Whole house integration questions

[Gus_B]

Exactly!... Plus I really want the home kit compatibility which RA2 doesn't provide.

[ZipZap]

That works. But of course you will need to up your lighting budget 10 times. Caseta will work just fine, and you will save $thousands.

This is the pickle I think Lutron is in. They're trying to protect their higher end products and their distribution network by selectively crippling Caseta. It's sad, I really like the DIY nature of Caseta (although I did have to bring in a specialist for my Sivoia QS window covers).

In my perfect world, Lutron would give up on the split between the Pro hub and the normal hub, it wouldn't surprise me if it's a true/false flag in a config file as the only difference between the two.

They'd get rid of the silly 50 device limit.

I like the idea that Caseta is for DIY, and the other systems require integrators. What I disagree with them on is that there is much overlap in the market.

Oh well.

[Gus_B]

This is the pickle I think Lutron is in. They're trying to protect their higher end products and their distribution network by selectively crippling Caseta. It's sad, I really like the DIY nature of Caseta (although I did have to bring in a specialist for my Sivoia QS window covers).

In my perfect world, Lutron would give up on the split between the Pro hub and the normal hub, it wouldn't surprise me if it's a true/false flag in a config file as the only difference between the two.

They'd get rid of the silly 50 device limit.

I like the idea that Caseta is for DIY, and the other systems require integrators. What I disagree with them on is that there is much overlap in the market.

Oh well.

Yep, they're still crippling caseta to protect their higher end systems. But the thing is that those systems were fine before home automation started to become mainstream, but now with home kit, alexa, Google's home assistant and all this other protocols; home automation has become really accessible and mainstream. Lutron right now has a leg up on the competition, but if they keep crippling their system the competition is going to catch up and leave them behind. There's already a ton of smart switches coming into the market, and companies like Lutron, savant, creston and other high end home automation companies are going to disappear unless they adapt to the new market. They should really see it as an opportunity since it is a way bigger market than the tiny high end market they are currently in.

Savant response to this new market is the new remote they released for the mass market, which is awesome but without home kit compatibility or alexa, or any of the other protocols it is useless, very limited usability... In 5 years time, the high end automation market will not exist. I guarantee it. And I can say this with complete confidence since I am part of their target demographic that can afford their higher end systems, and I have no interest in them. I want to be able to customize my home automation however I want, I want to be able to add things when I see fit, I want to be able to control everything from my phone, give voice commands, etc. All things that are so easy to do by just becoming home kit compatible or any other protocol of choice.

The truth is, that all the functionality of RA2 could be supported by caseta if they really wanted. They need to get rid of the 50 device limit and give you the possibility of adding a second hub to extend the range. We need switches that can control fans, we need motion detectors, we need buttons that can trigger scenes, etc. This are all things that would be very easy for them to implement.... Ok I'm ranting too much! rant over.

[Gus_B]

Can't figure how to delete this double post.

[Justin.coolDallas]

Gus

I have 95 plus Caseta devices across three Smart Bridges. The spread out nature of my house forced that as much as the sheer number of devices. Bottom line, it works exceptionally well with Apple Home as well as with my Homeseer S6 Pro. Multiple bridges is not an issue. Neither Homeseer nor Apple Home are perfect, as you would expect in this dynamic home automation market. But between the two, I have most things covered.

The recommendation to to go with RadioRA2 is invalid unless you have 3 to 5 x the budget AND you are willing to pay $150/hr every time you need a new device added or significantly changed........AND you are willing to be the last to get the latest integration features like Alexa, Sonos, et al.

Justin

[wkearney99]

I have 95 plus Caseta devices across three Smart Bridges. The spread out nature of my house forced that as much as the sheer number of devices. Bottom line, it works exceptionally well with Apple Home as well as with my Homeseer S6 Pro. Multiple bridges is not an issue. Neither Homeseer nor Apple Home are perfect, as you would expect in this dynamic home automation market. But between the two, I have most things covered.

The recommendation to to go with RadioRA2 is invalid unless you have 3 to 5 x the budget AND you are willing to pay $150/hr every time you need a new device added or significantly changed........AND you are willing to be the last to get the latest integration features like Alexa, Sonos, et al.

Well, if you're happy with the limited kinds of devices that Caseta supports, and you're willing to do the dance of multiple bridges, it's possible to do things with Caseta.

But if you want any kind of alternative colors for buttons, security interfacing, wider range of LED lighting support (it's harder than you think), keypads, motion sensors and more, well, Caseta won't do that.

I agree that Lutron's doing a pretty bad job of positioning Caseta and RA2. Technologically they're the SAME THING. But marketing-wise, it's a mess.

[davisadm]

The market for Caseta is much larger than for Radio RA2. Of course there are limitations, but for most, Caseta fits the bill. As to "the dance of multiple bridges", this is not a problem anymore with Apple Homekit and apps like Elgato Eve, Home Smart Home Automation, and Simple Control.

Well, if you're happy with the limited kinds of devices that Caseta supports, and you're willing to do the dance of multiple bridges, it's possible to do things with Caseta.

[wkearney99]

Well, you can't coordinate scenes across bridges. So anything that wants to control lights or devices is going to have to round-trip out through whatever 3rd party integration system that gets added. Nor do you get integrated vacancy/occupancy sensing or rollbacks without the delays of 3rd party integration.

Yes, "you can" do things via integration, but eventually you run into situations where you wouldn't HAVE TO if you'd chosen the right system at the outset.

As for larger market, that's only because of the way the systems are artificially isolated. I'd argue that's going to cause more problems than it solves.

There's a lot of dirty-little-secrets about LED lighting that are going to run into a lot of trouble without a wider range of dimmers than Caseta supports. That intro/price-conscious market is going to have trouble trying to get effective dimming. Mainly because of bad LED lighting designs but the dimmer's going to get the blame. This is going to leave the Caseta purchaser hanging with not option other than to ditch the bulbs. At least with RA2 there's more dimmer options available.

[Gus_B]

Thanks Justin, my thoughts exactly... Glad to hear you are able to work with multiple bridges. I've reading in the forum that some people have had issues with multiple bridge setups, so I find it refreshing that you can make it work through home kit.

Are you able to set a scene with devices from two separate bridges on the home app?

Gus

[davisadm]

Gus,

With Apple Homekit, in Automation, you can have a switch or Pico assigned to one Smart Bridge trigger a scene assigned to another Smart Bridge. So coordinated scenes across Smart Bridges does work. Just make sure you are using iOS 10 on your phone, have a 4th gen AppleTV (newest), and make sure that is is set up not to go to sleep.