The hue remote is great, but mine just died. I also have a lutron pro bridge. Should I just buy a pico instead of a hue? Any downside you noticed?
I use pico to control my hue lights. The picos are fast and responsive. Since the entire setup is local the lights react quickly.
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Would you say as fast? Also, what app do you use to replicate a dimmer?
If there is a difference I don't notice it. I've got a hue dimmer and pico in the same room I am playing with as I type.
In the lutron integration there are two ways to setup the pico. One allows for pushed held and released. Makes great control for dimming using button controller or rule machine.
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Can I somewhat make the top button toggle, and the arrows dim when held, like the oem? This way, I can use the bottom button for another toggle, instead of off?
If I'm understanding right yes. I can setup the pico to perform the same functions as the hue aside from anything more than Double tap.
Yes, you can. Using button controller (or rule machine), you can utilize the Start Level change on 'held' and Stop Level Change on 'released' for the buttons you are looking for.
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I have a bunch of Minimotes that are starting to get long in the tooth. I have replaced their batteries and they work well overall, but my family's biggest issue is that they seem (even w/replaced batteries) to need recharging "too often" and on a couple of them they claim the buttons aren't 100% reliable. So I'm thinking about getting a Lutron hub and a couple Pico remotes and set up the buttons to control various lighting using Simple Automation app, Rule Machine, etc.
Couple questions about the Picos. Hope you don't mind, @frmWink2Hubitat - presumably this info is useful info to you as well.
- According to a comment on Amazon, the Lutron web site claims 10 years between battery changes for the Pico remote. Is reality anywhere in that range?
- What are he range of tap/hold actions the Pico can be programmed for? E.g., Single-tap, Double-tap, Long-press: are all three of those available?
Thanks!
I'll just say I think the devices are great. Just about everything about them have been documented in this forum by people both smarter and more articulate than me.
I believe the documentation links at the top of the forum have most of the info you'll need.
Have Pico even been out that long? I am on year 3 or so with mine and no sign of battery issues.
Each button can be set to recognize press (single tap), and either a hold OR release. So that gives a 5 button Pico 10 buttons. There are no double taps on Pico.
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Great, thanks for that, @neonturbo.
Can you clarify the difference between a Hold and a Release?
Hold seems obvious, Minimote has that - hold the button for longer than normal and lights on the Minimote confirm the hold event.
What is the action on the Pico to cause a Release event?
Oops - and aside from the extra button in the middle, any reason to prefer the four vs. five button model? (Can you tell my finger is hovering overy the BUY button on Amazon? 
So you would the two in different scenarios. Hopefully this clarifies it.
For my dining room Pico, if I long hold on the top button I turn on a switch for the basement lights. Similarly if i hold the bottom button, I turn off the basement lights. This does not affect the dining room lights at all, if you short press the top button, the dining room light turns on, and bottom button short press turns it off.
The other way I use the Pico is to dim a light. So for the table lamp, I hold the up arrow (second button from the top) on the Pico until the lamp is bright enough. When I release, it stops raising the dimmer.
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Sometimes the center button is desirable, and other times it just gets in the way. I like the center button for lights, you can set a favorite level. For things like fans, I don't need that extra button. But it is all personal preference. It does give you two extra functions (button presses) on the Pico though.
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NVM on the Hold/Release - found some info...I use a Hold action on the Minimotes to set a dimmer level on lights but Minimote doesn't have a Release action, however. Sounds interesting.
Push is used to just turn the light on, while hold does a start-raising ( or lowering) action, and then release stops that. You can do the same raise/lower function with the Fast Pico driver, but a single button would be dedicated to raise and one to lower.
Perfect, thanks. So to raise or lower a light you need two buttons, each w/a hold = dim or increase, and release = stop.
And on Amazon only one button is needed to order the Lutron hub and a couple of Picos to get started. Having endless battery life on the remote is going to be very nice...
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Be absolutely positive you are getting a Pro Bridge 2. Any other will not work with Hubitat.
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Thanks! I didn't know that, saved me...
Yes, yes, yes, and probably lots of other "yes"es I can't find at the moment for the Picos, though not all have necessarily also used a Hue Dimmer. That last "yes" is me: I wrote an app with this exact use in mind--emulating the behavior of a Hue Dimmer on Hubitat with a cheap Pico remote-- hough there is nothing Hue- or Lutron-specific about it. (I even emulated the multi-taps that you don't natively get on Hubitat but do on Hue with a Hue Dimmer, though you have to mulit-tap a bit more slowly than Hue allows.)
To add to the above, here's what I'd say are the pros/cons of each:
- Hue Dimmer can pair directly to Hue and will work even if Hubitat is ever down (e.g., you're rebooting for an update)
- Hue Dimmer has zero entry cost besides the dimmer price; Lutron requires a Smart Bridge Pro for Caséta (I seem to remember you recently got one) or Main Repeater for higher-end systems
- Lutron Picos are cheap (ignoring the above), so if you want a lot, they'll eventually balance out in price
- Pico requires manual re-creation of same effect you'd get from Hue dimmer, so it requires thinking about what Pico driver you want (fast vs. regular) and knowledge of what commands you could send to the lights/groups to create the desired effect (on/off should be easy enough; get familiar with
startLevelChange()if you want "dim while holding"-type automations). This is not significantly different from what you'd have to do with a scene switch. I recall you asking about the ZEN27 a while back, for example. - Along the lines of the above, Hue Groups with Hubitat's native integration do not support
start/stopLevelChange, only lights. (This is part of the reason I wrote CoCoHue, which IMHO pairs nicely with the app above.) You can still just adjust the level up/down by a set amount with each press or hold. - Changes made in Hubitat via a Pico will be reflected immediately on the Hubitat device; changes made with Hue, e.g., via a dimmer, will need to wait until the next poll. This is of little consequence unless you have automations that trigger based on these states or demand that a Dashboard display the desired state ASAP.
To summarize my experience, I think it works well, comparable to a Hue Dimmer if you set it up that way. The only downside is when I want to reboot my hub for an update but also wander around my house during that time, as the Picos will not work for a few minutes then. I also find Lutron's software a pain to use to set these up, but that's with RA2. The mobile app for Caséta is less problematic.
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Mine are 4 hue ceiling lights, so this may be a problem
This is the main reason I like having hue dimmers around. Hue is a bit pricey but I have to say the system is rock solid. So nice to have the backup control when I'm fiddling with the hubs.
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