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Lutron

Hi everyone,

I need to integrate a Lutron "lights AND shades" in a project.
The info I got on the Lutron controler is this:
"H4P5-H48-HRL-120 HW Wired 4 series Gen 5 processor w/ H48 & RF link"

What would be the Netlinx module to use with this? I found a bunch in the third party library but don't know which one matches.
Apparently this is a RS-232 control only (so I've been told) - am I better off writing my own code and in that case where can I find the Lutron protocol for it?

All comments and advices are welcome!

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    ericmedleyericmedley Posts: 4,177
    Pep_SD wrote: »
    Hi everyone,

    I need to integrate a Lutron "lights AND shades" in a project.
    The info I got on the Lutron controler is this:
    "H4P5-H48-HRL-120 HW Wired 4 series Gen 5 processor w/ H48 & RF link"

    What would be the Netlinx module to use with this? I found a bunch in the third party library but don't know which one matches.
    Apparently this is a RS-232 control only (so I've been told) - am I better off writing my own code and in that case where can I find the Lutron protocol for it?

    All comments and advices are welcome!

    My info might be a bit out of date. However, I think there is a module for the HW 5 that is IP controllable.

    AMX sells Lutron HWI masters that they have bricked with their own web interface that allows for Netlinx Masters to control them via IP.

    We controll all our Lutron HWI masters via RS-232 running at 115Kbaud. I've never had any isues with sluggishness on systems with many RPMs. However, I"m sure the IP method would still be much faster. We've just never gone that route ourselves.

    Be careful since the Lutron HWI does have an IP connection and Web Interface of its own. However, this is NOT compatable with the IP control AMX module. You must have the Lutron Master altered and sold by AMX.

    Here again, My info might be somewhat out of date.
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    iainshawiainshaw Posts: 133
    What you've been asked to control is a Series 4 P5 (5th Gen) Homeworks processor. It's the smaller of the current series processors. It does have Ethernet on link 9 (from memory)

    You could use either 232 or IP to control it - we wrestled with the duet module for the P5 processors and gave up, our programmer ended up writing an IP driver for it based on our standard IP comms code.

    The IP comms is via telnet, so you'll have to create a telnet user and define what comms you want to see - Lutron systems can be pretty chatty so you're not going to want to see all comms / feedback. You will certainly want to see KLS feedback (Keypad LED Status)

    Lutron systems are programmed using Lutron's Illumination software. There is a Terminal for connecting to the Lutron processors in Illumination and you can see both the commands issued to the processor and the feedback from the system there. I'd advise you to hook up to the live Lutron system with Terminal running and you'll see what can be done and what form the feedback takes. I've attached a text document with the commands you can issue via telnet.
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    iainshawiainshaw Posts: 133
    One tip

    On further thought.

    If you or someone else working on the project has experience with Lutron HWI software, you may find it easier to do a lot of the heavy lifting in HWI - conditional logic, security type stuff, sequence of lighting events etc - and then simply calling them via the appropriate Keypad Button Press (KBP command) in your code. There's a lot of functionality accessible through HWI's programming screens that would take a LOT of code if you were building them from scratch in Netlinx. Happy New Year in advance :)
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    ericmedley wrote: »

    Be careful since the Lutron HWI does have an IP connection and Web Interface of its own. However, this is NOT compatable with the IP control AMX module. You must have the Lutron Master altered and sold by AMX.

    Here again, My info might be somewhat out of date.

    We are AMX and Lutron dealers. We buy our HWI direct from Lutron and control it via IP. We have used IP control on these processors both with and without the AMX module.

    IMO writing your own code is just as easy. Pep_SD, if you look in the help files in Homeworks Illumunation, all of the programming info you need is in there. It's listed under RS232 Commands/Normal mode commands. The same commands work under IP control because with either method you are sending commands to the processor via telnet.
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    Pep_SDPep_SD Posts: 106
    Thank you very much for all your valuable answers!!
    Definitely helps a LOT.

    Happy New Year!
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    DHawthorneDHawthorne Posts: 4,584
    The Lutron protocol is very simple and is available on the Lutron site. My standard procedure is to program phantom keypads on the Lutron to do everything I need done, then simply use the IP connection to send button pushes, and monitor the same for LED feedback.

    Do a search for "Lutron" on these forums; there are a number of threads on the things you have to account for and the "gotchas" in dealing with a Lutron processor.
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