Quick Demo of Lutron Pico and Hue Groups, All Local Connections

Wonder how they ship to Canada? Hopefully not UPS or I’ll get an extra helping of customs charges and bs handling fees that I often don’t get with USPS/Canada Post

It was USPS/Canada Post to me in BC. $25cad in tax/customs charges.

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Port completed
https://community.hubitat.com/t/beta-advanced-button-controller-abc/?source_topic_id=913

Apparently I'm too green here to view the topic - "Sorry, you don't have access to that topic!" :laughing:

If you’ve already ordered a new Hubitat hub, you can probably send an email to support@hubitat.com to ask them to adjust your community status to “Owner” so you can see everything. As long as your email used to purchase is the same one used for the community forum, I believe it will happen automatically eventually. To speed the process along, or to deal with 2 different email addresses, Hubitat support can assist.

I’m unable to access the link also. I’m pretty sure I show up as an Owner
Thanks

Try this link Advanced Button Controller (ABC) I think the thread name changed causing the link to be broken… I can’t access the old link either.

Works for me

Oops..never thought that changing the topic name would break the links. :man_shrugging:

I updated the original post with the new link.

Yeah, I didn’t know that either. Not sure if its a bug or intended functionality of the forum.

What is the advantage of getting Lutron Pico switches and associated bridge, compared with just buying Z-Wave switches?

Note, I would have asked this in the Smart Switches thread at communityDOThubitatDOTcom/t/smart-switches/1928 but for some reason I can't respond to anything in the Devices category. Must be some permissions error due to having a new forum account. Cant put in url links either it appears.

See this post and read from there. A lot of explanation has gone on in that thread, but from that point down is the "meat" of the explanation of them.

Thanks. But that is the Smart Switches thread that I was referring to, that I don't have permissions to post in.

I have read the whole thread, but perhaps I'm a bit slow :blush:. I still don't understand what the advantage of a Pico is compared to a z-wave alternative, like for example the Aeotec WallSwipe, Aeotec NanoMote, or NodOn Z-Wave Octan Remote. Just a couple of the one's I was looking at.

Cheers,
EF

Oh that's easy!! Size!

Pico's are literally the same size as the paddle of a paddle switch and fit inside the same hole in the cover plate. Stack 5 quarters in a pile, that's the thickness of a Pico! They are light, have superb battery life, and mount in many ways, via a built in mount slot.

I have two Aeotec WallMotes and they are nice enough, but are quite big in comparison and look out of place if mounted near a regular paddle switch.

You've seen this pic before, right?

Just stick the Pico onto the wallboard and put a 3 gang Decora cover plate and you'd swear it was a 3 gang box behind it.

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Pico's also are solid radio devices and that 10 year battery is awesome. The pedestal stand for them are nice too. The wall Mount option in existing gang boxes is great.

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Thanks. Is it just size and battery life then that is the advantage?

I have seen that pic, but it doesn't really help me I think, because I am in the UK, which has different sized cover plates which are square. I did google for Lutron faceplates to cover UK style gangs, but couldn't find any.

Size wise the Pico is 33x66 mm, whilst the NanoMote is 55x55 mm, so there really isn't much difference.

Also is it not a downside to use Lutron's proprietary radio signals, in that I would end up with less z-wave devices in my z-wave mesh? Also my understanding from what I read is that Lutron doesn't use a mesh approach.

How good are the Lutron signals at penetrating solid brick walls compared to using the z-wave mesh? I ask because the new house I'm moving into next month is not so new, it was built in 1824 with solid brick internal walls.

Cheers,
EF

ZigBee is going to be the toughest to go through walls, then zwave and then lutron. If there is rebar or mesh wire in the walls, nothing will work.

Lutron is not a mesh but a very simple but reliable messaging format. They have a lot of invested that makes it just work. Its a closed system meaning you can't just add any device to their system like ZigBee or zwave but with our integration it bridges their ecosystem to the rest of the IOT world.

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1824, nice! Are your electrical wiring and gas or water pipes are all external? I guess the slight thickness difference won't be noticeable :slight_smile:

Most of the electric gas and water runs under the floor boards I think. And some electrics in the walls. Not all the internal walls are solid brick, non-supporting walls are wood lath and plaster construction. No rebar or mesh wire.

Thank you all for the information, really useful. If you were in my position with no existing setup, would you prefer to opt for Lutron then, instead of z-wave, even if it means less devices in the z-wave mesh?

Actually no existing setup is not entirely true. We do have 4 Philips Hue Bloom lights and 2 Hue hubs, bought cheaply in a sale some years back, and a Hue dimmer, and some hacked Amazon dash buttons, but I'll just treat them as additional.

OK. Big difference if you're in the UK. They only make deco style (rectangular) devices. So they won't match what you have in the UK.

These switches might be more of interest to you. They're Zigbee, so you'll want repeaters if your switches will be far from the hub. No idea on direct Hubitat compatibility, but they work with the Hue Bridge and the Hue Bridge integrates with Hubitat.

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Looks like the device in the pic is a Lutron Connected Bulb Remote (Zigbee), not a Lutron Pico (i.e., Caseta) Similar, but not the same.