Is Caseta and Smart Bridge Pro Right For Me?

Just wanted to see if Caseta and Smart Bridge Pro (SBP) would work for the setup I am wanting. Here are the lights I would like to control:

Dimmers:
Great Room Recessed
Kitchen Recessed
Dining Room Chandelier
Foyer Chandelier
Master Bedroom Recessed
Breakfast Room Chandelier

Switches:
Front Porch
Outside Garage Lights

Outlet:
Great Room Table Lamp

I also have 2 Honeywell Wifi thermostats. I want to control everything with either the Lutron app or through Roomie Remote (http://roomieremote.com it now has support for SBP). Does anything about my setup not look like it would be good for Caseta and SBP? Thanks for the help!

I think you would be better served with Radio RA2. Caseta is more of a room solution and yourproject is better part of a house. Caseta will work, but RA2 would work better. One of the big things about the RA2controller (repeater) is the astronomical clock. This allows on/off for lights and occupancysensors that will change with sunsets/sunrise. For instance, you can control your porch light to come each day 10minutes before sunset and off at say 11 PM. In my test system I have a detached garage with RA2 light switches, auxrepeater, and occupancy sensors. One sensor turns on lights when someoneenters, the second occupancy sensor is only active (via time clock) from 11 PMtill 6 AM. That sensor will turn on bedroomlights (and floodlights) if someone isin the garage. I want to know if someoneis in my outbuilding at 3 AM!
You can also program a scene in RA2 that includes all rooms. Caseta again is a single room solution. Both will work. It’s all about the feature set.

CableDude

Thanks for the response.

I believer you are right. I think Radio Ra2 would be a better solution. I also have a Honeywell Vista 20p security system that could be integrated as well. If only they would add support to the Home control app to arm/disarm and view faults of the security system.

I also wish that they would add support for the Honeywell Wifi thermostats like Caseta has.

The Vista 20P panel is supported. Lutron has the driver and you just need the Honneywell aux board. See link below. This is my fall project when I get the time is to intergrate the 20P and the CBM4232 board into RA2. Also have the Honneywell T stat in the system and woks fine. I can turn off/on propane furnace and set temps from ipad in the home or on the road.


http://www.security.honeywell.com/hs...es/310799.html

Here is my input on this:

As CableDude mentioned, the RadioRa2 feature set is much more expansive than the Caseta line.

That is great - but it doesn't always mean you have to make the jump in investment in order to have features that you may or may not use.

Caseta does have an astronomical timeclock - so you can do what CableDude mentioned that RA2 does - on/off or to certain level up to 2 hours before/after sunrise or sunset. Automatically.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

- Will you ever have sensors in the system?
- Do you want to dim ELV or MLV lighting?
- Do you have more than 600W (or 150W LED/CFL) on a single circuit?


Personally, from what I see, Caseta will work fine for you.

It gives you remote control of all of your mentioned lights, you can easily add a virtual 3-way dimmer elsewhere, and it can control your temperature.

As well, the Smart Bridge Pro allows for 3rd party integration.

Also, you can have scenes within Caseta - They run off of the app, and can control multiple dimmers/switches to certain levels. These can be automatically done according to time or astronomical time, or manually by you activating them.


I personally recommend the Caseta. You will save quite a bit of money and it appears to be more than applicable for what you are saying you would like to do with the system.

So I am confused on the 30' limit of Caseta products. I thought commands to light switches and modules travel over the power wiring in a house, like X10. But when I read that there is a 30' limit, it sounds like communication from the SB Pro is RF or wireless and not over the power lines. Is a SM Pro/Caseta module strictly RF or wireless communication? Is there no communication over the power lines from Hub to module?

No, this does not work off of a UPB tech like X10 did / does.

This is all RF communication wirelessly from device to device --- There is NO communication over the power lines.


The 30' is the guaranteed distance that it will operate. In my home, I can easily reach over 45 feet but every situation is different so they are smart by not over-promising but being realistic about the communications distance in a worst-case scenario so to speak.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by clgberg

So I am confused on the 30' limit of Caseta products. I thought commands to light switches and modules travel over the power wiring in a house, like X10. But when I read that there is a 30' limit, it sounds like communication from the SB Pro is RF or wireless and not over the power lines. Is a SM Pro/Caseta module strictly RF or wireless communication? Is there no communication over the power lines from Hub to module?

---