Lutron RadioRA

This driver is for the Lutron RadioRA wireless central lighting control system, using either the RA-SBT-CHR Chronos System Bridge and Timeclock or the RA-RS232 RS-232 interface module.

RS-232 Connection

The RS-232 connection on the Lutron interface should be connected directly to the XP-8 serial adapter; a null modem is not required.

Phantom Button Raise / Lower Commands

For the Phantom Button Raise/Lower commands to work correctly, the commands must sustain and the delay between repeats should not be adjusted from the default 75ms. Changing the repeat rate will not adjust the rate at which the lights ramp up or down. This rate is fixed by the RadioRA system.

Master Control LED Control Command / Master Control Button Press Events

Master Controls in the RadioRA system can be used to trigger macros on the XP-8, even if no Room or Scene programming is assigned to them, by assigning a system macro to the appropriate Driver Event. Note that the RadioRA Master Controls will only send a button press notification for un-programmed buttons if an LED Control command has been executed at least once. Therefore, it is recommended that you create a "configuration" macro that sends an LED Control command to each un-programmed Master Control button you wish to use. This macro only needs to be used once to enable un-programmed buttons to send Button Press events. Refer to the RadioRA RS-232 Programming Guide section Controlling Non-RadioRA Equipment Using RadioRA Master Controls on page 13 for more details. This driver does not currently handle the "Cordless Waking Up" and "Cordless Going To Sleep" events described there, so it is recommended that LED control events are sent only to permanently-powered Master Controls at this time. A future driver update will remove this limitation.

Bridged Mode Considerations

While most of the commands work the same in bridged mode as single system mode, or in obvious ways (zone control of 2nd system), many of them are less obvious. Phantom buttons can only work on one system at a time so using the System 1 commands means that the zones in system 1 assigned to that button will switch first, and when done, the 2nd system zones will change. Using the system 2 version of the commands produces the same end result, it just reverses the order, changing system 2 zones first. This becomes important if you have the controls near a system 2 zone, you want to use the system 2 commands so that the load near the switch goes first to provide quicker feedback to the user. The All On/All Off commands work the same way.

The raise and lower commands can only work one system at a time, so having the right version (System 1 or 2) of the command is particularily important.

Revision History

Version 1.1 adds support for bridged mode and fixes the All On/All Off commands