J. Geiger Shades - Anyone have a sample program

This company J. Geiger makes some beautiful shades, but has a Frankenstein method of control.

They have Somfy motors and use a Crestron processor to receive RS-232 commands.

I've built a dummy program. I've added a QSE-CI-NWK, the Lutron device which enables RS-232 communication. Under "Configure Integration," I've added a selection of commands provided by J. Geiger. I can't find anywhere to add shade groups (though that may all happen on the J. Geiger side of the puzzle). In the HWQS program and I can't find anyway to send the commands I created.

From what I understand you need to follow the white paper on 3rd party integration- you can't use the NWK. That's only for inbound commands, not outbound.
The white paper is pretty complete and will explain the parts you'll need to send 232 out of the QS processor to the crestron processor. I used the B&B device with success.
You're not going to be working with "shade groups" you're going to send 3rd party commands.

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Originally Posted by DSinSF

This company J. Geiger makes some beautiful shades, but has a Frankenstein method of control.

They have Somfy motors and use a Crestron processor to receive RS-232 commands.

I've built a dummy program. I've added a QSE-CI-NWK, the Lutron device which enables RS-232 communication. Under "Configure Integration," I've added a selection of commands provided by J. Geiger. I can't find anywhere to add shade groups (though that may all happen on the J. Geiger side of the puzzle). In the HWQS program and I can't find anyway to send the commands I created.

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What exactly are you trying to do? I would say if there using Somfy motors only 1 party should have control to the Somfy Interface. The shade groups are created on the Somfy end.

If Crestron is already talking to the Somfy RTS interface then you just need to send commands to Crestron. That can be accomplished using the 3rd party interface in QS to send ascii commands to Crestron and let crestron do the rest.

If Lutron is going to be controlling the Somfy RTS then you need to attach a ethernet to RS232 device to the network Then in Lutron using a third party controller set that up to send the SOMFY commands to the RTS. Then if Crestron needs to control them they should send Lutron Ascii and you relay out to Somfy RTS only 1 integrate should talk to the SOmfy RTS in my opinion.

Attached is the device used to talk to Somfy motors now depending how many motors how many shade groups and distance you may need multiple RTS and or repeaters. The commands sent to Somfy RTS need to come from the Somfy integration protocol sheet.


Hope this helps

Attachment 446

Thanks to both of you for your replies, really appreciate the expertise. I'm not trying to control Somfy directly, the shade manuf., only sells the system paired with the Crestron proc.

I'm not finding anything in Lutron's 3rd Party Integration protocol except:

1. 
   RS232
   The HomeWorks® QS Processor does not have native support for RS232. An Ethernet to RS232adapter can be used and configured to provide RS232 integration directly from the Processor ifneeded.
   

digit1, what's the whitepaper you're referring to?

http://www.lutron.com/PasswordProtec...ntegration.pdf

The link above should take you to mylutron.com pdf for the 3rd party integration app note.

PS when configuring your 3rd party commands pay attention to the intermessage delay. It's default value is way too high.
Hey Lutron time to update that doc- it doesn't mention it or show it in the screenshots, and it can stop the show if incorrectly configured.

I've worked with Geiger once before but it was an illumination job with only 2 shade drives so we did it contact closure. I used a CCO card to trigger open & close inputs wired to the Geiger shades.

I've done 3rd party a few times and it generally works as advertised. When I had to interface QS with a com port, I used the POE B&B device and it was perfect. I just tested it the other day and it's working great.
I had a similar scenario to yours with a different shade contractor. Somfy motors connected to a crestron processor, controlled by our QS system. We integrated directly via IP. It worked well enough, but it wasn't painless. Like illumination<>crestron jobs, after a lutron transfer the crestron system didn't always maintain the connection. Rebooting the crestron processor after xfering the lutron processor usually got everything working again.

What should the intermessage delay be set to? I have a project i will have to do this on soon. Using a Electronic Solutions, RQ Bridge interface. This is a bit confusing to me as i have never had to do this before.

My guess is you could start at 50ms and raise it up as needed. 1000ms = 1 second if that helps you understand the delay time Lutron QS awaits to perform the next step or send the next message.

I am using the new QSX P7 HomeWorks QS processor and I like to control the Somfy RTS interface. What is the easy way to do this? Can I use just the B&B ethernet to RS232? OR do I need the QSE-CI-NWK device? On the designer QS software I think I need to create a telnet and the B&B or CI-NWK device will read by IP commands and send Somfy commands thru the RS232 output, but after I do some programming. I am correct ?

Hello. Telnet is not supported in QSX like it was in previous versions. It uses a much more secure integration method called LEAP integration that is cloud based. At the moment there are no way to send outbound telnet commands. 3rd party partners of Lutron are making their own integration drivers to integrate with QSX. At this time, it doesn't seem like there is a way to send any commands to these Somfy shades. If they can accept dry contacts, that is still an option. To find out more information if there is a plan to integrate with Somfy, you can e-mail workswith@lutron.com.