Peplink+Lutron Radio RA3 (and Caseta)

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I have a network composed of a Balance Two, a Peplink 24 port switch, and 3 AP One AXs. For some time now I have been trying to get Lutron automation systems to work on the network. The Lutron controllers, which depend on multicast, are wired into the Balance Two or the 24 port switch, while my iPhone with the Lutron app connects via wifi. In general I would describe the connections from the phone to the Lutron controller as “fragile”. I just updated to the latest firmware on all of the network devices since I know a lot of changes have been made to better support multicast in the last couple years.

I was eventually able to get the Caseta to work by enabling IGMP Snooping on the Wifi network and connecting it via ethernet to the Balance Two. Painful, but once it was setup it was pretty reliable.

No such luck with the Radio RA3. I have gotten to the point where the iOS app sees the Lutron controller on the network, but as soon as I press the setup button on the controller the connection breaks (exact same behavior I observed with the Caseta). I have tried IGMP Snooping on/off but it doesn’t seem to matter for the Radio RA3. I have noticed that the only way my laptop (which runs the software to program the Lutron controller) can connect is if I change the ethernet ports on the switch from Trunk->Any to Access->[VLAN] for the controller and laptop. And of course the Wifi network is on that same VLAN.

I have run out of ideas; curious if anyone else has any. I have a call in to Lutron support. Thanks

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Follow up: problem solved.

It was not a networking problem after all (more details on that below in case someone is interested). After spending an hour+ on the phone with a very patient and helpful Lutron engineer we figured out that the problem was the way the RA3 processor was assigned to an account. Specifically, it has to be assigned to a homeowner, who in turn has to share access with a professional installer. And these have to be two different Lutron accounts, even if the the homeowner and installer are the same person. It’s apparently not possible to setup the system using a pro account by itself.

Network: the RA3 processor has to be on the same subnet as the computer running the controller software and the mobile phone/tablet running the app to setup the Lutron dimmers/switches/etc. No surprise there really. What was a bit surprising was that this was only possible by explicitly assigning ethernet ports using Access->Control, and putting those ports on a VLAN along with the wifi network that provided access for the mobile app. Maybe this is an artifact of how I setup the network, not sure. But it seemed that the “Untagged VLAN” was causing a lot of issues that resulted in devices being on different subnets.

Hopefully this helps someone else in the future!

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