Lutron Smart Bridge vs PRO

I have read numerous posts that indicate the PRO is needed in order for Pico to be used as a sensor in Hass. Not using the PRO means that the Pico will only comm directly to Lutron switches, etc.
I dug down on the Lutron site re specs for the bridges, and both bridges indicate support for Pico.
I would have thought that the non-PRO would not indicate this. (it is pretty high level marketing info tho).

So, my question is: has anything changed in the last year or so re the need for the PRO bridge to integrate Pico as a sensor with Hass?

You still need the pro. The Homebridge plugin page does a great job of describing why:

Lutron doesn’t expose its versatile Pico remotes as HomeKit accessories, so it’s not possible to use them to control non-Lutron accessories.

However, the Smart Bridge Pro (L-BDGPRO2-WH) allows connections over telnet via the Lutron Integration Protocol. This connection allows direct control of accessories, and, more critically for our purposes, streams notifications of Pico button presses. By watching this stream, homebridge-lutron-caseta can support Pico remotes in Homekit.

Hello old thread! I’m about to pull the trigger on a Lutron Smart Bridge or Smart Bridge Pro as I’ve got some switches already where the light switch doesn’t have a neutral. Understand the difference thanks to this thread. I have a couple pico remotes that control the switch I’ve set it up to control, but I wondered how this would work in HA assuming I got the non-Pro version. If I use the physical pico remote to turn off a Lutron dimmer for example, would HA be aware of the change in state? Hope that question make sense.

Any other limitations that I should be aware of with the non-pro bridge?

HA would be aware of the change in state of the dimmer, but not the pico. So you could still trigger an automation based on when that light turns on or off.

But I highly recommend the pro version. I have picos all over the place, and most of them do not control Caseta dimmers and switches - I use them for Hue lights, fans, and even the garage door. You can’t do that with the non-pro version.

Got it thanks, I’m using a bunch of different “buttons” already with my zigbee bridge (Aquara, some other random ones, Ikea, etc). So the real use case is using the picos to do other things other than control the Lutron switches?

Correct. I am totally anal, so I needed all of my switches to look alike. The pico remotes match the dimmers and switches, so it was perfect for me. If you already have a bunch of buttons that work for you, then you are probably fine with the standard bridge. However, I would still recommend spending the extra few bucks now on the pro just in case you ever decide you want to start creating automations for the picos. Just my two cents!

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On a separate note, how do you like your Aqara products? I was thinking about getting a hub so I can use some of their sensors (primarily humidity). But the fact that everything bounces off of servers in China scares me a little. What are your thoughts?

The other big plus of the PRO bridge is you can use the lutron app in installer mode which gives you a more professional grade setup experience, and is WAY more convenient.

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I wouldn’t recommend their hub, there are several alternatives which keep everything local (they use the Zigbee protocol). I’m using the CC2531 stick with zigbee2mqtt (in a docker container), although I think many others use something Conbee2 (no experience with that). Works perfectly - I have a couple of outlet repeaters on the first and second floor which keep everything strong in terms of link quality, with the button and sensors scattered around.

I’m using mainly the Aquara buttons and their temp and humidity sensors (plus a couple of motion sensors and leak detectors) and they do their job perfectly (these are their Zigbee based products).