closet, and dim to 4 presets with the remote. discountdimmers is where i got mine at.

eric

Concerning the Maestro dimmers-they will all function with the same IR frequency. So you would have to point the remote at one dimmer, dim to the level you wanted, then point to a different dimmer, dim to the amount you want, so on and so forth.

If you use the spacer system, you can (I believe) control each switch independantly. What you could do is to set up 3 spacer system switches in a location, then buy one of the Wall Mounted Master Controls and run the flashers to the location of your other 3 switches. The master control can be set at the bottom of the stairs, and you can select any of the scenes when you enter the room. Then, you can use your remote to control the 3 switches from the room.

Thank you everyone for the input. It sounds like the spacer system is what I am needing/wanting.


use the remote to control the ir dimmer in the equipment closet, and dim to 4 presets with the remote.

Ericeash, how are you controlling the ir dimmer if it is in you equipment closet? Do you have an IR emitter on it? Also, if I want different light levels with the can lights and the sconces do I get a dimmer the sconces and use the controller for the can lights? If so, do both the dimmer and the controller go in the equipment closet?

Again, thanks for the help. I have put in hours and hours reading the forums and still am not exactly sure which switches I need to buy to make it work and where to put them so I can control them with a remote.

I just spoke to a lutron rep. and he recommended that I install the master control (SPS5WCR) at the bottom of the steps, then install 3 dimmers (SPS600) upstairs in the theater room itself. He said that I would need a dimmer for each zone I wanted to control. He suggested I have one dimmer for the stair way sconces, one dimmer for the can lights and one dimmer for the screen wall sconces. He said that the master control does not work as a dimmer itself but works as a remote. I thought that the master control would need to be in the room itself in order for me to recall the saved lighting scenes from it, but he said that my harmony remote would control each of the dimmers independently. I think I am more confused now than when I called.:confused: If anybody out there has any experience with the spacer system I would really appreciate your input.
Thanks again to those that have helped.

Hope ya'll don't mind a late arrival to this discussion but I have been looking at a similar situation and was looking at Leviton's Vizia RF scene controls that are z-wave compatible with the Harmony set up in a similar fashion to the Lutron. Can anyone tell me the difference and is one better than the other? Its the RZCZ4-1L controller and RZCZ1-1L?

Hey, I am up for the vizia as well if it will do what I need it to do!

Tyrell,

You may want to read through a thread in this same forum titled - "IR Lighting question - statonj". They seem to be going through different scenarios with the Lutron Spacer system and it seems to explain enough to figure out if it would work for you. I have an e-mail into Leviton on the Vizia system to see if it works the same and what options on the setup you can have. Will post when I get a response.

Just received this back from Leviton on their Vizia controllers and dimmers. Hope this helps.....maybe.

The Scene Controller (RZCS4-1L*) and Zone Controller (RZCZ4-1L*) can be programmed to support the same functions. Other than a slight difference in the appearance of the button on these devices they work the same. You can have several dimmers set to a single button on either the scene or zone controller and use the other three buttons for other preset lighting levels or zone controls.

Logitech’s Harmony 1000 is not compatible with the Vizia RF products. You need the Harmony 890 remote from Logitech to interface with the Vizia RF products. You can program the dimmers directly into the remote and control them with it independently as well as use our IR remote to “teach” the Logitech remote the IR commands to talk to the scene controller.

Do you know what switches I would need in addition to the controller? Also, I think I am going to post my original question in the automation forum and see if any one there is familiar with the spacer system.
Thanks for your help.

I think the Lutron guy actually had it correct for your situation even if you go with the Leviton Vizia setup. Master at the bottom of the steps with one of the scene controls being "ALL ON-HIGH" so that as you come up the stairs, you can just hit the button on the master control to turn your lights on. Three (3) zones at the top (if that is what you settle on) with Vizia's dimmers (RZCZ-1Z). My understanding from there is that you can set all three dimmers to various settings and then save that as a "scene" on the master. So for instance:

Scene 1 - entry and seating - all zones all the way on high
Scene 2 - movie - stairs off, sconces by screen off, cans at 25%.
Scene 3 - intermission - stairs at 50%, sconces by screen at 50%, cans at 50%

and so on.

That would be, I believe, one (1) master and three (3) dimmers. You could also run this past Leviton's support on their web site to confirm. They responded to me the same day as I e-mailed them.

Good luck and if you beat me to wiring mine, post something and let me know how it turned out.