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Thread: Can't find main repeater problem

  1. #1

    Can't find main repeater problem

    I'm hoping someone can point out something I'm overlooking. For the first time, Essentials says it can't find my main repeater when I went to activate new devices and transfer programming (same with the Connect Bridge in the system). Here's what I know:


    • all devices and schedules seem to be working
    • running Essentials 12.0.1 (but also tried 11.5.1) on a Mac under Parallels.
    • repeater is assigned a static IP address outside the DHCP range.
    • I can hit that IP address in the browser from the Mac side and the Windows side, and the repeater responds with the login screen.
    • I can log in to the repeater and generate the Device info and XML downloads (i.e. the repeater is seen on the network and responds) from the browser
    • Repeater is running firmware 11.5.1
    • Connect Bridge is working since I can use the Connect app from off-network and control the system
    • Tried restarting Windows
    • Tried power cycling the repeater
    • Tried wired and wireless
    • Went into Windows Defender Firewall and confirmed that Radio RA 12.0.1 was an exception app for both private and public networks


    I have not tried to transfer using 12.0.1 yet, so I'm not sure if this has always been a problem since I upgraded. Yesterday had an Elan system added to the network which is talking to the main repeater successfully. It was able to pull the integration file it needs and is successfully controlling devices via the repeater.

    Any ideas appreciated.

  2. #2
    Was able to find repeater while directly connected to it via Ethernet cable, all Windows firewalls turned off (not sure if that made a difference or not). After I finished I put the repeater back on the LAN and once again Essentials can't see it. Stumped. Running latest version of Windows 10.

  3. #3
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    May 2017
    Posts
    23
    When you put the repeater back on the network did you keep the firewalls off? When finding the MRP, the MRP uses a multicast protocol. I had to specifically modify my firewall settings to pass multicast packets. Try finding the MRP with your firewalls turned off but using your wired network.

  4. #4
    Yes, I kept them off, but I didn't make any changes related to multicast. This has never been a problem in the past, however, even with the firewall on. I can try to specifically make sure multicast is allowed, but the whole RadioRA2 program is being given a pass on the firewall, and the firewall wasn't even on when I tried last. Thanks for the info.

  5. #5
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Posts
    2,587
    Are you using the MAC to transfer in 12x as well? A company I worked for did Savant so the AV guys had MACs. Even though you are running Windows, MAC is still handling the communication. MAC OS natively blocks some commands like FTP, which Lutron uses. You have to go into the MAC settings and tell it to accept FTP and TELNET from Lutron/Windows. I never actually did it so I can't say exactly where it is.
    Last edited by randyc; 02-28-2018 at 11:55 PM. Reason: DdOoUuBbLlEe PpOoSsTt!1
    Convergence Technologies Raleigh, North Carolina
    www.convergenceusa.com

  6. Thanks SDR-Mike thanked for this post
  7. #6
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Posts
    579
    Welcome to the party. I love Lutron's Radio Ra and Homeworks QS but my single biggest complaint since 2011 has been how unreliable and inconsistent finding the main repeaters and transferring is. You'd think by now it would be a breeze to connect to a modern router and do it but they still insist that you do it direct connect. It's just unbelievable to me that the best lighting controls company on the planet with the best products can't figure something that seems so trivial out.

    Just today I was helping an electrician buddy who's not very network savvy add a fully working Ra2 from his direct connection to the home's router so they could use the connect bridge and even while directly connected, he would have to unplug and reconnect the main repeater to get it to work. Then while on the network trying static ip, the upload, even though it would find the main repeater and connect bridge fine, transfer would just hang, go to the "find the main repeater" popup after 5 minutes (which it had no problem finding), then cancel itself after 10 minutes. So I decided to just stick with DHCP on both and again, same thing. perfectly good IP addresses, no problem finding it and changing the new settings, but then it would hang while uploading and then cancel itself after asking to "find" the devices again. Just before we were about to give up and use version 12 (I think he was using 10.6 still since that's how he started the job), all of a sudden the transfer worked and no errors.

    This inconsistency just kills me. On some jobs it takes me two hours just to get everything to be recognized on the network and then magically, everything works the first time. On some jobs, everything magically works the first time on the network. It's unreasonable to ask people to bypass the home network when you need to have the network to do have the app and cloud based stuff working yet every time I've called Lutron, their goto script is to connect the main repeater directly. What if you have two main repeaters? what then?

    For the love of all things holy Lutron, get this networking stuff straightened out. Every other IOT device I've seen, including Lutron's very old HW Illuminations software recognizes devices and transfers things fine, but for some reason Ra2 and HQS are still the wild wild west.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Welcome to the party. I love Lutron's Radio Ra and Homeworks QS but my single biggest complaint since 2011 has been how unreliable and inconsistent finding the main repeaters and transferring is. You'd think by now it would be a breeze to connect to a modern router and do it but they still insist that you do it direct connect. It's just unbelievable to me that the best lighting controls company on the planet with the best products can't figure something that seems so trivial out.

    Just today I was helping an electrician buddy who's not very network savvy add a fully working Ra2 from his direct connection to the home's router so they could use the connect bridge and even while directly connected, he would have to unplug and reconnect the main repeater to get it to work. Then while on the network trying static ip, the upload, even though it would find the main repeater and connect bridge fine, transfer would just hang, go to the "find the main repeater" popup after 5 minutes (which it had no problem finding), then cancel itself after 10 minutes. So I decided to just stick with DHCP on both and again, same thing. perfectly good IP addresses, no problem finding it and changing the new settings, but then it would hang while uploading and then cancel itself after asking to "find" the devices again. Just before we were about to give up and use version 12 (I think he was using 10.6 still since that's how he started the job), all of a sudden the transfer worked and no errors.

    This inconsistency just kills me. On some jobs it takes me two hours just to get everything to be recognized on the network and then magically, everything works the first time. On some jobs, everything magically works the first time on the network. It's unreasonable to ask people to bypass the home network when you need to have the network to do have the app and cloud based stuff working yet every time I've called Lutron, their goto script is to connect the main repeater directly. What if you have two main repeaters? what then?

    For the love of all things holy Lutron, get this networking stuff straightened out. Every other IOT device I've seen, including Lutron's very old HW Illuminations software recognizes devices and transfers things fine, but for some reason Ra2 and HQS are still the wild wild west.

  8. #7
    Well, it just started working, so for now, everything is good. I'm finding the main repeater over the network, from within Parallels/Windows 10 on the Mac. The one thing I did change was the simulated network card. I had been using a legacy setting I guess and updated it to the new default. May or may not have had an impact.

  9. #8
    For people having trouble connecting to a repeater from a Windows VM on a Macintosh - the issue is usually a Mac network issue. That issue, maybe caused by Mac sleep, is fixed by restarting the Macintosh. Restarting the VM is necessary, but not sufficient. When the MacOS networking is working right the Lutron software works right. There are no VM network filtering issues in base configuration.

  10. #9
    Well, I just had the problem happen again, and after restarting the Mac and the VM, Essentials still can't find the main repeater. I can get to the repeater's login page from a from web browser within Parallels. The Mac sees the repeater, Windows see the repeater, a web browser sees the repeater, but Essentials doesn't. Really frustrating.

  11. #10
    Posting this in case it helps other similarly frustrated Parallels Mac users. Parallels' networking is optimized for wired Ethernet. It has a virtual WiFi driver but support says it isn't as reliable. Networking defaults to Shared Network, which gives Parallels its own network, i.e. it doesn't look like a computer on the same network as your Mac. You end up with two networks, and the Main Repeater likely has an IP address in the series with your main Mac network. So you need to be in Bridge Mode, which puts the VM on the network with your Mac and other devices in the house. But it also uses the default networking mode that your Mac has set up in its Networking preferences if Bridge Mode is set to Default Adapter. So, you need to make sure you're in Bridge mode and you are using the same network interface that your Mac is using. Once I had things configured properly the main repeater showed up just fine. Hope this helps anyone else who experiences the same confusion in the future!

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