Erratic dimming behavior when Third Reality ZL1 bulbs are bound to Inovelli VZM31-SN switch

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Hello!

I’m running into a strange dimming issue with Third Reality ZL1 (3RCB01057Z) bulbs when they’re directly bound to an Inovelli VZM31-SN, endpoint 2 (genOnOff and genLvlCtl). I’m fairly sure this is a bulb-side quirk, but I wanted to check here to see if there’s anything on the Inovelli side that could help or if anyone has seen something similar.

When dimming from the physical paddle on the switch, the brightness behaves unpredictably:

If the bulbs are at 100% and I hold the paddle down to dim to around 50%, the bulbs will continue dimming after I release the paddle (sometimes nearly to their lowest level), then ramp back up to where the switch seems to think they should be.

The same thing happens in reverse. If I dim up from ~20% to ~50%, the bulbs will briefly jump to what looks like 100%, then dim back down.

Occasionally the dimming just feels inconsistent overall.

What makes this more confusing is that I have multiple other rooms set up the same way (Inovelli switches bound to Zigbee bulb groups), using Innr and cheap Aliexpress bulbs, and those work perfectly. The issue only shows up with these Third Reality ZL1 bulbs.

Things I’ve tried so far:

Verified firmware: Switch is on 2.18 and all ZL1 bulbs are on 1.00.74 per Zigbee2MQTT

Removed the binding from the switch to the group of 7 bulbs and rebound the switch to a single ZL1 bulb — same behavior

Factory reset the switch and repeated the binding process (single bulb first, then group) — same behavior

Bound the same bulb and group to a different Inovelli switch — same behavior

If I adjust brightness from Zigbee2MQTT using the Inovelli’s exposed brightness control, the bulbs dim smoothly and correctly every time. The issue only happens when dimming directly from the physical paddle on the switch.

At this point, it seems like the switch may be sending level-related commands during paddle dimming that these bulbs interpret differently than other brands. I don’t think the switch is “broken,” but I’m wondering if there are any Inovelli settings, dimming modes, or workarounds that might improve compatibility here.

Thanks for any help!

2

I reached out to Third Reality to see if they can help, but apparently they can’t replicate even with the same setup. Erratic dimming behavior when ZL1 bulbs are bound to Inovelli VZM31-SN switch - THIRDREALITY

quick video of what’s happening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQyGrrm-tKw

Does anyone have any ideas of what I may have done? I have the switch bound to a bulb (or the group), so I think all settings on the switch are essentially bypassed when it comes to dimming, right? Or is there somethign I should be ticking in the switch’s settings? Again, I have this setup on other bulbs with no issues, so I’m at a total loss. I may just look into dimming at the Home Assistant level, if that’s possible.. anyone know of a good automation for that to mimic what should be happening with bindings?

3

You may want to get a zigbee sniffer and see if you can see what packets are being sent to the bulbs and send that capture to Third Reality to see if they see anything there that would explain the weird behavior.

Since you have other manufacturer bulbs that work without this problem, I would consider switching bulbs rather than moving away from binding and trying to implement at it at the hub level.

4

Yea, I’m still in my return period, so I may look for some more. Do you happen to have any recommendations? I’ve tried the Ecosmart (discontinued) BR30 bulbs, and they worked okay, but they had a slow turn on time and would turn on at a default brightness before dimming to where the switch/home assistant told it to. If Innr still made the BR30 bulbs, I’d buy them in an instant!

5

I always recommend Hue bulbs. They’re expensive, but they just work. I have a lot of them paired with Inovelli Blues. I believe they make some BR30s.

6

I recall having some issues with the ZL1 bulbs as well and sending “effects” commands seemed to cause the bulbs to lag or crash.

Ended up returning them and buying Hue bulbs which have worked flawlessly/

7

Yea, Hue is usually too rich for my blood, but I saw they have a sale on their essentials line for the BR30. Just purchased some. Hoping for good things. Thanks for the recommendation!

8

It’s a shame there aren’t any other viable, stable alternatives to Phillips Hue. I am just starting a new Zigbee set up and will probably buy once/cry once (although technically I’m replacing a bunch of lower cost matter bulbs) to ensure a good outcome.

With almost 40 bulbs to replace, I’ll definitely shed some tears lol

Is this stuff really so difficult that only Phillips seems to get it right?

This may be a dumb question but I’ve often wondered about it: why haven’t any companies embraced open source for firmware? I feel like the community would figure this stuff out…