Decided to tackle the 5-way today, running into an issue with it. I’m pretty confident with the wiring and don’t think that is the problem. Was working previously and I put the origina 3-way back in and work just fine.
Background: 5-way wiring with line on one side and load on the other end. Wiring with one Red dimmer and existing dumb switches.
Issue: All dumb switches work just fine to turn light on/off in any combination. Red switch is able to turn on/off in certain combinations. The remaining combinations Red switch when press down will turn off the light, then light will turn back on but will register as off in HA and switch LED, up button doesn’t do anything. Pressing down button will turn the light back on and register as on again in switch and LED.
Looking for feedback or help on what else to check/test.
Still unable to get it working. Things that I’ve tried so far:
Converted down to 4-way to simplify wiring, Red switch still doesn’t work on all combinations
Used a Zooz Zen77 which works in all combinations
Used another spare Red switch, fails same combinations
Traced and labeled all wires twice and they are all good
I’m almost to the point where I’m gonna replicate the wiring in a test bench to validate if the switches are capable of handling 4-way or 5-way combinations.
One thing to note. There are distinct audible clicks. You can hear the relay clicking on to turn the light on and clicking off to turn the light off. But still the light remains on or off.
I tried 80%, didn’t work. 70% sort of works better. I’ll keep testing on this.
I think going in the right direction. Any other things to look at, I’m not opposed to swapping out light fixtures or bulbs. It’s just a two wall sconces and 2 can lights.
Scratch that, didn’t help. Also switched off all sconces and remove bulb from all but one can light and replaced with a incandecent 60w bulb.
I was in the same situation with a blue series switch, contacted support and went back and forth a few times, but never did reach a satisfactory conclusion. Ended up shortening the line (it controlled some lights on house and a few more in the garage, so I disconnected the garage ones and just hard wired those to power).
After shortening the circuit, it works consistently. I’m still convinced that this is due to capacitive loading from the lines (about 150ft total for each traveler leg, then another 80+ feet for load after the last switch). Eliminating about 50feet of traveler and 40 feed of load line made it work consistently.
Sadly, That probably doesn’t help you much here, but might help the Inovelli guys figure out a solution for you.
Thanks for sharing, I assume something similar is going on here. I could probably do that to test it out when I get some free time. But ultimately it is not feasable. I haven’t measured the wire runs but it could be 100ft total from the first switch to the last one.
