dgage said:
One of the nice things about RadioRa2 is that if your primary controller dies or is unplugged or otherwise not working (I found this out because my RadioRa2 controller had been unplugged accidentally by the kids when I was initially testing it) it will still work like a normal lighting system. By controlling a local load, it increases the reliability by ensuring it doesn't have to rely on an external system for communication, it simply acts like a dumb switch. Now the keypads likely wouldn't work except for the local load they control so that would be a minor issue. So the good side is reliability, the down side is that you don't have quite as much flexibility as Work2Play described with UPB. So in this case the trade off would be reliability vs flexibility. I haven't heard a single complaint about RadioRa2's reliability. I've heard some issues with UPB, namely noisy devices (pumps) in the house or in the nearby neighborhood, but for the most part I've read about UPB being very reliable. I'd still say it is safe to say RadioRa2 is more reliable but we may be comparing 95% against 99%.
Just to clarify, this is also the case with UPB - even more so than RadioRa2 - because the switches are self contained there is no central controller in UPB - the only thing you have is a PIM to connect external devices in over RS232. The UPB switches will transmit upon a touch, and everything that's supposed to respond will hear that action and do what they're supposed to.
And for Dean's point - yes you can use a scene controller for a decoupled switch - but what I have is a couple places where the paddle on the wall turns on/off and even dims table lamps exactly as if they were hardwired with a switch that looks identical in the room. I kinda like this. And yes some of the differences are more relevant to a retrofit situation where you're ultimately try to overcome some flaws - so having dual-load controllers and flexibility does come in handy; but also for my back yard example - one switch turns on the patio light and the landscape lights from another circuit at one time; that's kinda handy. I also had a couple rooms that didn't have ceiling lights installed at first so I took the switch and mapped it to a floor lamp - then once the light kits were installed, I just remapped the switch back.
Again - not making a push one way or the other as I have nothing against RadioRa2 and was starting to think it could become my new favorite lighting system until I realized how much more flexibility I have with what I have installed today. The look and feel of them is so much nicer IMO, and the fact that their system will do motion sensors, thermostats and shades all in the same system makes it look pretty attractive.
Regarding family and outsiders - what I've noticed is that the only time my house guests touch a light switch was in the bathroom - otherwise during a party, I've taken care of that. And in the bathroom, I automated that light. BUT that's why I kept all the simple paddles where they are because they're familiar yet they control what I want them to control. Regulars to your house (maid) might be thrown off the first time by something unusual but they obviously figure it out - it's not an ongoing stress point. We also have people come to the house while we're away to check on our pets - but I have it so that when someone enters the house it turns the lights on, and when the countdown timer expires, the lights turn off - so really even that situation is pretty much handled.
The people who struggle with the lights are my really young kids who don't quite get it - with a paddle, they press on or off and something happens - but these buttons bounce back and for whatever reason they seem to want to just keep tapping repetitively so the lights either don't come on or they start to dim up from 0%. My almost-4 yr old still struggles with that. My nearly 6yr old daughter has had it down for a long time - she hits the scene buttons to light up the whole room; the 2yr old will climb on the couch to reach one of the scene switches and love hitting the button that turns all the lights in the house off; as well as the panic buttons on the alarm panel. :wacko:
Lastly - further clarification on Lutron/DIY - anyone can take the training for free and get access to the half-version of the software... they've removed and restrictions to this; it just takes a little effort to get through it which will turn away most. However if you need a second controller or more than 100 devices, you'll have to work at that as they want to manually approve you for that status; and you can't get a friend to hook you up either most likely since to unlock the other features you have to copy a serial number from your installation and put it on Lutron's site where they'll generate a unique "unlock" key for that specific installation. Once you do that it totally unlocks the max capabilities of the software. I heard there other features that might be hidden until you unlock the "Inclusive" version but I didn't pay attention when I did it last - I just skip straight to unlocking inclusive when I install it.