[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":16},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$fHGbSaGK2zlJ7htWQ7v8ZARa3OeEAFLLS3aDOOYgavls":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"source_url":7,"source_venue":8,"asked_by":9,"created_at":10,"updated_at":11,"body":12,"replies":13,"seo_title":14,"summary":15},101,"RA2 Select occupancy sensor has no fade — why, and the three ways round it","IxomeAI","https:\u002F\u002Fold.reddit.com\u002Fr\u002FLutron\u002Fcomments\u002F1vht3ug\u002Fra2_select_pir_fade_function\u002F","r\u002FLutron","u\u002FFeisty_Balance3409","2026-08-23T18:40:53+00:00","2026-08-25T00:50:16+00:00","\u003Cp class=\"source-note\">\u003Cstrong>Where this came from:\u003C\u002Fstrong> this question was asked on\n\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fold.reddit.com\u002Fr\u002FLutron\u002Fcomments\u002F1vht3ug\u002Fra2_select_pir_fade_function\u002F\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">r\u002FLutron\u003C\u002Fa>\nby \u003Cem>u\u002FFeisty_Balance3409\u003C\u002Fem> — not here. We answered it there, in public, and this is\nthe fuller version of that answer. We publish these because the answers are ours and they\nare worth keeping somewhere they can be found.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Ch2>The short version\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\n\u003Cp>You are not missing a setting. In RA2 Select, fade time belongs to \u003Cem>Pico button\nprogramming\u003C\u002Fem>, not to the dimmer. Anything that drives the load by another route — an\noccupancy sensor, the app, an integration command — bypasses that programming and uses the\ndimmer's own built-in ramp, which is roughly a second. That is why your Pico scenes fade\nbeautifully over eight seconds and your new sensor snaps on like a toggle switch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Cp>There is no checkbox for this, and we would not spend money trying to add one inside\nSelect.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Ch2>The question\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\n\u003Cp>A RA2 Select owner had custom eight-second fades set on their Pico scenes and loved them.\nThey added an occupancy sensor, and it turns the lights on and off instantly with no fade.\nTheir own theory — correct, as it turns out — was that the sensor sets brightness values\ndirectly on the dimmer rather than calling a scene, and so skips the fade entirely. They\nwanted a sense check before going further.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Ch2>Our answer\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\n\u003Ch3>Why it behaves this way\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\n\u003Cp>Think of the fade as living in the button, not in the light. When you press a Pico, the\nrepeater sends \"go to 60% over 8 seconds\" because those eight seconds are stored in that\nbutton's programming. When an occupancy sensor fires, it sends \"go to 60%\" and nothing\nelse. The dimmer receives a level with no time attached, so it applies its default ramp.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Cp>In our experience that default is on the order of a second and the Select app exposes no\nway to change it — but we have not found it documented, so treat the exact figure as our\nrecollection rather than a published spec. What we are confident about is the shape of the\nproblem: fade lives in scene programming, and the sensor is not calling a scene.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Ch3>What actually fixes it\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\n\u003Cp>Full RadioRA 2 with Designer software lets you point a sensor at a \u003Cem>scene\u003C\u002Fem> instead\nof at a load, and a scene carries a fade. That is the real difference between the two\nproduct lines, and it is the honest fix.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Cp>It is also a new main repeater and re-adding every device in the house. For one sensor,\nthat is not worth it, and we would tell you the same thing if you were paying us. We would\nalso want to check what the equivalent path looks like on RA3 before recommending either —\nwe have not verified the migration story there closely enough to promise it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Ch3>The route we would actually take\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\n\u003Cp>The Select main repeater has a telnet integration interface — port 23, enabled in the\napp's advanced settings — and it accepts an \u003Ccode>#OUTPUT\u003C\u002Fcode> command that carries a\nlevel \u003Cem>and\u003C\u002Fem> a fade time. If the repeater also reports occupancy state on that same\nconnection, then something small you already run on the network (Home Assistant, a Pi, a\nspare mini PC) can watch for \"occupied\" and send the load to your level over eight\nseconds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Cp>Two things we would confirm before promising that works, and we are flagging them\nbecause we have not tested them ourselves on a Select repeater:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Cul>\n  \u003Cli>Whether a Select repeater publishes occupancy state over integration the way a full\n  RA2 processor does. Select is the cut-down product and this is exactly the kind of thing\n  that gets cut.\u003C\u002Fli>\n  \u003Cli>Whether the sensor has to stay assigned to the dimmer in the app in order to report\n  at all. If it does, you will get the snap-on \u003Cem>first\u003C\u002Fem> and then your fade fighting\n  it — which is worse than what you have now.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n\n\u003Ch3>The cheap half-measure\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\n\u003Cp>Set the sensor to vacancy mode so it only turns lights \u003Cem>off\u003C\u002Fem>. You press the Pico\nto come on with your eight seconds; the sensor just handles the leaving. The off is still\nabrupt, but it removes the jarring part most people actually notice — walking into a room\nand being hit with full brightness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Cp>This is what we would do first, because it costs nothing and you can undo it in a\nminute.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Ch2>What others said on the thread\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\n\u003Cp>\u003Cem>Summarised in our words. These are other people's claims on a public forum, not\nours, and we have not verified them.\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Cul>\n  \u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>u\u002Fteamhippie42\u003C\u002Fstrong> made the same core point we did — fade time is set\n  per button in the software, and there is no global per-zone setting. Their phrasing was\n  that you can program the fade \"when the dimmer is pressed,\" which lines up with fade\n  living in button programming rather than on the load.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n\n\u003Cp>The original poster considered the question answered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Ch2>What we would need to answer this for your house\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\n\u003Cp>If you want us to dig into whether the telnet route actually reports occupancy on\nSelect — we will, and there is no charge for finding out:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Cul>\n  \u003Cli>Your main repeater model and its firmware version\u003C\u002Fli>\n  \u003Cli>The occupancy sensor part number\u003C\u002Fli>\n  \u003Cli>Whether the sensor is currently assigned to a load in the app\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n\n\u003Cp>Disclosure: we are a Lutron dealer and have been since 1999, and we do remote Lutron and\nControl4 work for a living. Take the upgrade advice with that in mind — which is part of\nwhy our answer here is \"for one sensor, don't.\"\u003C\u002Fp>",[],"RA2 Select sensor won't fade? Here's why","In RA2 Select, fade time lives in Pico button programming, not on the dimmer — which is why an occupancy sensor snaps the lights on. Three ways round it.",1789078240575]