Lutron HomeWorks QS / QSX Integration with Multiple HVAC Lines

Challenge:

• The Lutron HomeWorks system cannot read the Lx portion of an address (ex. L1.001 is read as 001).
• If the system utilizes more than one HVAC line, using Virtual Addressing is necessary.

Steps for proper configuration:

• Set up virtual addressing on the CoolMaster product
• Note relationship of virtual addresses to physical addresses
• Enter virtual address values into the Lutron program

How to set up Virtual Addressing:

Let's say you have a system such as this:

• 5 units on L1 which is a VRF system
• 2 units on L3 which are wired CoolPlug.
• 2 units on L4 which is underfloor heating on an HOA board.

Your list of addresses may look something like this:

>ls
L1.001
L1.002
L1.003
L1.004
L1.005
L3.039
L3.040
L4.021
L4.022

This is a problem for the Lutron system as it cannot differentiate between the three lines and will not be able to talk to the addresses reliably. To add further disconnection, the underfloor heating IDs are in HEX, so those would also need to be converted to decimal for the Lutron system to even see them.

Solution:

Make sure all your devices are present and connected before starting this process.

1. Download and install the Quick Installation Tool (QIT).

(Note: a quick video on using the tool can be found here)

2. When connected via the Terminal tab of the QIT, issue the following two commands:

>set VA mode 1
>ls

Your address list should now list all the units on all lines as "VA.xxx" similar to the below:

>ls
VA.001
VA.002
VA.003
VA.003
VA.004
VA.005
VA.006
VA.007
VA.008
VA.009

3. To cross-reference the new virtual addresses to their corresponding physical addresses, use the "va" command as seen below, which will show you the relation:

>va
L1.001 --> 0001 [Hex: 0x0011 | Dec: 00017]
L1.002 --> 0002 [Hex: 0x0021 | Dec: 00033]
L1.003 --> 0003 [Hex: 0x0031 | Dec: 00049]
L1.004 --> 0004 [Hex: 0x0041 | Dec: 00065]
L1.005 --> 0005 [Hex: 0x0051 | Dec: 00081]
L3.039 --> 0006 [Hex: 0x0061 | Dec: 00097]
L3.040 --> 0007 [Hex: 0x0071 | Dec: 00113]
L4.021 --> 0008 [Hex: 0x0081 | Dec: 00129]
L4.022 --> 0009 [Hex: 0x0091 | Dec: 00145]

4. You can now use valid addresses 001-009 on the Lutron side to reference the associated units connected to the Cool Automation product.

This process is complete.

If you need to manually set up virtual addresses for some reason, or change any of the automatically created virtual addresses, you can do so by referencing page 50 in the Coolmaster PRM.