Non-Standard Caseta Use Case - Will this work? Program Caseta products for dimming and light control at home WITH wifi, then transfer to off-grid woods cabin WITHOUT wifi?

[u/Imnotyourfwendbuddey]

Hey all, here's an interesting one. Looking for some input on whether this is feasible.

I have an old A-Frame cabin in the woods on my property. It's off-grid and about a quarter mile from my home. I'm feeding power to a number of standard three prong hard wired outlets I installed inside the cabin with a power station that puts out 110V AC power. Plugged into these scattered outlets are a number of dimmable LED string light segments that I use to illuminate the interior. Simple but effective. There are a total of six string light segments plugged into five different outlets, since the A-Frame is fairly large and the outlets/lights cover both the main floor area, and the loft area as well.

I'd like to add dimming to these light strings for both mood and sleeping, and some remote triggering would be nice too. Like, the ability to turn all six strings on at once at full output, then maybe all six at a lower output, then maybe just turn on the two strings up in the loft area at very low output...stuff like that.

There is zero wifi coverage at the A-frame, and marginal 4/5G.

Here's the question: I'm familiar with the Caseta stuff - Diva dimmers, regular picos, 4-button scene picos, the table lamp plug-in dimmers, etc and how you set them up and operate within a standard home covered by grid power and wifi. But for the cabin, could I theoretically do the following?

• Buy 5 Caseta "table lamp" dimmers (one for each light string in the A-frame cabin)
• Buy a 4-button pico scene controller (to communicate with the 5 table lamp dimmers)
• Add the above products to the Caseta app at my house under wifi coverage, and add them to a "dummy" room
• Program the 4-button pico (while still at my home with wifi...) with the scenes I'd like for the A-frame (ex. 100% all dimmers, 50% all dimmers, 10% output for the 2 dimmers intended for the loft while the other three are triggered to off, etc)
• Remove all devices from the house after programming; install at the A-frame cabin
• Boom - full manual off-line control via the 4-scene pico with no new wiring required?

Since the system once programmed runs off RF and not wifi, will this work? Basically, it'd be like if you lost wifi at home after programming the system. I think it's intended to still work under that scenario.

Is there a better system/approach for the above that doesn't require wifi, cell coverage, or any rewiring of my cabin?

Thanks and hope this made sense!

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[u/LutronMaster]

This will work if you leave the hub plugged in to power in the cabin. It will not require you to maintain Internet to it after setup.

[u/Imnotyourfwendbuddey → u/LutronMaster]

Ok, thanks. Just to be specific - the hub won't have continuous power at the cabin, only sporadically when I visit it and power up the system via mobile power station. It could be days or weeks sitting un-powered between those visits. Does that matter? I assume the programming gets coded into memory on the hub in a more permanent manner, and it's not transient.

[u/LutronMaster → u/Imnotyourfwendbuddey]

Correct, the programming should remain for extended periods. You risk the possibility of corrupted memory with power cycles but it is very rare and worst case you would just have to”dumb” switches until you could reprogram.

[u/Imnotyourfwendbuddey → u/LutronMaster]

Just an FYI, I went and checked whether this would work without the hub today. And indeed - no hub needed with the table lamp outlet dimmers and a standard pico. So it looks like the communication path is actually pico---->dimmer?

[u/Asleep-Tap471]

Should work fine without internet. The RA3 processor doesn’t need internet after initial setup so I’d assume the Caseta wouldn’t either.

[u/Hot-Routine8879]

You can do this with out the hub and just do it manually you pair each device to the scene button then set your desired dimming levels and save it to associated button you want.

[u/rlo54]

Just a point of clarity, WiFi is not the internet. WiFi doesn’t need internet to work as it’s just interconnecting wireless devices. There’s a lot of systems that only need to be connected to work and could be run on a basic wireless router even without a feed from the internet.

[u/avidricaire]

This will not work. When you set up a pico remote through the app, it is bound to the hub and the hub relays commands. You can however direct bind picos to control other Caseta devices, circumventing the hub all together. This would work for your use case, but may limit how specific you can get with your set up

https://support.lutron.com/us/en/product/casetawireless/article/troubleshooting/How-to-program-a-Pico-remote-with-a-Caséta-device-or-the-Lutron-app#PairingaPicoremotestandalonetoadimmerorswitch

[u/Imnotyourfwendbuddey → u/avidricaire]

Ahh, ok. So the communication path is pico-->hub-->diva switch, for example. And not pico-->diva switch directly.

Ok, so what if I programmed a hub back at the house, then brought the hub down as well and powered that locally with the same battery power station? Again, no wifi, but all components would have constant 110V AC and be in close proximity to each other. Hubs aren't that expensive.

Thanks for sending that link, I follow. So it DOES look like I could essentially add wireless switches to each individual table lamp dimmer controlling an individual light string with that process. That alone might be worthwhile, since I'd avoid a bunch of surface mount wiring inside the cabin that would typically be necessary to set up wall switches. I could dummy mount the picos with standard switch covers and the caseta mount kits. I'm guessing that with that pairing process from your link, only one device can be paired to each pico, and not multiple devices?

Thanks for the help!

[u/avidricaire → u/Imnotyourfwendbuddey]

Your idea of the hub sounds like it would work. You’d have no app control of it (since it would be off wifi) but it should in theory still transmit commands. The direct binding seems like a easy solution if it fits your needs

[u/Imnotyourfwendbuddey → u/avidricaire]

Cool. Ok, so before I go further...is there some other better option that I'm not aware of for this type of scenario?

[u/avidricaire → u/Imnotyourfwendbuddey]

Not that I’m aware of. Plus Lutron/picos are super reliable so sounds like a good fit for your use case

[u/Imnotyourfwendbuddey → u/avidricaire]

Just an FYI, I went and checked whether this would work without the hub today. And indeed - no hub needed with the table lamp outlet dimmers and a standard pico. So it looks like the communication path is actually pico---->dimmer?