hi, new to hass(io). i have bunch of caseta lights connected via the winkhub v1. works great. however, i wish to get rid of the wink altogether. my choices are:
get a lutron caseta hub
get a lutron caseta pro hub
get a wink v2
given the tardiness of the wink guys supporting… literally anything… i would prefer to go with a lutron hub. there was some discussion about SSH/LEAP support being revoked and hence breaking integration last November. it was not clear to me whether this was fixed for both the pro and non-pro hub - can someone clarify please?
what would be the difference for HA between the pro and non-pro hubs in operation? i don’t intend to use the hub for anything else but for HA. can the non-pro support using pico remotes as sensors? is the transition service only supported on the pro?
I’m in a similar boat… what did you end up buying?
From what I can tell, both the pro and non-pro will work. The pro seems to have the benefit of using a standardized protocol to communicate with HA whereas the non-pro used somewhat of a hack (that could be made unusable with a firmware update (i think?)). Other than that, if home assistant will be the main brains, I don’t know if there will be a difference.
I like the non-pro, but worried about longevity. My house is older and has no neutrals, so the caseta switches are my best option afaik.
The Pico remotes are not supported as sensors with the non-pro hub; there is no way to determine whether a remote is being used. You set up the remote/light associations within the Lutron app, and you can’t use Pico remotes to contol anything except Lutron switches/dimmers/shades/etc.
With a pro hub, which I use, the Pico remotes are supported as sensors, so you can use those remotes to control anything in Home Assistant. HOWEVER there’s no official component for this; there’s a custom component managed by @upsert that works very well – you can find the lutron_caseta_pro files here.
I love my Caseta equipment - it’s faster and more reliable than z-wave or zigbee in my experience, and the Pico remotes can be installed in wallplates easily, unlike pretty much any other wireless remote switch.
EDITED TO ADD: The no-neutral switches and dimmers are great, and I had to use them at my 60-year-old house. They work just as well in my new house. Also, I should make it clear that the pro hub does not require Caseta Pro switches/dimmers. It supports regular Caseta items too.
Get the Pro hub and use @upsert’s custom component like @wixoff mentioned.
I was in the same boat, had a load of Caseta gear paired to a Wink hub. I wanted the ability to register Pico button presses in HASS, so I picked up the Pro bridge and moved everything over. It’s amazing how much faster it responds compared to the Wink. My lights are turning on before I have time to lift my finger off the phone screen when I flip the switch in HASS, instead of taking 1-3 solid seconds when they were on the Wink.
The only downside to @upsert’s custom component is it doesn’t auto-discover devices from the hub. You have to provide it with an “Integration Report” (which the Lutron app will provide) and save that as a specific config file in your HA directory. If you add a new switch/remote you’ll have to generate a new integration report and update the file manually.
I now have Pico remotes controlling a couple zigbee fan/light modules. Works great aside from the delay since my Zigbee stuff is still on Wink. The pico button presses register in HA almost instantly. It just takes the Wink a few seconds to actually trigger the light after it gets the command.
yeah - as with the others i decided to get a pro hub in the end for two reasons:
the ability to use pico remote to control well… anything.
the availability of telnet on the hub in case things break again.
i don’t have anything to compare with, but using @upsert’s code also allows transitions on the pro hub - which is fantastic for slowly dimming rooms if the motion sensor doesn’t detect anyone (as it give me time to move again if i’m in said room).
there was numerous mentions that the pro hub is physically identical to the non-pro hub. but i couldn’t find anything about flashing the thing.
Ordered the pro-hub. I will report back on how it goes. I already had one of the switches and installed it - got to say, these things are great quality and not needing a neutral makes install a breeze (I’m in an older house and running neutrals takes a bit of time…)
I need to look into transitions - my goal is to have the lights slowly turn on in the AM to simulate the sun rising (I’m up pretty early, but not a morning person). If anyone has any insight on how to set this up with Caseta, I’m all ears.
You will be happy with the PRO hub. I started with the regular one that I picked up to address the “no-neutral” issue as well. Then I started playing around with it more and playing with other automation systems and all the others require a PRO hub for the telnet integration. Sooo… starting with the PRO is the best bet if for whatever reason you choose to leave HA or want to play with something else. Since going with Lutron I’m starting think of replacing a lot of my z-wave switches… don’t know yet. We’ll see.
A side item, I believe the PRO hub can also work with the other Lutron devices like their motion sensors as well. I haven’t tested yet, but I think it can.
@BendedArrow Sorry for the delayed response. I have a 3 month old now and am learning how to be a dad!
I’ve got the pro set up and have to say I’m pretty happy so far. Setting up the hub, lutron account, and @upsert 's custom component have all been a breeze. I’m getting into automation and scenes next.
Another note with the casta dimmers - they are significantly smaller (less boxier) than GE zwave dimmers. I had just wired up some zwave dimmers in the hallway and was putting the switches into the box… and they wouldn’t fit! In single gang boxes it’s no issue, but I can’t fit zwave dimmers easily into double gang boxes. The Castea Dimmers are smaller and are a breeze to install. ,
@adant
Congratulations. A kid is much harder than automation.
I got the pro and it is just like you mentioned. I agree with the zwave dimmers. By the time you are finished running 4 wires to each box, it takes up much more space.
The @upsert component also allows you to use pico remotes to control other devices, which is very cool.
How’s the integration working? I’m in a similar situation where I’m using a Wink hub (v2) but there’s a lot of latency when controlling the Lutron switches/dimmers via Home Assistant (with the Wink component). I’m assuming the Wink setup requires internet and for that reason adds latency to the process.
Does the Lutron Hub integration requires internet or is it all local? How’s the latency?
@joelfernandes I’m not the OP but use the pro hub, and mine is working perfectly. It does not require the internet after initial setup (you must use your phone to add devices). Latency to me is not noticable, though I have one light that tracks another (i.e. node-red detects change in light A, and sets light B) and there is maybe half to three quarters of a second lag there, but I think it’s the change detection, and an unusual situation.
Mine now has about 40 devices configured, lots of nanos. The last thing I added was a lamp control which is a range extender, up until then all were coming directly from the hub and all worked fine through the house (small - 2300 sq ft) including in the attic and on exterior walls as far away as you can get.
I’m particularly happy with the nanos, and have added numerous switches to the wall where there was no box – just stick one up with screws, or in one case on tile I just used double sided tape. I also used one pedestal which looks really cook with two nanos on it on a night stand.
My one complaint is not with the hub, but that caseta did not let the dimmers act as switches (or vice versa, of course). That means if you have a florescent or even LED that won’t do dimming, you need a switch. If later you change the lights you need to change the switch if you want dimming. So down the line I have 2-3 that I will likely change lights, and will have to decide if I want them to dim or not and switch.
I’ve been trying to get a Lutron Smartbridge Pro set up and am having a really hard time getting my phone to connect to it. I use eero routers. I spent a bunch of time troubleshooting with them and they actually sent me a new hub, but I’m having the same issue. If it is the eero, maybe I just need to get it on another network somewhere for initial set up, but it’s been really frustrating.
How responsive are the Pico remotes? Are those fast enough that could be used to control smart bulbs as a normal dimmer/switch?
I’ve been considering purchasing some Tuya-based dimmers/switches, flash Tasmota on them and use those to control smart bulbs via MQTT, although, the build quality on those aren’t always great, not to mention that I already have a few Lutron dimmers around the house. If the Pico remote can be used as a dimmer for smart bulbs, then I think it’ll be worth getting the Pro hub.
@joelfernandes, I have roughly half switches and half picos, and I do not notice any delay for the picos. My only real complaint is there’s no way (that I have found) to find out the battery status and feed it into home assistant, so I won’t know until they run out. I think they say 10 years though, so even if half that it’s pretty nice for something so cheap.
I’m not quite sure of part of your question (dimmer for smart bulbs). Do you mean you use it as a sensor in HA and then let HA control the smart bulb? I do have a somewhat similar setup, I have one casetta switch controlling an outlet with a table lamp, but across the room I wanted a floor lamp to work at the same time. I put in a plugin outlet (casetta style) and set Home Assistant to notice a change in the first lamp, and set the second from automation. So while no pico involved, it does involve having HA sense a Casetta state and act on it, like you might with a pico. There’s a noticeable delay there, I would say a full second or maybe a bit more. So of you are going pico -> HA -> Some other device, I would say to expect a second or so. But Pico -> casetta device, no noticeable delay.
@AlohaDan, just noticed your question - sorry, no. I used both a regular hub and then replaced it with a pro hub, and had zero trouble connecting to it. Could you take it to someone else’s house maybe, try a different router? If you get connected it points to the router, if you don’t maybe something to do with your phone (software or antivirus or something)? Since you’ve swapped the hub already.
After a bunch of troubleshooting, I found that it was actually a problem with my account state, maybe from the first hub. I signed up for a new account with a different email address and got it working.
Hey man, quick question: did you have to do any special procedure to get the Picos to show up in Home Assistant? I got the Hub Pro and added the Lutron integration to Home Assistant. I can see my dimmers and switches, however the picos do not show up. I read somewhere here it should show as sensors but I don’t have those. I’m just curious if you had to do any special configuration to get the Pico remotes to show up.
There are two ways to add the picos, you can do it locally by button pushes, or you can do it in the lutron app. Do the latter, and what shows up there should show up in HA. If you didn’t use the app the first time you have to break the association, maybe even remove the switch also and re-add.