Given the long-term robustness of the wireless connectivity and professional appearance of my ~50 device Lutron Caseta setup at home, I'm thinking to try Lutron RadioRA2 motion sensors for use with Hubitat to potentially drive Caseta dimmers and fan controls. The Hubitat Compatible Devices list indicates the RadioRA2 motion sensors require "RadioRA2 Select or RA2 Main Repeater" for use. I have heard RadioRA2 can require a week of training etc. to program, albeit this guidance was from a not-very-technical source.
Does anybody have RadioRA2 motion sensors working with their Hubitat, and if so is this something you can figure out/manage without too much hassle for home use?
I have many RA2 motion sensors in my system. First off, the documents were wrong, now fixed, about one thing. These do required a RA2 Main Repeater to work with Hubitat. While they work with RA2 Select, they do not report via telnet with RA2 Select, and hence cannot be integrated into Hubitat.
The training you need for RA2 is online and free. It takes a couple of hours. You have to complete the training in order to get the free RA2 Essentials software from Lutron. This software is required to setup a RA2 system. The training is not difficult, and does not require very much expertise. The Essentials software is fairly straight forward to use. It runs on Windows.
The motion sensors are pretty good. They claim a 10 year battery life, and Lutron tends not to make such claims lightly. That is much better than virtually all Z-Wave or Zigbee motion sensors, many of which get 2 or 3 years of battery life. The Lutron motion sensors come in two styles, a ceiling mount and a wall or corner mount. They aren't the smallest sensor by a long shot. Their range and sensitivity is good. They have one feature that takes some getting used to if you are used to Zigbee motion sensors: Their cycle time is 60 seconds (or longer depending on how you set it up). That means that 60 seconds after motion stops it will report motion inactive. Most Zigbee sensors cycle in 15 to 30 seconds.
I replaced almost all of my indoor Zigbee motion sensors with Lutron sensors after I upgraded my pre-existing Lutron system to RA2 (it had been Classic RadioRA). This was 2 -1/2 years ago, when we first got Hubitat working internally. In that time I've had one case where a sensor dropped off from the Lutron network, an unexplained occurrence. It was easy to re-add it. Beyond that, they are solid as a rock. They are not quite as fast as a good Zigbee sensor, a few hundred milliseconds slower to report motion. That's based on a sample of one place where I have both for testing reasons, and I wouldn't call it a scientific comparison.
Thanks for the useful and generally excellent reply. I'll give RA2 a shot based on your feedback. The RA2 keypads appear to be a structured well too and are a welcome addition also.
Correct. Caséta devices only work with a Caséta SmartBridge Pro for Hubitat. The two systems, Caséta and RA2, can co-exist in the same home, and both be integrated with Hubitat. So, a RA2 motion sensor could trigger an automation that turns on a Caséta device. Only Hubitat Elevation can do this sort of multi-Lutron integration on a local basis.
This sort of integration is exactly why I bought a Hubitat. I was hoping for and have confirmed the integration between Hubitat and the Caseta Smart Bridge Pro 2 hub is effectively instantaneous and a good foundation upon which to build a reliable system. The Hubitat strikes a good balance of capability, performance, and stability, which I'm guessing is the niche you were seeking to fill. Thanks for that, so I don't have to try to reconstruct it myself.
The first is the main repeater, which is needed for RA2. The second is for RA2 Select. Motion sensors do not integrate with Hubitat on RA2 Select. RA2 Select is similar to Caséta and uses the same mobile app. RA2 uses the Essentials software on Windows instead for configuration.
RA2 Select uses RA2 devices, not Caséta, but a subset of what RA2 supports. There are some differences about mobile app as well between RA2 Select and RA2 (I don't use the Lutron mobile app at all).
That's a pretty good price for a RA2 Main Repeater.
This device supports their mobile app. I viewed my purchase of one as a waste of money. Unless you really need their mobile app for some reason, you don't need it. I found that their mobile presence was very unreliable, and I don't care for yet another remote control on smart phone app.
It looks like they offer a thermostat that allows control of humidifiers! Is Hubitat able to control these? Is control direct? Meaning if I don’t hook it up to the internet ?
Form: RadioRA 2 are Maestro-style, so a single button for power and a level bar. That makes the power button 4x the size of Caseta - no need to aim for top or bottom. IMO, they just look a lot better, and they match all the other Lutron electronic dimmers/switches.
Function: the default 'on' levels are programmable to previous level or any level. Ramp rates for 'on' and 'off' are configurable too.
The inexpensive Caseta PD-6WCL doubles if you want to go to neutral-required PD-5NE. The step up to the basic neutral-required (but not ELV/MLV) RadioRA 2 RRD-6ND isn't big at street level (close to even on eBay).
