Lutron Introduce New Hue Compatible Dimmer
Lutron has announced a brand new product dubbed the ‘Aurora dimmer’, that is design to work with Philips Hue setups as part of Philips’ ‘Friends of Hue’ system. As Hue already make switches, you may wonder why this is any different, but there are two big differences to this switch over the traditional Hue dimmers we all know and love; First of all, this is a rotary dimmer switch, as opposed to a button you press and hold, but secondly, and more importantly, this is designed to fit over the top of traditional toggle light switches, os in effect it serves a double purpose – stop people from accidentally turning off your connected Hue bulbs from mains electricity, thereby disconnecting them from the Hue Bridge, and secondly it allows you to dim your lights from the same location as your existing light switch.
The rotary dimmer simply fits over the top of your existing light switches, holding the toggle switch on your light in the on position, with the rotary know fitting over the top, so the switch stays in place, and is effectively replaced by a dimmer. Once it’s all set up and paired, you can brighten and dim your lights in a totally natural way, by rotating the knob or turn your lights on or off with a simple click.
Considering this is designed to be part of the ‘Friend of Hue’ program, it should be exposed to HomeKit once it has been paired to the Hue Bridge, although strangely, there’s currently no mention of this on either Lutron’s press release or on the Hue website, where it can be pre-ordered for US$39.95.
Wow. This is to my knowledge the first HomeKit (Hue) compatible ROTARY dimmer.
In order for it to work properly, it must have an infinite number of turns, with no physical stop at the beginning nor at the end. In other words, the brightness set by the rotary switch must be independent of its physical position. Indeed, if you set your lights with it at, say, 90% luminosity, then turn them down to 20% with the app on your phone, then increase the luminosity again just a bit more with the switch, it must increase from the 20% previously set in the app, and not jump to the 90% level previous set on the switch. Difficult to make such a rotary switch consistent with both operations.
Let’s hope it does actually get exposed to HomeKit!
Does Aurora work with Apple HomeKit (when combined with a Hue Bridge)?
Currently, Aurora does not work with HomeKit (HomeKit doesn’t support rotary devices).
From the official Lutron FAQ
“HomeKit doesn’t support rotary devices”
BULLSHIT from Lutron! If it works with Hue and not with conventional light bulbs, it is not an analog rotary dimmer with a continuous voltage range, but a digital device selecting a limited series of computed discrete values sent to the app, each binary value being a brightness level. Saying “Homekit doesn’t support rotary devices” is literally laughing at customers.