sjj31a Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 I have a home I would like to put C4 in. It currently has a Lutron Radio RA lighting system with 64 switches and a Chronos bridge. I really don't want to replace all the switches. Is there anyway to integrate a c4 system with Lutron Radio RA?Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav-Jason Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 I imagine it would take a serial between the HC and Lutron board, and one HELL of a custom built driver.Short answer is no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjj31a Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 It does have a serial port on the chronos bridge. Any suggestions as to who could write a driver? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Your dealer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjj31a Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 My Dealer can't on this one. Any dealers interested? Can you email me with info? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 I developed a generic lighting driver which will allow on/off integration with feedback to any RS232 lighting system. Alot of US dealers utilise this to integrate Lutron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav-Jason Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 I developed a generic lighting driver which will allow on/off integration with feedback to any RS232 lighting system. Alot of US dealers utilise this to integrate Lutron.Wow... nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjj31a Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 Alan or Anyone:If this is this a project you are interested in doing for me remotely let me know. Here is the situation. I currently have an upscale home for sale along the lakeshor in Holland, MI market and am looking to differentiate it from other homes. I have Radio RA lighting as well as Hunterdouglas remote blinds. The thought is to drop in an HC300 to give the realtors a button to push when they arrive and be able to control the home from the C4 GUI. I also want to be able to control the lights and thermostats remotely as I live about an hour away. I have a huge C4 install at my new home. Basically just want to turn all lights on or off of the Lutron System (or maybe one scene), the rest of the project would be supported by my existing dealer.Let me know if interest. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeton1 Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Is thier any thing available to provide rs 232 lutron to C4,,,,,,i am a home owner we have been building for 1 year. the same company sold me my lutron and C4 system and now that we are at the end of the project , they tell me they cannnot communicate between the units.....they did say they can turn lights off and on,, but no dimming,,and that a solution may be available in july or so,,, I am clueless,,could you help me (a layman on this subject) and tell me the truth,,,am i likely to get a solution in your opinion or am i out of luck...Dusty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Dusty,Is yours a Radio RA system, or a HomeWorks system?If it's a HomeWorks system, Control4 has created a driver for HomeWorks, which works either over the serial port, or over the ethernet on a HomeWorks system.It allows you to do quite a bit of functionality, including using keypresses from Lutron keypads to trigger Control4 functionality, individual light control as well as scene control through using Lutron Custom buttons, etc.If it's a RA system, there is no such driver, and unless your dealer wants to make one, you may have difficulty communicating between the two.RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjj31a Posted June 4, 2009 Author Share Posted June 4, 2009 Ryan is right on in his response. If it is Radio RA which my guess it is as Homeworks is a major upgrade (Radio RA is expensive but not quite to the level of homeworks), then assuming you have a CHRONOS Bridge (a $2500 option if you don't), you can hook into the system with this catch. You cannot control the individual lighting switches with C4, however the workaround is to have multiple keypads that control lighting scenes. Assuming you have 2 keypads each with 6 buttons you can program in 12 lighting scenes then identify the keypads in c4 via the rs232 and hit the buttons you have previously programmed via the CHRONOS system including ALLON/ALLOFF functionality. I have a project that has this problem and have been working with Val Peterson from ihabitatsystems.com. He is very knowledgable in this area and although not complete yet, the concepts above are a summary of our discussions thus far. The system we are working on has 64 light switches with a chronos bridge (32 on each side as 32 is the max on radio ra). The other catch is that when you want to change a scene you must do through the chronos system not c4. Basically all c4 is doing is hitting an addressable button on a keypad, whatever the keypad tells chronos to do will happen.Hope this helps.Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjj31a Posted June 4, 2009 Author Share Posted June 4, 2009 PS As an aside this just "ain't" right in regards to the bill of goods you were sold.......ecspecially given the project start a year ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabitat Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Is thier any thing available to provide rs 232 lutron to C4,,,,,,i am a home owner we have been building for 1 year. the same company sold me my lutron and C4 system and now that we are at the end of the project , they tell me they cannnot communicate between the units.....they did say they can turn lights off and on,, but no dimming,,and that a solution may be available in july or so,,, I am clueless,,could you help me (a layman on this subject) and tell me the truth,,,am i likely to get a solution in your opinion or am i out of luck...DustyThanks for the referral Steve.DustyControl4 has released a new driver that allows full integration of Lutron HomeWorks system. I currently have a project nearing completion that is using Control4 for integration, climate control & A/V distribution and HomeWorks for lighting control. Since I am still in the programming stage I have not personally tested the driver yet. I have complete confidence that it will work properly. Control4 and Lutron work together to complete this driver and beta testing has also been completed. I will first feed back by the end of next week.Integrating Lutron RadioRa is a little more complicated but can also be done. You will need either a Chronos or a RS232 RadioRa interface.Control of dimmers can also be accomplished with start and stop / press and release ramp programming but is very time consuming.I suggest though that you not worry about individually dimming of loads. Try not equating your Control4 and Lutron systems with traditional light switches and dimmers. Instead see it as complete marriage of light, vision, sound and control. Picture each room or area as a whole that will compliment your mood, desire, whims or events with the press of a button.Val Petersonhttp://ihabitatsystems.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Does anyone care to tell me why you wouldn't just use Control4's lighting?I can't see an advantage to using Lutron and trying to intergrate it with C4. Does it provide some sort of increased functionality I am having a hard time seeing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Does anyone care to tell me why you wouldn't just use Control4's lighting?I can't see an advantage to using Lutron and trying to intergrate it with C4. Does it provide some sort of increased functionality I am having a hard time seeing?Probably for the color offerings. C4 offers just white, black, and ivory basically - even with the new color options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabitat Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Yes. #1 Lutron has an integrated vacation mode that automatically records up to 2 weeks of actual usage and can re-play at 15min+- intervals. #2 There is a Green setting that can be set to automatically or manually trim back lighting levels. #3 They have a centralized system that allows all the equipment to be placed in an equipment room. #4 There is a wired version that has rock solid communication capabilities. #5 Lutron's Sivioa QED shading system integrates flawlessly with their other systems. #5 Programming and setting up lighting scene and assigning them to keypads is a lot more flexible. Control4 However is easier to assign light loads to keypads and the lighting scene are better than they use to be.There are other functions that are not easily available through other sources because they hold all the patents when it come to light control.Lutron is not for individuals who wish to tinker, they offer a very limited user input for setting lighting levels/scenes and the dealer usually will disable this feature once everything is set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Lutron is not for individuals who wish to tinker, they offer a very limited user input for setting lighting levels/scenes and the dealer usually will disable this feature once everything is set.And this is where I see control4 having a big advantage in that respect with Composer HE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BriPink Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 There's one other thing that I like better about the Lutron stuff: their dimmers feel more solid and smooth to me. It's hard to explain, but when I put the two side by side I definitely prefer the Lutron ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFUG Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 ^Cost differential between the two dimmers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BriPink Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 The Lutron dimmers are roughly 50% more than the Control4 ones. But since that's the part of the system that we interact with most frequently it might be worth it! Ideally, they'd operate on the same standard and we could all make a choice, just as we do for a non-automated dimmer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFUG Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 ^I would agree with you but usually I'm using the 6Bs to operate most dimmer banks. I don't come into contact dierectly with a dimmer too often. Maybe the kids do... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeton1 Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 Is thier any thing available to provide rs 232 lutron to C4,,,,,,i am a home owner we have been building for 1 year. the same company sold me my lutron and C4 system and now that we are at the end of the project , they tell me they cannnot communicate between the units.....they did say they can turn lights off and on,, but no dimming,,and that a solution may be available in july or so,,, I am clueless,,could you help me (a layman on this subject) and tell me the truth,,,am i likely to get a solution in your opinion or am i out of luck...DustyANSWER: ALL OF MY LIGHTING IS WIRED INTO THE LUTRON SYSTEM. AND C4 WAS TO COMPLETELY CONTROL THE LUTRON. WE WANTED TO JUST LET THE LUTRON BE A STRAIGHT THRU, RECEIVE COMMANDS FROM C4 AND MAKE IT HAPPEN. I DO NOT HAVE ANY LUTRON KEYPADS.As I researched the systems available it was my opinion that the lutron modules would be the most dependable. then the C$ would provide all the whisltes of AV/shades and other things..THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE REPLIED...IT IS HELPING ME ALOT....DUSTY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabitat Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 DustyYour research has not let you down, as a dealer for both systems I can validate your results. This is the design concept I prefer when my customers budget allows.There is no reason that Control4 cannot interface with Lutron as you described above. You do not need any physical Lutron keypads for Control4 to interface and control the Lutron lighting scenes. All you need is the Control4 generic lighting driver that Alan Chow of Control4 developed and mentions above for Home Works or Radio Ra.Ryan from Control4 also mentioned the new just released last week Home Works driver that allows even more integration of the 2 systems, happy days.Good LuckVal Petersonhttp://ihabitatsystems.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeton1 Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 Thanks Val Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ftlfirefighter Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Where/how do I get this driver for my system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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