Best smart bulb that works with Lutron Pico (and Hubitat)

Try Sengled Zigbee bulbs.
Not cheap, but reliable and dependable.

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No smart bulbs work directly with a Lutron Pico, so I'm assuming you're asking because you're planning on putting Hubitat in the middle. In that case, the Pico thing matters less; the bulbs just need to support the features you're looking for. This includes obvious things that any bulb should support like the "On," "Off." and "Set Level" commands, but in my opinion, two things that make it extra nice with button devices that support hold and release events (or push and release, depending on how you configure them on Hubitat) are the "Start Level Change" and "Stop Level Change" commands. This allows you to simulate smooth dimming by holding a button and releasing it when it's at your desired level, just like you could on a "real" switch.

Sengled bulbs mentioned above support these commands. Most Zigbee bulbs do. Many (all?) Z-Wave bulbs do too, but there aren't as many of those. But if you're controlling more than one bulb at a time, Zigbee groups don't support this, so you're back to using commands to individual bulbs, which might result in a slight "popcorn effect" (uneven timing), though this still works well in my experience. What I don't like about the current behavior of most of these is that they'll dim down all the way to off if you don't stop it sooner (enter: popcorn effect, so different bulbs in a fixture could be off while others are on).

In my opinion, the best bulbs are Hue bulbs or Hue-compatible bulbs via a Hue Bridge. The Hue Bridge handles lights very well; mine never miss a command, and they respond instantly even if it's Lutron to Hubitat to the Hue Bridge to the Hue bulbs. They also don't do the thing where they get turned off if you issue a "Start Level Change" down and don't stop it before they reach 1%. Hubitat has a built-in Hue Bridge integration that works well, though I wrote one of my own that supports more features (notably, Hubitat's doesn't support "Start Level Change"/"Stop Level Change" on Hue groups, and Hue groups are a good way to minimize LAN traffic between Hubitat and the Bridge and the popcorn effect). Hue also has a pretty reliable reputation. At the moment, I see lots of people reporting problems with RGBW Zigbee bulbs paired directly to Hubitat, including Sengled, though these concerns may be addressed in the next hub firmware (no timeline for that yet), 2.2.5--sometimes certain commands don't go through if issued in too quick of succession. Not saying you'll be unlucky, but I can say Hue bulbs on a Bridge (and third-party bulbs there too) have been 100% reliable for me. :slight_smile:

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@HubMe - you can control these using Picos, but not using Lutron dimmer switches.

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Like what? Table lamps, overhead lights? What socket (normal Edison screw base?) are you desiring?

And bulbs on the same Lutron dimmers as above? That isn't going to work. You cannot dim smart bulbs. And there is no way to disable the Lutron switch to just use like a button controller.

Good advice above, but you aren't going to have these smart on a Lutron switch, AND controlled with a Pico, right?

First, yes wanting to control smart bulbs via pico through HE.

If I use several bulbs on one pico I’ll get the popcorn effect with zigbee but not zwave or Hue?
Which Hue bulbs/hub do you recommend?

I don’t think I’m fully understanding the “start change” commands? Is this the same thing as just dimming?

Will the pico buttons work exactly like regular Lutron dimmers? On/off/dim up/dim down?
And then the button can run a routine?

Thanks for your reply.

Will these have the issues that @bertabcd1234 mentioned above?

Correct these picos will only be used to control a group of smart bulbs in one room. NOT also controlling any of my other Lutron devices. And not using a regular Lutron dimmer switch, only using Pico remotes as smart buttons.

I want the pico so the switches are similar throughout the house

Really anything besides a group could be subject to the popcorn effect. I don't know of any Z-Wave bulbs that support groups (700 series devices should help with this, but I'm not sure any bulbs are on the market yet). Zigbee does, but Hubitat doesn't let you use "Start Level Change" on those. To me, that really leaves only Hue groups over the LAN to a Hue Bridge where they are grouped (via a room or zone in the Hue app), but even that isn't so simple since Hubitat's built-in Bridge integration lacks these commands for group. It's one of the reasons I wrote my own.

That being said, you may be less picky than I am. "Start Level Change" sort of emulates what you might expect from a dimmer switch in real life; send the command and the level begins fading up or down until it reaches the minimum (or off with many devices) or maximum or you issue a "Stop Level Change." With a Pico, it would be logical to map these to a press or hold (depending on what Pico driver you use in Hubitat) and a release on the Pico. That way, it works just like a Pico would on Lutron with a light.

The alternative you can use on any device (but must use instead if the above doesn't work for your devices or your use case) is a plain "Set Level" command. This just sets the light to a specified level. You could use it to step the level up or down by a certain amount in response to a button event from the Pico, but it's not quite as cool or flexible as the above and possibly not as intuitive.

How easy would it be for you to share this integration so that the Hue bulbs would work as you describe, slowly dimming as expected with the "press and hold" buttons on the dimmer switch? Would this be something I could easily manage, or would it require a lot of knowledge to troubleshoot it?

With regards to Hue - is there a specific hub/bulb you recommend?

Thanks

So easy I've already done it! :laughing:

[RELEASE] CoCoHue: Hue Bridge Integration (including scenes!)

As far as Hue itself goes, there is only the official Hue Bridge (ignoring third party emulation like diyHue) and two-ish generations. If you're only using it with Hubitat, any Hue Bridge will work, but you might as well get the v2 (or v2.5; no real difference) Bridge to get all Hue features if uoire getting one for the first time. This is the square and not the round Bridge. For bulbs, most Zigbee bulbs will work (Sengled and North African Osram/Sylvan are notable exceptions), but only Hue bulbs will support all features like default power loss settings and HomeKit integration. They aren't cheap, though, at least not if you want color. Innr, Eria, Cree, and others are some that i know also work. Ikea Trådfri sort of does, but I'd avoid the color models due to an odd color model implementation.

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I wonder if you could use the Mirror Sync app - create a virtual dimmer and then mirrorsync it to a group of bulbs that have zigbee grouping enabled. Would that work?

Oh nice! thanks for sharing! This definitely seems like a great way to go!

With regards to the bulbs, a quick search shows their white bulbs are 2700K temp, do you know if they have other temps? 3500 or 4000K?

Other than notification signals, or "party"/playing around, what do most people use the colors for?

Most likely I'll just get whites...

Hmm, for the end result, maybe. I know it won't work in real time, as I don't think bulbs send constant updates during the transition--plus with a Bridge you get the added delay from polling too (though I guess you're talking about direct Zigbee). But that might work if just using one bulb to start isn't too odd.

Yeah, Hue's white bulbs are ojky warm white. I have sefeeal cool white (I think 5000K? Or are they 4000...) Cree Conected bulbs on my Hue Bridge for that purpose. You could also use a Hue White Ambiance bulb (or any CT bulb) and set it to cool white, I suppose, though they will likely cost more.

I'm not sure. But I love color temperature control throughout the day (and evening). At night I use a dim red in some places if I use any light at all, just bexsusw it's less jarring if I get up in the middle of the night. Otherwise I don't really get much use out of color...except when I'm testing my Bridge integration. Ha.

So I'm not sure what you mean - if mirrorsyncing from a virtual device you are commanding the devices to startlevel then stop I guess - oh so you mean they won't sync properly? Even if grouped? Note: I'm not really clear on what the Zigbee group command actually does - only that it's a native Zigbee thing that gets sent to all devices in order to lessen the popcorn effect.

I should test this with my 8 recessed den lights which are Sengled Color+. I do have a few picos around... :smile:

Sorry, you can connect any bulbs via the Hue Bridge? Doesn't require "Hue" bulbs?

I am loving the Philips Wiz lights.
Different scenes, and all accessible via HE

Not quite literally any bulb, but yes, most Zigbee bulbs. Any bulb compatible with the Zigbee Light Link profile should work, and a recent Hue Bridge v2 update added support for Zigbee 3.0 (so the main thing that won't work is Zigbee Home Automation 1.2 or ZHA 1.2 bulbs--like Sengled or Sylvania/Osram/Lightify in the North American market). But again, you won't get all Hue features on non-Hue bulbs. The "default state on power loss" feature only works with Hue bulbs (this was added a year or two ago and requires a firmware update on the bulbs), and HomeKit/Siri integration also only works with Hue bulbs (possibly due to Apple's restrictions, though I don't know the reason).

The Mirror/Mirror Me app on Hubitat just responds to events from the device (driver, really) on Hubitat and keeps them "in sync" that way. It doesn't listen (or send) at the protocol level. So, it won't do anything until there is a device event on Hubitat (a state change, like something you'd see under "Current States" on the device page, level being the relevant attribute in this particular case). My expectation is that this will be only when the bulb is done changing level--or at least I've never seen one update level in real time after you initiate a "Start Level Change" command, nor would I expect them to given the amount of traffic this would spam the network with.

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Personally I can't stand Philips hue they are expensive and don't work any better than others. If anything I have had more issues with them, but then again I don't use their bridge. I couldn't get on with it and it's limitations of what lamps can be connected. For me the old lamps non 3.0 and hue stuff are on another HE hub. This segregates then and removes any issues.

Personally I would stick with lamps that are ZigBee 3.0, if it's not 3.0 don't waist you're money. Philips hue is still ZigBee LL. You can join 3.0 lamps to HE directly without any issues and they have made great repeaters for me. By doing this you don't need the extra hub.

I use RGBW lamps. The W is for the whites which I change throughout the day. The RGB is for bedrooms and core areas/ fancy lighting. I use it alot, for me I use the red every night. When the blind is closed in the girls room the light turn on red via the switch, this is to help get her in sleep mode and doesn't wake her fully if we have to go in there at night (nappy changing ex).
This is the same for out sleeping mode, all corridors and such go to red, it's perfect for seeing without being blinded.

Seasonal effects, party's EX is what I use other colours for.
Smart lamps need digital messages to turn on/off up/ down and the rest. So you can't conventionaly dim them via a dimmer. You need a digital input of some sort to control them via conditions.

To get over the ZigBee groups not allowing level changes I am printing sure I did a rule to emulated the same via a group and it worked fine. I essentially said while holding this buton every half second adjust the light by 5 steps or about, then stop on a release. Most of the time it's not needed for me as most rooms have just the one ZigBee light then rest are switchable white dimmable downlights.

I love that most people agree Lutron Caseta is amazing.

Wish there was more of a consensus on other devices as well

Problem with consensus is that everyone's setup and environment is different. What works great in one home may be crap in another. Also someone may have a bad experience in their setup and think their problems are a certain device but may just be a saturated mesh or something.

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