Smart switches

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#62

Yes, but which wires is pretty critical, from a safety standpoint.

Your analogy to a toilet shutoff valve is not just imperfect, it’s inapplicable. The shutoff valve is upstream of the toilet, so no water will flow through any part of the toilet when it is closed.

The air gap, as @SmartHomePrimer explained (better than I could, so thanks for that), would be more like a component that locks the flapper of a toilet bowl in a closed position (AFAIK such a component doesn’t exist in real life, but it’s just an analogy). If you were to mess around with the float on the inlet valve, water could still flow into the toilet tank. If you wanted to fish something out of the bowl, then yes your hands should stay dry.

If water flows where it shouldn’t, then your biggest problem is probably the cost of repairing water damage.

If electrical current is flowing somewhere that you’re not expecting it to, you could have a potentially lethal problem.

It’s really important to understand how you could end up getting zapped if you insist on working on an energized electrical circuit.

#63

See this post from @JDRoberts

#64

@ritchierich, I read that. @JDRoberts is indeed an expert on these topics. However, his post didn’t specifically address instant status update to hubitat. Do all ZWave+ devices do instant status updates?

#65

I have ordered the Lutron Smart Bridge (non pro) and three Pico remotes to start with. The Bridge won't arrive until next week, but this weekend I hope to remove the habitat from the box.

#66

You have to buy the PRO edition in order for it to work with Hubitat.

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#67

OMG!

Hopefully the order will cancel.

#68

The pro bridge can handle Telnet connections, the non-pro bridge can’t.

That’s how the hubitat hub communicates with the Lutron bridge.

#69

Right. I was told this by SmartHomePrimer. Among other times the Pro was specifically referenced, I was told this several times by several people, most explicitly by SmartHomePrimer as "The primary difference is the ability for Hubitat to communicate with the Pro version via Telnet."

I just read that as "Pro allows Hubitat to also communicate with it using Telnet". My fault for not reading carefully enough, and hopefully won't be any big deal. At worst, I'll pay return shipping. Just another frustrating stupid mistake.

edit: Looks like I'll be buying a pro starter kit since the pro bridge isn't available on Amazon for a reasonable price. I guess one of the bathrooms will be made smart sooner than I expected.

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#70

Nope, telnet is necessary for the local connection. ST works with non-pro Lutron bridges but the connection is through the cloud. Hubitat’s connection to Lutron is much faster, and its awesome. I replaced my non-pro bridge with a pro bridge just to use it with hubitat.

That actually looks like a pretty decent price for a pro bridge plus dimmer.

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#72

I just ordered a Lutron Smart Bridge Pro2 from EnergyAvenue for $88. That was the best price I could find online from a site that appears to have decent reviews. :crossed_fingers:

https://www.energyavenue.com/Lutron/L-BDGPRO2-WH

I also ordered a couple Pico Remotes for ~$12 each.

https://www.energyavenue.com/Lutron/PJ2-3BRL-GWH-L01

Should be fun to play around with.

2 Likes
#73

I purchased the pro bridge from the same website for that price too. They have good prices on dimmers, switches and picos as well. If you get above their free shipping threshold it’s a good option. Everything came reasonably quickly and it’s all working fine.

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#74

The Amazon non-pro Bridge order successfully cancelled, so.... Yay.

I'm ordering the Pro right now using @ogiewon EnergyAvenue. Still have the Pico remotes coming from Amazon, even though they're more expensive. The Energy Avenue ~$12 one has the 5th button, which the spouse and I don't like, but at that price... I'll be adding one or two of those to the order to test it out; see if we change our mind.

With those 3+ Pico remotes, I will have breathing room to regroup and take time on the next steps.

Not necessarily wanting to get into any issues I'll face, but those next steps will be... Well, first, getting Hubitat + Lutron Bridge+Pico + Hue setup, and migrate from ST (I have few enough automations, the bigger issue will be setting up WebCore and such). Then, evaluate the ceiling fan options (GE or Hampton Bay). Once that's purchased and installed, I can look to getting what I need to tackle replacing a switch gang box with recessed dumb switches, including a cover for the Picos. See just how much work that will be and if I can do it without making a mess, and go from there. Meanwhile, I have a couple Xiaomi motion sensors that I need to setup in a non-critical room with single entrance/exit, to test their reliability and automations. I fully expect just that much (smartifying one fan, replacing one gang box and using motion in one room) to take me at least a month. (Then I'll tackle the ceiling fan and light fixture on a single switch.)

@JDRoberts kind of curious what ever so kind and loving things you had to say about my "OMG" response :stuck_out_tongue:

#75

Mark and I Crossposted The same information, so my post didn't add anything to the thread.

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#76

@toddtmw Lowes is having a sale right now on their GE switches through 5/30. I purchased a zwave plus on/off switch to test and I also ordered a Zooz on/off zwave plus switch to also test. I installed both last night and good new is both report physical on and off events without polling! The GE switch is installed far from the hub so I was excited to see that work.

3 Likes
#77

"Instant status" is a marketing term, not a technical one. It can cover several different methods of communication from the switch to the hub, usually:

  1. reporting via the "lifeline association"

  2. reporting via a different Association group

Three) reporting via the "hail" (now deprecated), which was used by those manufacturers who had licensed the original Lutron patents

  1. reporting via central scene command

You would need to check the conformance statement for each of the zwave devices you are considering to see which methods it uses.

I just don't know which of these is supported by hubitat or included in the standard drivers.

Also note that binary on/off switches and dimmers may report using different methods, so check each model individually.

@mike.maxwell

2 Likes
#78

I've added the Hue to the Hubitat, but it doesn't control the lights, pressing On or Off under Devices. Also tried it with a Hue dimmer and basic rule "Turn on at time (now + 1 minute)". Tried rebooting. Any suggestions?

#79

In HE devices, under the category of “HueBrigeBulb”, are you able to manually toggle one of them ON/OFF?

#80

No. I go to Devices, click the Name of one of them (I've tried both white and color) and click On (or Off). It changes under "Current Status" but no joy.

#81

Hmmm, try pressing the button on the bridge and the go back into the Hue Integration app and click refresh bulb discovery.

1 Like
#82

Huh. That worked. Thanks.

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