Elk M1G and Radio Ra 2

[cjett]

I'm in the process of upgrading my RadioRa "classic" to RadioRa 2 and I just read in the Mx1SP documentation that the interface between the ELK M1G and Radio Ra was only for the first version (classic) not Radio Ra 2.

A few searches found this: http://www.cocoontech.com/portal/articles/news/39-radiora-2/548-elk-announces-lutron-radiora-2-interface

Why does it need a special interface? Does RadioRa 2 not simply support a serial interface?

Anyone have any insight on this? Options? And does anyone know when this ELK-M1XSLU is going to be available?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Spanky]

Radio RA2 is operational and working great. It should be released soon.

 

[cjett]

Radio RA2 is operational and working great. It should be released soon.

I guess you answered the last question. Is there any reason I can't, in the meantime, pass text strings to the radio ra 2?

 

[Spanky]

You can send lighting commands with Rules from the M1, but not text strings directly to Radio Ra2.

 

[cjett]

You can send lighting commands with Rules from the M1, but not text strings directly to Radio Ra2.

Of course you can, Spanky. I've done this since day one on my RadioRa Classic as Elk had improperly implemented the RadioRa protocol by mandating a fade command in the command set (very early RadioRa equipment could not understand the fade command and would simply ignore the command). Elk eventually fixed this (per my complaints), but I never went back and updated my system as it was working fine with my rules and passing RS-232 strings.

I did a bench test tonight with my new RadioRA2 equipment and it worked exactly the same with my M1XSP attached to the Main Repeater.

So, crisis seems to be averted. But I still have to wonder what this ELK-M1XSLU is meant to do? Is it TCPIP control from the Elk?