Lutron RadioRA2 Gateway plugin

Plugins & Plugin Development General Plugin Discussion
#41

[quote=“Ramias, post:39, topic:177995”]Here:
http://resi.lutron.com/Portals/4/Training/3682540b%20Blast%20sellsheet.pdf

Do the Online option. It is a bit of a time investment. When you get the system programmed I am interested in seeing the telnet output when you engage your fan controller to see if it is like a dimmer or another function.

The on/off switches use 0/100. Dimmers and Shades use the range of 0-100.[/quote]

Thanks Ramias! I registered, so will hopefully get approved to do the training this week. I found a local rep willing to come out and install s/w and walk me through his ‘new technician’ training for a very reasonable price (though obviously not as good as free!). I’ll try the training and if I think I’m going to need more help, will have him come out. Will let you know on the fan.

#42

I’ll post this as a feature request for the next version :). Not sure if the ask (native support for flash and phantom buttons) is doable or not; below is my workaround).

RA2 supports on/off/dimming level 0-100 and something called “flash” that could be useful for certain events. But flash is probably not a control for the standard switch/dimmer in Vera.

RA2 supports the concept of “phantom buttons” that function as keypad buttons. These phantom buttons live on the main repeater. There can be 100 of them and they are programmed in the RA2 software.

I programmed one for “SecurityFlashing” that when triggered, turns some lights up full and causes others to flash. It can not be turned off via a wall switch but instead must be done through integration (the same method that triggers it).

At first I added the main repeater as a 6 button keypad. I then added only button 1 to the keypad, reloaded Vera a few times, and was able to activate the security scene but not disable it.

Seems the current plugin sends command 3 for button press and that command turns on and turns off the button.

The phantom button needs command 4 to turn it off.

Supported commands for #Device are:

GNET> #device,? #DEVICE requires action 1 = Enable device 2 = Disable device 3 = Press/Close 4 = Release/Open 5 = Hold 6 = Multitap 7 = Set current scene 9 = Set LED state 12 = Save current levels to button 13 = Restore current button to origional levels 32 = Release from Hold

So I ended up deleting the keypad, and creating two scenes that run the following LUUP code (below turns the security mode on with 3 as the action; a 4 would turn security mode off. Main repeater is device 1 and the Security Command is phantom button 1).

luup.call_action("urn:schemas-micasaverde-com:serviceId:LutronRA2Telnet1","SendCommandButton",{CommandList="device,1,1,3"},dev_ludl)

Not sure if the flash command could be exposed directly at the device level since the RA2 switches/dimmers use standard device types. But they could be done similarly with direct LUUP code, for example:

luup.call_action("urn:schemas-micasaverde-com:serviceId:LutronRA2Telnet1","SendCommandButton",{CommandList="output,12,5,1"},dev_ludl)

In this case, the dimmer I was using is device lutron integration ID 12, and i flashed it at 1 second intervals.

Here are the #OUTPUT commands (needed for dimmers/switches/blinds)

GNET> #output,? #OUTPUT requires action(1-6) 1 = Set Level/Position 2 = Raise 3 = Lower 4 = Stop 5 = Flash 6 = Pulse

#43

Ramias, just wanted to thank you again for pointing me to the online training. Finished it up yesterday and am installing as much as possible today. Just great!

One more general question for the board. As I’m setting up a new system, is it better to handle scenes in vera or in lutron, or do you not notice much of a difference? My original plan was to just install switches and manage all scenes through vera, but now am wondering if lutron may do a better job handling these. Was trying to avoid the $300 keypads, but if there’s a noticeable difference between lutron driven scenes and vera driven scenes, I’ll bit the bullet and get a couple.

#44

I am new to Vera and trying to set up control of my Lutron Radio RA with it. I currently have a Chronos Bridge and a RA-NET-120 Network Control INterface. How do I go about using this App with my hardware?

#45

Radio RA or RA2?

#46

[quote=“tb001, post:43, topic:177995”]Ramias, just wanted to thank you again for pointing me to the online training. Finished it up yesterday and am installing as much as possible today. Just great!

One more general question for the board. As I’m setting up a new system, is it better to handle scenes in vera or in lutron, or do you not notice much of a difference? My original plan was to just install switches and manage all scenes through vera, but now am wondering if lutron may do a better job handling these. Was trying to avoid the $300 keypads, but if there’s a noticeable difference between lutron driven scenes and vera driven scenes, I’ll bit the bullet and get a couple.[/quote]
Others can weigh in.

My philosophy has been native/best-of-breed and then pull it all together in Vera; but do natively what I can do natively.

So my HVAC schedule is done by the Nest; Sonos andles playlists and favorites etc.

I do all my lighting scenes and programming in RA2; then have Vera call and execute them (though I do have some scenes in Vera that address individual lights).

The keypads aren’t cheap, but they look very good and are very refined. Once you get the software from the training you’ll be able to handle most of the programming.

#47

[quote=“Ramias, post:46, topic:177995”][quote=“tb001, post:43, topic:177995”]Ramias, just wanted to thank you again for pointing me to the online training. Finished it up yesterday and am installing as much as possible today. Just great!

One more general question for the board. As I’m setting up a new system, is it better to handle scenes in vera or in lutron, or do you not notice much of a difference? My original plan was to just install switches and manage all scenes through vera, but now am wondering if lutron may do a better job handling these. Was trying to avoid the $300 keypads, but if there’s a noticeable difference between lutron driven scenes and vera driven scenes, I’ll bit the bullet and get a couple.[/quote]
Others can weigh in.

My philosophy has been native/best-of-breed and then pull it all together in Vera; but do natively what I can do natively.

So my HVAC schedule is done by the Nest; Sonos andles playlists and favorites etc.

I do all my lighting scenes and programming in RA2; then have Vera call and execute them (though I do have some scenes in Vera that address individual lights).

The keypads aren’t cheap, but they look very good and are very refined. Once you get the software from the training you’ll be able to handle most of the programming.[/quote]

Very helpful, thanks Ramias. That was my instinct as well, but requires a bit more planning on the keypads. Will have to think about how we’d like to control things. Using a bit more of the native lutron programming than I had planned will also cut down on the device count in vera, so that should be helpful as well.

#48

less coding and integration in Vera, but every Lutron device should also appear as a device in Vera.

#49

RadioRA

#50

Hmm

well a plugin does exist for Radio RA but I am not familiar with it since I don’t have that system.

Actually there are two:

http://apps.mios.com/search.php?key=lutron

#51

Another question–Ramias, you mentioned the plugin supports phantom buttons–I’d like to set up several scenes in lutron using these phantom buttons, in lieu of having a physical keypad. Are these just added to plugin like a regular keypad button?

(Still working on the fan issue–that’s the one keypad I’m having trouble activating, of course!)

#52

[quote=“tb001, post:51, topic:177995”]Another question–Ramias, you mentioned the plugin supports phantom buttons–I’d like to set up several scenes in lutron using these phantom buttons, in lieu of having a physical keypad. Are these just added to plugin like a regular keypad button?

(Still working on the fan issue–that’s the one keypad I’m having trouble activating, of course!)[/quote]

I just got this working. I didn’t have great luck using the GUI to address my phantom buttons but I am able to do it great via code.

So once you get the RA2 software and get everything set up in RA2 and get the plugin installed and working you can test LUUP code to trigger (press) your phantom buttons.

Like this:

So I ended up deleting the keypad, and creating two scenes that run the following LUUP code (below turns the security mode on with 3 as the action; a 4 would turn security mode off. Main repeater is device 1 and the Security Command is phantom button 1).

luup.call_action("urn:schemas-micasaverde-com:serviceId:LutronRA2Telnet1","SendCommandButton",{CommandList="device,1,1,3"},dev_ludl)

#53

Ah, got it, thanks! I thought you were having an issue with that specific use case, not the buttons in general. I haven’t done much with luup yet, so this should be good for me! So far, the whole lutron setup has been remarkably easy once I got my hands on the software. (Of course I haven’t tried wiring the 4-way switch in the hall yet, but that’s another issue!)

Really appreciate all of your help–it’s been a productive home automation week!

#54

The issue I had may have been cause the phantom button was programmed for security with a 3 and a 4 required for on/off (press/open and release/close). The GUI only sends a press which is fine for light scenes.

And there can be up to 99 or 100 phantom buttons.

The keypad JSON file only has six buttons.

So I just removed that and address my phantom buttons via code.

#55

[quote=“Ramias, post:54, topic:177995”]The issue I had may have been cause the phantom button was programmed for security with a 3 and a 4 required for on/off (press/open and release/close). The GUI only sends a press which is fine for light scenes.

And there can be up to 99 or 100 phantom buttons.

The keypad JSON file only has six buttons.

So I just removed that and address my phantom buttons via code.[/quote]

OK, so trying to activate my phantom button now with luup. If my phantom button is 5, should this be the luup code, or do I not need the ‘1’? Sorry for what I’m sure is a basic question–I’ve never tried anything with lua yet, so I’m not sure if I have the code wrong or am doing something else incorrectly.

luup.call_action(“urn:schemas-micasaverde-com:serviceId:LutronRA2Telnet1”,“SendCommandButton”,{CommandList=“device,1,5,3”},dev_ludl)

Also, I set the fan up as a dimmer. It’s interesting–the fan seems to increase speed like a normal dimmer through vera (e.g. if set to 60%, it’s slightly faster than when set to 50%), but if you look at fan control, if you’re not at 0, 25, 50, 100, it doesn’t register on the app as off, low, med, high.

#56

dev_ludl is just a variable name commonly used for the device number in Vera. On the advanced tab for the device get the device number and use that for dev_ludl.

Then go to Apps\Develop Apps\Test Luup code (Lua) and you can test your code and it should trigger your button press.

What app are you referring to with low/med/high?

#57

[quote=“Ramias, post:56, topic:177995”]dev_ludl is just a variable name commonly used for the device number in Vera. On the advanced tab for the device get the device number and use that for dev_ludl.

Then go to Apps\Develop Apps\Test Luup code (Lua) and you can test your code and it should trigger your button press.

What app are you referring to with low/med/high?[/quote]

Thanks! I can see I’m going to need to do some searching and play around with lua a bit to get the hang of it–I need to better understand the basics of the nomenclature. I clearly should have tested, as I’ve somehow managed to globally screw up my device settings so they read at 100% and on, when off, and read as off when they are on… After spending the morning setting everything up–arghhh!

On the app, I’m just watching the fan settings on the lutron iOS app as I ramp it through vera. When set up as a dimmer, at 0% in vera, the fan reads off in the app. When I ramp to 10% through vera, the fan moves very slowly and increases in speed with the vera setting, but the iOS app has no reading. If I hit 25%, the app will then read ‘low’.

ETA:
Reading through things and I’m thoroughly confused. I wanted to set up several phantom buttons in Lutron and be able to trigger them from vera either using a virtual switch or motion sensor. I’d ideally like to have more than 6, so don’t think setting up my main repeater as a keypad will work, correct?

In lieu of setting up a keypad on vera, I’m trying to directly send a command to the repeater to activate the button using lua. In this case, would I have a vera device number? If so, would it be the virtual switch device number?

In my scenario, the main repeater is device 1, the phantom button is 5 and I want to turn it on, so I think I should use 3. The device ID for the virtual switch to turn on/off is 180. Does this look correct, or am I totally off base?
luup.call_action(“urn:schemas-micasaverde-com:serviceId:LutronRA2Telnet1”,“SendCommandButton”,{CommandList=“device,1,5,3”},180)

Sorry for all of the dim questions–after managing to flip the signal on all of my lutron devices, I’m wary of just testing random things I think should work!

#58

[quote=“tb001, post:57, topic:177995”][quote=“Ramias, post:56, topic:177995”]dev_ludl is just a variable name commonly used for the device number in Vera. On the advanced tab for the device get the device number and use that for dev_ludl.

Then go to Apps\Develop Apps\Test Luup code (Lua) and you can test your code and it should trigger your button press.

What app are you referring to with low/med/high?[/quote]

Thanks! I can see I’m going to need to do some searching and play around with lua a bit to get the hang of it–I need to better understand the basics of the nomenclature. I clearly should have tested, as I’ve somehow managed to globally screw up my device settings so they read at 100% and on, when off, and read as off when they are on… After spending the morning setting everything up–arghhh!

On the app, I’m just watching the fan settings on the lutron iOS app as I ramp it through vera. When set up as a dimmer, at 0% in vera, the fan reads off in the app. When I ramp to 10% through vera, the fan moves very slowly and increases in speed with the vera setting, but the iOS app has no reading. If I hit 25%, the app will then read ‘low’.

ETA:
Reading through things and I’m thoroughly confused. I wanted to set up several phantom buttons in Lutron and be able to trigger them from vera either using a virtual switch or motion sensor. I’d ideally like to have more than 6, so don’t think setting up my main repeater as a keypad will work, correct?

In lieu of setting up a keypad on vera, I’m trying to directly send a command to the repeater to activate the button using lua. In this case, would I have a vera device number? If so, would it be the virtual switch device number?

In my scenario, the main repeater is device 1, the phantom button is 5 and I want to turn it on, so I think I should use 3. The device ID for the virtual switch to turn on/off is 180. Does this look correct, or am I totally off base?
luup.call_action(“urn:schemas-micasaverde-com:serviceId:LutronRA2Telnet1”,“SendCommandButton”,{CommandList=“device,1,5,3”},180)

Sorry for all of the dim questions–after managing to flip the signal on all of my lutron devices, I’m wary of just testing random things I think should work![/quote]

It does take a while to get it all figured out. Others were patient with me :).

So think of it this way:

  1. Your Lutron repeater has a Vera device ID.
  2. Your Fan (configured as a Dimmer) has a Vera ID.
  3. They both of RA2 Integration ID’s which are separate (and probably different) than the Vera IDs.

You can use the Virtual Switch to call a scene that runs Luup code. But set all that side for now. We want to make sure you get it working with a single line of code from the test code window and develop apps.

With the phantom buttons, you are having Vera send a signal to the RA2 repeater that will press a phantom button. That is all.

So your code would be like this:

luup.call_action("urn:schemas-micasaverde-com:serviceId:LutronRA2Telnet1","SendCommandButton",{CommandList="device,1,5,3"},[i]veraIDofLutronRepeater[/i])

Vera is sending a command string to the Lutron repeater. That is it. The repeater then figured it out. The command you are sending the repeater is “on device 1 (the repeater itself) with button 5, do action 3 (press)”.

All commands are sent to the repeater by Vera (that is what the “veraIDofLutronRepeater” number is for). But a different command could be something like output,6,1,60 which might mean “Lutron device with Lutron integration ID6, turn on and set the dimmer at 60%”

So once you get that code working in the test window and have it turn your fan on/off (use a button press for a different phantom button to turn the fan off) then create a scene with that code in the Scene Luup code window (don’t forget to save LUA at the bottom). Then you can assign that scene to a virtual switch.

#59

Thanks so much Ramias! I really appreciate it. I’ve been told in no uncertain terms that it’s time to step away from the compute and have some family time today, but hopefully I’ll have time after work tomorrow to try things out.

ETA: OK, this all makes sense and now I see where I was confused–I didn’t realize the repeater was the gateway device created by vera. Just tried a lua command, using this device #, and it worked!! Next I’ll need to start playing around with triggering this via a virtual switch, but nice to have something working!

#60

One more question, for those using the Lutron plugin–are your occupancy/motion sensors working? I don’t seem to be picking up any tripped signal in vera.