Lutron RadioRA2 - Lighting and Shading in Control4

[VinceC]

Hello,

I understand that C4 makes their own lighting system which uses zigbee and acts as the infrastructure/plumming of a solid zigbee network.

We have had great success with Lutron in other integration projects (Homeworks and RA) and would like to continue to use Lutron for certain high-end projects. In my opinion having several subsystems tied together gets rid of the single point of failure. If the C4 main server goes down, do the zigbee lights still work?

We recently became a big fan of RadioRA2. The PC Programming software they offer is great and makes the initial setup and programming of scenes super simple.

My questions:

-Is there a Control 4 RadioRA2 driver in the works by C4 themselves or a third party here?

-How does shading fit into C4? There is no 'Shades' button on the main page of the static blue interface, and no way to customize it. Even if I had a working RA2 or Homeworks driver that integrated shades, is there any coherent way to work those controls into the interface?

-In the case of Homeworks or RA2, the pc programming software will export an XML/CSV file that describes all of the light loads and their id's. Using this data you can auto generate the necessary 232/ip commands to control any light or simulate a button press of any keypad button. Do any of the Lutron integration drivers use this data, or will I have to retype in every light id into Composer?

For anyone who cares, here is the control protocol (serial and ip) for RA2. It seems pretty straightfoward, though I have never even seen what a Control4 driver looks like to have any idea what it would take to make this work 2 way:

http://www.radiora2.com/pdf/Integration_Protocol_Guide/040-249C.pdf

So, wait for 2.0?

-Vince

[thecodeman]

To answer the question, yes, if the C4 system goes down, the dimmers and switches still control the load. Keypads (which do not control a load), as used in 3 way lighting scenarios, do not work to turn lights on or off when the system is down.

There presntly isn't a driver for RadioRa or RadioRa2, but there is for Lutron Homeworks. However Lutron was showing some forthcoming integration at CES this year in their partner booth with Control4. No ETA yet.

[RyanE]

Yes, Lutron is working on a RA2 driver.

No release announced as of yet, but I believe it's quite far along, being it was based on the existing HomeWorks driver.

RyanE

[LuxHomeTech]

Lutron has posted the Control4 RA2 driver on the resi.lutron.com website

http://resi.lutron.com/Default.aspx?alias=resi.lutron.com/radiora

Has anyone tested this out yet? How does listening for button presses on RA2 keypads compare to using C4 keypads? Is there a large delay for it to recognize keypad button presses?

Has anyone considered a hybrid using RA2 lighting dimmers and C4 keypads? Why should I avoid this? I am happy with the look and performance of the Lutron system, but I also desire the zigbee range benefits of C4 lighting and the flexibility of programming C4 keypads to do automation related programming.

[yellowdog]

LuxHomeTech

I couldn't find the driver at the link you posted. Could you check if it is correct? Or post the driver?

Thanks....

[tigrzeye]

See this website: http://www.houselogix.com/01/secnav-01.09.asp

This is relatively new on their website. They were working on drivers together with Lutron last year.

(P.S. The text on the other pages under "Service" was my authoring )