OK , first please be gentle when u blaze me for lack of info.......

We are needing to integrate control of a Lutron Shading system.

Lutron shades are being done by another contractor (over 50 roller shades and motorized drapes) He has installed a bunch of QS power panels. No Lutron proccessor( which I think he should....comments please)

We are and have done a bunch of work and programming on the audio, lighting and security part of the system with Crestron and its now time to integrate control for the Lutron blinds shades and drapes. From your experience (for those that have done this) what is the best way to go about this.

All user interface will be from Cameos and Touchscreens.

Thanks

Is the shading already installed, and if so how is it currently controlled?

You are either going to talk directly to the processor via rs232 or IP... or you will need to control the shades via relays, Crestron STIO's works just fine.

If you give more details we can give more details.

My experience with lutron tells me that the only way to fly is to generate phantom buttons within the lutron software and talk to the phantom button presses not the processor... I beat my head against the wall for a number of days trying to get 12 shades to drop and raise(two story atrium, windows on three sides) at the same time when talking directly to the processor...but hey your experience may be different.

please see added info to original post. Any other info needed?

You almost certainly need a Lutron QSE-CI-NWK-E to provide an RS-232 or Ethernet interface between the Crestron AV2 and the Lutron shades.

The QSE...NWK can be powered from the shade panels and will allow you to create phantom buttons to group shades together. Or you can control each shade individually if you so desire.

Lutron also has some software (which the shade guy should have) to calculate and adjust the raise/lower speed of each shade, in the event that any of the shades need alignment for perfectly synchronized movement.

Just to add.....

We are not a blinds and shading company. We do want to integrate the control for the shades and blinds though.

In my little brain, I'm thinking the blinds contractor would supply a working system, pre-sets,scenes etc. room control etc from Lutron controller, processor and virtual keypads? we then just emulate those scenes, up/ down etc from Crestron through cameos and touch screens

The idea being the blinds contractor has a working standalone system and we just tie into it , just like we are doing to the HAI security system the security contractor has put in.

This shade /blinds guy is saying its up to us to do all the settings scenes up / downs etc

Can you guys comment on this and how have you handled this or would handle this

his shade /blinds guy is saying its up to us to do all the settings scenes up / downs etc

Scenes are created using Lutron's software and programming are they not? Your AV programming will just trigger established shade programming they should be responsible for.

How does creating scenes have anything to do with your side of this project? It doesn't. I would explain that you have no working knowledge of Lutron programming but that you do realize that scene creation, etc takes place inside the Lutron programming.

They sound lazy to me

prepare a CO to do all the leg work that the shade guy cannot/will not do.

The problem is the definition. Shade companies make their money by installing shades, not programming them. They want to do the minimum programming work required as they are not integrators. You can task them to do what they do not want to do--and perhaps the may not know how to do. You can get the program and hire someone to do the extra work they will not do or you can ask for the shade IDs and control each shade itself. This can easily be done in both Illumination and QS ( though the IDs take different forms and formats )

Is it the best method? It can get complicated when trying to control many shades simultaneously in the same room if using individual control. An other issue is if Radio Ra2 is being used it is such a POS that a lot of issues can result when integrating using it. It was designed to allow electricians to install light control--which includes shades--easily. While there are group up and group down buttons in the software there is no way to program a group stop button. Don't you love Lutron? In the Lutron world, if you want to integrate go to Homeworks. Or just do the basics with a "shade toggle" ( which is NOT a toggle since it cycles through 3 commands using a single button. A toggle, in any computer language is push, state1 else state2--except in Lutron world.)

I am finishing up a project where I am programming both the Lutron and the Crestron and I did indeed use phantom button presses for shades but individual control for lighting loads. When I deal with Radio Ra I always use individaual shade control as the meas to integrate.

What does your contract say? Is the contract (you and the blind guys) with the homeowner or the GC? If it comes down to it, that is going to be the deciding factor. Typical to me is shade ocntractor provides a finished system, which you then control. But that depends on what the scope of the actual agreements are. 

For control of QS wired shades by 3rd party controller, assuming these are QS wired shades and not QS wireless shade there are two options.

1. Use a HomeWorks QS Processor to control the shades - this requires a telnet session via IP with Crestron, even if you use RS-232 from Crestron. This option gives you the most control of the project and will be faster to implement and maintain than option 2.

2. Use the QSE-CI-NWK-E - this device will communicate natively RS 232, but also has an ethernet connection for IP control. This device requires many, many, many commands be sent to it individually in a terminal session to set up the shades and phantom buttons. Plan your work giving freindly names to shades replacing the serial number IDs, enter your commands based on the needs of the Crestron module you assemble to control the shades.

We had a project with HomeWorks Illumination that had QS wired shades added to it, so we used option 2 above to control the shades via Lutron's RS-232 output, essentially the same boat you are in here.

PM me if you would like a command matrix we assembled in Excel then built into a text file for easy, copy>paste>enter line by line into the QSE-CI-NWK-E

can anyone add any input to this please?

I have only worked on one QS wired shade system and I do did not program it but from what I know I would not use the QSE-CI-NWK-E.

We were going to use this until doing more research. The shades can be assigned to keypad buttons and used with out a processor. If this is the case the QSE-CI-NWK-E needs to be used to integrate. Once we realized how this needs to be programmed, we decided it was worth the extra cost to add a processor, power supply, and low voltage panel.

Reasons for not using QSE-CI-NWK-E are : no remote access/programming, limits can only be set manually at shade, programming can not be saved so if unit dies it must be redone.

As far as you having to program, if the company selling the shades can not take care of this, they should not be selling them. If you are not a Lutron dealer you can not get parts you need to do this.

Based on a job I am currently doing, I will never use the QSE-CI-NWK-E again. I will always use a QS processor.

It is just easier over all