Lutron announces Connect Bridge for RadioRA2 (and HW QS)

[veeeh]

It would be really nice, though, if network support was extended beyond telnet :-)

This would be great, however they still have not published Caseta protocol (the Xively, not the telnet one) - so there is little hope that this new Connect Bridge will have an open and documented protocol.

[schalliol]

Well, I don't know about that. RR2 and HomeWorks could (should) have more features and integration potential given its higher price point and installer network.

[schalliol]

Mike, to add to the comments upon further reflection. I would VERY much like to see direct wifi integration with other home automation and security products.

For example, the new 2GIG GC3 security system supports WiFi devices directly ( https://techtipsandtoys.wordpress.co...-need-to-know/ ). The panel works through alarm.com for RR2, but that's a failure and security risk. If the panel detects a breach or smoke alarm, we can't rely on the cell radio from the panel to have good signal, the alarm.com servers to send the signal to the home's external IP, the router and network access point to function, etc.

It makes much more sense for these kind of commands to send directly from the security panel to the Lutron Bridge and then the main repeater. The ONLY network that has to be up is WiFi in this case. Heck, even the router wouldn't need to be functioning if using static IPs or mDNS if the wireless access point is functioning and has an Ethernet link to the repeater.

Alarm.com is cool. I get it and am an alarm.com dealer, but these should be ancillary convenience functions primarily for out of home or leave/return functions. RR2 is excellent because it works EVERY TIME. It's a huge selling point.

[wkearney99]

WiFi networks are more unreliable that you'd likely guess. That and a lot of device firmware stacks don't handle losing/regaining their WiFi connection very smoothly.

Another critical point to consider is most residential networks are going to be set up as an off-network Class C, with only 253 possible device addresses. Not hard to hit that quite quickly when you start counting up all the dimmers, sensors, tablets, phones, TVs, game consoles, DVRs and the like. Switching to a Class B or A network doesn't always work reliably as a lot of devices (and users) get it wrong. Using more than one Class C is problematic, especially when dynamic network browsing is involved (ZeroConf, mDNS, uPNP, etc).

I'd trade cell network reliability over a homeowners WiFi network, any day.

[Mike S.]

Thank you all for the feedback. I have already sent all your feedback to our Development team so they can look in to adding more features to the Connect Bridge.

[cliqk]

Do we have a release date set for the Connect Bridge? Or some sort of guestimate?

[Mike S.]

We do not have an exact release date at this time, only first quarter of this year. I recommend checking with your local Lutron Rep agency, they will be the first ones to be made aware of the release.

[wkearney99]

Any news or a release date?

[joshg]

Lutron has now posted a small spec sheet for the new Radio Ra 2 version of the Connect Bridge to their support site. Looks like it was created and posted on 1/28/16, so maybe that's a good sign we're getting close to a release date.

http://www.lutron.com/TechnicalDocum...ect_Bridge.pdf

I don't see any new details in the doc itself, but at least there's some activity around this.

--josh

[wkearney99]

Which, from the looks of it, is just a Caseta bridge box. Not hard to imagine they'd just repurpose the same molding and manufacturing work. Of course one might expect it to be exactly the same hardware, just with a higher price tag, because y'know, they can.