Not quite sure how to phrase this to be clear, but here goes...

Just talking about light switches and lighting control right now. If I am starting with a conventionally wired home, and I have an entrance hallway light switch. Single gang.

Now I want to start adding Vizia-RF switches and dimmers in the house.... kitchen.... dining room... a couple of plug-in modules in the living room...

Now I need a controller on the wall. When I look at the Vizia-RF VRCZ4-1LX (for example) ... it says it replaces an existing light switch. No special wiring needed.

HUH?

If I replace the entrance hall light switch, with a 4-button controller, how do I now control the entrance hall light?

I understand how the Vizia-RF switches and dimmers can replace an existing switch or dimmer. What I don't understand is the wall controllers. It seems to me that you have to plan for installation of the controllers separate from the switches.

Like.... the controller CONTROLS a switch.... but unless one of those buttons on a 4-button controller, can directly control a local load, then you have to install a new box and run power to it in order to install a 4-button controller.

Am I missing something or is this correct?

I love the Lutron RadioRA stuff, but it's just too darn expensive to get started. I looked at Insteon, but there seems to be a lot of quality issues. The Insteon controller (KeypadLinc) does have the ability to control a local load.... which means the controller can literally replace a switch. The Leviton Vizia-RF stuff looks like it's priced kinda in the middle and doesn't cost a fortune to start installing.

I'm just stuck on this controller issue.

Anyone able to clarify this for me?

Not that this answers your question but you an not use a master controller in a RadioRA system to control a local load/switch.

yeah .... best I can make out is that when you retrofit, you have to add a box with power to install a master control into. I have to find out how much an electrician will charge to drop switch legs from all the overhead fixtures currently on the low-voltage control system.

If I want to just keep the old Remcon low-voltage system, I'm going to have to install new switches. I can get new switches that will work with the old 3-wire system from Touchplate.com. The catch is that the OLD switches are rockers. The NEW switches would be one button for ON and one button for OFF. In 2 locations I would have to 3-gang the 6-button panels in order to replace the 9 switches in each of those 2 locations. At $305 per location for those 2 spots.... that's a lotta coin to keep a 50 year old system running. Replacing ALL of the old switches would cost me well over $1000.
And I'd still have 50 year old relays at each overhead fixture. Replacing the relays with newer solid state relays is about $45 each or somewhere in the neighborhood of $675 for relays. So I'm probably getting pretty close to $2000 to keep the old STYLE system running with newer hardware.
I might be better off paying that $2000 to the electrician to have "normal" switches put in and I can decide later what I want to "fancy up".
I mean... let's face it, I dont need to automate and/or monitor everything. Who cares if I can't control the bathroom exhaust fan from my bedroom. A few key lights would do it for me.

The 4-button Vizia controllers are transmit only - they will not directly control the load.

You were right with your second post, when retrofitting, you need to put a pop-in box in the wall and get power to it to add a scene or zone controller. I'd reccomend installing the box right above an existing outlet, just jump power from it up the wall.

You also need one of the VRCPG remotes to program the scene controller.