Tron

Tron is a tiny CLI tool for controlling Lutron Caséta systems.

Installation

macOS

tron is available via a Homebrew Tap:

brew install paulrosania/command-home/tron

You can also download a precompiled binary from the releases page.

Source

Make sure Go is installed, and that $GOPATH/bin is on your $PATH. Then run:

go install github.com/paulrosania/tron

Getting Started

Tron expects a .tronrc file in your home directory, with the following settings:

host=<hostname or ip address>

You can find your Lutron controller's IP address via your router console. Alternatively, you may be able to use mDNS service discovery. For example, on macOS you can do the following:

$ dns-sd -Z _lutron | grep -o 'Lutron-.*\.local'
# => Lutron-00000000.local
#
# Use this as your `host` setting.
#
# (You'll need to Ctrl-C to wrap up, since `dns-sd` listens indefinitely.)

Before you can run commands, you need to pair tron with your controller. To do this, run tron pair and follow the instructions in your terminal.

Note: If you get the error error: failed to ping controller: dial tcp: lookup Lutron-00000000.local on 192.168.1.1:53: no such host, you need to use an IP address instead of the Lutron-00000000.local hostname. This is a limitation of some versions of tron. You can find the IP address by running dns-sd -q Lutron-00000000.local (substituting the actual hostname you got earlier). The IP address should appear in the Rdata column.

Terminology

tron is designed to provide raw control. It is not an abstraction layer. It uses Lutron's terminology, which can be a bit confusing. Here's a quick guide:

Area: Areas represent groups of zones (e.g. rooms).
Device: Devices represent actual hardware (dimmers, remotes, etc.).
Zone: Zones are control interfaces. Each device belongs to a zone, and you control a device by sending commands to its zone.

For example, to dim lights in your living room:

# Find the living room area
tron area list
# => Name:     Living Room
# => Category: LivingRoom
# => Path:     /area/12
# => Parent:   /area/1
# =>
# => Devices:
# => - /device/21

# Find device 21's zone
tron device info 21
# => Name:          Living Room Main Lights
# => Path:          /device/21
# => Type:          WallDimmer
# => Model Number:  PD-6WCL-XX
# => Serial Number: 00000000
# =>
# => Addressed State: Addressed
# => Associated Area: /area/12
# => Parent Path:     /project
# =>
# => Local Zones:
# => - /zone/12
# =>
# =>
# => Device Rules:
# => - /devicerule/27
# =>
# => Link Nodes:
# => - /device/21/linknode/21

# Dim the lights to 50%
tron zone dim 12 50

This may seem like a lot of work for a single light! Remember, tron is a low-level tool. The idea is that once you have a command that does something useful, you'll use that command in a script and never have to worry about sorting out the IDs and arguments again.

That said, if you have ideas for improving ergonomics, please open an issue. I'd love to discuss!

Usage

# Setup
tron pair   # Pair with a controller
tron ping   # Verify that `tron` can communicate with your controller

# Areas
tron area list             # List defined areas
tron area info <id>        # Print information about a specific area

# Devices
tron device list           # List installed devices
tron device info <id>      # Print information about a specific device

# Servers
tron server list           # List available controllers
tron server info [id]      # Print information about a specific controller

# Services
tron service list          # List supported 3rd party services

# Zones
tron zone list             # List defined zones
tron zone info <id>        # Print information about a specific zone
tron zone status <id>      # Print zone status (e.g. dimming level)
tron zone on <id> [duration] [delay]          # Turn the zone on (dim to 100)
tron zone off <id> [duration] [delay]         # Turn the zone off (dim to 0)
tron zone dim <id> <level> [duration] [delay] # Dim the zone to the provided level (0-100)

# Raw querying
tron get <path>            # Send a `ReadRequest`
tron post <path> <json>    # Send a `CreateRequest`