I have a Lutron in wall dimmer that I now have rules created for in HE. When the wall switch is turned on, Hue bulbs turn on and of course off is off.
Then I created a rule to utilize the dimmer buttons on the Lutron wall switch. But apparently when it's off and you press the dim up button on the switch, HE sees it as a "turn on" and that rule executes instead of the "dim up" rule.
Basically what I want is the Lutron in wall switch to control the Hue bulbs like a normal dimmer would. On/off and dim up/down.
To throw another curve, I also have a Pico I want to put by the bed and have it control the same Hue bulbs. I expect more competition between rules.
How do you manage all these rules and get them not to step on each other?
That's not really possible, for the reason you mentioned. A Lutron dimmer will always turn itself on when its dim up/down buttons are pressed.
I would add another Pico to the wall, using the Pico wall mount kit. You don't even have to make any additional holes in your wall. Just buy a new wall faceplate with one extra opening in it to mount the pico. I have done this in many bedrooms to add wall control of Hue bulbs in nightstand lamps. It works great.
I do this as well. I personally use the Advanced Button Controller (ABC) community app by @stephack. It works amazingly well for this type of application.
I create an ABC child instance for each Pico remote, one for the wall pico and another for the nightstand pico. There is no conflict between the two.
Here is an example of an ABC automation that has worked great for years.
To add to @ogiewon advice regarding not needing any holes... two ways:
just attach the wall mount to the faceplate then mount the faceplate to the existing switch. That's what holds it to the wall.
I found the above to be a little too flexible. I added a piece of 3M Command to the back of the wall mount. Then when I attached the faceplate on to the existing switch, I pressed the Command strip to the wall by pressing on the Pico wall mount for the required 30 seconds. After that, removing the faceplate was fully normal. Remove all the screws and the wall mount for the Pico remains.
I have this in all the bedrooms. Each bedroom also has a 2nd Pico attached to the headboard with 3M Command and the Lutron Pico Screw Mount Kit:
There is no way in HE to create a rule that says "when switch is set to 100%" so the "turned on" rule doesn't get triggered by going from off to less than 100% (ie you pressed the dimmer up button)?
I'm a very technical person (programmer) and don't understand why an in wall dimmer doesn't have the buttons exposed like a Pico. Why can't it register "button 1 pushed" just like a Pico?
No, the switches don't have individually addressable buttons exposed like the pico. This isn't a limitation of hubitat but a limitation of the firmware of the switch/dimmer and Lutron api. Pico's on the otherhand are exposed like that as you know. I agree, its one of the frustrating things about Lutron but I don't think Ra2 or Ra3 is any better in that regard (someone correct me if I'm wrong)
I’m having a little trouble picturing what you’re trying to do.
Can you share screenshots of your rules?
As @ogiewon and @rlithgow1 have mentioned, Lutron Caseta dimmers can’t be made to function as a pure “button” device because they will always control the load they are attached to when the physical buttons are touched.
But maybe we can help you find a solution that’ll work for your intended use case.
The issue is that when the switch is off and I press the dimmer up button, it triggers the first rule because it sees it as turning on the switch. So the dimmer up button functions the same as the on button.
I think what I need is the first rule to have a condition so it only triggers when the switch is turned on to 100%. Then pressing the dimmer up once, from the off state, won't trigger it.
I'm talking about the trigger. The trigger is the issue. With the switch off, pressing the "dim up" button sends a "turned on" event. How do I make the first rule not trigger when going from off to "illuminance 20%?"
Illuminance has nothing to do with a Switch/Dimmer device. Illuminance is a measurement of the actual amount of light being sensed by an Illuminance Sensor device.
If you look in the rules and use a dimmer as the trigger it allows you to detect the illuminance setting of the dimmer. I guess in the Rule it has it labeled "device level" so I'm probably just using the wrong terms.
Do you have an actual light connected to the Lutron Dimmer? Or are you simply trying to use it as Button Controller for the Hue Sconce lights?
If there is no load attached, then you might want to try the “Mirror” built-in Hubitat App which is designed for this purpose. If you get it working as desired, then I would simply have the Pico remote linked to the Lutron Dimmer within the Lutron Caseta App on your phone (I.e. do not bother having Hubitat involved whatsoever.)
I have an actual light connected to it. Apparently if I don't, or even turn that light off manually at the light (switch in the wire) then the Lutron dimmer doesn't work at all.
But the goal is to have it control two Hue bulbs that are NOT connected to the Lutron dimmer.
In that case, just add another Pico alongside the dimmer as I mentioned earlier. Let the dimmer control it’s load, and use the Pico remotes to control the Hue lights.
