destructure00,
So that is the difference between the "fast pico" driver and standard "pico" driver...... I was wondering about that. Do you still have 6 buttons with the fast driver? Do the dimming buttons work with the last selected controlled device or do you have to set it for certain devices?
(Thanks for the picture)
Still learning,
Thanks,
Johnny
Fast Pico reports individual Press and Release events, where the normal Pico driver reports Pressed and Held. Still have all 5 buttons.
Here's how I'm using the Fast to run a z-wave dimmer, using the native Button Controller app:
Note that this setup is independent of whatever you associate directly using Lutron...you can pair a Pico directly with another Caseta dimmer, but then also set up something in Hubitat to a different device as well.
@destructure00 can you clarify what you mean by this?
I just installed a dimmer + 2 picos (for a multi-location setup) and it sounds like you're saying in addition to having the 2 picos linked to the dimmer to control the lights, I can do other stuff with them? How would that work?
If a Pico is paired directly to a dimmer, you can still add it to Hubitat, and Hubitat sees the button presses.
In my case, I have a Pico and dimmer paired together. The middle button on the Pico doesn't map to anything on the dimmer by default, so I'm using it in Hubitat to toggle a different Z-Wave switch. Theoretically I could use the on/off/raise/lower buttons to do stuff in Hubitat too, if it made sense to have the button make the dimmer and something else do something at the same time.
That's very cool. Waiting patiently (NOT) for delivery of my "test" Caseta gear . . .
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Just to make sure everyone is clear, the normal "Pico" Driver actually supports 'pushed', 'held', and 'released' events. the "Fast Pico" driver only supports 'pushed' and 'released' events.
The advantage of the "Fast Pico" driver is speed. The 'pushed' event is raised immediately when using the "Fast Pico" driver. Whereas when using the normal "Pico" driver, the driver needs to wait to see how long you've pushed the button to know whether to register your action as 'pushed' or 'held'. This is usually a performance difference of a few tenths of a second. Small, but noticeable in certain use-cases. I primarily use the normal "Pico" driver as it provides greater flexibility.
For example - In my bedroom I have a two button pico remote. I used the 'pushed' event on button 1 to turn on a lamp. I use the 'held' event on button 1 to start raising the dim level. And I use the 'released' event to stop changing the dim level. I then use the other button to turn off the lamp, or dim down the light. This makes the Pico behave exactly the same as my other GE Z-Wave dimmer switches.
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If you push and release the button, it fires the pushed event right away. If the release comes after the setting for how long to wait for "held", it fires held event at that amount of time (even before the release).
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This is definitely one of the best features of the Lutron integration. I use my 2 bedside picos to control my bedroom lamps (one for me and one for my wife). The pico is directly associated via Lutron to a Lutron plug-in dimmer so it has all the native functionality. The native features do not utilize HELD events on the top, middle and bottom buttons so I tied those events to HE. For example, tapping the bottom button natively turns off the lamps as expected, but holding the button triggers an HE automation that shuts off all the lights in my bedroom, the bathroom, the hallway and turns off the tv.
Keep in mind that holding the bottom button would still execute the native Lutron push event as well (turning off the lamps), but this is a non-issue because I'm shutting down the room anyway. I'm just mentioning it so you are aware of the limitation when choosing how to use one pico for both native and HE functions.
Cool, I hadn't thought of that at all. Would it be possible to create the behavior the Maestro dimmers have using this? On those if you hold the bottom button for ~5s it'll fade the lights off over (what I think was) 30 seconds. IOW, do you know if it's possible to stop the default off behavior if the button is held?
Bear in mind that the assumption is that you do not pair the Pico to a Lutron device using the Lutron app, but instead program it in Hubitat.
You could easily program held on a button to do a fade to 0 over 30 seconds using Rule Machine or Button Controller.
It sounded like @stephack had paired it (and didn't care about the default bottom button behavior) but I could see how that may pose a problem if I wanted to avoid the default behavior in a held case. Is there an easy way to "pair" the Pico to the dimmer so it behaves like it would when natively paired to the dimmer (in Lutron app) or would I need to create a rule for each button on the Pico?
The easiest way to accomplish this is using the native Button Controller App, and assigning what each button number/event does.
I use @stephack's Advanced Button Controller (ABC) App to do this using a Pico remote and Sengled Zigbee bulbs. I use ABC because it is a really nice app, IMHO, with some additional features that I use to control my ceiling fan as well via a Pico.
With HE you don't need to have it paired directly with the Lutron Dimmer. As others have said, it can all be done through HE. I like the response time and the fade of the native control so I use that for the Lamps. If I required more from my bedroom picos I would probably do everything through a button controller app. The beauty of the HE integration is that you can find what works for you.
I tried this tonight and it was slow enough that WAF was an issue. It's not terribly slow but it's different enough than just going straight to the Lutron bridge that she noticed.
All I did was set up one Pico to control one set of lights (all on same circuit / Lutron dimmer) using [RELEASE] Dimmer Button Controller (configure Pico to emulate Hue Dimmer or any button device to easily control lights).
I also tried the same test with the built-in Button Controller and the timing worked out the same.
In both cases, I found the lights start to change in about 1.8 seconds vs about 0.5 seconds using the native Lutron integration. That ~1 second is enough for my wife to notice...
I tried both fast and normal Pico drivers but didn't notice an appreciable difference either way. I realize some latency is to be expected but it didn't sound like it should be very perceptible. Am I expecting too much or is there something I should be investigating that would make this quicker.
If it's about as fast as it'll get then I'll need to investigate using the Picos in other locations but will need to leave these as-is I think unless there's a way to keep the native and "add" behavior on top of it.
Edited to add that i just tried using the button controller on top of native Lutron controls and it actually seems to behave like I’d want. It’s quick to respond and on gets limited by what I set in HE for the first press level.
What bulbs are you using? See if the "transition time" in the driver is set to something annoyingly high (which for me is anything more than about half a second, unfortunately the lowest Hubitat can go without it being zero). Dimmer Button Controller also has a setting for its transition time (and I made it default to zero), but I'm not sure what the interaction is between app settings and device preferences. If you set a level in Dimmer Button Controller rather than a plain "Turn on," it uses setLevel, which obeys some transition time (on/off, I don't think, does, which may be faster).
Of course, none of this matters if you don't even see any changes start until a second or so like you say--I just got annoyed with how long things took to finish with the default settings. The Fast Pico driver would definitely help there, but I know you said you tried (but because the "regular" one waits to verify you didn't do a hold, it's a noticeable difference for me). Something else you might try: assuming logging is on, open up "Logs" and see if your pushes are registered instantly or not. This could help determine if it's the automation or the Pico/integration itself (I, unfortunately, have noticed that some take a few seconds to do anything when pressed for the first time in "a while," the exact time for which I have yet to figure out).
I tried this and noticed HE sees the button press before acting on it (or maybe it is but the Lutron side is slow?).
What I did was create a simple button controller that, upon button 1 press, activated a rule that turned on the switch (not set the dimmer). It looks like it's closer in the logs than the senses perceive it to be:
[dev:549](http://192.168.86.26/logs#dev549)2019-01-29 09:12:00.494 pm [info](http://192.168.86.26/device/edit/549)Kitchen Main Lights was turned on
[dev:561](http://192.168.86.26/logs#dev561)2019-01-29 09:12:00.483 pm [info](http://192.168.86.26/device/edit/561)Kitchen Pico Kitchen Lights button 1 was released
[dev:513](http://192.168.86.26/logs#dev513)2019-01-29 09:12:00.454 pm [info](http://192.168.86.26/device/edit/513)rcvd: DEVICE,6,2,4
[app:407](http://192.168.86.26/logs#app407)2019-01-29 09:12:00.449 pm [info](http://192.168.86.26/installedapp/configure/407)test: Actions run by test
[dev:561](http://192.168.86.26/logs#dev561)2019-01-29 09:12:00.349 pm [info](http://192.168.86.26/device/edit/561)Kitchen Pico Kitchen Lights button 1 was pushed
[dev:513](http://192.168.86.26/logs#dev513)2019-01-29 09:12:00.306 pm [info](http://192.168.86.26/device/edit/513)rcvd: DEVICE,6,2,3
Probably not a big deal for now... perhaps I'll play more with it when I have more time.
This typically only occurs after a restart of the hub. For most users, this coincides with a firmware upgrade. After the system restarts, all of the groovy code has to be just-in-time loaded/compiled upon first use. So it takes a few seconds for automations the first time after a restart. Afterwards, it should be quick.
FWIW, I’ve been doing more testing and I don’t notice any lag when using Rule Machine directly so I think it’s just related to how things get set up (RM, ABC, etc).
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Initial WAF seems good. She likes the way they look. I showed her the dimmer and the Pico and she asked if she could talk it through the Google Home Hub. I demonstrated. This is a positive sign. On to phase 2.
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Phase 2: Do a cannonball into the pond.
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