simplextech

About a year ago, perhaps longer now I can't remember. I called Brilliant and spoke with the dev department. They were very clear (at that time) they did not want to work with any outside integrators or platforms. They have their controller which they integrate with devices and not the other way around. Perhaps they are changing their views. On a different topic another in-wall controller switch/dimmer that is new'ish (couple years old now) is the Orro switch and they do work with integrators and platforms. I've had many discussions with them about platform integrations.

For disclosure I don't use the NodeServer beyond testing/validation of functionality. I did develop the current NodeServer. I have not ran ISY as my primary control system for a couple of years now. I do have a strong Z-Wave mesh that is comprised of wall receptacles. This is still in place because I have a couple thermostats left that are Z-Wave (StelPro) and I do use z-wave plugins for various things. I mostly use the ZEN15 modules because they can handle the load from motors and are capable of full 15A. I no longer use Z-Wave for door sensors or leak sensors. Those all run from my Elk M1 panel. Yes you can dip your toes into the Lutron world. You'll first need a main repeater and then whatever switches or devices you choose. Lutron ClearConnect is not a mesh network and the devices would need to be within 30ft of the main repeater. You can extend this by adding Aux Repeaters to the system. Placing Aux repeaters as necessary will allow for a very large footprint of devices. I would only wait for Ra 3 if you really don't like the Maestro switches like @lilyoyo1. I'll repeat again at this point in time there's no official method of integrating Ra 3 into any DIY system.

You don't. You can buy from me, from @lilyoyo1 or several online places that I know of after you've taken the training. There are many benefits to any variant of Lutron over Z-Wave. Over the years I've tested almost all of the options for lighting. Z-Wave, Zigbee, Insteon, Lutron. When I say I've "tested" I mean I replaced all of the switches/dimmers in my home with the current tech to be tested and I left it that way from 3-6 months. This provided enough time for any issues to appear and for family usage and complaints to surface. Insteon and Lutron were the solid winners. I had very few issues with Insteon but there were some and reliability wasn't perfect but far better than Z-Wave could ever be. I'm not talking hardware reliability I'm talking functional reliability. I did have some hardware failures with Insteon but not many. I've never had a hardware failure of any Lutron device yet. I'm also not worried about it because when I do I know Lutron will replace the device without any problems or hoops to jump through. Ultimately Lutron Radio Ra 2 and Lutron Caseta is what I use in my home and if budget allows what I recommend to clients. If budget is a problem then I work backwards through the Lutron product line. FYI - I run Caseta only because of the plugin modules that are cheap and work great for holiday lighting to be used in scenes that always work and are in perfect sync just like Insteon. I can't do this with Z-Wave and it not have popcorn effects and me constantly explaining to my wife why some lights turn on/off before the others do. I'm running the Caseta plugins versus the Ra 2 plugins only because of cost factor. All of my primary switched lighting is Ra2 and I use the VCRX for garage door control I have my Ra 2 tied directly to my Elk M1 panel and lots of rules running directly from the panel. My Ra 2 and Caseta are also integrated with my RTI system for full control and status and any rules outside of the Elk M1 capability. At the moment I'm in no hurry to upgrade to Ra 3 as there's no benefit to me (yet). For those looking to move to a Lutron system I would recommend looking at a Ra 2 system for now to ensure integration capabilities. The access/ability to integrate (officially) with Ra 3 with DIY systems is still unknown. If you go with Ra 2 switches/dimmers today those are compatible with Ra 3 if you decide to upgrade in the future.

Here's a start.... X10 - 1975 X10 (Consumer) - 1978 Insteon - 2005 Z-Wave - 1999 Z-Wave (Consumer) - 2003 Zigbee - 1998 Lutron RanaX - 1989 Lutron NeTwork - 1990 Lutron RadioRa - 1997

The lighting control industry is very mature with several offerings. Lutron is well known but they are not the only one out there. Philips also has a very nice lighting control system (professional) that not many even know about in the consumer space. The issue is the systems are not cheap or available on Amazon to the mass market of consumers. This is like saying the home automation industry is not mature when basing the statement from DIY offerings and not taking into account the many very mature, stable, functional professional systems (RTI, Control4, URC, Savant, Crestron).

It's expected that Ra 2 will go away as it's being replaced by Ra 3. EDIT: Benefit... Radio Ra 2 main repeaters should turn up cheap on the market soon from people upgrading LOL!!!! Maybe they'll keep RA2 Select or perhaps converge with Caseta with the RA3 Select? It's just been very odd to have two Lutron systems geared towards consumers and now that the occupancy sensor is supported in Caseta the only thing special between RA2 Select and Caseta is that RA2 Select devices are compatible with full Radio Ra 2.... I dunno... can speculate and make all kinds of wild guesses...

I know right... colors.... pretty My guess... pure speculation.... I think Lutron is working back to a 3-tier ecosystem... and going to eliminate one of the lower end lines.... I'm undecided if I think they're going to kill off RA2 Select or Caseta... I'm leaning towards RA2 Select getting the axe.

I'm still hopeful. I know it's a really long shot.

The existing Radio RA 2 aux repeaters will still work the Ra 3. Ra 3 is introducing their own ability to use additional repeaters. This is coming. Of course the two networks are completely separate. They run on vastly different frequencies and completely different chips.

Specifically the first one he listed is a Radio Ra 2 repeater. The second one listed is a RA2 Select repeater. Radio RA 2 and RA2 Select repeaters are not inter changeable.

To extend a Lutron Radio Ra 2 system you use Aux repeaters. This holds true with Ra 3. There is the main repeater and then Aux repeaters for the traditional ClearConnect devices. The newer ClearConnect-X stuff is a mesh. The switches, dimmers will extend the mesh. What is yet unknown or I've not see yet is whether or not the Aux repeaters will also help to extend this mesh network. It would be insane for the Aux repeaters to NOT extend the mesh but sometimes Lutron does wonky design things to limit system design size.

No. Radio Ra 3 is a dual system. It will use the traditional ClearConnect protocol used by all previous systems which is a direct communication protocol. This has a conservative limitation of 30 feet from main/aux repeater to the device. I say conservative because greater distances do work but then you're beyond the bounds of "validated" configuration for 100% reliability. This means that Ra 3 will support most of the devices from Radio Ra 2. Ra 3 is adding the newer protocol version which is a 2.4Ghz based protocol (Zigbee Pro) with proprieatary ZCL for the new devices and I'm hoping to bring Ketra support to Ra 3 (hopeful/wish).

I really think you're selling yourself short. After the test is out of the way setting up Lutron is actually quite easy.

I don't know the size and details of your home or your setup. In many cases HomeWorks is the "correct" fit for a home. Just like how you could use Caseta with multiple bridges to cover a large house but it's not the "correct" product to use. However HomeWorks is the top-shelf of Lutron Residential products and is "the" protected system by Lutron and dealers alike. There is no free training for HomeWorks. The training/certification cost for HomeWorks is approx $6,000 per person. HomeWorks installers must go through an approval process to be accepted to the training. The system is not open to DIY in any way. Using a control system with proper drivers it's possible to use multiple bridges or main repeaters of any of the Lutron systems to design out a large system. From a Lutron perspective this is not the correct way but it is a work around for the device limits imposed on each system. There are downsides to this as there are now multiple separate environments to manage/maintain.

Now I'm just plain confused. What does anyone need to volunteer for?

And proving my point that there are several Lutron certified dealers on this forum!

As a Lutron Certified Level 2 programmer, installer, dealer I'm trumping @lilyoyo1 on this one Lutron Level 1 certification is Free. Lutron Level 2 certification is $$$ and requires L1 as pre-requisite. 90% of the typical Lutron Radio Ra 2 installations out there only require Level 1.

What? The Lutron Radio Ra 2/3 Level 1 course is FREE. ANYONE can sign up for it and take it. If you pass the test you get access to the designer software. With the introduction of RA2 Select anyone can purchase the switches/dimmers/devices from most decent lighting supply shops. Anyone can go online, walk into a City Electric or Lighting Pro or Hank's Electric (my favorite) and order Lutron Radio Ra / RA2 Select devices. Now if you want HomeWorks that's a completely different ball game! Besides if anyone wanted any Lutron stuff there's several certified dealers on this forum!

The risk comes from the thousands of installs that were running the default integration username/password. This was corrected a little while ago in a firmware/designer update which forced the changing of the default credentials. Primary risk comes from network access in general. If you have solid perimeter network security and controls ie good SSID security and passwords then it's less of a problem unless you have an accessible switch with enabled ports. Anyways, also realize the Lutron system is not "just lights". You can control a whole host of other things from garage doors, entry doors, fire places, spas, etc etc anything with relay control can be done via lutron integration. Granted this is all from Ra 2 and HomeWorks and is not available in RA2 Select or Caseta.

Telnet was removed from QSX and so far the answer from the regional rep is that Ra 3 "Uses LEAP".

Well actually they do. As a lot of the products evolve from the requests of users. Example RTI recently released their RTI Music solution. Which fills in some of the most requested gaps of distributed music playing https://www.rticontrol.com/rti-music There are always going to be fringe cases that some integrators won't touch but others will because it's a fun challenge. They can then bundle/package it for the next customer. Keeps things interesting. Ra 3 is an example of Lutron taking the requests and interests of the "prosumer" users and from their "dealers" and trying to combine them. It provides a dealer install system that has much more "user" configuration options and full control (after training). Ra 3 is bridging the gap between Ra 2 and Caseta in many ways and I think RA2 Select will eventually be deprecated because of this.

that is interesting. Most would handle that with a flow meter at the source and if it's outside of normal range alert. For the in take level sensor I would definitely go with a wired sensor for reliability but that's just me. Curious what sensor you use today though. As for the music functions. Please explain how you accomplish that whole thing with whatever DIY system you have as I'm sure others would be interested. The hard part of your music example is the voice assistant piece. Most pro systems don't have much interest or care of integrating with Alexa, Google, Siri, because of the high level of support due to "cloud" problems that do occur and those result in support calls which are outside of the control of anyone. Recently I've seen a lot more deployments of Josh.AI which can be a local system removing the cloud reliability issues. Now this system is also very expensive. Flip side the cloud integration with Alexa, Google is possible but most dealers again don't like to do it because of support but if the money is right they will install and support it.

That was caught and fixed for PG3. The move to 17 still broke a PG2 nodeserver and I think it's still broke. I've sent a message to the nodeserver users and I'll wait and find out. Case in point still stands. Updating the development runtimes as a bundle update with everything else leads to problems that could be avoided. And why are we side-tracking the Ra 3 discussion so much on this? This whole topic could be it's own thread.

The affordable part is very dependent on the size of the install. It is possible to do a install for a average size home at only slightly higher cost than a typical DIY install. The big difference in the cost is pay it upfront now for a full install which a lot of DIY can't/don't want to do. Or build it up over time piece by piece which is how most DIY installs are done. What "complex" capabilities are you thinking of? Most of what the DIY systems think of as "complex" are just normal deployments for professional systems. One major difference that includes larger costs is that professional systems are not going to install or support cheap devices that are prone to problems and lead to support calls.

What? You want exact date and times of when what broke or caused problems? In a recent update Node.Js was updated along with everything else in the system. This broke a PG2 nodeserver. Is this widespread? No.... NOBODY else develops any nodeservers in Node.js so nobody else noticed or cared. The same type of issues has happened with Python updates in the past.