I’ve read the Lutron documentation which indicates you don’t need the pro bridge to work with home assistant. There are other posts and videos saying the opposite or that you need the pro version if you intend to use the Pico remote. I was wondering what others were using and if both pro and non-pro bridges work with home assistant. Thanks for any insight you can offer.
Do you have either yet?
If not save yourself a lot of future problems/expense and buy the Pro bridge to start with. You can get the Pro bridge by itself for around $100. Can you get the other one to work…yeah but it’s really a hack in the best sense. The Pro bridge uses the native Lutron integration (via telnet) and it’s standard and most systems have support for Lutron via this method.
Now if you have any inclination of someday maybe going to a full RadioRa 2 system but can’t justify the expense today then understand that only the Pico’s are compatible from Caseta to RadioRa 2 systems this includes the RadioRa 2 Select. So with that in mind if you want to move up to the next level being RR2 Select you WILL have to replace ALL switches and dimmers. So if you ever want to upgrade to an RR2 system or above you may want to consider a new build out using RR2 Select as you then you would ONLY need to replace the Main Repeater to upgrade to a full RR2 system and take the training or pay someone to install the system.
RR2 Select doesn’t provide all of the features of full RR2 either so you won’t be using the Lutron occupancy sensors for anything outside of the system as they don’t report anything out of the RR2 Select or Caseta system for that matter.
Thanks for the quick response. I’ll go with the Pro version based on your response. If I were interested in RR 2 what is the upfront expense. Just curious.
RR2 or RR2 Select?
RR2 Select is made for consumer installation and RR2 is made for professional installations. There’s a price difference between them in hardware and in programming time for someone to do the install or you can take the training and do the programming yourself.
RR2 Select pricing you can find online. $249 for the main repeater and $124.38 for the Aux repeater if needed for distance. You can get a “starter kit” for $606 which includes the main repeater and 2 dimmers a pico and accessories.
RR2 (full) is priced out by dealers and some will sell hardware and some won’t so it depends. You can find a main repeater at the normal online flea markets 
Well thanks very much for taking the time. I’ll have to give it some thought . Thanks again.
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Definitely definitely definitely get the Pro. I can’t even begin to tell you how many Pico remotes I have purchased and created customize actions for. Some as simple as turning on/off smart lights. Some more complex, changing the color of Hue lights (I use the dimmer remote for that, with the center button to toggle between colors). Some of them set different scenes, even based on the time of day they are pressed. The possibilities are endless. Just make sure you use the custom component rather than the native HA integration. The native integration does not currently allow you to use the Picos.
Thanks, is there only one custom component?
Only one that I am aware of. I think you can find it through HACS as well.
you have to add the git hub repository as a custom repository in HACS. It’s not in HACS by default. Follow the instructions, it’s pretty easy to setup and if you add devices later, you just have to rerun the setup and everything shows up.
Awesome, Thanks!
I have the Pro Hub and am trying to set it up in Home Assistant for the first time. I installed the custom component through HACS, followed all the directions, and added the appropriate lines to the configuration.yaml, but the only device that shows up on restart is: “HomeKit Accessory: Smart Bridge Pro 2”, which asks for a HomeKit pairing code, so that’s obviously not the right one. Anyone have any advice on how to fix this?
I also can’t even get the vanilla integration to find the device even with the certificates. Does the custom component still work? Seems odd that it wouldn’t need the certificates.
I’ve never used the built-in integration. The custom component does work. I just added a new switch this week and in order to add it to HA, you basically have to setup the component as new. The custom component uses a local telnet interface with the pro hub. The telnet interface does not require certificates. It’s local only. Make sure it is enabled in the Lutron app (I don’t remember what step talks about it). Also make sure you do the integration report and import it exactly how the steps describe.
I’m new to all this, so I started over with a fresh install of HA on my pi and somehow that solved the issue! Everything’s working perfectly now, thanks!
Got my PRO bridge yesterday and set up my lone Pico with relative ease. Through sheer luck I went with the HACS custom component, thinking it was the only viable solution. I followed the GitHub ReadMe.md instructions.
No cert generation needed, which initially had me wondering how my gear was working in their absence, until I realized via this thread that the native integration and the custom component are separate things altogether.