Programming a scene for smart home automation

[jchitrady]

Hi all,
Is there a way to program a scene that would act differently depending on the time of day?

Here is a simple example:
Say we program a "Welcome" scene that would turn on lights in front yard, foyer and living room and we can program this to the car visor receiver keypad. When we arrive home we can push the button to open the garage which would also trigger the Welcome scene. In this case the lights will turn on no matter what time it is.
What I want is some kind of intelligence that the lights would only turn on say between 5pm to 5am or between (sunset-30minutes) and (sunrise+30 minutes).

I couldn't find a way to do this without adding occupancy sensor which then has to be controlled by timeclock event.

This is something so basic that I am hoping we can do with RR2.

[jchitrady]

I am pretty sure I am not the only one wanting this feature.
Lutron's hardware (dimmers, switches, keypads) are reliable, pretty good looking, available in many colors selection and I like the reliability of the clear connect. If Lutron doesn't keep up with providing new features I am afraid some new comers in the smart home automation market might beat Lutron in this area. I hate to see that happen.

Lutron -- please listen to your clients and pass this to the Product Manager.

[Craig W.]

To accomplish the programming you are looking for would require conditional logic to be used on the button. The RadioRA2 system does not support conditional programming to be able to accomplish this programming request. To use conditional logic a HomeWorks QS system would need to be used instead of a RadioRA2 system. We have passed this feedback on the development team.

[rapamatic]

I don't think conditional logic will ever trickle down to RadioRA2 - HomeWorks needs to be a differentiated product, and also conditional logic requires heavier duty processing than I imagine is in the main repeater....

BUT, there is a good, simple, well-documented API for RadioRA2, so its easy to layer on additional control software to achieve conditional logic and lot of other automation. I have heard good things about CQC, but haven't had the time to sit down and try to meaningfully program it...

[jchitrady]

I don't think conditional logic will ever trickle down to RadioRA2 - HomeWorks needs to be a differentiated product, and also conditional logic requires heavier duty processing than I imagine is in the main repeater....

BUT, there is a good, simple, well-documented API for RadioRA2, so its easy to layer on additional control software to achieve conditional logic and lot of other automation. I have heard good things about CQC, but haven't had the time to sit down and try to meaningfully program it...

I think it would be a mistake to intentionally hold conditional logic on RR2 if the main repeater is capable of doing so. If the strategy is to expect people to upgrade to Homeworks QS to get this extra feature I think it is a bad strategy. Without this feature I wouldn't consider RR2 is suitable for "smart home" system/automation, to be smart you have to be able to do conditional logic. Without it... it is nothing more than scenes, good looking dimmers, switches and keypads. If people are going to invest in a substantial amount of money to use RR2 then why hold this feature? In fact by providing this then whoever look at or check out our system might get excited about it and decide to install RR2 also at their homes. Yes it is the WOW factor that sells products, this is one reason why Apple sells a lot of products. Hopefully the Product Manager can see this reasoning.
In the smart home system/automation they call this "half smart is not smart", this is where RR2 is right now. There are a lot of new companies filing the gap in smart home market now, today I just read that Samsung is doing that. If Lutron doesn't act fast it might be too late later.

@rapamatic -- to use another layer of control software is not really practical. I assume this must run on something like a PC or laptop or servers that would have to run 24/7. While it might be a possible solution I would not deal with additional PC to maintain just for this. And when the drive crashes or something happens to the PC 2 years later it would be a nightmare to restore back especially if this is for a client. Try to sell that to a potential client.

[schalliol]

Would love to be able to upgrade to QS repeater without pulling all RR2 devices. That is possible if Lutron allows it.

[Craig W.]

Although each dimmer looks the same there are difference between the devices in the different systems. We have passed along your feedback to the development teams.

[schalliol]

Understood. I just know that it is possible to have QS type control on RR2 dimmers. The logic happens in the repeater and the same frequencies as eased for the devices. Lutron could make a RR2-pro repeater. I think you'd get a lot of upgrades. :-$