Support for Lutron Aurora (Friends of Hue dimmer)

[TFenby]

Looking to either supplant or re-open #1672.

Looks like the necessary info is in that issue, but please let me know if I need to provide more!

[carver7]

I would also appreciate having this switch supported:

• It's the only switch that renters can fasten onto an existing hard-wired light switch while simultaneously immobilizing it in order to prevent users from cutting off power to the light bulb socket out of habit
• It screws onto the most common in North America with no electrical modifications required, no additional zigbee switches are needed to stick to the wall, it looks like a common traditional N. American dimmer switch.

Some screenshots of a test setup in deConz with a Conbee II (if more info needed, please let me know) :

Related requests for Lutron Aurora dimmer switch:
#1672
ebaauw/homebridge-hue#522

[TFenby]

I could also have one shipped to a dev if that'd help. :)

[ebaauw]

Just to be sure: this is a wireless switch that covers the 20th century wall switch, but doesn’t need any wiring? Does it work without being installed/attached to the wall switch? I wouldn’t be able to install it due to my EU mains power and wall switches.

Otherwise I’ll be happy to have a look at it. I haven’t yet gotten my hands on a ZLLRotary switch. As mentioned in the homebridge-hue issue: not sure how to expose these to HomeKit, but if we can get web socket notifications for each rotary event, it would work quite well as a Stateless Programmable Switch with automations for setting Change Brightness from homebridge-hue, or Change Volume from homebridge-zp.

[francoiscote]

I just bought a couple of those also, so I am interested in deconz support and will try to help as much as I can.

@ebaauw You got it right. It works without being installed on the wall switch.

[carver7]

Hi @ebaauw ,

To better clarify, instead of us calling it a 'switch', the Lutron Aurora as a probably more helpfully described as:

• a battery-powered Zigbee 3.0 certified remote
• it has 2 controls: it's center is an on/off push button, and the outer dial is a rotary dimmer
• It can be paired directly with up to 12 Hue bulbs (and it should be pairable others), or it can be paired to a Hue bridge via the Hue phone app
• Is friction-mounted on top of any N. American hard-wired toogle-style light switch
  (since the Aurora's mounting plate sits flush with the hard-wired switch's outer wall-plate, the mounting plate's diameter is sufficiently large enough to effectively immobilize the toogle switch--see photos. So if the wired switch actually controls power to the fixture in which the Hue bulb is screwed into, the toogle-switch should be flipped to the 'on' position before installing...otherwise it doesn't matter if the wired switch is functional or not).
• no wiring at all so, it functions whether or not it is mounted onto anything

According to their FAQ, Lutron is not intending for this remote to work only with Hue bulbs.

It seems to be very well engineered, and it's nice to use.

Lutron's https site doesn't seem to be working at the moment, but here's the product links with specs (with it's own pairing and unpairing process described):
Aurora Advanced Installation Guide

General support center for the Aurora

Hue link

Here's some photos:

Just to be sure: this is a wireless switch that covers the 20th century wall switch, but doesn’t need any wiring? Does it work without being installed/attached to the wall switch? I wouldn’t be able to install it due to my EU mains power and wall switches.

Otherwise I’ll be happy to have a look at it. I haven’t yet gotten my hands on a ZLLRotary switch. As mentioned in the homebridge-hue issue: not sure how to expose these to HomeKit, but if we can get web socket notifications for each rotary event, it would work quite well as a Stateless Programmable Switch with automations for setting Change Brightness from homebridge-hue, or Change Volume from homebridge-zp.

[carver7]

@TFenby

If @ebaauw is interested in receiving one from you and wants to give it a try, it'd be best to make sure it has the latest firmware on it first, since I don't know if the Hue app would be able to do so outside of N. America.

Would you be able to pair it with a Hue bridge and update the firmware (if available) and then unpair it from your Hue bridge before sending it to him?

Also, if you do this, I'll split the cost with you so let me know and we can PM so I can PayPal you.

Obviously we know there's no guarantee of success but I suspect he'd be successful. Homebridge-hue works so well and since I use it daily now, I wouldn't mind sending this to him out of gratitude anyhow :)

[TFenby]

@carver7: If I had a Hue bridge I'd be happy to. :) If you have one I can offer the same cost splitting.

If it's at all helpful to the devs, this device does work with zigbee2mqtt: https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman-converters/pull/587/files

Very different architecture I'm sure but it shows that it does seem to be a pretty standards-conformant ZigBee device.

Also, I am ultimately hoping to use this with Home Assistant if that's relevant?

[ebaauw]

Looking at the screenshots, the device is likely a hybrid, like the Hue dimmer switch, that controls lights directly and sends buttonevent reports to the gateway/hub. Looks like the zigbee2mqtt supports the first, but not the buttonevents. Typically they provide more precise control, but only when the gateway/hub is up and running.

I have a Hue bridge and would be able to link the device to it. Not sure about the firmware updates, I know they use to roll out new firmware per region, but I don’t know if they limit firmware availability to the region where a device is sold. Seems like a lot of administration/work, for no apparent benefit.

After we’ve added support in the REST API plugin, the various API clients, like Phoscon, the HA plugin, and homebridge-hue, need to add support as well. I can only do homebridge-hue; Phoscon isn’t open source, and I don’t know HA.

[carver7]

@ebaauw

Looking at the screenshots, the device is likely a hybrid, like the Hue dimmer switch, that controls lights directly and sends buttonevent reports to the gateway/hub. Looks like the zigbee2mqtt supports the first, but not the buttonevents. Typically they provide more precise control, but only when the gateway/hub is up and running.

I can confirm what looks like button and dial events being reported from the remote to the Hue bridge: once it is paired with the Hue bridge, next to the Aurora’s icon in the ‘accessories setup’ section of Hue app, time-stamped messages saying either ‘dial rotated’ or ‘button pressed’ appear when operating it.

Given that it simply states ‘dial rotated’ when turning the dial, and nothing with respect to by how many degrees or by how change in intensity, this also seems consistent with your observation that the remote likely controls the bulbs directly while simply reporting the events to the bridge.

If this hybrid mechanism is indeed how it works, then after the event is reported, does the Hue bridge then in turn poll one or all of the associated bulbs to determine what changes in on/off state or ‘brightness’/intensity have been made before reporting it to the Hue app?
(Polling since I believe I’ve read that the Hue bridge does not use websockets)

[carver7]

@carver7: If I had a Hue bridge I'd be happy to. :) If you have one I can offer the same cost splitting

@TFenby
Sure that works just fine for me...
@ebaauw , if you’re interested, I’d be happy to send you one...if you are, what would be a good way of going about communicating the relevant shipping instructions ?

[ebaauw]

Please email me, or start a private conversation on the homebridge workspace in Slack.

When paired to the Hue bridge, the Hue dimmer switch only reports the buttonevents to the bridge, and doesn’t control the lights directly. It only does so, when paired directly with a light, forming an ad-hoc network, without a bridge. I suspect the Lutron will do the same.

The Hue bridge works under the paradigm that all changes to the light are going through the bridge. When sending a command, it updates its cache with the predicted lightstate after the light has executed the command. The polling is only a safety net, and I suppose for detecting when the light can no longer be reached. This is very different from the paradigm used by e.g. IKEA, where all controllers and even their motion sensor send commands directly to the lights, and the lights report their changed state to the hub. deCONZ can do both: it updates its cache when sending a command to the light, and it eavesdrops on the commands a controller sends, to reverse-engineer that controller events.

There’s pros and cons to both paradigms. The central approach is more flexible, allowing you to map any event to any action, through rules. It only works when the bridge/hub/gateway is up and running. Predicting the light state can be challenging, especially for relative commands (like bri_inc), for group commands, for scenes, and for colours. The decentral approach scales better (no polling needed), and works even when the bridge/hub/gateway is down. However, you’re limited to the comands that the controller sends. This can be configured for professional-grade controllers, but not for the consumer-grade controllers in our budget range.

[TFenby]

Looking at the screenshots, the device is likely a hybrid, like the Hue dimmer switch, that controls lights directly and sends buttonevent reports to the gateway/hub. Looks like the zigbee2mqtt supports the first, but not the buttonevents. Typically they provide more precise control, but only when the gateway/hub is up and running.

I might be misunderstanding, but I can confirm that the Aurora switches do send events to the "hub" in my HASS/zigbee2mqtt setup. I do not have any ZigBee lights at all, and I was able to control IP/Wi-Fi lights with the Aurora switches by using HASS/zigbee2mqtt as the "hub".

[ebaauw]

What I mean is: the zigbee2mqtt picks up (eavesdrops) the commands the switch sends to the group of lights, it doesn’t pick up the Multistate Input notifications. Note that a group in Zigbee is like a multicast address, the switch will happily send the command, irrespective of whether any light is listening, or even present.

[carver7]

@ebaauw
Email sent to ###@###l.nl
Please let me know if you didn’t receive it.

(sorry for my delayed response here)

[ebaauw]

Thanks, @carver7, I did receive your email. @TFenby has already contacted me for my address on Slack. I really appreciate both your efforts, but receiving multiple units would be a waste. I won’t have use for the dimmer here in Europe, due to different standards for in-wall switches. Probably best to get the one with the latest firmware, just in case I won’t be able to update it from over here.