amazon has begun delivery of their echo voice recognition gizmo. it already supports Belkin Wemo Philips hue devices. at what point will Lutron devices, specifically Ra2, be supported?
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amazon has begun delivery of their echo voice recognition gizmo. it already supports Belkin Wemo Philips hue devices. at what point will Lutron devices, specifically Ra2, be supported?
Thank you for this feedback, at this point we do not have a date as to when this will happen with Lutron systems.
Support for this or another voice recognition command interpreter is critical for Lutron. Please don't rest on your laurels. This market is moving fast. Do not be the dinosaur of the automation business. Be an innovator. Stay on top.
I would absolutely L O V E to get support for Echo. The siri support is excellent from my brief exposure, but Echo is so much better for me because:
a. It's always listening!
b. I don't have to pick up a device, look for the app, open it and futz with it just to turn a light on.
Don't get me wrong, the scheduling bits of the dimmers is awesome, as are the scenes, but Echo would make accessing devices for instant on/off amazingly convenient.
A better option here would be for them to open up their system to 3rd party software vendors. They could create an API (even basic REST one) and then allow their community to build Echo integration or HomeKit, etc. Lutron is likely not big enough to do all the possible integrations that are going to be wanted.
Guys, this is so important, so many of my friends are going with Phillips even though they understand its not as good because they want to have the simple ability to say lights on and control their lighting.
It would be a colossal mistake to skip on that opportunity and I urge you to reconsider your stance.
Agreed. It's sad watching Lutron bringing nothing to market to address these incredibly exciting possibilities. They're leaving a gaping void being filled by demonstrably inferior switch and dimmer products. But while they might not work as well, they're accessible from the devices and systems that customers WANT TO USE TODAY.
I finally pulled the trigger on a Wink controller. Figured it's not THAT expensive so I'd give it a try. I moved one of my dimmers off the Lutron controller and onto Wink. It's not perfect but I'm hoping they continue to improve the service.
PROS :
- Amazon Echo support!!!!! "Alexa, turn on the back hall". Woo hoo!
- I can (haven't yet) add additional sensors to control lighting, like turning on all the lights in and around the barn if the door opens between midnight and five am.
CONS:
- Can't seem to schedule lights!
- Can't seem to be able to dim lights!
- The Lutron controller seems to have better range. Wink claims only 30 ft, which is awful.
- A device belongs to a single controller at once and neither controller is perfect.
Sorry, I stand corrected. I am in fact able to dim my casetas with the Wink controller and I'm also able to schedule them. The Lutron controller's looking considerably less attractive to me now. I'll have to test Wink with the dimmers in barn that are the farthest away.
Amen but I don't see them making necessary moves. Thinking about switching all of my Caseta devices out to more widely compatible devices. Was surprised that the Siri integration requires me to buy a new hub. The price of the Lutron home automated switches are also decreasingly competitive and the others such as WIWO are delivering the same function at half the cost.
I wouldn't overreact. Echo now has Wink support and Wink supports Lutron. I have started phasing my casetas over to the Wink. There will be no perfect world for automation any time soon, so take your little victories and run with them. Wink is super cheap and it works. My only regret is being scared off by bad reviews for as long as I was.
How have you found the wink integration? Do lights respond as quickly as they do through the Lutron hub/app?
When using Echo, is there much noticeable delay compared to Lutron?
I have been hesitant to pull the trigger on this change as I wanted to wait and make sure such an integration didnt give too much performance lag.
You know, I haven't really paid much attention to the response time. There is a delay, but I haven't tried to time it and I'm not home right now to try it. I'd guess it's about a second? For me, it's a non issue. For one 99% of what I want with lighting is scheduling. I haven't touched my kitchen, living room, back hall, outside lamp and porch switches in months. They are simply on at the right times through scheduling. For the isolated times that I want to override a light in the house, I just LOVE being able to ask Alexa and a 1 second delay is of no concern to me. Wink is $50. I encourage you to give it a shot.
I really wanted to reiterate that the "tech community" is moving on beyond Lutron and other established dealer supported companies. People on here know that Lutron makes the best dimmers and up until a few years ago had the most exciting products, but companies like Google, Amazon, and open source products are coming out with DIY products that provide that wow factor and connectivity and it'll be hard for customers to justify spending money on Lutron products if it can't even talk to what $50 bulb can do. This is a very critical time for home automation products. Sure, the very high end will always need a dealer/installer but that gap is closing in fast.
I received a notification from IFTTT that Amazon Echo has a recipe for Caseta. This would make much simpler once the Connect Bridge becomes available from Lutron for RR2 and HWQS.
No, not really. That only gives you a trigger, not actual "Alexa, turn on (light name)." functionality. There you're stuck using "Alexa, trigger (IFTTT recipe name)." and having to configure what could be a lot of recipes.
The tech community might have ideas about making gizmos, but making decent lighting gear is still a bit of a challenge for them. Some of that stuff is just plain awful to use.
The question is whether there's decent money to be made selling to the emerging home market that gizmos like the Echo, Wink, SmartThings and others are courting.
Rumor has it Caseta hasn't been a winner. Now, is that because it's a completely awful product? Not entirely, but I'm inclined to think the two-toned color scheme did not help. Nor did it's price tag. Nor it's inane 'rip and replace' mentality when it came to potential upgrades. But I suspect what hurt most was a failure to effectively market it to the audience most likely to buy it.
Personally I think Lutron shouldn't have bothered making Caseta at all, just dropped the RA2 price point to that level, with the Smart Hub and marketed the hell out of it. But then I'm no expert, nor privy to enough of the details.
Still, it's a shame to see crap made for wifi, z-wave and zigbee gaining traction and providing a sub-par experience (RF, dimming and plastics-wise) but having much more intriguing connectivity options (lumps and all). The silence from Lutron on this front is deafeningly disappointing. Still, it's a superior product and the game is far from over. Just a bit of a shame to be so late to the party.
Trust me, I get the quality of Lutron's products but that's because I've installed these things for over a decade and dealt with customers when things dont work. Average "bro Geek" however just thinks the little WiFi thing he saw on tech bro podcast (I won't name the one that really bugs me) is the end all be all and has no idea it will break after 2 years and won't have any replacement parts or even keypads.
I've never sold a caseta and probably won't but I think that was Lutron's response to all the tech bro types and DIYers...and there are some great cloud features that they could easily include with radio ra and QS but they don't for some reason.
Oh and I know the game is far from over but what happens this year with Lutron (and other established Automation systems - Vantage, Cresteron, Control 4, etc.) is going to be CRITICAL if they want to stay relevant. Every year when I go to the road show, Lutron has some new keypad or dimmer and they put on this whole song and dance about how great the Lutron engineers are at coming up with stuff we probably don't need but they have ignored the tsunami that's coming from the Googles, Amazons, and other tech giants.
And it'd be nice if my customers could go to home depot and buy an LED bulb that actually works with the system they installed 5 years ago (ie. 6D dimmer with no neutral) but that was in another thread and all I heard were crickets.
If there are three or more bulbs on a 6D, try the dimmable TCP BR30 lamps. I ran four with great dimming. My customers report good things as well at three or more bulbs. Two or less, you'll need a 6CL.
http://www.tcpi.com/business/product...eries/elite-br
We've had ok luck with Verbatim brand LED's - not the most glamorous of dimmings but at least it works to a degree.
I'll add my voice here. I've been slowly making the switch from a SmartThings hub with about 30 z-wave dimmers and switches to Lutron RadioRa 2 system, where I have about 16 devices so far. I stopped the migration when I got my Echo a few days ago. It's absolutely a game changer to be able to say "Alexa, turn on the outside lights" and it happens almost instantly.
If Lutron can't add this type of thing, I think it's a huge blow. I hate having a hugely expensive "pro" setup that can't do things that can be done a $200 system cobbled together at Home Depot. It would be like having a new expensive BMW and then seeing that your friend's Hyundai has far more cool tech integration and features. Doesn't typically happen.
I switched for the reliability of Radio Ra, but am starting to regret it when I can now control half my home with voice via Echo.
One would hope that Lutron would get off their backsides and make some movement here. There really seems to have been a paralysis of inaction from them over the last year.
It looks like they are aware of the problem and are taking the radio ra and QS platforms to the cloud http://www.cepro.com/article/new_lut...a_homeworks_qs
I would hope it's a matter of time before they join the tech-bro community and add some echo and nest compatibility. Really, I hope the old guard from the other lighting automation companies (out of respect for Lutron's forums I won't mention them by name, but they are also panel based) start doing more cloud based stuff so the work that they started and have devoted their reputation to isn't taken over by these radio-shack quality gizmos that have no style and reliability if the home router dies. There is still time, but I guess the challenge is in finding the balance of having a bulletproof local system vs. cloud processing.
That's encouraging. The article says that the bridge for RR2 has been "introduced" (seems a deliberate choice vs. "announced"). That usually means available or imminent availability. Anyone hear of a release date?
I was able to talk to someone that has an alpha connect bridge. They are working out the bugs and it needs to be far more reliable before they can release it. There's been enough trouble sometimes with the rapid growth in the Caseta line that needed work after the release. Hard to balance the needs/wants of the public and installers and the "old way" where Lutron wouldn't release anything until it was bomb-proof.
One has to wonder how much of the problem lies with depending on a closed 3rd party network.
Shame they don't just say "the Hell with going half-arsed, make a HWQS-grade controller and sell it as a loss-leader".Quote:
Hard to balance the needs/wants of the public and installers and the "old way" where Lutron wouldn't release anything until it was bomb-proof.
Just finished setting it up myself.
Caseta wireless to Smart Bridge to IFTTT to Amazon Echo
Has anyone figured a way to get Echo hooked into RR2?
All the things i've seen posted so far are Caseta-SmartBridge-IFTTT-Echo. Over on the "professional" side of things, the Lutron product leaders of the forthcoming Connect Bridge apparently didn't feel that IFTTT or Echo support was important for their release.
Sincerely hope someone at Lutron watched the superbowl last sunday and noticed the Amazon Echo commercials ... they're coming for the Smart Home market and Amazon gets what Amazon wants.
smart home systems that do neither IFTTT nor Echo integration will surely be roadkill.
Not really an answer to your question, but with the Connect Bridge, I'm pretty sure you will be able to put any half-way recent iPhone or other iOS device in the room listening for "Hey Siri" and then speak commands to it that will make changes in the RR2 system. The most recent devices support "Hey Siri" when not plugged in, but older devices will allow that command when plugged in.
We integrated a RadioRA2 system in the house we rebuilt last year. Great system, stable, works well.
After buying an Amazon Echo late last year, it became frustrating not being able to control the system through it. So I decided to write some software to enable that capability, using the standard "turn on...", "turn off...", "dim..." commands offered by the Echo.
I have this working reasonably well and thought it would be good to share.
The software is located at https://s3.amazonaws.com/accelere/hu...v0.1.0-x64-osx for the time being. Right now it is working only on OS X and needs to be started through the command line (first changing permissions 'chmod 755 huetron-v0.1.0-x64-osx), as I haven't made an installer for it. Once started, enter '127.0.0.1:8100' in the browser URL and follow the instructions.
Hope it will be useful until we all get the Lutron Bridge and new capabilities over time.
this is great. eager to try it.
Thanks!!
OK, a few dumb questions...
1) Is it OK to put it in Applications folder or does it need to be somewhere in System Library or somewhere special?
2) I don't know enough about Unix.... I was able to navigate to the right directory in Terminal via CD, find the program, and execute the CHMOD command you give to set permissions. But now can't open the program via the command line. If I just type "huetron-v0.1.0-x64-osx", it says "command not found". If I try to use the Open command, it tells me no application knows how to open it.
Possibly it's compressed and i just need to decompress it somehow?
sorry for being dumb here...
1) In the Applications directory is fine, but it won't start by double clicking.
2) type './huetron-v0.1.0-x64-osx'
The 'dot slash' means from the current directory.
It is not compressed. I should make an installer to make things easier.
Once started, and '127.0.0.1:8100' is entered in the web browser, more instructions will be provided.
Got it. Thanks. I've now got it running, but still having a problem. Hope you can help me. Wish I could PM you instead of subjecting everyone else to my questions, but the mods seem to have disabled PM system here for some reason. (??)
OK...
Host address defined (IP address of my computer) and the bridge is up (blue bar showing). Configured the proper address for the Lutron Repeater, and blue bar is showing there too. So the Network tab looks like all is fine - blue bars on both sections. So far so good.
But the RadioRa2 page seems to have problems for me. Here's what I get... seems to be problems with the local database. How can i generate or fix that? Tried just re-transferring from the RR-E software, but didn't help.
Attachment 450
I tried pressing "Download" but it crashes the program and i have to restart it from terminal.
--josh
p.s. By the way, THANK YOU for tackling this much-needed work-around while we wait/hope for a full solution from Lutron!!
I'd like to email you to ask for help rather than posting here but don't want to post my email address here. I'm sure you feel same. Maybe you could put a "contact me" link in the web page of the running bridge... that way it's not public and will only be visible to those who go to the trouble to install and get the program running? would be happy to give you my email address that way.
(continuing from above)
When I look at the Terminal Windows after "Download" button fails, it generates an uncaughtException, and then a ton of code spits out on terminal. Happy to get this to you if helpful if we have a way to communicate off this forum.
i then have to relaunch huetron from the terminal window... but same thing happens. all looks fine until I press "download".
I'm having the same issue, so if we can work the solution out publicly, it may help some other folks as well.
This looks really slick and with the announcement of the echo dot, you can potentially have voice lighting control anywhere in the house. Fantastic and a big thanks!
Funny like no matter how much testing is done, there is always more problems showing up!
I have uploaded a new version (https://s3.amazonaws.com/accelere/hu....1-x64-osx.zip), shouldn't need the chmod anymore, just unzip it. Follow the new instructions to help resolve your issues.