You can also try changing the Aux Switch Types between the other available settings (No Aux; Dumb 3-Way Switch and Smart Aux Switch). Some of these will enable Leading edge vs Trailing edge dimming and it should impact the flickering.
Yep. Just so you understand what you are setting, that option sets the outputted waveform to mimic as closely as possible (given the switch’s internals) to what would be generated by a dumb switch. When a dimmer (any dimmer) dims a light, that waveform is chopped on one end or the other to effect the dimming. So you can’t have a full wave form with a dimmer . . they are mutually exclusive.
fwiw, I had a lot of undesired flickering when I upgraded my firmware too. I then saw some comments recommending that I pull the air gap, give it a few seconds and re-apply power, my flickering seems to be gone now.
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I’m not sure if this has been covered in this thread or not, but if it has, I can’t find it… after the update to 2.14, a number of my lights (the ones I’ve noticed this with are incandescent) are noticeably dimmer at all brightness levels (including 100%) than they were with 2.08. Is there some setting I should be changing to fix that?
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I tried this as a first thing, no effect for me
I had different issue - I needed to reduce max dimmer settings as my LED started buzzing like crazy. I can’t increase dimming max above 150 (max is 255)
Both of these issues (dim incandescent bulbs and LEDs flickering/buzzing at higher brightness levels) are likely due to the buggy trailing edge waveform that I just posted about here:
You could try switching back to leading edge dimming as a temporary work around - I’ve been doing this by setting the switch type to “3-Way Dumb Switch”. This works even without having anything connected to the traveler terminal, though the switch will now produce relay click noises when turning on or off. I’m not sure if there are any other downsides to doing this. Do make sure that the traveler terminal on your switch is actually disconnected, though, as this mode will cause mains voltage to be present on the terminal.
In addition to this, I am curious if the configuration options get re-initialized as there may be some corrupt data in the configuration store because we added several configuration options.
In Hubitat there is an option to “Configure(ALL)” that resends all configuration. SmartThings also has a “Resend All” option. I don’t think there is anything similar on other platforms, but it would be a good idea to do this after a firmware update any time config options are added. Or to do a factory reset but that is a little inconvenient. I guess you could also go through each config option and change it back and forth to something different and then back to the desired value. I would especially be curious about min / max level, 3-way type, etc.
That was a second thing I did 
It looks better, but click noises are driving me and, more important, my wife nuts. So, between flickering and limit of the brightness and annoying clicking noise, I picked a first one.
But the point is - that should not be a choise - firmware should be fixed
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@EricM_Inovelli
Can we roll back 2.08 in the meantime, before you will study and fix the issues with 2.14? Why not to do first betta run, before official deployment?
BTW, my next step is to install 5way switches in hallway. I was planning to use Inovelli white series switches, which will require traveller and “3 way aux switch” mode. Does it mean main, blue 2in1 dimmer with load start clicking?
You could try switching back to leading edge dimming as a temporary work around - I’ve been doing this by setting the switch type to “3-Way Dumb Switch”. This works even without having anything connected to the traveler terminal, though the switch will now produce relay click noises when turning on or off.
So weirdly, between the two lights, one of them is brighter on the “3-way dumb” setting and the other one is dimmer. I’ll try to get some video tonight when it’s darker outside and the effect can be seen more easily.
And I really hope I’m not going to have to live with a relay click on my dimmers to get full brightness out of them.
To rule out any sort of problem that could be solved by reconfiguring/resetting the switch, I’ve tried the following:
- reboot the switch (both via the air gap and by disconnecting its input supply)
- reconfigure the switch (via zigbee2mqtt reconfigure command)
- remove the switch from my network
- factory reset the switch, and manually configure via button taps (without joining a network)
- rejoin after factory resetting and then configure via zigbee2mqtt
I checked the output waveforms after each step. None of these things resulted in any change in behavior - I always get the buggy trailing edge waveform.
I also tested a fresh switch (just removed from the shipping box), which has FW 2.11 on it. It has the same buggy trailing edge waveform.
I’m fairly confident that what I’ve documented is a firmware bug and not just a configuration glitch - it was a good thing to check, though!
I’m not familiar with how the aux switch works (and I don’t have any in my possession), but my assumption is that there won’t be any relay clicking when using aux switches. I assume the smart switch and the aux switch just communicate over the traveler wire, while power always flows over the other wire (so there is no need to use the relay to switch which wire the power flows over).
I did try setting my switch to “3-way aux switch” mode, and there was no relay clicking, so you’ll most likely be happy with the aux switches (once this trailing edge dimming bug is fixed).
The aux switch mode also generated the buggy trailing edge dimming waveform, so it wouldn’t work as a temporary fix to get click-free leading edge. If you don’t mind some temporary re-wiring, you could also disconnect the neutral from your switches to force them into a non-neutral configuration, which will use a leading edge dimming waveform. If possible, a FW downgrade would be an easier temporary solution (but I don’t know how to perform a downgrade).
Yeah, this isn’t too surprising. AC phase-cut dimming is super hacky and prone to all sorts of weird behaviors/incompatibilities. How each bulb responds will depend heavily on its own internal circuity, and there is no standardization here. I really wish there was a better dimming standard. At this point, it seems like smart bulbs with standard protocols (zigbee/matter) and direct binding are the way forward, as no existing hard-wired protocols have gained any traction in residential lighting.
Except that these are incandescent bulbs, so there’s no internal circuitry. It should just work.
I did some more experimenting, and it’s weirder than that and definitely looks like a switch firmware problem. After a few experiments with switching between the various single and three-way modes on one of the switches, it no longer outputs full brightness even when it’s set to 254.
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Holly Molly…
With the fronts and picks like that I bet it won’t pass any EMC standards.
No wonder it buzzes with my bulbs like there is no tomorrow. @EricM_Inovelli - you guys need to fix that, God knows how that will effect LED drivers reliability in a long run
Both of the “two lights” are incandescent? And one is brighter while the other is dimmer [on the 3-way dumb setting]? That’s very surprising - with the waveforms I’ve observed, I’d expect all incandescent bulbs to always be brighter on the 3-way dumb setting (i.e. with leading edge instead of the buggy trailing edge). Do all of your switches have neutral connections? (I haven’t done any testing with non-neutral setups)
FWIW, I haven’t yet experienced any anomalous behavior resulting from changing the settings many times - my switches have always behaved consistently when configured a specific way. (but my test setup is very small/simple right now…)
I have found the z2m device “Exposes” configuration screen to be a bit unresponsive, especially when querying the switch for its current configuration - sometimes it wouldn’t update until I physically pressed a button on the switch. Changing brightness via this screen was a little flaky too. But for actually setting configuration parameters, it seemed to work fine - changes always applied instantly on the switch.
Are you referring to @euggersh 's power graph? That’s not a voltage waveform! (as a voltage waveform, that would be quite bad indeed…)
Other than the buggy trailing edge waveform that I documented, I don’t see anything concerning in the dimming waveforms that the switch produces - they look similar to other dimmers. Once the bug is fixed, I expect everything will look just fine.
AC phase-cut dimming in general does seem like an EMC nightmare - I’m surprised it doesn’t cause more interference problems - but the Blue dimmers don’t appear to be doing anything unusual here.
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I would assume trailing and leading edge dimmers will look more like that (above)
I missed that it is not Voltage, but I would doubt it will be much different for incandescent bulb (in the end resistance of the W filament does’;t change much)
I do not have scope at home, and I pass this stage way ago
I really would like to have the product that just works…
I have enough tech at work 
But honestly, with firmware issues, un-predictable lead times, constant supply challenges, I really start questioning if inovelli solution is for me. It is like Russian roulette sometimes.
I am still waiting for Red 2in1 delivery (which delayed my project considerably) and I won’t use these switched for my friends automation (which I am helping, i.e doing :-)) Most likely will use Lutron going forward. RA3 is quite nice
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Is there some kind of problem with 2.14? Personally I haven’t seen a single problem on 60 switches.
I’d say in general the firmware has been working well for most. There are a few that are seeing issues with the trailing edge dimming and a couple with some strange Zigbee communication issues. We are investigating those issues right now. Internally and for the beta testers, they haven’t seen the issues mentioned but there are definitely some things we are getting to the bottom of.
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Going on vacation just after a firmware release? Are you sure they are coming back? (Just kidding, I also write embedded software for a living )
Labour Day in China! They got 4 days off!
Dragon Boat Festival is also soon approaching. Pretty neat to see the holidays they celebrate from the American side of things.
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