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Thread: Shade Groups

  1. #1
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    Question Shade Groups

    ok, I understand the need/concept of shade groups (a collection of shades), but what is/was the original motivation for them, i.e., their "real" purpose?

    I "get" that it simplifies the programming if you have a large number of shades that you need to control at the same time (just enter the name of the shade group), but couldn't you accomplish the same task by specifying all of the shades individually? Or just include all of them in a "scene" and use that? Or is there something else that I am missing?

    Which leads to the practical/real world question: I have a client that has a sun/sitting room which has 8 roller shades on 3 walls; 2 on the left, 2 on the right and 4 on the far window; there is a seeTouch kp on the wall in this room for control. From what I can tell, I have several options; I can put all 8 in the same shade group, put the 2 on the left in one shade group, the 2 on the right in a shade group and finally, the 4 shades on the far wall in their own shade group. Or I can even put each shade in it's own shade group. Control via a single button on the seeTouch (OCS) can certainly be obtained for all of these shades depending on what how it's configured (obviously, the more shade groups the more entries on the programming tab).

    For the most part, these shades will all be raised/lowered in unison, but I can envision a need to raise/lower these separately (by wall location) due to the sun (the far wall faces due west) which implies, to me, that these shades should be configured with 3 shade groups; 2 on the left, 2 on the right and the 4 on the far wall; the programming for the seeTouch would, basically, raise/lower all of the shades at once, control for each "wall" will be determined later (either with a table top kp or third-party control system).

    Since these shades are in the same room, IHA was requested; is there any interaction between shades in a group (and with any other groups in the same area) that have IHA specified when they are in motion if they are "asked" to move? I guess what I am asking here is "does IHA only "work" with shades configured in the same group or does it "work" for all shades (in multiple shade groups) that are in the same area"?

    When the processor sends out a cmd to a shade to "move" are the cmds sent simultaneously to each shade within a shade group? If multiple shades groups are specified in the programing, are the cmds sent out sequentially by shade group ordering?

    any insight/guidance/clarification is appreciated

    thanks

  2. #2
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    I put every single shade in its own group. That way if I need individual control I have more flexibility. We offer individual control via our Crestron interface so putting in groups doesnt really work for me.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by johnmax View Post
    I put every single shade in its own group. That way if I need individual control I have more flexibility. We offer individual control via our Crestron interface so putting in groups doesnt really work for me.
    How are you handling feedback of shade position ? When using crestron how are you making the slider accurate to represent the shade position of the QS shade ?

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by mcignarella View Post
    How are you handling feedback of shade position ? When using crestron how are you making the slider accurate to represent the shade position of the QS shade ?
    Using the integration id with feedback module and entering the time in the module it takes for the shade to fully travel to "fudge" my feedback.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by johnmax View Post
    Using the integration id with feedback module and entering the time in the module it takes for the shade to fully travel to "fudge" my feedback.
    Yea we do the same So annoying that a button press only sends where the shade is going One thing Crestron has over Lutron on shades is feedback for sure. Gets messy when people are moving shades outside of crestron to keep track especially when they just jog a little bit up or down

  6. #6
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    Yes with issues i have had on a recent project with 80 shades and the issues ive had with the QS software I'm about done if I have to stick with QS. HWI was so much better. The QS software has so many poorly designed features it is maddening to use. Transferring to procesors can be frustrating to say the least (5 hour transfers that work only half the time due to exceeding programming limitations without the program warning me- now its down to 1.5 hour...). Plus with design issues within the software that never seem to get fixed (ive posted a few in these forums), and the biggest complaint I have is not having the ability to save Scenes (lighting or shades) during runtime. Lack of a Scene Saver capability is ridiculous, especially the fact that it can be done with the Lutron App. Obviously it can be done- how hard is it to give that to us? I dont want my clients to ever leave the Crestron app. Seems like that request falls on deaf ears. I have phone reps say "yea weve heard that before- go online and submit a feature request". I think I first did that a year ago and we still dont have it.

    Seems like Lutron has lost the love for us integrators and is only focusing on small time stuff like Radio Ra and Caseta.

  7. #7
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    if you use SG, you can feed the "LEVEL_BAR" analog output from the shade module (r02) directly to a shade controller object and get decent feedback w/o a lot of effort

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by jkvossen View Post
    if you use SG, you can feed the "LEVEL_BAR" analog output from the shade module (r02) directly to a shade controller object and get decent feedback w/o a lot of effort
    Yes but that doesnt give you realtime feedback- you have to wait til the shade stops moving and it reports position back. At least with the travel time parameter we can make it look more polished.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by johnmax View Post
    Yes but that doesnt give you realtime feedback- you have to wait til the shade stops moving and it reports position back. At least with the travel time parameter we can make it look more polished.
    the "analog rate limiter" symbol is your friend for this

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by jkvossen View Post
    the "analog rate limiter" symbol is your friend for this
    Can you explain how you use this to give "realtime" shade feedback? Isnt it just easier to enter a value in the UP_DOWN_TRAVEL_TIME parameter of the Lutron Homeworks Qs Sivoia QS Shade r02 module?

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