Moving from Wink without Lutron hub

I am using Wink now an moving over to HE. I am able to use my Caseta dimmers and Pico remotes without a hub now. Will that still be the case with HE? I'd obviously prefer to not have to spend the extra money.

Thank you,
David

No.

Wink (and Staples Connect) got Lutron Licenses for the radio they built in. Hubitat tried to get one, but Lutron is refusing.

A great choice is the $88 (free shipping, maybe still?) Lutron SmartBridge PRO (at Energy Avenue)

3 Likes

@drzeller

As @csteele indicates, you will need to purchase a caseta smart bridge. Specifically, the Caseta SmartBridge Pro (L-BDGPRO2-WH), as @csteele emphasized, and not the regular non-pro SmartBridge (L-BDG2-WH).

If the price of a new one on EnergyAvenue seems high, check out eBay; I purchased a used one for $75.

1 Like

Thank you for the answers and the extra background on licensing.

David

$88 with free shipping for a new bridge vs a used one seems high? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Yes, I got mine off eBay for a song, but that's rare.

1 Like

@SmartHomePrimer

Lucky you. But 15% less wasn't bad, and it was in really good shape. And that price was mitigated by my selling my Caseta non-pro bridge for $40 ...

1 Like

I guess we're both lucky!

1 Like

I continued to use my Wink Hub in parallel with my HE for the first month as I saved for the Lutron Hub. I used IFTTT as an in-between service with virtual switches so I could still turn on/off devices through HE dashboard. Now I have the lutron caseta pro hub and love the full integration and the more advanced configuration of the caseta picos.

3 Likes

Yup. Love the things I can now use the Pico remotes for!!

1 Like

Free shipping code for EnergyAvenue is FREESHIP18.

3 Likes

EA should start giving us kickbacks!! :clown_face:

1 Like

Will the Lutron Smart Bridge Pro v1 work now or must I use the v2?

1 Like

If you have an existing, already registered and working SmartBridge Pro v1, then it should continue working. However, if you try to buy a new in box Pro v1, it will not work as it cannot be registered to a Lutron account, and thus will not work.

2 Likes

@drzeller I too moved a while back from Wink to HE. I had many Lutron Caseta devices. I went the route of getting the Lutron Pro hub and the Hubitat integration is as solid as a rock. I have found better range on the Lutron Pro hub than I was getting on Wink. The Hubitat uses a telnet connection directly to the Lutron Pro hub so all control is local. Like I said it is solid and I have continued to expand on my Lutron switches and have never looked back at Wink.....

3 Likes

How about if I buy a used v1 of the PRO bridge? Is that transferrable?

I really wouldn't waste the effort on the old SmartBridge Pro v1. The v2 is fully supported, and also works with HomeKit.

Before buying a used Pro v1, I would recommend you reach out to Lutron Technical Support to see what they have to say about transferability.

3 Likes

I hadn't intended on getting a v1. I searched eBay for the v2 model number without realizing there was a v1/v2. In my search, I bid on one and it looks like I'm going to win it. I can't retract my bid so far as I can tell. Now I'm trying to make lemonade out of this lemon.

Well, the good news is that you have two options if you receive the v1 and cannot register it to your Lutron own account:

  1. eBay typically protects the buyer, so you should be able to get your money back, if the device does not work
  2. contact Lutron technical support and see if they can do anything for you. In the past, they have even sometimes replaced v1 devices with new v2 devices.
4 Likes

Both good points. Thank you for those explanations. I guess I will know sometime next week. I'll post back just so others will know for "next time".

1 Like

Lutron said:

Thank you for reaching out to Lutron Technical Support!
We appreciate your inquiry. The model L-BDGPRO is out of date and would not be able to download the necessary firmware updates from our servers. In most cases, it doesn't get past the setup screen in the Lutron App. We recommend to get L-BDGPRO2, that one is the current model and will be able to get updated.

So I guess if I get stuck with it, but I can't get it to get past the setup screen, I should be able to get a refund. The seller in the meantime told me that if I'm the eventual winner he will cancel my bid and re-advertise it.

So we shall see.

2 Likes