[dwilson1]

I am in the process of installing several Lutron RadioRA componets in my house. Does anybody have any experience with programming the master controls? I have read the manual and it is all very straight forward, but I am finding it difficult to get it to do the things I was expecting. For instance, rooms vs. scenes: I was expecting to be able to program scenes like goodnite, away, evening, relaxing, entertaining, etc. The system will do this, BUT it affects every switch/dimmer/Grafik Eye in the system. Thus, if I hit the RELAX button in the kitchen, it will turn off the lights in the master bedroom or the outside landscape lights. Is there a way to prevent a scene from interferring with certain lights in the system? (Similar to how you can program some lights to not be turned off by the ALL OFF buttons)


Thanks

 

[QQQ]

I am not sure if I understand your question. A scene should only affect the lights you program it to effect. If that is not happening, I think you may be missing a step in your programming. If you are asking if you can program the Radio Ra using conditional logic, you cannot.


Please elaborate.

 

[markrubin]

Page 2-4 step 3 describes how to REMOVE a dimmer, switch, or Grafik Eye Control from the ALL OFF button


you can do exactly what you describe in every case- you just have to follow the Radio RA Setup guide- there is a learning curve involved- you may have to redo it one or two times- you can exclude those dimmers you do not want affected on a given room or scene


I have this system and love it for its flexibility


Mark

 

[dwilson1]

I guess I just needed a little more experience with programming the master controls. I've figured out to do exactly what I had been hoping I could do. The system does seem to be very flexible, but does have a learing curve in setting it up properly.


Mark, I see that you have an Elan HD in your whole house system. I will be using Elan Via Panels and an AMX NetLink for whole house control (A/V, security, HVAC, etc.) Have you experimented with any of the other RadioRA interfaces (RS-232, Contact Closure)? I have the RS-232 interface and think you could do some fairly sophisticated control using either the Elan/AMX or a PC, like automating landscape lighting, vacation mode, motion detector/photo-cell activation, etc.)

 

[markrubin]

Wow that is a lot of work to integrate all that!


I have the Elan Z panels- I tried out the Via panels but I did not have the proper wiring to convert each Z to the Via and decided to leave it as is


Via panels are very nice but you need power and coax to each one in addition to CAT 5- you can also do it with a second CAT 5 and a video balun


I am not familiar with AMX or RS-232 programming- I agree you can do a lot with it but it is a big project


I got to a point where the only changes/upgrades are ones I can do- had enough contrators/subs/electricians working in the house to last a lifetime!


Good luck with your project


Mark

 

[Srgtfury]

The rs232 control of Ra through, for example Crestron, is available for On/Off and toggle via a Crestron module. The flexibility, although not exactly what i would like is quite good, and , in fact, the master control can have a button assigned that through program logic in Crestron-assume AMX, etc. is the same, can drive things like-Turn the Theater On, etc.. Iparticularly enjoy shutting off certain zones that my kids/mIL, W ALWAYS leave on automatically after 3 minutes or so. I even have concommitant annunciation with warnings,etc. driven by the On state. The more intricate control comes by having direct zone control of the Ra dimmers, however.


The deficiency in Ra, even with that control, however, for me at least, is that the only feedback designed in the dimmer is On/Off, not level feedback, so even though I can set a given zone or zones within a scene to any 1-100% illumination level, if the physical dimmer is changed locally, no feedback is available to the Control system, unless On/Off. Given the .28 second feedback delay for On/Off, more info might take longer anyway. Hopefully Lutron will adress this at some future point. Otherwise really cool to see slider graphs and numeric% illumination values of zones on the TPs.


Thank you very much


Rich

 

[GregH]

I'm local to you and have done tons of AMX. I'm not sure how you're envisioning integrating the Elan panel. Their RS-232 is only one way (though that is suppose to change). In other words you can schedule your lights to do things, but you're not going to get any feedback. Personally I'd just get some inexpensive touch sceens (maybe web tablets) and just use the internal webserver on the Netlinx to serve up pages. HTML is going to be a lot more flexible than the predefined Via templates. I'm guessing you're using the generic OPS thermostats...what are you going to use for security? You'll definately want feedback on that. I personally have worked with Radionics, but that's because we work with CSC a lot and that's what they use.