[OBSOLETE] LutronPro Caseta v1.0

Hey @AdamHLG that’s extremely welcome news - congrats. To answer your questions:

I’m pretty sure the LutronPi (v2) setup completely duplicates all functionality of the LutronPro (v1) setup, so yes: that original RPi and its v1 node server can be decommissioned, along with its associated SmartApp and device handlers.

Of course the new LutronPi SmartApp will create new SmartThings devices (via its own handlers) for all the Lutron devices that its sees on your original bridge. So if you have any of the original devices ‘plugged into’ SmartThings automations, that will have to be re-done in SmartThings. (That’s the pain-in-the-neck part of all this.)

As for the official Caseta integration: I can’t tell you for sure as I’ve never tried it (oddly enough). But if it all it’s doing is providing a lot of duplicated lighting devices, then it can probably be dispensed with. OTH if you find that the official integration is providing something that the LutronPi setup does not: let me know what that is; I’d be very interested! For one thing, it may very likely have more extensive shade control; that wouldn’t surprise me.

Aside from the Pico functionality, you’ll find that the LutronPi (v2) version of the Lutron lighting also provides ramped on and off timing, if you want to use that. (For Pro bridges only)

If you nose around in the Pico device settings (the ‘gear’ icon in the upper right), you’ll find some options like: selecting a ‘favorite’ button that will then appear on the main SmartThings Home screen; whether a button ‘hold’ times out after 6 seconds; whether each button is the standard Push/Hold or instead Push/Repeat or as a Press/Release (like a SmartThings contact). Also, even in the Push modes, the Pico buttons simultaneously act as SmartThings buttons AND contacts, which might be useful for ‘do this while pressed’ automations.

A Pico also has an option to loop its in-app virtual button presses through/to the Lutron bridge and back to SmartThings (so the Lutron bridge thinks the real Pico button was pressed), or to drive SmartThings automations directly (rather than waiting for the Lutron bridge to respond.) That latter mode allows non-Pro bridge Picos to work from virtual app buttons and still also drive SmartThings automations from those app buttons (just not from the real Pico buttons).

Also, if you hadn’t noticed it, in the LutronPi SmartApp setup is an option to turn on notifications. If enabled, this will provide SmartThings notifications when the LutronPi node server goes offline or online and when device complement changes on any of the bridges (e.g. when you add a Lutron device from the Lutron app).

Keep us posted on your progress, if you don’t mind!

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Of course I don’t mind! I am resetting everything anyway. The contractors are here in the house installing the last of the Casetas today. Once they leave, I will get to work cleaning up the placement of devices on the respective bridges and deleting the old apps etc. I will post a thorough follow up.

I completed setting up the two separate Caseta Bridges through the Caseta Apps. I ran the Node server app. I then ran through the configuration of the SmartApp. I selected all of my 35 Casetas and 24 Picos that it found across both Caseta Pro bridges. I hit save, and it threw an error “cannot save this page”. On a hunch, I went back and tried to add a simple Caseta and it worked! Hooray. I went back and tried to add a single Pico. It worked. Hooray. I then found that adding 3 - 5 devices and/or Picos at a time would work. Trying to add 10 at a time would not work. I just had to keep going back into the SmartApp and add 3 - 5 at a time until all were added. Eventually I was able to add all the switches and Picos. So not sure what happened there… maybe too much info for the SmartThings hub in one bite, but letting you know this was the only hiccup along the way, but it is all working perfectly now. Given I wont have to add all this stuff all over again all at once now that its in SmartThings, I am not worried about it, but documenting it for others.

I am totally psyched. Thank you SO much. I will come back in a few days and document all my steps not only for my own reference one day if I need to do it again, but for others to make it super easy.

One question: I did select the option to be notified of Bridge updates. And I got an alert about 30 minutes after I finished up that a bridge update was available. Not sure if this was a coincidence since it was a new install, but regardless I do not see how to upgrade the bridge manually in the Caseta app. Was curious about this. It did update the firmware the first time I installed the second Bridge Pro. Maybe that was what it was and it came late. I am just curious about how to update the Bridges manually if I get a notification in the future. Or maybe it happens without user intervention.

Thanks again Bill. Could not have done this project without you and Nate. I am running live with 59 Caseta devices all integrated into SmartThings now and room to grow. Next step will be slowly deleting duplicates from the original SmartApp and native Caseta app as I change over automation to the new SmartApp, and then deleting the old SmartApps and ultimately decommissioning and perhaps retasking the original RPI.

Adam

That’s a very encouraging report, thanks! I am not sure what to make of the “cannot update…” problem you had but I’m glad you found the workaround. I had not heard that one reported before, but I will give it some thought; it might be related to some of the throttling measures that SmartThings puts on certain SmartApp operations to keep them from hogging resources.
Regarding the bridge update notifications: that might be a bit of a misnomer. The “update“ is not referring to the firmware in the bridge, but rather the complement of Lutron devices that you have set up on that bridge. That is, when you add or remove a Lutron device in the Lutron app, you should eventually get that notification on SmartThings. But it is a lazy notification, to keep you from being repeatedly pestered when you’re changing a lot of things at once, so it might lag behind your actual changes by quite a few minutes. It’s really just a reminder to make the corresponding selection (or de-selection) in the SmartApp.

I have however seen the Lutron bridges update their firmware. They seem to do it upon reboot, if there’s an update available from Lutron, and otherwise at some random point overnight. In that case you might get a bridge offline notification instead, and then a bridge online notification a little later. I actually could parse out when that is happening, specifically, but it’s really more trouble than it’s worth because it’s so infrequent. I don’t think there’s any way to force a Lutron firmware update other than rebooting the bridge itself.

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Quick question. I would like to program the “favorite” circular middle button on a Caseta Pro switch (not the Pico - a wired switch) to toggle on/off two other Caseta switches in a different room. Figuring that would be easy, I launched the Advanced Button Controller SmartApp to start that process and noticed that I can only select Pico buttons (I use this SmartApp to program the Pico buttons, including the “favorite” button, for Hue lights). I then realized that the center “favorite” button on a Caseta Pro non-Pico switch does not appear. In fact, there is no SmartApp I can find that allows me to program a “favorite” button on a Caseta Pro non-Pico switch. I tried the Smart Lights SmartApp and I can program the “on” and “off” buttons of non-Pico switches to control other switches, but not the favorite button.

Am I missing something obvious or can we not currently accomplish this goal?

With regard to my project in the recent posts above, I would like to take the time to document the steps I undertook to get this working flawlessly. These are my notes, step by step, in case I need to look back one day to re-do the project, or to explain to someone else how to do it. Rather than write my steps to a Word document to my file, I figured I would post it here in case it helps others. So here we go, starting from scratch in case someone else is starting from scratch:

The following setup will allow the user to exceed the 50 device limit of a Lutron Caseta Bridge, as well as use Pico remotes in SmartThings to control other automations.

  1. Purchase these products from Amazon (note: these are the current products as of 12/19/2018):

A. Lutron Caseta L-BDGPRO2-WH - SmartBridge Pro Bridge (you will need two of these if you want to exceed the 50 device limits on one of them). https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Z8AXQCQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

B. CanaKit Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (B Plus) Starter Kit (32 GB EVO+ Edition, Premium Black Case)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BCC8PK7/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

C. Purchase any other Lutron Caseta switches and Pico remotes you need for your project.

  1. Setup your one or two Lutron Smart Bridge Pros. If you are using two bridges, note that you must setup a different Lutron account for each one - specifically - a different email address. I use my main e-mail address and a backup G-Mail address for the second address. I also have one Lutron app setup on my phone and the second Lutron app setup on an iPad - so I do not need to log in and out each time between the two. Once setup, you must go into the app for each bridge and enable telnet support in the Advanced settings under “integration”. Then, go to the Network Settings tab. Note the IP address for each bridge. This next part is optional, but recommended: go to your router / firewall and assign a static IP address to each bridge. Once you do this, turn off DHCP in the Network settings on the bridge. Then, add your switches and Picos one by one. It does not matter which bridge you use, i.e., no need to fill one up before using the other, because the SmartApp below will combine them.

  2. Next, go to this website and build / program your Raspberry Pi (hereafter the “RPI”). This is an EXCELLENT article for newbies and I followed every step and it worked flawlessly. https://thisdavej.com/beginners-guide-to-installing-node-js-on-a-raspberry-pi/12/

  3. Once you have your RPI setup, I would again set a static IP address for it. Once its up on the network with Node.js setup per the above step, you are good to go to the next step.

  4. Go to this link and read what Bill Hinkle wrote about his “version 2” to Nate Schwartz’s original script and SmartApp: LutronPro Caseta v1.0. Just read it for now.

  5. Once you read the link above, go to this site mentioned in the link and read the readme.md file that appears lower on the page: https://github.com/billhinkle/lutronpi-server . Follow the installation instructions to install LutronPi server onto your RPI. I am a newbie - don’t worry - its not hard. Just follow step by step.

  6. Now its time to install the SmartApp and device handlers. You need to logon to the SmartThings IDE. The SmartThings SmartApp and device handlers and instructions are here: https://github.com/billhinkle/lutronpi-smartthings

  7. Now, if you did all this correctly, get ready to profit:

A. Remote desktop into your RPI (or however you access your RPI). Assuming installation in a lutronpi directory, start node server and type this into the box: “node lutronpi/lutronpi” (without the quotes) and this will start the LutronPi Server with automatic Lutron and SmartThings discovery. You will be asked your logon credentials for each Lutron bridge. And then all of this random text that nobody knows what it means except Nate and Bill will scroll by lol.

B. Start the SmartApp on your phone. It should find the RPI, and then walk you through to select the Caseta switches, Picos, and scenes it finds. I had a few issues if I tried to add more than 4 or 5 devices at a time, so I had to go back a few times and add 5 or so at a time. Eventually I added all of my devices.

C. Pump your fists in the air like you hit a home run, because you just did.

That’s it. I don’t think I forgot anything. But I will forget everything in about a week, so this is why I wrote my notes. Good luck!!!

@AdamHLG - I am pretty sure that the Caseta Pro wall switch (ELV type, right?) doesn’t report its actual button presses back to the Lutron Bridge, just its lighting level changes. That’s the case for the non-Pro and (other) Pro switches I’ve played with, anyhow. I don’t have one of these, so can’t be 100% sure… does the Lutron app itself let you do anything special with that button, or does it just look like a regular dimmer as far as that app is concerned?

I’m guessing Smart Lights really just detected whether the dimmer level is 0% or something else, and triggers accordingly as “off” or “on”.

One thing you might try is to program the favorite button for some particular dimming level (37% say) and then use WebCore to detect that level and ‘do something’ (e.g. toggle those other switches elsewhere). But of course that would change the lighting level at that dimmer too, which is probably not what you want.

Path of least resistance might be to just get a wall-attachment kit for a Pico and hang it next to this dimmer.

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Nice succinct summary! I’ll add a note here that, if you are going for a 2+ Lutron bridge setup, you can save a few bucks by using a non-Pro bridge in addition to a Pro bridge, so long as you concentrate all your Pico switches on the Pro bridge.

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yup - you nailed it. the Lutron App does not allow anything on the button. I will just make a scene and trigger it some other way.

I am seeing some strange behavior today with the LutronPro v.2 I installed last week. SmartThings reports that the LutronPi server is offline, but it goes back online by itself 6 - 8 minutes later. It happened a few times today. I do not have anything installed on the RPI to restart the LutronPi server, i.e., I never got to that optional step to install the other stuff that would restart it. Looking at the window on the RPI that is running the script, there is nothing to suggest the server actually stopped. It seems like it never actually stopped, but it only went offline, but then goes back online 6-8 minutes later.

Not sure where else to look for what might be causing this. I guess it can be my network but its been running error free for days. The SmartThings hub itself never goes offline that I can tell, because I don’t get that separate notification. There is nothing in any logs that I see on the IDE. Is it possible that there is an issue at SmartThings and it is not related to this SmartApp such that the problem might solve itself? Kind of strange.

Yeah, mine did the same thing today, starting sometime this morning - a constant flurry of offline/online notifications, while the server didn’t actually seem to be offline at all. I’m guessing that something at the SmartThings end is delaying cloud responses enough to interfere with the scheme I’m using to decide if the server’s ‘disappeared’ (gone dead). I’ll have to look at it in light of this event and see if I can eliminate the problem, or at least reduce it to a non-annoying level.

In the meantime, you could just turn off that notification for the time being, although I’ll bet that this issue (whatever the cause) abates pretty soon. I’ll post an update as soon as I have something promising - sorry about that!

I just received a SmartThings email notification that this appears to be a North American official problem. I must say that I am relieved. in the span of five minutes between your post and the email I have confirmed that it is not just me! No worries now I’ll wait it out.

Just got that notice also - huh, I guess it actually was ‘offline’ in a functional sense, even though the server itself was alive.

Got the update email that they think it’s fixed. I’ve been online for 40 min. This is the first widespread issue that actually affected me.

I’ll tell you what. The notification system worked perfectly in your SmartApp. This is the type of notifications I want to receive.

Bill,

Any possibility to build in a notification (like via the ST app) when the connection isn’t working any more? The reason I ask is that my set-up can work for many, many months, and then one day I go to use my pico switch and it doesn’t work. I solve this by re-booting my raspberry which gets everything connected back up. It would be nice to know it’s down before needing to use it…just a suggestion…

P.S. If I knew how to set this up myself, I’d do it. The reason I mention this is a possibility is this exists in other ST apps, such as NST Manager (in app notification if the connection goes down).

@smartie - On the first page of the LutronPi service manager (SmartApp) configurator is an option called “notify on bridge updates”. Which is not really a very good name anymore. If you turn this on it will not only notify you about device changes on your Lutron bridge, but also notify you when the LutronPi node server (on your rPi) appears to go off-line, or when the Lutron bridge goes off-line. This via SmartThings app notifications. I won’t claim I plugged every possible failure mode, but it does seem to catch quite a few. In fact the notifications became annoyingly frequent the other day when SmartThings itself had a communications conniption with North American hubs.

Interesting - I never upgraded to the LutronPi service manager (I have the old Pro Service Manager). Other than sometimes disconnecting (once every 4-6 months or so, I’ve had good luck). I guess to switch over I would re-install everything I have the old version run on Pi boot up, which I like…I think I used the systemd. I only have one pico switch on this, so maybe for what i need it for, re-installing everything might be a bit much?

Were you able to duplicate your programming (restart on boot-up) for Bill’s newest setup like you did on the older setup? I’d like to switch to his version, but I also like my set-up now, as if the Raspberry Pi turns off and back on, the LutronPro server comes back to life (thanks for your detailed instructions a while back). If you do have it run automatically on boot-up with his newest version, would you mind walking us through it? Thanks

@smartie - aha, sorry, didn’t realize you were on Nate’s original Lutron Pro version. Yeah, the LutronPi SmartApp and node server is a sort of Version 2 with a number of additional features. Aside from the notifications mentioned earlier, it is also has a pretty robust ability to re-connect itself when disconnected at both the SmartThings and Lutron SmartBridge levels.

But you’re right: because it’s not a direct ‘upgrade’ replacement for Nate’s V1, your devices would need to be re-created in SmartThings once the newer version is installed at both SmartThings and node server (your RPi, etc.). This isn’t a big deal for just simple switches, dimmers, picos but of course the additional work crops up where you have those devices hooked into other automations.

There’s no particular reason systemd or pm2 should be tricker for LutronPi v2 than it was for LutronPro v1, I don’t think.

Actually, I’m sorry :slight_smile: I’ve been watching the thread and didn’t even pay close attention to what you’ve done over time. There won’t be much to do, since I only have 1 pico. Jacobwtyler wrote a way through systemd to have the older version start on boot-up, so I’ll wait to get his input before I tackle this. I’m big on systems that self-heal themselves (like what you’ve done). Thanks