Any updates on the default_local_level issue?
Are we waiting for 2.15 now? Or would 2.14 potentially have the fixes for default level local/remote with binded ZigBee group lights.
1 Like
Really eager for some of these developments to be released. I’ve got 60 switches physically installed but have only paired about 25 of them so far because I’m worried about network stability in the 2.08 firmware. It sure would be great to have a firmware that would let me pair the rest of my switches.
3 Likes
I’d be happy with an incremental release - seems like Inovelli has internally gone through quite a number of builds without making them public. From my perspective there’s no reason to try and fix everything before another release, but I can understand the desire to fix it all - there’s a strong appeal to putting a bow on the project and moving on, for sure.
1 Like
Sorry for the delay here – I had a family emergency and am still out of the office. Just wanted to pop in to give a quick update.
I have been testing 2.14 and it’s worked flawlessly for going on a week and a half at this point. I think the key is to use group bindings for anything over 2 devices if you’re having issues with bindings. While individual bindings are much better, there still was the occasional misfire. I switched the troublesome bindings over to group bindings and have never had an issue and the speed was much better, instant in fact.
So everyone is asking… why haven’t you released it yet?
Well, great question. One of the outstanding items that needed a firmware fix was the non-neutral brightness (more on that explanation below) and while all of my lights did get brighter as originally reported, a couple of them started flickering at a high level which caused me to have to set a max dim level essentially back to the spot where they were when they were throttled.
Ultimately, I swapped out the bulbs and things worked as intended, but it caused us to think, “what’s the best way to handle this as I can’t be the only person who will experience the flickering – especially since I was using Philips bulbs which typically work well”.
I know a lot of you are power users and understand to set the max level lower, but there are a lot of people who have this happen to them and automatically think there’s something wrong with their switch and return it or write a nasty email in saying their switch sucks, etc.
So, we decided to add another parameter that has the switch throttled by default (it’s still about 10% higher than it was before, but it’s not 100%) and if you want to turn it off you can and then set the maximum dim level if you experience flickering.
–
In addition, we had a request from our B2B partner to improve the LED bar reporting % to better match our Gen 2’s for our Red Series switches. This is something we didn’t pick up in Blue Series beta for some reason, so there’s one last parameter that’s being added that allows you to select how you’d like your LED bar scaled.
–
@Dan001 – I’ll let @EricM_Inovelli answer your question about the default level as I don’t know what the status is on that. The last I saw there was some push back from the manufacturer about this, but I don’t want to speak out of turn. Maybe they figured it out.
–
Finally (and I can feel the tension rising, I do not take this lightly as I know everyone has been patient) these are the last changes to this firmware for now as we’ve actually had to pay for these last couple changes/enhancements out of pocket and we’d like to put a bow on things until we have a running list of improvements.
I know everyone wants the incremental changes released, but it’s caused us more of a headache to do it this way than it’s worth. It’s true when they say it only takes a few bad apples to ruin a good thing. This and the fact that we only have these last couple changes, we will just plan on releasing 2.15 and call it a day (unless there are bugs).
I anticipate this releasing next week.
9 Likes
Ah yeah that makes sense. Yeah Group Bindings are different in that you essentially give them a Group ID and then bind the switch to that group. I don’t think it’s possible yet with Hubitat, but we tested a driver out on SmartThings and it works great, so I think we can implement the same thing in Hubitat.
Home Assistant has had this feature for a while – at least ever since I first started testing bindings on it during beta.
Thanks for the update. And I am a HUGE +1 on Inovelli’s “let’s figure out a solution for the power user” attitude here, versus “let’s just handle the mainstream use case.”
2 Likes
I’ve had to learn the hard way so many times that not everyone thinks like us (power-users) and if we ever want to break through to the mass market, we have to not only communicate effectively towards people new to the industry but also set our parameters with the lowest common denominator defaults (ie: what most people will use) but also give ultimate customization to people who want it.
I think my biggest struggle is the communication part from a marketing perspective. How do you let people know this switch is literally 1000x further along than anything out there but not overwhelm people who just want a cool looking switch?
2 Likes
@Dan001 – had a quick update with the PM on this and it looks like this is out of scope and we’ll have to pay this out of pocket. I’m waiting to hear back on how much it’s going to cost. I agree with you though, this is important and hopefully it’s something we can invest in for this and future firmware.
Hang tight, I should know more tomorrow.
Awesome thank you for the update and family always comes first. I hope everything is ok.
2 Likes
From my perspective (and I could be wrong) that is the easy part.
You can do what Apple does:
They release this amazing piece of technology (e.g.: iPhone 14) and then the TV commercials made for the masses will focus on:
- How cute the emojis are.
- The pictures are really good (without technical specs on the camera)
- And last but not least: it is now available in Yellow.
(They almost never mention it makes phone calls 
).
Or what a car manufacturer will do:
They release this amazing machine with this beautiful engine but the TV commercial will focus on “what matters” to the masses: it has a wireless charger for your phone.
Basically, speak the language of the people, not the technology behind it, not how it was made, not how to configure it but instead, the amazing things it will do for you right out of the box (assuming it will be shipped with optimal default settings):
- How cool, sexy (and useful) the LED bar is.
- How the switch will add that luxurious feel to your home
- You can double tap the upper pad for full brightness.
- You can double tap the lower pad for night light (a suggestion I submitted and I hope it gets implemented )
- You can add it to Amazon Echo with minimal effort (hopefully using only voice).
- You can control it from anywhere
- You can seat on your sofa and tell Alexa to turn your lights off.
Bottom line, this is what my father in law who enjoys the benefit of technology but doesn’t understand any of it would like to hear the switch does before he buys it.
3 Likes
Yes!! Literally cannot up vote this enough. Double tap down to lowest is as intuitive for me as double tap up for brightest. Only having up as a local feature set seems somehow incomplete. Just my two cents.
1 Like
Double tapping the bottom pad is a great idea! I’m going to set this up tonight to activate sleep mode with the adaptive lighting plugin in Home Assistant. I have it automated for the common areas in my house now, but this will be a nice feature to have in the bedrooms.
Aim the product page at the normal consumer focus items. @CodeMaster has the right ideas there.
You’ll win over power users by publishing comprehensive and up-to-date technical documentation and continuing to cultivate this active community. Add a forum section for people to share their clever automations. Maybe create an Inovelli organization on GitHub for sharing code, technical data, and interfacing with popular automation libraries and platforms. Power users are going to dig a little bit deeper and there’s less need to address them directly on the main product page.
The best outreach to power users will continue to be your visible engagement with the enthusiast community and examples from other power users prominently using the product to do interesting things. Surface those positives on the product page as resource links and recognize that it puts you miles ahead of the competition.
1 Like
Thanks
Ok, we talked to the manufacturer and will pay for this feature. They said it will be ready by next Tuesday. At that time, we’ll test it and release 2.16!
9 Likes
That is awesome, thank you for working on this. I look forward to 2.16 and the enhancements it will bring.
1 Like
Maybe a stupid question. But when you release the firmware, will it just show up on zigbee2mqtt? Or is there something special I’ll need to do to update?
And you said it takes 20 mins per switch? ugh. That’s 20 hours of upgrading switches for me (assuming no breaks / perfect timing). That’ll be fun. Can you simultaneously update multiple switches? or does it have to be one at a time (for bandwidth reasons?)
Probably 1 at a time due to the bandwidth limitations of ZigBee.
I haven’t seen anywhere near 20 mins for flashing via Hubitat. I’ve seen 4-6 mins.
2 Likes