Lutron Spacer Installation 101 (Rev. 1/17/06 - Adding IR Emitters)

This thread has been a huge help to me, thanks! One more question remains, hopefully Jay or someone can answer:

My plan is to have 1 large rec room in the basement with the HT incorporated into one end of the room. I plan to have 4 zones of lighting with the 4 dimmers in 1 gang box near the center of the room. I'd like to use 2 Remote Masters, one at the entrance to basement and one near the HT, so I'd have control of lighting from 3 locations. Is it possible to use 2 remote masters and run travellers from each of them to the dimmers and place an IR flasher from each of the remote masters on the dimmer at each end of the gang box?

Thanks for your help!

The problem with sticky threads: you get used to seeing them there and new posts don't jump out at you. :b Well, well, WELL after these questions were added so they've likely been resolved but just in case:


Absolutely. You would then be able to splice and emitter head to one end and 1/8" plug to the other (one CAT-5 should be able to feed two separate emitters, one for each dimmer). At this point you can opt to go invasive like I did and place the emitter in the control cavities or simply stuck on the sensor windows at the front. The dimmers by design can also receive IR through the case from the back.


I believe Lutron has wiring diagrams that show this. Each dimmer can accommodate only one IR clip. But with four dimmers you could place a clip from one master to, say, Zone 2 and another clip from the second master to Zone 3. The dimmers don't care where they're getting the signal from, and since the clips are central there shouldn't be an issue with commands issued to Zones 1 and 4. You could even use this setup as a means of expanding the lighting scenes available to you. Use the master closest to the theater for "movie" scenes, and the master at the entrance for more recreational scenes. The IR sensors on the masters are very limited so it's unlikely you would accidentally activate a scene from the entrance when you are in the theater.

I'll expand on this concept further. You could go so far as running IR emitters to each master as I detailed above. By implementing a repeater system that allows you to isolate commands to specific channels you could program your remote for 8 scenes that would be available to you from anywhere in the room. The Home Theater Master MRF-300 that I use can be programmed to output commands for one device out of any (or all) of six repeater channels. So with this example you could have IR commands for Master 1 (entrance) under channel one and for Master 2 (theater) under channel two. Even though the remote commands for both masters are the same (ie. dim, fade, scenes 1-4) only one would receive these commands at a time. I'd love to have more scenes available and in your install this could be a very practical extension of the system's capabilities.

Re: Lutron Spacer Installation 101 (Rev. 1/17/06 - Adding IR Emitters)

Along the same lines, I wanted to install to Lutron Maestros in my newest theater and my electrician gave me some flak about remotes interfering with each other? Has I understand it, When I install 2 receivers in the wall the only really problem is I will only have one zone since both remotes will work both receivers and in essence one remote will send the same signal to both receivers so the lights will go down all at once instead of two different zones, correct?

Re: Lutron Spacer Installation 101 (Rev. 1/17/06 - Adding IR Emitters)

The answer to my question is: YES, one remote will work two dimmers in unison. But NOT separate

Re: Lutron Spacer Installation 101 (Rev. 1/17/06 - Adding IR Emitters)

[quote=Jay Mitchosky]

I believe Lutron has wiring diagrams that show this. Each dimmer can accommodate only one IR clip. But with four dimmers you could place a clip from one master to, say, Zone 2 and another clip from the second master to Zone 3. The dimmers don't care where they're getting the signal from, and since the clips are central there shouldn't be an issue with commands issued to Zones 1 and 4. You could even use this setup as a means of expanding the lighting scenes available to you. Use the master closest to the theater for "movie" scenes, and the master at the entrance for more recreational scenes. The IR sensors on the masters are very limited so it's unlikely you would accidentally activate a scene from the entrance when you are in the theater.
QUOTE]


This is not a very timely response but it might save some confusion in the future. I have a system similar to this in my HT. The two master controllers work flawlessly together but I dont think you will ever get more than 4 scenes from this set up. I cant set different scenes on each master.

Here is what I did and might be helpful. I have 3 dimmers at the bottom of my stairs that control the rec room and the master controller at the top. I have 3 dimmers and a master in my theater room. The master at the top of the stairs has the IR clip installed to one of the dimmers at the bottom of the stairs. The master in the theater has an IR clip installed to both sets of dimmers. With this set up I can turn off all the lights in the basement from the theater and if someone comes down the stairs they will only turn on the rec room lights.

I hope that was not to confusing.

Mike

Re: Lutron Spacer Installation 101 (Rev. 1/17/06 - Adding IR Emitters)

I don't think my particular question has been answered here, so I'll go ahead and ask it.

First, my situation:
-un-constructed combined home theater / family room
-4 lighting zones
-each zone needs two wall mounted switches that will be at least 12' apart
-each zone has 4-8 lights

Second, my goals:
-to be able to use compact flourescent bulbs
-to be able to set "mood lighting" automatically from anywhere in the room via remote
-to be able to over-ride existing lighting by using a wall mounted switch (to go from partly dimmed to full on or full off at the wall switch without affecting the other zones)
-at each of the two entrances to the room, which will be into one of two zones, have the ability to turn on all lights to one of the pre-set "moods" without the remote
-eventually be able to use a Harmony remote to control the lights and AV. The supplied remote will suit my needs fine and, in fact, is preferable in the short run.

Questions:
-is this possible?
-if so, using what Lutron system and what components?
-can someone explain to the n00b in simple terms roughly what the wiring of this system would look like? I've been all over the Lutron site and unfortunately it doesn't make much sense to me still...

Qualifier:
I know these seem like somewhat simple questions, but everything I've read today is just a little too far over my head. Sorry.

Re: Lutron Spacer Installation 101 (Rev. 1/17/06 - Adding IR Emitters)

This is a good question. Even though its months old, a good answer could serve value for future reference. Anyone care to answer?