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Thread: Anybody successfully activate Sunnata devices without internet?

  1. #1
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    Anybody successfully activate Sunnata devices without internet?

    I remember asking about how we could activate the Sunnata devices at a Lutron demo last year when it first came out and heard a couple of snickers in the back with "Who doesn't have internet in 2022?" and perhaps I'm an oddball, but as I guessed it then, I will be going to a condo that has not yet been moved to but the owner wants to have the system in place with working keypads because the current switch positioning is pretty random so just to turn the lights on to the condo requires walking around and going up the stairs, etc. Also, in a couple of spots, the keypad will take the place of a multi-location dimmer so unless the keypad is programmed, there won't be control from that spot.

    I did not even see a network room there in my first visit and I'm guessing this will be a "router in the TV cabinet" kind of deal once they move in. I've tried following the "No WIFI?" instructions in the Designer software and first of all, I want to be clear, do they mean no wifi or no internet? I always have my little jobsite router which I use for working on houses without networking in place for my setup. Can I do it with just a router and no internet? I remember when I did my first Ra3 job with Sunnata, the laptop was connected to the internet and was getting the data from the app through there. I COULD have my phone connect to the same router without internet. Hell, I could have the laptop connect to my phone's hotspot even, but then they wouldn't be on the same local network. Would that work? I could probably get a travel router and connect that to my phone's hotspot and then use another phone to connect to the travel router but good lord, why make this so complicated? I'm not going to pay for a MIFI just to activate some dimmers.

    Anyway, the official directions say to download iTunes...I'm guessing we don't need this for Android phones? And what does it mean by USB? Connect the phone to the laptop via USB? The instructions are just not clear for such an important thing like activating devices. Am I really the first person to try to do this without an internet connection? The manual instructions make a little more sense, but what happens when I upload the program? Will it just do it over the air then or will I have to do this ridiculous dance again?

  2. #2
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    I did a 150 device system this week with WiFi but no internet. The house was occupied but the owners were not there (beach house). I'll detail my horror story in a separate post.

    The programming software apparently generates a file for the APP so it knows what devices are in the system. It appears the "no WiFi" function creates this file for you to manually import into the APP. This didn't work for me because I won't knowingly install ITUNES (spyware) on my computer. Plus, there was no option in the APP to import the file. Even if all that worked, the APP needs WiFi to talk to the repeater so it still would not work.

    I think USB transfers the file directly to your phone. Again, without the import function...??

    In my area building inspectors and bank/loan inspectors are requiring the lighting system to be functional prior to sign off. I have a couple of A/B routers I keep just to make systems functional for CO, etc.
    Convergence Technologies Raleigh, North Carolina
    www.convergenceusa.com

  3. #3
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    Randy, you are a great asset to this forum! I'm actually on the job site now and supposedly they'll hook up the internet later this week so I'll hold off, but I actually did bring my travel router and connected it to an Xfinity hotspot through our xfinity account and I think it would work to connect the Ra3 processor to it! Just leaving this for future generations.

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  5. #4
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    Another system with no Internet

    I'm starting up another system this week with no internet. The builder doesn't want to use the breakers anymore. The house is probably a month away from having internet. I'm using my trusty, 10 year-old, A/B Netgear router to allow the devices to talk. It ain't pretty but it works.
    Convergence Technologies Raleigh, North Carolina
    www.convergenceusa.com

  6. #5
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    I'll leave this here for future generations, but I just got done with that condo and my jerry rigging with the travel router worked! I had my travel router connect to a hotspot- could be from a cell phone, Xfinity, or the coffee shop next door. The good thing about the travel router is that it'll get you through the captive portal and then you have clear internet.

    My travel router (TL-WR902ACAC750 Wireless Travel Router) is a tiny thing but has dual bands so it can connect to either 2.4 or 5 ghz hotspots and also transmit in either frequency. More importantly, it has an ethernet port too so I connected the Ra3 processor to the ethernet port (well to the POE injector input). When I went to activate the processor it told me that the firmware needed to be updated and apparently the processor does this by itself through the cloud. I'm guessing you can probably activate the Ra3 processor locally as well if all you have are CCA devices.

    That **** thing actually worked! One thing that surprised me was when it came to activating the Sunnata devices, my phone didn't have to connect to my travel router and could do the activation with just the LTE/5G connection. I chose that route because I figured the poor travel router already is working overtime and also doesn't have much range and my cell connection in that condo was excellent and had a solid 5G ultrawideband (verizon) connection. It also comes in handy because if you have to use the same phone as a hotspot, the phone can't connect to its own hotspot so you can still do this! I just went around with the phone and activated the devices like normal.

    I think going forward, I will do this instead of the manual way that seems so much harder. They should connect the internet in a couple of weeks so hopefully I can just plug it in and it'll work.

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  8. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by SparkyCoog View Post
    I'll leave this here for future generations, but I just got done with that condo and my jerry rigging with the travel router worked! I had my travel router connect to a hotspot- could be from a cell phone, Xfinity, or the coffee shop next door. The good thing about the travel router is that it'll get you through the captive portal and then you have clear internet.

    My travel router (TL-WR902ACAC750 Wireless Travel Router) is a tiny thing but has dual bands so it can connect to either 2.4 or 5 ghz hotspots and also transmit in either frequency. More importantly, it has an ethernet port too so I connected the Ra3 processor to the ethernet port (well to the POE injector input). When I went to activate the processor it told me that the firmware needed to be updated and apparently the processor does this by itself through the cloud. I'm guessing you can probably activate the Ra3 processor locally as well if all you have are CCA devices.

    That **** thing actually worked! One thing that surprised me was when it came to activating the Sunnata devices, my phone didn't have to connect to my travel router and could do the activation with just the LTE/5G connection. I chose that route because I figured the poor travel router already is working overtime and also doesn't have much range and my cell connection in that condo was excellent and had a solid 5G ultrawideband (verizon) connection. It also comes in handy because if you have to use the same phone as a hotspot, the phone can't connect to its own hotspot so you can still do this! I just went around with the phone and activated the devices like normal. Pokemon Infinite Fusion

    I think going forward, I will do this instead of the manual way that seems so much harder. They should connect the internet in a couple of weeks so hopefully I can just plug it in and it'll work.
    i think so

  9. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by SparkyCoog View Post
    I remember asking about how we could activate the Sunnata devices at a Lutron demo last year when it first came out and heard a couple of snickers in the back with "Who doesn't have internet in 2022?" and perhaps I'm an oddball, but as I guessed it then, I will be going to a condo that has not yet been moved to but the owner wants to have the system in place with working keypads because the current switch positioning is pretty random so just to turn the lights on to the condo requires walking around and going up the stairs, etc. Also, in a couple of spots, the keypad will take the place of a multi-location dimmer so unless the keypad is programmed, there won't be control from that spot.

    I did not even see a network room there in my first visit and I'm guessing this will be a "router in the TV cabinet" kind of deal once they move in. I've tried following the "No WIFI?" instructions in the Designer software and first of all, I want to be clear, do they mean no wifi or no internet? I always have my little jobsite router which I use for working on houses without networking in place for my setup. Can I do it with just a router and no internet? I remember when I did my first Ra3 job with Sunnata, the laptop was connected to the internet and was getting the data from the app through there. I COULD have my phone connect to the same router without internet. Hell, I could have the laptop connect to my phone's hotspot even, but then they wouldn't be on the same local network. Would that work? I could probably get a travel router and connect that to my phone's hotspot and then use another phone to connect to the travel router but good lord, why make this so complicated? I'm not going to pay for a MIFI just to activate some dimmers. immaculate grid

    Anyway, the official directions say to download iTunes...I'm guessing we don't need this for Android phones? And what does it mean by USB? Connect the phone to the laptop via USB? The instructions are just not clear for such an important thing like activating devices. Am I really the first person to try to do this without an internet connection? The manual instructions make a little more sense, but what happens when I upload the program? Will it just do it over the air then or will I have to do this ridiculous dance again?
    If you have a router available, you can create a local network without internet access. Connect your laptop and phone to this network to establish communication between devices.

  10. #8
    Sorry for resurecting this thread, but I have a related question:

    (BTW, Love the TP-Link travel router, have used one myself and looked at some newer GL.Inet stuff but going to stay with the TP-Link)

    Is there any way to avoid activating RA3/TypeX devices without having to walk up to each device physically press?

    I'm looking at a job that might over over 100 devices, and not looking forward to that.

    I seem to recall that RA2 could bypass that by loading serial numbers into Designer? (I never did/do that so far, but not sure if that was or still is an option for RA2/TypeA?)

    This job with be time and materials, not fixed cost, but still hate the idea of all that "busy work" just pressing buttons all day.

  11. #9
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    The whole CCX activation process is just weird. I guess in some ways it's easier to just walk around with your phone because you don't even need to be connected to the local network at that point and even a cell connection works so it's really robust. In the past I tried walking around with my laptop to activate CCA devices and then if I got disconnected in the middle (either if I got too far away from my router or there was an issue getting a handoff with the customer's access points), I'd be in deep doodoo and in one case had to factory default everything and start over and from then on just type in the serial numbers or keep my laptop in one spot and have someone walk around to press and hold stuff. But if we have the serial numbers for CCX devices, I don't know why we don't have the option to just type them in.

  12. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by SparkyCoog View Post
    But if we have the serial numbers for CCX devices, I don't know why we don't have the option to just type them in.
    Imagine if Lutron actually did things in a way that makes sense. I dont see why they needed to make this more complicated.

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