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Thread: Multiple Smart-Bridge Pro's in a single home

  1. #1

    Multiple Smart-Bridge Pro's in a single home

    I am new to this forum and Lutron Caseta devices.

    I recently sold my house with about 150 Insteon Home automation devices, including: dimmers, switches, keypads, pool pump controllers, irrigation controllers, garage door monitor, HVAC control, etc etc. It was all tied together with a Universal Devices ISY-994. I installed and programmed it all myself and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, only about 80% of the system was reliable, the other 20% was a nightmare (devices would not turn ON/OFF reliably, random ALL ON/OFF events.)...... I will not make that mistake again.

    I now need to outfit my new house and have been doing a fair amount of research for reliable home automation systems that are DIY.....

    For lighting control it certainly appears that Caseta is a great fit for me, except for the range and the number of units it can support. In reading other parts of this forum I have seen statements that suggested that Apple HomeKit, coupled with a third party app(s) can be used to connect to multiple bridges. Theoretically, that would allow me to have 3 or maybe even 4 Smart Bridges to cover the entire house, (about 5000 sq ft) as well as get me 150+ devices. My questions:

    1. Can I have 3 or 4 Smart Bridge Pros operating in my home in relative close proximity?
    2. Does anyone have any experience using HomeKit or any third party app that will allow multiple Smart Bridge Pros?
    3. What are the shortcomings of all this?

    Thanks in Advance

    Justin

  2. #2
    With house that big and with this number of devices, you should take a look at RadioRA 2, it was built for that. If you want to stay with Caseta -

    1. Yes
    2. Yes. I haven't used multiple bridges with HomeKit, but I used them with 3rd party app.
    3. There are several obvious shortcomings:
    - Button on Pico on one bridge can't control anything else on any other bridge,
    - So if you have adjacent rooms on different bridges, it won't be possible to control both from one physical control,
    - Scenes spanning several bridges can be recalled only from phone

    One way to mitigate shortcomings could be to assign lighting loads to one bridge, and shades to another. One of the users was describing this setup on this forum.

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  4. #3
    Lutron Technical Support
    Join Date
    May 2013
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    635
    Justin,
    Each Caseta bridge would also require its own email address.

    For the size of your house and the number of devices needed, I would really recommend using the Radio Ra2 system (good for up to 200 devices), or The HomeWorks QS (for over 200 devices). These systems have the ability to expand the RF range by adding RF repeaters. Both of these systesm can be controlled by an app for iOS ans Android devices. The only downside is that neither one is HomeKit compatible.

  5. #4
    veeeh and Brian W,

    Thank you very much for your reply. I had'nt thought about the pico control issue across the bridges, that makes sense and needs to be taken in to consideration. Particularly if I go with the Pico Pro 3 scene remote.

    As for Radio RA2, the price coupled with no HomeKit, no apple watch interface, inability to set it up and make significant changes myself, is just too much for this "Do-It-Your-selfer".

    Brian: May I ask what third party app you used for multiple Smart Bridges?

    I am a newbie to Caseta, so if you could indulge me with another question:

    I was considering a somewhat sophisticated home automation controller, like Homeseer Hometroller HS3 Pro, with third party plug in for Caseta. Given that, then the Home Automation Controller sorts out the multiple bridges. And then the scenes, clocked/timed events etc etc can be accomplished at the Hometroller level irrespective of the number of bridges. Does this make sense, or is this opening up a whole new can of worms?


    Thanks again!

  6. #5
    Authorized Lutron Contributor
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
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    112
    Quote Originally Posted by Justin.coolDallas View Post
    veeeh and Brian W,

    Thank you very much for your reply. I had'nt thought about the pico control issue across the bridges, that makes sense and needs to be taken in to consideration. Particularly if I go with the Pico Pro 3 scene remote.

    As for Radio RA2, the price coupled with no HomeKit, no apple watch interface, inability to set it up and make significant changes myself, is just too much for this "Do-It-Your-selfer".

    Brian: May I ask what third party app you used for multiple Smart Bridges?

    I am a newbie to Caseta, so if you could indulge me with another question:

    I was considering a somewhat sophisticated home automation controller, like Homeseer Hometroller HS3 Pro, with third party plug in for Caseta. Given that, then the Home Automation Controller sorts out the multiple bridges. And then the scenes, clocked/timed events etc etc can be accomplished at the Hometroller level irrespective of the number of bridges. Does this make sense, or is this opening up a whole new can of worms?


    Thanks again!
    I believe the app Brian was referencing is Elgato Eve. If you were to go with a whole home control system (that is able to communicate with Caseta), there are options to talk to multiple Smart Bridges. You could definitely create things like scenes and timeclock events at the whole home controller level. I would obviously refer you to the manufacturer of the whole home system for specifics on what can/cannot be accomplished.

  7. #6
    Simple Control (formerly Roomie Remote) handles multiple bridges but they must be the Pro variety. Not sure how many devices you are planning but I can tell you the stated distance covered by the hub is real, regardless of the number of walls and obstructions etc.

  8. #7
    Zach R,

    I found the ElGato Eve app and checked it out with my single SmartBridgePro 2. Set up some timers and triggers, worked well.

    In the meantime, with my single plug in lamp module I have tested the range of the system. I have a 5000 sq ft, two story house, and so I did not really expect to cover the entire house with one SmartBridge. However, in my testing I have found that at the extreme ends of the house (relative to the SmartBridge location) I began to get spotty performance...once again, as expected. The distances for spotty performance were about 60 ft, and one floor of separation, in two different scenarios. In addition, even though this testing was not exactly scientific, the performance looked very solid at 40 to 50 feet, and a floor of separation.

    I have ordered a second SmartBridge Pro 2 and it will be here this week, this will allow me to test two things:

    1. Coverage of the house with two SmartBridges
    2. How well the various third party apps can handle more than one SmartBridge. My concerns here are
    * Setting up scenes, triggers and timers across devices that are on different SmartBridges, or on other third party hubs.
    * A "non-clunky", interface that is easy to use and set up

    hgmobile,

    Thanks for the input, I will run down this Simple Control s/w.

    NOTE: All my SmartBridges are Pro 2, and if this approach for whole (large) home Caseta works out, I plan to have well more than 50 devices in the not too distant future.

  9. #8
    Authorized Lutron Contributor
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    112
    Justin,

    Glad to hear Caseta and Elgato are working well for you. Please feel free to report back with your findings after setting up the multi-bridge system!

    -Zach

  10. #9
    Zach,

    I did some light testing this weekend of a two SmartBridge 2 Pro configuration. Basic set up went just fine, I had at least 2 Lutron Caseta devices / accessories on each Bridge.

    Using two different apps:
    1. Eve from ElGato
    2. Home - Smart Home Automation from Matthias H.

    I was able to successfully set up and operate a cross bridge scene. By that I mean a scene that contained accessories from each of the two bridges. In this case there was an in wall dimmer w/ Pico remote on Bridge #1 and a plug-in module w/ Pico remote on Bridge #2.

    Everything appeared to be working just fine in this very limited config. The fact that there were two bridges was pretty transparent to me, except when doing the initial setup of each device.

    These two bridges cover about 75% of my home very well. I have ordered a third bridge to cover the workshop and garage.

    Annoying Issue: Within HomeKit, there appears to be a rule that triggers and timers are NOT shared across devices. Meaning that any triggers / timers that I set up on my iPhone will only execute IF my iPhone has access to my network.....ie the devices to be controlled are "reachable". Since I travel a lot, and am not always connected, this seems to be a real shortcoming. Some other forums intimated that Apple may eventually fix this by having the option to put timers / triggers onto your AppleTV, which is required for HomeKit remote access anyway.

    If this is not fixed by this or another methond, then I will have to have a dedicated iPad / iPhone just for HomeKit.........not very attractive.

    Any insight into a solution / work around for this would be appreciated. (Short of waiting for Apple to roll out that capability.........)!!!!



    Justin in Dallas

  11. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Justin.coolDallas View Post
    Zach,

    I did some light testing this weekend of a two SmartBridge 2 Pro configuration. Basic set up went just fine, I had at least 2 Lutron Caseta devices / accessories on each Bridge.

    Using two different apps:
    1. Eve from ElGato
    2. Home - Smart Home Automation from Matthias H.

    I was able to successfully set up and operate a cross bridge scene. By that I mean a scene that contained accessories from each of the two bridges. In this case there was an in wall dimmer w/ Pico remote on Bridge #1 and a plug-in module w/ Pico remote on Bridge #2.

    Everything appeared to be working just fine in this very limited config. The fact that there were two bridges was pretty transparent to me, except when doing the initial setup of each device.

    These two bridges cover about 75% of my home very well. I have ordered a third bridge to cover the workshop and garage.

    Annoying Issue: Within HomeKit, there appears to be a rule that triggers and timers are NOT shared across devices. Meaning that any triggers / timers that I set up on my iPhone will only execute IF my iPhone has access to my network.....ie the devices to be controlled are "reachable". Since I travel a lot, and am not always connected, this seems to be a real shortcoming. Some other forums intimated that Apple may eventually fix this by having the option to put timers / triggers onto your AppleTV, which is required for HomeKit remote access anyway.

    If this is not fixed by this or another methond, then I will have to have a dedicated iPad / iPhone just for HomeKit.........not very attractive.

    Any insight into a solution / work around for this would be appreciated. (Short of waiting for Apple to roll out that capability.........)!!!!



    Justin in Dallas
    Take a look at the Homeseer you can control up to 4 Smartbrige Pro

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