Mobile button for my car

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After weeks of research, I finally ordered my Hubitat today and am anxiously awaiting its arrival. This will be my first hub and my first exposure to z-wave or zigbee devices. I have researched the fundamentals of z-wave and zigbee and understand that they are mesh networks...which brings me to my first question. (Please excuse my novice if this is a really dumb question.)

I want to have a button in my car. Upon my arrival home, I want to push this button and have it turn on several of my z-wave devices. I don't want to use my phone for this, because I don't want to hassle with entering my phone's passcode in order to access this button. I want a physical, readily available button on my dash or sun visor that I can push, very similar to how I already have a button to push for my garage door opener. My question is: What device would be best for this? And furthermore, if this button is a z-wave device and it continuously leaves and re-enters my mesh network...won't that continual departure and reentry be disruptive to the network?

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I use a Samsung SmartThings Arrival sensor in my car for the garage door to automatically go up. And then depending on various other conditions (time of day, my last location), other automated things happen.

Battery powered devices don't participate as repeaters/routers in z-wave/zigbee networks. Hence, their physical presence/absence doesn't disrupt the mesh.

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Another option would be a Lutron Pico remote, assuming you have a Lutron Caseta or RadioRA2 lighting system already. Lutron even makes an automobile visor clip for the Pico remote.

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If you only need one button device, investing in a Lutron system is pretty expensive. However, Pico remotes can be bought for about $15 a piece in North America, and they have a 10 year battery life. Lutron also makes very reliable switches, dimmers, and fan controllers.

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@aaiyar Do you happen to know the differences in the various models of the STArrival sensor?

I see these models listed on the Samsung site.

  • Model Number: F-ARR-US-2, STSS-PRES-001, F-SS-PRES-001, IM6001-ARP05

and I see this at Best Buy Model: F-SS-PRES-001

Thanks
John

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I'm afraid I don't. I have two of them that look similar on the outside (case), but the inside (board) was different.

One of them paired with the Hubitat "SmartThings Arrival Sensor v4" driver. The other paired with the "SmartThings Arrival Sensor v2" driver. I think the first was F-ARR-US-2.

They both work equally well. I've soldered an external battery pack on both.

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I have 2 of the Smartthings Arrival Sensors... one in my car and one in my wife's. They work well for us. They do go thru batteries though. I understand why you soldered external battery packs on. I usually replace the batteries every couple of months. I can live with that since they are reliable.

Go Saints......who dat.....

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I just use an IFTTT rule - location and Hubitat. Once your phone/car hits the set border it will flip the lights on or off since you can set it for arrival or departure.

I have it turn the lights on once I’m a couple blocks out to account for lag time.

It’s not the physical switch you requested obviously but you won’t have to unlock your phone and I will say it’s immensely satisfying to see the lights on as you arrive without having to do anything. I don’t use it on departure since I like to see the lights on/off before I leave.

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That remote and visor clip look like exactly what I was envisioning in my original post!

You mention me investing in a Lutron system. This is were my novice comes into play, so please excuse my questions regarding that idea. Question 1: If I had the Lutron remote, as well as Lutron switches...doesn't that mean that the remote would activate the switches without even going through my Hubitat? Question 2: Couldn't I get the Lutron remote to activate non-Lutron brand switches via scenes and rules in my Hubitat?

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Good questions!

A Lutron Pico Remote can be directly paired to a specific Lutron Switch or Dimmer, without any sort of hub needed whatsoever. This is how Lutron allows a user to easily add additional 'wall switches' or 'table top remotes' to a Caseta Switch or Dimmer. In this configuration, there is a direct connection between the Pico remote and the Switch/Dimmer, and there is no 'smart home' connectivity available whatsoever. This technique is used because it is much less expensive than having an electrician tear open your drywall to add a 3-way/4-way lighting setup.

Yes, this is possible assuming you have a Lutron Caseta SmartBridge Pro2 installed on your home network. The SmartBridge Pro2 is required to allow the Hubitat Hub to communicate over your LAN via Telnet to the Lutron system. It must be a SmartBridge Pro2, as the non-Pro model does not include Telnet support. It also need to be the Pro2, and the first edition of the SmartBridge Pro is no longer able to be activated/registered on Lutron's cloud infrastructure.

Once you have a SmartBridge Pro2 integrated with Hubitat, you have all of the power and flexibility of Lutron's Caseta light system PLUS all of the power of the Hubitat Hub at your disposal. This combination has been rock solid, and performs excellently.

One of the great features of this combination is that Pico remotes can be used as Button Controller devices in Hubitat. This allows these awesome little button devices to control anything you'd like in Hubitat. (Note: For true 3-way/4-way Caseta lighting setups, I use Lutron's built-in functionality to handle that. The response time is a little quicker and it is nice knowing that these 'auxiliary switches' will still work even if my Hubitat hub is down for any reason. It also will make it simpler to sell the house in the future, as all of the Lutron lighting will still 'just work', even without a Hubitat hub.)

One of the great things about using a Lutron Caseta SmartBridge Pro2 based lighting system, is all of the options to integrate it with other systems (or it can be used standalone as well). The Caseta SmartBridge Pro2 can be integrated directly with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit, Ecobee, Sonos, Logitech Harmony Hub, Ring, Hubitat, SmartThings, HomeAssistant, Node-RED, etc... And, it can work with all of these at the same time, if desired. Once the switches, dimmers, fan controllers, etc... are paired with the SmartBridge Pro2, you'll never have to reset and pair them again just to get them working with another system. IMHO, Lutron is to smart Switches/Dimmers/FanControllers what Phillips Hue is to Zigbee bulbs. They are both focused on being the best they can be for a specific task, and then make sure their systems can be easily integrated with everyone else's platforms.

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