Looking for some advice. My home lighting is mostly Lutron Homeworks (original) from back in 1997 when the house was built. I was hoping to get HA to talk to it via RS232, but that hasn’t happened just yet.
I do have a few switches that are not part of the system, and thought I’d install some Lutron Caseta switches. Doing some searches I came across the Inovelli website, look nice as well, a little more flexible and slightly cheaper. The only problem is they don’t seem to exist.
Anyone know when they are looking to ship again? Availability, or lack thereof makes me a little nervous about going that route. The Lutron solution is a little more costly, but they are available at my local Lowes. And Lutron is probably not going away.
Inovelli (and other small manufacturers) are having problems getting Z-Wave chips due to the global semiconductor shortage. They will have a new Zigbee line out in the early summer, but for now there warehouse shelves are bare unless you want a smart bulb or colored paddles for existing switches.
@Eric_Inovelli (CEO) is very open about their company’s inventory and anticipated shipping dates on their community forum if you check it out…
I saw the post on their Forum, and there is no ETA. Doesn’t look good.
It is what it is, I’d love to use them but it’s not an option right now from what it appears. I might go the Lutron route for a bathroom we’re re-doing, but pause on anything else for now. I do have an old cache of Lutron Homeworks dimmers, maybe I’ll see about going that route for now.
They are coming mid July (ZigBee version) if you can sit tight. I’ve got a bunch of their z wave switches and they are fantastic. Imo worth the wait for what you get
The majority of my switches are Inovelli switches, which are all Zwave. They are the best smart switches I’ve owned, but as pointed out, impossible to get. They have been hard to get and frequently out of stock even before the pandemic and chip shortage started, so we are talking a few years now which is just a long term problem unfortunately. “Maybe July” wouldn’t cut it for me, and I’ve purchased other products in their absence, including Zooz and Jasco/Enbrighten zwave switches, and Sonoff Zigbee mini’s. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, a great product is useless if you can’t get your hands on it.
I have one Lutron Caseta switch. It works very well, but Lutron Caseta is proprietary, and requires their hub. The Lutron integration basically is a hack job into their hub for control - see the documentation for how it works Lutron - Home Assistant . At any point, Lutron could in theory push out a firmware update or somehow change its API, and the integration would no longer work, and you would loose control of the devices in Home Assistant. Firmware updates breaking functionality happened before, and is exactly what TPLink did TP-Link HS110 Smart Plug disappears after latest firmware update . As far as proprietary protocols, just do a search for Insteon in the forum and see how well that turned out with their sudden shut down.
Short of being able to get your hands on an Inovelli, my advice would be to stick with an open protocol switch like zwave or zigbee, or a wifi device that would be capable of flashing and using ESPHome locally (ie Shelly). Don’t get a proprietary wifi switch where you at the mercy of some vendor and their API for Home Assistant integration. Lately, I’ve been less focused on the brand and more on whether it is an open protocol, how much is it, and can I get it in a reasonable amount of time.
I have my entire home done with Lutron Caseta - I’ve been through the gambit of nearly every type of switch abs these are by far the best for a few reasons.
get the pro hub and the integration is flawless with HA. Including the ability the program very affordable Pico remotes to do just about anything you want and the batteries last for years.
quality of design - lutron has been a staple in house switches for a long time and their smart switches are no different. They are expensive but you do get the highest quality in my opinion out there with a company that’s going to be around a while. Also my wife loves the minimalist design of the switches which is important in my house
RF Tech - their remotes use a proprietary RF signal that is very low latency and as stated, their battery powered remotes are stated to have a 10 year life. It’s also extremely reliable.
The biggest drawback will be cost but after spending a year of buying switches and not being happy, it’s worth the extra to me for something that will last.
It’s not the switch you would have to worry about the firmware update, it’s the Lutron Hub itself. The lutron integration relies on the hub to control the switch.
Per their support
Lutron periodically pushes firmware updates to the bridge/main repeater automatically
There is no way to block it, short of firewalling the hub off the internet. Any firmware update has the capability of breaking the Lutron Home Assistant integration.
