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How do I read the state of a VCRX CCI, via telnet & the Integration Protocol (or via any UI)? I see of no way to do so.
I can turn on a load via the RadioRA 2 software, but that's about it.
Ultimately what I'm after, is to see the state of our garage door, so that I can ensure its closed via a scene such as Goodnight. I have a magnetic contact switch feeding the CCI, and use this to turn on/off the garage lights.
I've accomplished this using a 3rd party app (Indigo) that uses the integration protocol. If you look in the VCRX section of the Integration spes you'll see how to make a call to check the status of the CCI, and any changes are transmitted over the protocol. Going the 3rd party route, its easy to have a goodnight scene check the status of the door before triggering the door to close.
I also have the garage door keypad button LED illuminate when the door is open and turn off when the door is closed. This is mostly accomplished in the RR2 software, but requires 3rd party code for complete reliability. In a nutshell, I have the CCI that detects the door is closed turn off or on a sustained CCO (call this the "status CCO") on the VCRX. Then set the garage keypad button to be a toggle/monitor on both the CCO that triggers the garage door opener and the "status CCO". This works well, except for the fact that the button automatically toggles the status CCO when you hit the button, which can make the CCI and the "status CCO" get out of sync. Thus, if the garage door does not open or close (say there is an obstruction), the LED won't show the correct status. This is where my 3rd party controller comes in - when it detects I've hit the garage door keypad button, it checks the status of the CCI and adjusts the "status CCO" accordingly.
Another way to make a goodnight button work would be to use a relay on the magnetic contact switch and use a secondary "goodnight CCO" that goes through the relay - so the garage door opener would only be trigger if the garage door was open. Obviously you'd need to use another CCO to toggle the garage door open and closed and just use the "Goodnight CCO" when you only wanted to close the door... Paul (at Hank's Electric) I believe put together a nice schematic of this option, if that helps you visualize it. I believe he posted it either on this forum somewhere or over at AVSforum...
I've read the VCRX section of the May 2016 Integration Protocol a dozen times. I have firmware 10.2.
There are DEVICE commands to press/release/close inputs (Actions 3 and 4), set/get states of Scene LEDs (Action 9), and there are OUTPUT commands to set/query OUTPUT states (Action 1) and Set Pulse CCO (Action 6).
Curiously, some of the examples in that section have some parameters backwards.
What am I missing?
You are correct that CCI's don't respond to status requests (I had misremembered that), but they do send status information when they change, with status messages such as:
In the example above, my VCRX has integration ID 46. Component 32 is CCI input 1.Code:~DEVICE,46,32,3
So, as long as your code is properly monitoring your system for status mesages (see page 12) you will see messages indicating any status changes.
Ok, thanks.
It's totally crazy that you cannot READ the status of the CCI! It means I cannot just launch an app, pick a Goodnight button and have it do the right thing, and close the app. I need some monitoring app. Nuts.
It seems like Lutron is hell-bent on crippling the RR2 system so as not to possibly cannibalize other product lines. It seems spending $20k on their hardware doesn't entitle me to read/use the state of a contact.
I'm starting to come to regret going the RR2 route and probably should have spent a little more to go another (more capable) route.
I find it very useful to have a 3rd party app running all the time, as it enables me to use a lot of Homeworks style logic on RR2. My RR2 install is DIY, so Homeworks wasn't an option for me. Its pretty cost effective to implement a 3rd party solution - in the example of Indigo, the software is maybe $200, and then you spend $500-1000 on a mac mini or something like that, and then you have a very reliable solution at a fraction of the cost of ripping out RR2 and putting in Homeworks.
Based on your $20k figure, it sounds like you had an integrator put in RR2 - in that case perhaps he sold you on a product that didn't fully meet your needs, although I suspect a Homeworks install would have been an order of magnitude more than $20k...
I'm checking out Indigo now. I may also see if I can program our Elan controller to handle this.
Re: Integrator, yes. But i can't fault him. Rather, this entire area was something I didn't know I "needed" or wanted, until I started using it, and started programming it, then realized how much value there is.
The RR2 system is nice, but there have been some very stupid design / product decisions that arbitrarily cripple it, or make it fight against itself.
@MikeS - please add my request to get the fine engineering folks to allow querying the state of the CCI!