Leviton Wifi Switches - OmniPro Support?

I'll soon be replacing my Lightolier Compose PLC lighting with another option.  Until recently, I was going to go with Z-Wave, as I had limited success with it in another home.  However, I see Leviton has now released its Wifi Switches, and am considering those to avoid building out yet another type of wireless network.  Has anyone installed these yet?  
 
Ideally, I'd like for them to be compatible with my OmniPro II system, but haven't found anything confirming that'll be the case despite coming from the same manufacturer.  I hope to uninstall the OmniPro II as soon as I find a suitable replacement, but it would be nice for them to work with the system until that happens.  
 
Incidentally, I highly recommend against installing remote primary switches in favor of scene switches.  I now have boxes of primary light switches installed in my basement and closets, and really just want to have the switches located in the room with the lighting.  RIP my drywall.
I'll soon be replacing my Lightolier Compose PLC lighting with another option.  Until recently, I was going to go with Z-Wave, as I had limited success with it in another home.  However, I see Leviton has now released its Wifi Switches, and am considering those to avoid building out yet another type of wireless network.  Has anyone installed these yet?  

Have you looked at Lutron RA2? I have found that system to be the only one that has worked flawlessly for me. It interfaces nicely with the Omni too.

As far as Z Wave goes, and here comes a rash of replies, I would never use it because of security concerns. It was thrust upon our industry but is a disaster waiting to happen. It is easily hacked.

Z Wave is also a mesh network and only works well if you put in enough switches as the switches all reley on each other to make up the network.

That's the simple answer.

Ted

dontheo said:

Have you looked at Lutron RA2? I have found that system to be the only one that has worked flawlessly for me. It interfaces nicely with the Omni too.

As far as Z Wave goes, and here comes a rash of replies, I would never use it because of security concerns. It was thrust upon our industry but is a disaster waiting to happen. It is easily hacked.

Z Wave is also a mesh network and only works well if you put in enough switches as the switches all reley on each other to make up the network.

That's the simple answer.

Ted

Click to expand...

 
Ted,
 
While RR2 devices are undoubtedly more reliable than zwave gadgets due to inferior RF/routing/error recovery design of the latter , the security argument you suggested does not apply.
 
The Radio RA2 protocol security is no better than zwave and in some scenarios it is worse because RR2 always operates in plain text while zwave has some provision for secure encrypted exchange.  Zwave locks have always used encryption, and with the gen 5 zwave chips, you can have encrypted messages for lighting devices as well.
 
At some point in the past, I speculated that we'll most likely never see lutron locks based on RR2 due to lack of encryption.

If you have an Omni system, then maybe UBP would be a good choice.
 
Leviton seems to be pushing envelope recently. I think the challenge will be how open will the Leviton “Smart” device API be for these Wireless switches.
There is no Wireless automation standard. Leviton is not known for building great software, so you may be stuck with MyLeviton App for exclusively control.
This technology is so new. You are taking a big risk if Leviton stops enhancing/fixing the software eco-system.
 
I am not sure what is meant by Z-Wave easily hacked. Either you have to pay $5K for development kit or buy a SDR radio and integrate with lots of other components (http://www.rtl-sdr.com/hacking-the-z-wave-protocol-with-a-hackrf/). The hacker would have to be in your driveway or at front of house. All they would be able to do was enable/disable lights (annoying).
 
The RA2 switches are expensive as compared to the Leviton version (maybe 3x the cost). Leviton has recently released an updated Z-Wave product line.
 
Yes, RA2 uses a different routing technology and frequency that improves RF reliability. RA2 has no support for encryption – according to online Lutron technical specifications. If money isn't a selection criteria, then RA2 is a great choice.

I appreciate the recommendations for other solutions, but I need to stick with wifi because of a unique layout.  I have several outbuildings up to 3/4 mile from the house, and they're on different meters.   They're all on the same network because of some Ubiquiti point-to-point gear, and that's the only thing common about them.  Thus, wifi allows me to control them all from the same controller.  
 
So has anyone tried these yet or know whether Leviton plans to support its own wifi switches in OmniPro II?

Personally here do not have any insider Leviton knowledge of their future plans with the OmniPro 2.
 
I doubt that they will be introducing or modifying the current Omnipro combo panel firmware for new lighting technology any time soon or at all.
 
Here went to and keeping it working is X10 (via Volp's dual phased TW-523 emulator - which is X10 on steroids), UPB which is my primary light switch technology, Zigbee and Z-Wave controllers.
 
Current choices with the OmniPro line of combo panels lighting control will most likely stay as it has been for many years now.
 
Sure bet automation is still an LV to HV controller mechanism even though it is getting a bit long on the tooth.  It just works and really isn't that all you care about?
 

 
Helped a friend build a new home on his farm a few years back.  On the fence here relating to best mechanism of network/transport connectivity between houses during construction for a bit.  Decided rather than wireless went to underground buried cable.  The efforts  / work involved was a bit more than installing wireless antennas and now has worked fine for over 5  years.
 
Over the years here have integrated software automation via Homeseer as an addendum to the OmniPro 2 panel automation.  IE: using all of the OP2 serial ports today plus multiple network access to the network port on the OP2.  With the software went to using more transport: 7 USB ports, 16 serial ports plus whatever is communicating via a wired network.  I understand that wireless automation works but personally I still preferred wired mechanisms of automation. That is me.

AlexaMakeMeASandwich said:

I appreciate the recommendations for other solutions, but I need to stick with wifi because of a unique layout.  I have several outbuildings up to 3/4 mile from the house, and they're on different meters.   They're all on the same network because of some Ubiquiti point-to-point gear, and that's the only thing common about them.  Thus, wifi allows me to control them all from the same controller.  
 
So has anyone tried these yet or know whether Leviton plans to support its own wifi switches in OmniPro II?

Click to expand...

 
Leviton does not plan to provide OP2 support for these wifi devices.  It appears that Leviton is moving away from the hub/controller concept for HA in favor of using cloud based services.  These wifi devices will connect to cloud based services and they will also  have onboard intelligence to fully function when cloud access is not available because of a network outage etc.  I guess you could call these new wifi devices IOT devices.
 
Leviton just announced this new product on March 15th http://www.leviton.com/en/news/press-releases/2017-press-releases/leviton-delivers-new-wifi-lighting-automation-solution So, I don't think anyone has really evaluated these devices.  I plan to order a couple of devices for testing purposes as a possible replacement for my UPB switches.

BobS0327 said:

Leviton does not plan to provide OP2 support for these wifi devices.  It appears that Leviton is moving away from the hub/controller concept for HA in favor of using cloud based services.  These wifi devices will connect to cloud based services and they will also  have onboard intelligence to fully function when cloud access is not available because of a network outage etc.  I guess you could call these new wifi devices IOT devices.
 
Leviton just announced this new product on March 15th http://www.leviton.com/en/news/press-releases/2017-press-releases/leviton-delivers-new-wifi-lighting-automation-solution So, I don't think anyone has really evaluated these devices.  I plan to order a couple of devices for testing purposes as a possible replacement for my UPB switches.

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Reading the reference you've provided, it does not appear that Leviton offers local control. It seems that the mobile app would need to communicate  to a remote host ("cloud") to control the switches which makes the effort no different from the wemo modules.
 
The most unpleasant drawback with the remote broker ("cloud") lighting solutions is noticeable and unpredictable latency. Humans, on average, would feel irritated by action-reaction delays exceeding 100 ms, as well known in the gaming community. 

vc1234 said:

Reading the reference you've provided, it does not appear that Leviton offers local control. It seems that the mobile app would need to communicate  to a remote host ("cloud") to control the switches which makes the effort no different from the wemo modules.
 
The most unpleasant drawback with the remote broker ("cloud") lighting solutions is noticeable and unpredictable latency. Humans, on average, would feel irritated by action-reaction delays exceeding 100 ms, as well known in the gaming community. 

Click to expand...

 
My bad.  I should have also posted this CePro article http://www.cepro.com/article/leviton_mass_market_home_automation_wifi_lighting_iot_decora_smart
 
Quote from the above article

They communicate to Leviton’s cloud services through an existing home network (plus they have on-board intelligence like clocks that work even when the network is down).

Click to expand...

 
 
It's really hard to tell how advanced/extensive  this "on-board intelligence" is until Leviton starts publishing some technical info on the devices. 

If someone does buy and test new Leviton Wireless devices, maybe a new thread.
 
I don’t see how these switches can handle zones/scenes without cloud/internet access. I didn’t see a local scene controller. CloudBase HA has had a bumpy road. You can read many posts about SmartThings V1 controllers that were almost exclusively cloud based control – lots of growing pains.
 
I wonder if new switches are as well built as Vizia+ switches – or is Leviton moving down market and competing with lower-quality HA switches. The switches seems to have same 5 year "limited" warranty.

If someone wants to start poking through some JS code for the Android App, looks like there might be some clues here on how to control the switches.
 
I found the Android APK file here:  https://apkpure.com/my-leviton/com.leviton.home/download?from=details%2Fversion&fid=b%2Fapk%2FY29tLmxldml0b24uaG9tZV8xMDEyMDBfZGZlYjJmY2Q&version_code=101200
 
You can rename it to a .ZIP file and open it with any ZIP utility.
 
A quick look at the file appears to have some control functions located in the file:  "My Leviton_v1.0.12_apkpure.com.zip\assets\www\lib.js"
 
Copying that file and running it through a JS beautifier program will result in some readable javascript.
 
I have not yet spent the time to review it to determine if it is purely control functions to their cloud or if there are local control functions.

I did a quick read through the app.js module, the enrollment looks like a typical wireless enrollment. I'm definitely not Android/JavaScript expert, but I do read comments fairly well.
 
From what I can gather, the administrator basically tells the switch how to join your SSID and provide your “family” account.  The software is built on house/scene/room/device model. The intelligence appears to be that device can download all the scenes, and they can be scheduled without any human interaction (probably because switch has a clock).
 
I wonder if user will really be locked out and require phone call. Also, I really hate generic “Cannot connect” messages. I spent days trying to figure out why my Acurite IoT weather system could call out to Internet. One of the big reasons was the gateway's low cost Ethernet controller could not correctly auto-negotiate down to 10Mbs correctly. 
 

if ("NO_INTERNET" === e.error) t = {
message: "Cannot connect to the internet. Make sure your phone has an internet connection."
};
else if ("TOO_MANY_ATTEMPTS" === e.error) t = {
    message: 'The account has been locked. <br> Please <a href="tel:18002297256">call</a> support for help.'
};

 
 
The devices do support firmware updates, but I didn’t see a group update function – only one at a time.

Here's a Leviton WiFi devices YouTube video from Worthington Distribution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F--bhdrQ0w&feature=youtu.be