Lutron upgrade to QS

I want to start this discussion, 1st to say to Lutron, you did get this right as to your QS converter and to also inform the community why you should do this for your clients.

This past year I have upgraded 5 old projects. 4 which I built 10-14 yrs ago, one by others.

First, why you should do this for all you clients and I had no clue till just 3 months ago. The P4 and I my guess, the P8 processors have a battery which is not replaceable in the processor. I had my client in San Francisco who called me up after a power outage and told me nothing worked. I said power cycle the processor and the 4 WPM’s,( we label all breakers ) this was a P4 processor with a H48 board. NG. His lights stayed on all that night, so I went up that morning.

Open the cabinet – processor looked dead – no lights on the H48 board, no lights basically anywhere. Connected the computer – could not find the processor. Holy S batman – what to do – call support!. I was lucky, got a tech who has been around a while. Tells me the battery will die after many years. He had a name for this, I cannot remember – but his solution. The dip switch which I have always known about but never touched in the processor – switch one, push up – then power cycle processor, push down and power cycle – then pray! This works only 40% of the time without rebuilding the program or up loading the old if you have this. Bingo – keypads came back, all worked!!

Long and short: upgrade!

Now for some advise, most of the replacements have been total – usually keypads, wireless dimmers and wireless KP’s a must! The RPM’s can stay ( usually ) WPM’s must go. This is somewhat easy as the QS converter really works – brings in the old rooms based system to the tree, brings in the keypads, dimmers and shades – very fun. No programming or processors. But all in all, good stuff. Whoever designed this should work on the Lutron app as it still sucks.

What to look out for:

Programming, I set up two laptops, I use an old macbook pro with XP on the back side, I also still have my 20 yrs old Lenova for those very special moments which I need a direct RS232 connector and XP which has happenes when you get a program that someone change the password( stupid ). If you are replacing all keypads – do not start programming – make new QS keypads in each location then delete the HW keypad. If you have old wired dimmers, it is very easy to redo to the new H48 board – just keep the same order. Now an issue with saving the old keypads. This last project which had the bad battery – was a very early project for us – say 15-16 yrs ago, had 8 Q96 shade, 18 wired dimmers, 16 keypads and 4 WPM’s. I need two licenses plus two translators according to update guide. This was the 1st time I tried to save the KP’s and I had to save the shades.


We started late as we also rebuilt the entire network that day – client wanted a much faster wify, the old was very dated. I had my main tech and at 1:00 we decided to rebuild Lutron( not a good idea ) – the R&R for the WPM’s was easy. I pulled out the old processor from the cabinet – I use the panel kit from the PL8 to give the me the circuit breaker and din rail for the PS, I did not need two PS, so I rewired all to work off one. Note: use the old PS for the KP’s, I install two processors, as I need one link for the Q96 and H48 board, one link for the old keypads, one link for the new WPMs and the last link will be for future wireless needs. So 1.5 hrs to rebuild and turn on power.

You now need to address everything – lucky I brought the old mac as this had all the addressing and names – 1st I did the shades, as suggested – bingo the translator worked perfect, next was all the wired dimmers, which is where the old program helped a bunch. 15 yrs ago I did not name the dimmers or keypads as I do now, so I used the actual dimmer address to make sure I had this placed properly. Address the new WPM’s. Finally the keypads – and the program said no need to address as the address of 1-16 were in the program from the converter – wrong!. So we do all this, upload and see what happens. I go to the kitchen and go to the shade KP – push the North close – it actually closed – feeling good, go to the office – hit the office button – NG, go to the bar button – NG, what is going on? So as any trouble shoot – start at the beginning. – button LED is on but no lights, WPM turns on several zones but not the bar or office. Addressing problems – I look at the keypad address – compare this to my old program, 50% were off.
Started at KP 1 to 16, redid this as per the old program, upload and Yes – all worked!

I then had to return the next day as I forgot about the time clocks I had built. I then had to build phantom keypads to talk to Savant as we also had this.

Long and short – the QS converter works great. I did not know if the translator would do as they said, well yes it does, will save you all the Q96 shade motors. Is it worth the license fee, depending on the project. We just worked on an old Illumination system, 8 PL8 panels, two P8 processors with over 110 keypads. I did not upgrade this, I recommended it – we will see, but to reprogram 110 KP’s is nothing I really wanted to do as there was a bunch of conditionals and other stuff. The reprogramming on a large project like this takes a bunch of time and effort.

Hope this helps!