(Feature Request) How To Implement Pico Remote HomeKit Support

[ajiuO]

I have seen a lot of request for this both on and off of this forum. It might seem like it would be very complicated to implement, but it's really not... and it also does not require Apple to update anything. I have thought of a very clean method for implementing Pico Home Kit support that it both simple and matches the Lutron Interface. There is no reason that this could not be used to support other systems in adition to HomeKit, but HomeKit was what I had in mind when I designed this. I Home that you guys consider this because the world is moving toward bulbs and devises that are switched and dimmed at the device instead of a traditional hard wired switch... so this would make a lot of people really happy.

This implimintation would create virtual switches in the background, but they would not be viewable in the main part of the app. This would make it far less confusing. The setting would be found in the same place as the pico remote settings, and the virtual switches would show up in HomeKit and potentionly to any system that wants to take advantage of them. I have made a few consent images to show you what a user would see and how they would interact with the implementation...

The options would be found when you go to edit a Pico switch device... there would be a new "HomeKit, Automation Triggers" option right under the "Lights, Shades and Audio" option...




Clicking on "HomeKit, Automation Triggers" would take you to the following page...



So basically the way that this works is that a virtual switch would be created in the background for each Button on the pico remote. So if it's a 2 button remote there would only be 2 virtual triggers. For this example I am using a 3 button with rais and lower... so there are 5 virtual switches.

Here is an outline of the option...

Enable: This would be unselected by default and would need to be selected to enable virtual switches for this device

Mode: There would be two mode... "Selection Mode" and "Toggle Mode". Only one mode can be selected.

Selection Mode: In this mode Hitting a button on the pico remote would the set the state of the corresponding virtual switch to "on" while setting the remaining switches in the group to "off".

Toggle Mode: Hitting a button on the pico remote will Toggle the state of the corresponding switch.

HomeKit Switch Options: This section would display a graphic icon representing each button on the pico remote along with the title of the virtual switch... this is the title that will show up in HomeKit. Each item could be clicked to expand to the next option menu level...




Here are the expanded options that you get when clicking on one of the button/virtual switch sections.

Name: In the top section you would be able to rename the virtual Switch

Toggle Mode Type: this is where would select the Toggle mode type to the button / virtual switch. There are two options avaloble... "Hold" and "Momentary". Only one can be selected.

Hold: The state of the virtual switch is changed when the corresponding button on the pico remote is pushed. It will remain in that state until the pico remote is pushed again or until the state is changed via HomeKit.

Momentary: The switch normally remains in the off state. Pushing the corresponding button on the pico remote will change the state of the switch to "On" for a set period of time and then it will automatically return to the off state at the end of the specified duration.

Momentary Hold Time: This would be where a user sets the duration for the "Momentary" type Toggle mode. I gust used these durations as an example. It might be better to use a scrole wheel to give more options... even up into the minutes range... this could come in handy for triggering bathroom fans and such.


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So there is my concept all laid out... I really hope that you consider it. I love Lutron switches... but there are so many people switching to platforms such as philips hue and HomeKit where traditional switches don't work... Somthing like this would make your pico switches much more versital and off customers a lutron option for modern wireless devices.

Thank You for your consideration.

[Zach R.]

Thank you for taking the time to type this up this feedback. I will be sure to pass along your request to our development team for consideration. In the meantime, check out the following forum post...some other users found a creative way to have a Pico remote control 3rd party devices by using HomeKit triggers.

https://forums.lutron.com/showthread...HomeKit-Scenes

[ajiuO]

I am aware of the lamp dimmer trick and use it for controlling a fan, however I would like to have several pico switches throughout my house to control scenes mainly on philips hue bulbs. The idea of buying a 60$ lamp dimmer for each pico switch is a bit daunting, and a bit wasteful. I mainly want to use the PJ2-4B pico remotes witch are not even what comes with the lamp dimmer. If you had the virtual switches like I suggested... or even a virtual dimmer like other people have suggested... I would buy a bunch of pico remotes. I'm not really willing to buy them if I have to buy a lamp dimmer in addition to each one... you could use a lamp dimmer for more then one as long as you want the bottom button to be the same.

I do appreciate the idea though and thank you for passing this on.

[HomeKit]

Wow awesome work on the renderings and laying out our idea, I would love to see this implemented. You actually took it further than I imagined. Love it!

[lsc11]

+1 add this PLEASE!

[link266]

Yes, yes, yes!! This would be amazing! Would work so well with all the new Home.app features in iOS 11.