Lutron RadioRa II and QS modules
sphere27
Posts: 40
I've got my first RadioRa 2 integration to work with and a full QS system coming up. I was wondering if there was a module kicking around that I could start with.
I see that in the AMX 'Third Party Devices' area there is a duet module for RadioRa 2.
I'd rather a module that isn't DUET, is open for me to edit as needed, and isn't programmed by AMX.
After trolling around the message board for awhile I don't see anything that's for either of these systems.
Thank you,
Jimi
I see that in the AMX 'Third Party Devices' area there is a duet module for RadioRa 2.
I'd rather a module that isn't DUET, is open for me to edit as needed, and isn't programmed by AMX.
After trolling around the message board for awhile I don't see anything that's for either of these systems.
Thank you,
Jimi
0
Comments
Jeff
1. If you want to individually control lighting zones on a Grafik Eye QS you have to set integration IDs for every zone you wish to control in addition to assigning one to the unit itself, and (at least for me) the integration protocol manual didn't make it immediately obvious how to do this. It's action #4 on the #INTEGRATIONID command.
2. Unless they've fixed this in a newer firmware version than I had, don't bother with zone level feedback if you provide the ability to adjust each zone independently, as it doesn't give you level feedback often enough for the ramp to look like a ramp. (you usually only get one or two intermediate step between 0 and 100 percent)
3. I've not been able to work out how to control the Sivoia QS shades directly from the 232 interface, as opposed to linking them to a shade control bank on a GrafikEye QS. I didn't have a lot of time to play with this however, as only one of those installs had shades and we didn't supply them, so I only got to try while I was in the field commissioning the system.
-Ryan
I just took over a job that communicated with Grafic Eye QS through a QS interface box. As far as I could tell there was no integration ID set for each Graphic Eye unit and the INTEGRATIONID used in the cmds was the serial number of the box. I was able to hit any of the buttons that were programmed on the unit by just triggering them with that ID. Are you saying that there's a way to set the ID of each load and hit them directly?
I did a system last year which only had lighting control in the theater so we used a small RA2 system for which I wrote a module with the expectation that when I do my 1st QS system I'd be well on my way to completing a module for that. Looking at the Lutron Integratoin Protocol, rev H, 20 October 2011 I see no reason to think that has changed and one module should be able to handle a RA2 or HomeWorks QS system if written to do so otherwise you could create two seperate modules with only minor changes between the two to adjust for the system level differences. Obviously the AMX module wasn't written to allow for control of both.
If you want you can post or PM me your email and I'll send you the RA2 module I wrote last year. It works fine for RA2 but keep in mind that it's incomplete and was really intended to be the start of a QS module since I rarely do RA. It will either save you time or thoroughly confuse you but it "might" be better than starting from scratch and depending on what you're doing you might not have to do anything at all.
That said, the protocol must be available (I haven't had a chance to look, been absolutely swamped the end of this year). Savant has working profiles for it, and they are notorious for working directly from spec and not the actual product.
If you have the HomeWorks QS Design tool you can find the pdf by going to the "reports" tab and select "integration". On that pop up there's a link in green on the top left of the window. I haven't been able to find where they keep it in the Lutron directory. I'm running HomeWorks QS 2.1.0 which is the newest beta available online.
I haven't used QS yet except for the road show they held early last summer and it definitely wasn't ready for prime time then. It has promise but I too think leaving the Illumination/P5 system was a mistake but I do see the benefit to making everything similar and if you ask me if the system is going to be under 200 devices and you have AMX to do the cool stuff then HomeWorks itself doesn't make sense anymore, especially considering the cost of the dimmers which are basically identical as far as we're concerned except for the cost. RA2 QS versions are 2/3rds the cost of HomeWorks QS Maestro's. That can add up big time with a 100+ devices since these aren't cheap.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50635535/IntegrationInfo%2Crev%20H.pdf
Yes, you can set an integrationid for each load and use it to ramp the load up and down, or set the load to a specific level.
The command is #INTEGRATIONID,4,<unitSerialNumber>,<loadNumber>,<integrationID>,$0D,$0A
Then you can use the #OUTPUT commands described in the integrators guide to control the zone directly.
-Ryan
The new protocol seems to cover all the latest generation Lutron equipment, but it's not particularly arcane. I am probably going to roll my own module, because I doubt anything AMX is going to produce will do what I want/need it to do. I'm trying to work out the best way to handle all the possibilities though; tracking every possible device in a system seems too much, especially when nine times out of then, I only need one virtual KP on my touch panel. I do think, however, that parsing the XML from the Lutron processor is a must. It's too much to ask that every time the lighting changes, you have to change your panels or your program too.
Yep. Think in terms of how you can write your program to use data in a file you can put on the NetLinx. Change the data to change the behavior, instead of the program.
Of course the real problem is now I need the time to get this done ...
Thanks,
Ricardo
In short, it's a hardly more than a communications wrapper, and you could as easily just send raw strings to the device and trap the feedback yourself. I didn't really expect much more, to be honest, but it's still disappointing.
Meanwhile, my rework of my workhorse HWI module is still delayed as I scramble to get the rest of my project up and running. No time savings here, I'm afraid.
Ricardo
I know all of my systems are happier when they don't have any AMX coded modules to work with.
Thanks,
Ricardo
Because of products like VA and AMX.home, they have to conform with the API or it won't work in their own schema. Leaving aside whether such code generators are worth the trouble in the first place, since they do have them, they really must make their own modules compatible.
Ok. I am trying to make the AMX Lutron QS module work for my needs. I am using the COMM module and I am changing the DEMO UIs to do what I need. So far, I am able to control phantoms and get button/LED feedback. Where I am struggling is on the levels. The DEMO code is implemented to parse only one level at a time depending on the zone selected from the DEMO UI pages. Also the API parsing (Snapi.axi) does not trap the zone separately. My project requires showing multiple levels at the same time; so, I need to come up with my on UI for the levels. This is the comand that comes back from Lutron QS that I need to trap:
'LIGHTSYSTEMLEVEL-38:D1,150'
38 is the zone number
D1 stands for dimmer
150 is the level value 0 to 255
I need to trap the ZONE and corresponding LEVEL VALUE and save them to an array.
I was thinking of a 2-dim Array or structure to save the ZONE and LEVEL and then tie them up to the levels on the TPs. It has been a while since I had to do command trapping/parsing and I had one of those days in which nothing worked. Ay suggestions? Thanks,
NOTE: * Find attached the AMX Module code that I need to change. Look at the DATA_COMMAND case LIGHTSYSTEMLEVEL.
Ricardo
Line 3 (16:36:16):: Command From [41001:1:1]-[LIGHTSYSTEMLEVEL-12: D1,189]