New RadioRa system going in. I have 2 Mx-3000s for home theater & living room tv controls and would like to integrate lighting control for the new RadioRa system. This is new territory for me. My integrated lighting in the past has been with Lutron IR dimmers only.

I have the MRF-300 & RFX-150 with the MX-3000 in main theater. Are there codes I can use that will directly interface with the RF dimmers of the RadioRa in that room?

Of primary importance is lighting control in the main theater (with MRF-300 & FRX-150). Control of other RF dimmers in the rest of the house would be a secondary want (less important). I don't have graphic eye, IR kit or 232 with RadioRa system. I just have a basic kit with dimmers, tabletop master, RA-rep RF signal repeater, Multi-funct entry master control & car visor controls.

thanks for any help

URC does, in fact, have dimmers from Lutron that are controlled natively via RF, but not RF direct to RadioRa. You could buy these (MRFA-600M-URC-Dimmer or MRFA-S6AM-URC- Switch) from a URC dealer for just your main theater and leave the rest of the house working with the RadioRA. Otherwise, you'll need that IR Kit or the RS232 kit (and a MSC400) to integrate with your MX3000.

Thanks for the quick response Joe. So as I understand it, even though the URC-specific dimmers are RF, they would not integrate into my RadioRa, is that correct? I suppose if I'm going to use a dimmer that doesn't integrate, I can just use the Lutron IR switches I have experience with (and the codes) - and can get them online. Thats a good inexpensive option - thanks.

I think I'd like to try the other route you suggested, so that it all integrates. It looks like the RA-IR-Kit is an infrared repeater. I'm not sure how that is required when the MX-3000 also can beam IR and I have the MRF-300 (unless the RA-IR-KIT isrequired to make the 2 talk to each other?) It looks like the RA-RS232 is overkill because it provides the 2 way feedback that I won't be using. It looks like the RA-IR interface is the one to use but -- it says it requires the IR-KIT. Then it would be more expensive than the 232. Does it require use of the Graphic Eye as stated - or would that just be an option in this case?

Still confused on which combos of equipment would be needed. Thanks for any help

That is correct. The URC Dimmers are designed as single room solutions, and operate at a different frequency to the Ra dimmers. They also don't offer any 2-way communication like the Ra dimmers.


That is just a Xantech IR repeater kit. You are accomplishing the same thing with the MRF-300.


RA-IR is all you will need to integrate your URC system with the Ra sysem. I has an IR receiver in it that you stick an IR emmitter on. It will count towards one of the master controls on the Ra system.

Note that some of the newer RadioRA stuff has an IR interface built in. I recall at least wall controllers. I believe there are others as well. As mentioned above, you can also use the RA-IR.

I just set up a RA-IR with a MX-900 in my theater a couple days ago. The combination works well. I like how you can set a macro such that the lights turn on at preset dimness when you hit pause on the remote, and one such that the lights turn off when you hit play. The RA-IR controls consistently work, but they seem to have a different speed of turning on/off than standard RadioRA. Also note that the Lutron controls for the RA-IR in the MX-900 database of my software were very messed up. Each control would trigger two actions. For example selecting light 7, would cause the RA-IR to set both 2 and 7. I had to learn codes from my Harmony remote to get the correct IR codes. This may relate to using older software on my MX-900. I am having trouble getting the new version, due to their restrictive software policies.

Radio Ra(2) is a much more robust and intelligent solution than URC dimmers alone, especailly if you have many rooms. RA2 is even more cost effective..

Thanks! This was a great help. I'm leaning towards the Lutron RA-IR interface but I'm concerned about getting the codes right since I have older URC software and have moved 1000 miles away from my reliable system designer - so I'm resorting to being a DIYer.

I have the old lutron IR codes (from 2006, maybe. Light 158 and 159) from my older switches in my database & old MX-3000 files. I just had on, off, up, down and 3 scenes. Are there other sets I need for this RA-IR?

In the files section on this site, I downloaded an MX-3000 file that had a RadioRa template (light 308).

Does anyone have any suggestions on getting the proper codes?

The RA-IR supports 15 scenes and includes the 19 IR commands listed below. The RadioRA in my MX-900 software's editor's IR database does not include most of these, so I instead started with one the generic Lutron codes (tried all of them). As mentioned above, this approach did not work well. And I am currently using whatever is in the Logitech Harmony database under Lutron RA-IR, which does work well.

Scene 1
Scene 2
...
Scene 15
All On (= Scene 16)
All Off (= Scene 17)
Brighter
Dimmer