AMX to Lutron Grafik Eye ?

bob
bob Independent Programmer
in AMX Technical Discussion
Hi there,

anyone familiar with Lutron Grafik Eye 3000 units can help me with the following question:

in a project with 5 Grafik Eyes, each dedicated to its own room, is it possible to link them together and have a single Lutron RS232 interface go the Netlinx controller (controlling all of them at once) or should each one have its own RS232 interface connected to the Netlinx master? What I am trying to achieve is having pathway lightning selected between the rooms (thus affecting several units) from a single TP button. According to Lutron they can be linked together what is not clear to me if such linkage may happen between the rooms or should they be linked only within a single room if more than 6 zones from a single Grafik Eye is needed.

Any help is highly appreciated! Thanks!
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Comments

  • kbeattyAMX
    kbeattyAMX Junior Member
    The Grafix Eyes are all connect to the same MUX link. That's the Lutron Network bus. The Grafix 3000's all have to be ID'd and then you add a MUX 232 interface. I'm not sure of the model number. Normally the Electrician sets up all of the Lutron stuff.
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  • bob
    bob Independent Programmer
    So, I can reference each Grafik Eye by its own ID and then a scene with it from a single RS232 Netlinx link to the Lutron system (the Lutron serial interface is called GRX-CI-RS232)?
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  • kbeattyAMX
    kbeattyAMX Junior Member
    Exactly! Lutron has a new system that has more network capabilities. That's GrafixEye QS. You connect to an Ethernet interface and it's pretty slick.
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  • bob
    bob Independent Programmer
    Took a look at the QS.. it is pretty nice, however Ethernet connectivity is not a must as the RS232 would be connected to Netlinx anyway. The QS however has Blind control.. Are the Grafik Eye 3000 and QS compatible, i.e. can they be connected to the same bus?
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  • kbeattyAMX
    kbeattyAMX Junior Member
    Not sure about that one. The protocol is different for the QS because it supports 65536 devices. The only gotcha is you use the serial number as the ID for the QS devices until they are given a unique name. If you use the serial number in your code you risk a problem if they have to change out the QS. I'd just put an interface in the AMX to input a new serial number.
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  • kbeattyAMX
    kbeattyAMX Junior Member
    The interface for the QS system is QSE-CI-NWK-E. It takes Ethernet or Serial connections. I prefer Ethernet. It's just faster and more robust.
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  • TurnipTruck
    TurnipTruck Junior Member
    If you use the serial interface (GRX-232) to your dimmers, the linking created in the dimmers will NOT occur though RS-232. For example, You can program the Grafik Eyes so that pressing a preset on the room one Grafik Eye will cause that same preset to be triggered on room two. However if you call the preset for room one from serial control, room two will NOT follow.
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  • bob
    bob Independent Programmer
    Ok, this means that each room Grafik Eye should have its own RS232 interface to Netlinx and there is actually no need to connect all Grafik Eyes to each other at all but leave them alone for the rooms with their own keypads and trigger pathway lighting from the AMX TPs only. Otherwise we are going into centralized Homeworks teritory, am I right?!
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  • TurnipTruck
    TurnipTruck Junior Member
    You can create your own link table in code. When a button press is detected from a certain Grafik Eye, you can trigger others based on assignments in the link table.

    There is no need for a seperate interface. You can just shoot out multiple preset calls through one interface. If you sent a preset call to all five of your dimmers, you would never know that they were sent seperately as the commands deque very quickly.

    Each interface support eight Grafik Eyes.
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  • bob
    bob Independent Programmer
    TurnipTruck wrote: »
    You can create your own link table in code. When a button press is detected from a certain Grafik Eye, you can trigger others based on assignments in the link table.

    There is no need for a seperate interface. You can just shoot out multiple preset calls through one interface. If you sent a preset call to all five of your dimmers, you would never know that they were sent seperately as the commands deque very quickly.

    That's is really cool! Thanks very much!

    Can the 3000 series control QS shades somehow? Or is it better to link the motorized shades directly to Netlinx.
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  • TurnipTruck
    TurnipTruck Junior Member
    bob wrote: »
    That's is really cool! Thanks very much!

    Can the 3000 series control QS shades somehow? Or is it better to link the motorized shades directly to Netlinx.

    Not sure about the shades, but I like to control things as directly as possible.
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  • bob
    bob Independent Programmer
    This is an argument of course!
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  • kbeattyAMX
    kbeattyAMX Junior Member
    If you get a QSE-CI-NWK-E, you could control the QS Shades directly. They have a large number of presets you can control and set for shades.
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  • bob
    bob Independent Programmer
    Thanks, Ken. Took a look at the QSE-CI-NWK-E - it would be a serial/ethernet interface from QS to Netlinx. I could aso connect a QS keypad to the Shades/QS bus to have also direct control, right?
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  • bob
    bob Independent Programmer
    Just found a special order interface GRX-CI-NWK-E which will provide Ethernet connectivity also for Grafik Eye 3000 and 4000 units.
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