The Benefits and Features of Pico Remotes for Smart Home Control

When it comes to smart home technology, one of the most exciting features is the ability to control multiple devices with a single remote. In this article, we'll delve into the world of Pico remotes and explore their benefits, features, and capabilities.

Using a Pico Remote for Shade Control

To get started with a Pico remote, you'll need to begin by opening the app on your smartphone or tablet. Once opened, navigate to the settings section and locate the "Valance" button at the top of the screen. Pressing this button will allow you to pull down the shade's valance. Next, look for the small button at the very top left side of the screen. This button will flash green when it's ready to be used. Hold down the button for 10 seconds to pair the Pico remote with your smart home system.

After pairing, you'll need to head back to the app and navigate to the "Pair" section. Select the shade you want to control and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the pairing process. Once paired, you can use the Pico remote to adjust the position of the shade by sliding it up or down. This is a simple yet effective way to control your shades from anywhere in the room.

Extending Control with Additional Devices

One of the most exciting features of Pico remotes is their ability to control multiple devices with a single button press. To demonstrate this, let's use the example of turning on and off all the lights in the room. Under the lights section of the app, navigate to "Edit Devices" and select the devices you want to be controlled by the Pico remote. In our case, we'll choose the main lights under the cabinet, as well as the island pendant light.

Once you've selected the devices, tap "Save" to add the programming to the Pico remote. This process may take a minute or two, but it's worth it for the added convenience and control it provides. With this setup, you can now turn on all the lights in the room with just one press of the Pico remote.

Dimming and Brightness Control

In addition to turning devices on and off, Pico remotes also offer dimming and brightness control capabilities. For example, if you have a smart switch that supports dimming, such as the Diva Smart Dimmer, you'll be able to adjust the brightness of the light using the Pico remote.

However, not all devices support dimming or brightness control. In our case, we can only adjust the brightness of the lights under the cabinet and island pendant light. Nevertheless, this feature still provides a useful level of control over your lighting setup.

Creating Favorite Scenes

One of the most convenient features of Pico remotes is the ability to create favorite scenes. With just one button press, you can instantly adjust multiple devices in a single action. For example, let's say you want to create a scene that turns on the under cabinet lights at a dimmed setting and activates the pendant light over the island.

To do this, navigate to the "Favorite" section of the app and follow the on-screen instructions. Once you've created your favorite scene, you can now use the Pico remote to activate it by pressing the favorite button. The lighting will adjust accordingly, making it easy to create a seamless experience in your home.

Combining Shades and Lights

Another useful feature of Pico remotes is their ability to combine shades and lights into separate devices. While we've already demonstrated this with our example of turning on all the lights in the room, you can also use this feature to control individual shades or lights separately.

For example, if you want to open the bowl shades at the same time as turning on the island pendant light, you can select both devices under the "Edit Devices" section and save them as separate devices. This allows for even more customization and flexibility in your smart home setup.

Connecting to Other Voice Assistants

One of the most exciting applications of Pico remotes is their ability to connect with other voice assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, or Alexa. While this may seem like a complex process, we'll explore it further in an upcoming video that shows how to install compatible smart switches and integrate multiple voice assistants into your home.

Additional Tips and Considerations

Before investing in Pico remotes for your smart home system, consider the following tips and considerations:

* Make sure to check compatibility with your existing devices before purchasing Pico remotes.

* Consider the range of coverage when placing your Pico remote. You want it to be accessible from anywhere in the room where you'll be using it.

* Take advantage of the favorite scene feature to create seamless experiences in your home.

Conclusion

Pico remotes offer a convenient and flexible way to control multiple devices in your smart home system. From adjusting shades to turning on lights, these remotes provide a range of features that make controlling your home a breeze. Whether you're looking to create a seamless experience or simply want more control over your lighting setup, Pico remotes are definitely worth considering.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: entoday we're going to take a look at the caseta by Lutron smart dimmer starter kit we're going to look at how to get the caseta Smart Hub setup as well as pair it with all the other caseta Wireless products let's get started now today I'll be using the smart dimmer starter kit with the new Diva smart dimmer but you could pick up the Smart Hub by itself or you can pick it up with any other kits now this Hub is able to sport up to 75 different caseta products so a Smart Switch would be a product a Pico would be a product a shade would be a product so you can have a total of 75 of those in your home with one Hub and they do have a range of about 30 feet in radius so if you do need more range you can buy a repeater that allows you to have more range so here on the back it talks about getting the Smart Hub set up so we're going to connect your smart hub to your router and download the Lutron app set up your system by adding your device programming schedules and scenes in the app connect caseta to voice assistance so this will work with Google Assistant Amazon Alexa as well as apple homekit and other smart home services and then three you're going to control your wave your voice app Remote or wall switch all right and here is the Hub now each Hub does come with a ethernet cable that you will plug from the back of here into your modem or router and then it also comes with a micro USB power cable and then this kit does come with the new dimmer a jumper cable some wire nuts a wall bracket as well as a on off Pico remote and even more wire nuts with instructions so here we have the diva smart dimmer now I like how simple this is with the dimmer slider on the side here now one great thing about this dimmer is it does not require a neutral so we have the ground we have the line we have the load and we have this blue wire for a three-way wiring setup for a single pole meaning one light switch with one light all we need to do is attach those three wires and it's all set up I have a full Diva smart switch install video that I'll leave linked at the end of this video this starter kit also includes the wall plate racket as well as a Peak or a mode so the wall plate bracket allows you to attach the Pico remote anywhere you can attach it next to other light switches you already have or you can even put it in an empty Gang Box so it looks like a light switch or you could actually place the picaro mode anywhere on your wall so that you create a second light switch for your caseta smart switches that you have installed on the other side of the room now the next step is we're going to take the caseta Smart Hub and plug it into our Network router or network switch now you might have a device that looks like this this is a device that brings in the internet in the home with a modem and then it has a wireless router built into this that broadcasts the network to the home so you could use that here I have another router so the internet comes into the modem then it goes to the router and then that broadcasts the internet to the home or the third option you would have is something like this which is a network switch so the internet comes into the modem it then goes to the router the router then and sends the internet to all of the devices plugged into the switch so if you have a switch you would plug the ethernet cable into there that's what I'm going to be using if you only have the router you would plug the ethernet cable into the back of that or if you only have a modem that has the router built in you would plug the ethernet cable into that and then plug the other end into the caseta Smart Hub and then here I have my network switch and then I'm going to take my ethernet cable plug it into the switch like that and then I'm going to take the other end and plug it into the back of the caseta Smart Hub and I'm going to take the micro USB power cable and plug it into the back so once we have the Hub plugged in we're then going to download the Lutron app this is available on Android as well as iOS devices now I have already created an account so you may need to do that but here it is saying that there is no system on this account so now I'm going to add new home and here it's saying are you setting up a new caseta system yes I am and here it says make sure that your phone is connected to your home Wi-Fi so my Wi-Fi signal is on there it is connected I'm on the network now it's going to run you through the same instructions I did make sure you plug the ethernet cable into your Wi-Fi router or a network switch and then into the back of the caseta Smart Hub so I am connected then we're going to plug the micro USB power cable into the back of the Hub and now we're going to select to discover new devices and here it says it's installing the latest firmware to the hub and it could take up to 10 minutes to process and there we saw a notification that our system is ready and now we need to tap the black button on the back of the Hub once I did that it is finishing the setup and now we're going to give our Hub a name and I'm going to call it my home and here it's saying the Lutron app needs access to your location in order to do certain features such as astronomic schedules geofencing natural light optimization and so on so here I'm going to say use my location while I'm using the app and that also helps it know the time and this is important information to have when you're doing different automations now the next step is to add different caseta devices to your Hub now if you don't have a device already set up I have a lot of videos on how to get those installed but I already have some smart dimmers and smart switches installed so we're going to go do that now now that we're in the pairing mode of the app you will see that the lights will flash on and off meaning they're ready to pair now we're going to hold on the off button for 10 seconds until the light rapidly flashes to connect to the app now you can see it rapidly flashing and the app automatically pops up what room room we want to add this to so we're going to be adding this into the kitchen and then we're going to go next now we're going to choose what type of light this is so here these are the can lights on the ceiling so we're just going to tap the ceiling lights and then it's going to program the switch to the Smart Hub and here it's showing the light that was added and it's giving us the option to add more light so if you have others ready to go you can then quickly add them now that we have our caseta Smart Hub set up I can go through my home and pair all my compatible caseta smart devices to the hub so here I have a Shades Peak remote I have a light Peak remote I have the diva smart dimmer a claro Smart Switch as well as another Diva dimmer but let's go to the pairing process now we're going to head back into the Lutron app and at the top left we're going to select the settings and then we're going to select add device and this is going to show you all the different types of devices you can add to the caseta hub here we're going to choose Pico remote and then here I'm going to hold the off for 10 seconds and you'll see the little LEDs start to rapidly flash when it's ready to pair so here we have kitchen and we're going to choose the lights and one more device we have Serena Shades in this room so we're going to choose Pico remote and we're going to hold the off on the shade Peak remote for 10 seconds and these are the kitchen Shades so we're going to call this kitchen Shades and the other one is going to be kitchen lights and this is the shades Pico remote all right and now we have one more device across the kitchen that I'm going to add which is on a three-way across the room but with this Pico remote I'll be able to control that light from across the room so here I have the claro Smart Switch that I've added in a three-way and here we're going to choose kitchen and we're going to choose chandelier over the table next it is now adding that device here you can see all the devices we have added and I am done for now so I'm going to select done now it's going to connect all of those different switches into our Hub so here you can see in the kitchen I have all of my different lights if I want to control the table chandelier I tap on it I can simply turn it on and turn it off just like that so now let me show you how to add a compatible Serena Smart Shade so I'm going to tap the gear icon at the top left then I'm going to select add device and scrolling down on this menu I find shade and blind so this is for your Serena by Lutron roller Shades as well as your honeycomb Shades and your wood blinds and here it says wait until the LED starts to Blink this could take a minute then press and hold the button for 10 seconds until the LED begins to Blink rapidly so over here on my roller shades on the bottom left hand side you can see that the LED has begun to Blink and now I need to press and hold for 10 seconds now that it's flashing rapidly let's check the app once I have done that now it's asking where this shade is located so it's here in the kitchen and we're going to call it kitchen window and now here you'll notice that we have the kitchen window so I can tap there I can close the shade all the way I can then drag it to the position that I want it as well I can also fully open it or go to my saved favorite position so now I'm going to go to the rest of my home and add the rest of the shades and the blinds so here on the wood blinds I need to pull down the valance and then at the very top left side you will see the little button right here once it's flashing green hold down for 10 seconds I can now pair it through the app once I've done that it'll flash a few times and now I'm able to control it from the app and pair it with my Pico remotes on the honeycomb Shades you will find the little button at the top middle here I'm going to hold up for 10 seconds head to the app get it paired and now I can control it from my phone adjusting how open or closed the shades are so one of the really cool things that I can do now is I have the peak remote over here that is set up to control the light well that light switch is actually all the way across the room so this Pico remote now is able to control those lights over the table and I can turn that off but what if I'm able to turn on and off all the lights in the room with just the Press of a picot button well that is possible let me show you how that is done so here under the lights Pico remote I'm going to tap edit devices and now I'm going to choose exactly what devices are going to be controlled with that Pico remote so here we're going to go to the devices list and we're going to go to the kitchen and we're going to use the main Lights under cabinet lighting and the island pendant as well so we're then going to tap save so it can then add the programming to that Pico remote this does take a minute or two when you are done selecting save and going back to the main page so once that is done programmed it has then saved that so if your internet is down or anything The Hub will still continue to work with the Pico remotes and the schedules and everything that you have created all right that has now been saved so now we have the individual control of devices so here I can adjust the under cabinet lighting I can adjust the island lights or I can adjust the lights above head but now let me move over here with the Press of the Pico remote on it now turns on all the lights in the kitchen or I can push off and it will turn off all of the lights now on this it does have the option to dim so if I turn on the lights and I adjust the brightness now there when I do the dimming it only adjusts the dimming on those light switches that are compatible so over here I have the diva smart dimmer that those work with on the two here the other ones just stay the same they only have the on off functionality now I do have the favorite button here and is what this allows me to do is create a favorite scene essentially so let's say I want to have the kitchen light on which it is right now I want to have the under cabinet lighting dimmed a little bit I want to have the pendant lights over the island on and then I want to turn off the overhead lights here so once I have my scene set the way I want to I can also adjust some of that in the app as well I can now hold down the favorite button for 10 seconds until the lights Flash okay so the lights flashed indicating that it has now been programmed so let me show you if I turn on the lights everything turns on but now let's go ahead and choose the favorite when I do that these lights turned off and then I also dimmed the under cabinet lighting so it's really cool that I have so much control right here from the Pico remote without even opening the app or using my voice and here with the shades Pika remote I have the option to open Bowl Shades at the same time and I can also close those now you can also combine Shades and lights into different Pico remotes but I like having them separate here it works really well now I just love how much functionality you're able to get by adding these Pico remotes they're able to quickly turn on or off all the lights in the room I have that favorite scene that I can instantly adjust and I can adjust the brightness right here with the compatible switches and I love that anyone who comes over can instantly know how to use the lights without having to connect their app or use voice assistance or anything like that now if you are interested in connecting two different voice assistants I'll have a video all about how you can connect to a Google Assistant Siri as well as Alexa right here if you want to see how you can install the different smart switches whether it be the new Diva or claro switches you can check that out here and if you want to see what it's like having the caseta smart system ecosystem in your home you can check out this video right here thank you so much for watching we'll see you on the next onetoday we're going to take a look at the caseta by Lutron smart dimmer starter kit we're going to look at how to get the caseta Smart Hub setup as well as pair it with all the other caseta Wireless products let's get started now today I'll be using the smart dimmer starter kit with the new Diva smart dimmer but you could pick up the Smart Hub by itself or you can pick it up with any other kits now this Hub is able to sport up to 75 different caseta products so a Smart Switch would be a product a Pico would be a product a shade would be a product so you can have a total of 75 of those in your home with one Hub and they do have a range of about 30 feet in radius so if you do need more range you can buy a repeater that allows you to have more range so here on the back it talks about getting the Smart Hub set up so we're going to connect your smart hub to your router and download the Lutron app set up your system by adding your device programming schedules and scenes in the app connect caseta to voice assistance so this will work with Google Assistant Amazon Alexa as well as apple homekit and other smart home services and then three you're going to control your wave your voice app Remote or wall switch all right and here is the Hub now each Hub does come with a ethernet cable that you will plug from the back of here into your modem or router and then it also comes with a micro USB power cable and then this kit does come with the new dimmer a jumper cable some wire nuts a wall bracket as well as a on off Pico remote and even more wire nuts with instructions so here we have the diva smart dimmer now I like how simple this is with the dimmer slider on the side here now one great thing about this dimmer is it does not require a neutral so we have the ground we have the line we have the load and we have this blue wire for a three-way wiring setup for a single pole meaning one light switch with one light all we need to do is attach those three wires and it's all set up I have a full Diva smart switch install video that I'll leave linked at the end of this video this starter kit also includes the wall plate racket as well as a Peak or a mode so the wall plate bracket allows you to attach the Pico remote anywhere you can attach it next to other light switches you already have or you can even put it in an empty Gang Box so it looks like a light switch or you could actually place the picaro mode anywhere on your wall so that you create a second light switch for your caseta smart switches that you have installed on the other side of the room now the next step is we're going to take the caseta Smart Hub and plug it into our Network router or network switch now you might have a device that looks like this this is a device that brings in the internet in the home with a modem and then it has a wireless router built into this that broadcasts the network to the home so you could use that here I have another router so the internet comes into the modem then it goes to the router and then that broadcasts the internet to the home or the third option you would have is something like this which is a network switch so the internet comes into the modem it then goes to the router the router then and sends the internet to all of the devices plugged into the switch so if you have a switch you would plug the ethernet cable into there that's what I'm going to be using if you only have the router you would plug the ethernet cable into the back of that or if you only have a modem that has the router built in you would plug the ethernet cable into that and then plug the other end into the caseta Smart Hub and then here I have my network switch and then I'm going to take my ethernet cable plug it into the switch like that and then I'm going to take the other end and plug it into the back of the caseta Smart Hub and I'm going to take the micro USB power cable and plug it into the back so once we have the Hub plugged in we're then going to download the Lutron app this is available on Android as well as iOS devices now I have already created an account so you may need to do that but here it is saying that there is no system on this account so now I'm going to add new home and here it's saying are you setting up a new caseta system yes I am and here it says make sure that your phone is connected to your home Wi-Fi so my Wi-Fi signal is on there it is connected I'm on the network now it's going to run you through the same instructions I did make sure you plug the ethernet cable into your Wi-Fi router or a network switch and then into the back of the caseta Smart Hub so I am connected then we're going to plug the micro USB power cable into the back of the Hub and now we're going to select to discover new devices and here it says it's installing the latest firmware to the hub and it could take up to 10 minutes to process and there we saw a notification that our system is ready and now we need to tap the black button on the back of the Hub once I did that it is finishing the setup and now we're going to give our Hub a name and I'm going to call it my home and here it's saying the Lutron app needs access to your location in order to do certain features such as astronomic schedules geofencing natural light optimization and so on so here I'm going to say use my location while I'm using the app and that also helps it know the time and this is important information to have when you're doing different automations now the next step is to add different caseta devices to your Hub now if you don't have a device already set up I have a lot of videos on how to get those installed but I already have some smart dimmers and smart switches installed so we're going to go do that now now that we're in the pairing mode of the app you will see that the lights will flash on and off meaning they're ready to pair now we're going to hold on the off button for 10 seconds until the light rapidly flashes to connect to the app now you can see it rapidly flashing and the app automatically pops up what room room we want to add this to so we're going to be adding this into the kitchen and then we're going to go next now we're going to choose what type of light this is so here these are the can lights on the ceiling so we're just going to tap the ceiling lights and then it's going to program the switch to the Smart Hub and here it's showing the light that was added and it's giving us the option to add more light so if you have others ready to go you can then quickly add them now that we have our caseta Smart Hub set up I can go through my home and pair all my compatible caseta smart devices to the hub so here I have a Shades Peak remote I have a light Peak remote I have the diva smart dimmer a claro Smart Switch as well as another Diva dimmer but let's go to the pairing process now we're going to head back into the Lutron app and at the top left we're going to select the settings and then we're going to select add device and this is going to show you all the different types of devices you can add to the caseta hub here we're going to choose Pico remote and then here I'm going to hold the off for 10 seconds and you'll see the little LEDs start to rapidly flash when it's ready to pair so here we have kitchen and we're going to choose the lights and one more device we have Serena Shades in this room so we're going to choose Pico remote and we're going to hold the off on the shade Peak remote for 10 seconds and these are the kitchen Shades so we're going to call this kitchen Shades and the other one is going to be kitchen lights and this is the shades Pico remote all right and now we have one more device across the kitchen that I'm going to add which is on a three-way across the room but with this Pico remote I'll be able to control that light from across the room so here I have the claro Smart Switch that I've added in a three-way and here we're going to choose kitchen and we're going to choose chandelier over the table next it is now adding that device here you can see all the devices we have added and I am done for now so I'm going to select done now it's going to connect all of those different switches into our Hub so here you can see in the kitchen I have all of my different lights if I want to control the table chandelier I tap on it I can simply turn it on and turn it off just like that so now let me show you how to add a compatible Serena Smart Shade so I'm going to tap the gear icon at the top left then I'm going to select add device and scrolling down on this menu I find shade and blind so this is for your Serena by Lutron roller Shades as well as your honeycomb Shades and your wood blinds and here it says wait until the LED starts to Blink this could take a minute then press and hold the button for 10 seconds until the LED begins to Blink rapidly so over here on my roller shades on the bottom left hand side you can see that the LED has begun to Blink and now I need to press and hold for 10 seconds now that it's flashing rapidly let's check the app once I have done that now it's asking where this shade is located so it's here in the kitchen and we're going to call it kitchen window and now here you'll notice that we have the kitchen window so I can tap there I can close the shade all the way I can then drag it to the position that I want it as well I can also fully open it or go to my saved favorite position so now I'm going to go to the rest of my home and add the rest of the shades and the blinds so here on the wood blinds I need to pull down the valance and then at the very top left side you will see the little button right here once it's flashing green hold down for 10 seconds I can now pair it through the app once I've done that it'll flash a few times and now I'm able to control it from the app and pair it with my Pico remotes on the honeycomb Shades you will find the little button at the top middle here I'm going to hold up for 10 seconds head to the app get it paired and now I can control it from my phone adjusting how open or closed the shades are so one of the really cool things that I can do now is I have the peak remote over here that is set up to control the light well that light switch is actually all the way across the room so this Pico remote now is able to control those lights over the table and I can turn that off but what if I'm able to turn on and off all the lights in the room with just the Press of a picot button well that is possible let me show you how that is done so here under the lights Pico remote I'm going to tap edit devices and now I'm going to choose exactly what devices are going to be controlled with that Pico remote so here we're going to go to the devices list and we're going to go to the kitchen and we're going to use the main Lights under cabinet lighting and the island pendant as well so we're then going to tap save so it can then add the programming to that Pico remote this does take a minute or two when you are done selecting save and going back to the main page so once that is done programmed it has then saved that so if your internet is down or anything The Hub will still continue to work with the Pico remotes and the schedules and everything that you have created all right that has now been saved so now we have the individual control of devices so here I can adjust the under cabinet lighting I can adjust the island lights or I can adjust the lights above head but now let me move over here with the Press of the Pico remote on it now turns on all the lights in the kitchen or I can push off and it will turn off all of the lights now on this it does have the option to dim so if I turn on the lights and I adjust the brightness now there when I do the dimming it only adjusts the dimming on those light switches that are compatible so over here I have the diva smart dimmer that those work with on the two here the other ones just stay the same they only have the on off functionality now I do have the favorite button here and is what this allows me to do is create a favorite scene essentially so let's say I want to have the kitchen light on which it is right now I want to have the under cabinet lighting dimmed a little bit I want to have the pendant lights over the island on and then I want to turn off the overhead lights here so once I have my scene set the way I want to I can also adjust some of that in the app as well I can now hold down the favorite button for 10 seconds until the lights Flash okay so the lights flashed indicating that it has now been programmed so let me show you if I turn on the lights everything turns on but now let's go ahead and choose the favorite when I do that these lights turned off and then I also dimmed the under cabinet lighting so it's really cool that I have so much control right here from the Pico remote without even opening the app or using my voice and here with the shades Pika remote I have the option to open Bowl Shades at the same time and I can also close those now you can also combine Shades and lights into different Pico remotes but I like having them separate here it works really well now I just love how much functionality you're able to get by adding these Pico remotes they're able to quickly turn on or off all the lights in the room I have that favorite scene that I can instantly adjust and I can adjust the brightness right here with the compatible switches and I love that anyone who comes over can instantly know how to use the lights without having to connect their app or use voice assistance or anything like that now if you are interested in connecting two different voice assistants I'll have a video all about how you can connect to a Google Assistant Siri as well as Alexa right here if you want to see how you can install the different smart switches whether it be the new Diva or claro switches you can check that out here and if you want to see what it's like having the caseta smart system ecosystem in your home you can check out this video right here thank you so much for watching we'll see you on the next one\n"