Firmware v1.45 (Beta) | LZW31-SN | Dimmer - Red Series (Gen 2)

Any chance of getting the dimmer reporting it’s level when the relay is disabled? I thought I read that was being looked into at the cost of removing local config?

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Glad to see progress in this area! The white LED bar is a nice surprise.

@kreene1987 I agree that there’s something wrong with the changelog as clearly (GitHub’s commit record confirms) there was an update more recent that June 6th which is what is listed in the changelog.

@EricM_Inovelli Unfortunately v1.45 does not solve my smart bulb issue. I still have a blinking mess of a smart bulb no matter what smart bulb I use on the LZW31 dimmed circuit. I updated the firmware and driver uneventfully. I then set the level to 99%, set “State After Power Restored” to 99%, air-gapped the dimmer, removed the halogen PAR30, installed a smart bulb, and it was back to the blinking random rave mode…

What I now suspect might be happening is that the dimmer is ramping up when the power restores instead of simply hard switching to on. Somewhere along that ramp the bulb panics and interrupts the power. Since this is a non-neutral circuit the dimmer then goes into reset. This cycle repeats. Setting the ramp times to 0% does not solve the problem.

Strangely I can communicate with the dimmer to some extent during the resets so I am able to hack with it and watch the logs. I do not feel comfortable hardwire bypassing the dimmer so I have to solve this “the right way” if I am to use smart bulbs. What else can be done? Is it possible to add to the firmware a load type for smart bulbs that fixes all of this with one setting and disregards/overrides whatever else is set on the driver page or physically at the dimmer? Is there some other remedy someone can suggest?

I know someone rightly will ask… yes the smart bulb is known to be properly functioning on other non-dimmed power sources. It is a latest generation multicolor ZigBee connected Sengled BR30.

Thanks folks! Fingers crossed!

Edit: link to video below

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y28p29z68a4fslb/LZW31-SN-SmartBulbInstability-2020-06-23-compressed.mov?dl=0

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Alright more strange things to report… I switched back to a halogen bulb. I’ve now discovered that on this particular circuit setting the dimmer to any value above 80% causes it to reset. A value between 70% to 79% causes the dimmer to flicker rapidly.

In trying to troubleshoot this further by setting the dimmer to various other levels the dimmer is now locked up completely. I can’t get it to respond over ZWave and the physical controls are stuck. I’m not sure what’s up at this point. :man_shrugging:

While this response would not be helpful, thanks for providing video…it’s important to help us all get to a stable release. I wish there were a way to trigger a cool effect like that on my bulbs even though it is not intended for you!

@Daweeze first of all let me say that my day job (whenever I am allowed to go back to my day job) involves creating all sorts of lighting effects. Perhaps I can add this to my bag of tricks and send Inovelli $0.02 per client? Or better yet Inovelli sends me $0.25 instead!

More progress… I continued testing with v1.45 and discovered something that maybe is new but is only now rearing its ugly head as a result of the actual maximum dimmer level being “full output.” Using incandescent or halogen bulbs 50W or smaller (I tested a 53W bulb and it too suffers from this) I experience all of the same issues. Any value above approximately 70% causes flicker and above 80% causes the dimmer to lose power and reset. Low dimmer values work perfectly and cause no issues. I’ve now tested this with two different dimmers on different circuits running 1.45 and can confirm that the problem repeats identically.

Switching to any type of smart bulb causes immediate repeating dimmer resets. Low wattage LED bulbs also cause the exact same failure. I have some typical tiny wattage types but even the heavy 12W, 18.5W, and 25W LED bulbs exhibit the same behavior (those are actual wattage loads not equivalents and true as you’d expect that 25W LED is beastly bright). I suspect I have not seen any of this before since out of the box I updated the firmware of these particular dimmers so I never have seen “full output” from these and instead have only seen the software limited version.

I have for the moment set dimmer maximums in the device pages of these two circuits to prevent them from going into reset. I really wonder what this is?

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Just to make sure as you didn’t state. Did you update the .bin file (Target 1) to the latest version as well as listed below? My understanding is that a .bin mismatch can create problems now that were not notable issues when you “skipped” updating the .bin files as we did before in some betas and only did the .otz file.

AdvancedDimmerHoltekV1_40_20200622.bin

-Travis

One of the .bin files fixes an issue that can cause bulbs to flicker:

Bug Fixes
Fixed: Bug when double press the switch immediately after using up/down button causes the LED bar to be incorrect.
Fixed: Holtek firmware was saving data too often causing the bulb to flicker. 

If you havent been updating the .bin file, perhaps this is the issue?

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@Daweeze, @jtronicus — At the moment I have no way to perform such an update. I have a ZWave Stick on the way. So at this time I only can update “target0” (the .otz file). As soon as the ZWave stick arrives I’ll be adding it as a secondary and then can test this again. That said I was not aware that the so-called “Holtek” MCU (target1) had anything to do with dimming and only handles the user interface and LED bar.

What is most surprising to me is that as of v1.45 I am having issues with “simple” loads such as incandescent/halogen bulbs. I’m also baffled by this issue being worse at higher dimmer levels instead of low levels. I would expect the complete opposite especially as in this case on these two circuits it is a non-neutral installation. Any dimmer that includes a neutral is so far unaffected. So it seems whatever changed in v1.45 to cause these issues only effects non-neutral situations.

I would LOVE a better understanding of what is going on behind the scenes here. Mine seems to be working perfectly so far on this firmware, but the engineer in me wants to know ALL of what is going on!

It believe that since 1.45 there are some additional items being shifted to the Holtek MCU because of space constraints on the 500 series Z-Wave chip. Unfortunately I believe we need to start recommending that both targets be updated on v1.45+.

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@EricM_Inovelli That’s really helpful to know about the dual target requirement. I’m on it. As soon as I receive my ZWave USB Stick I’ll be able to flash both then repeat my test. I have both a 700 series and 500 series on the way from Digi-Key to be able to test two different ends of my mesh and I can’t wait :sunglasses:

Have you confirm success with v1.45 with smart bulbs in a non-neutral configuration like my own? Is there something I missed with my procedure or anything on the device page I should toggle differently?

I can test this tomorrow. I have a Non-Neutral setup at the office :slight_smile:

I’m not sure if I have anything other than ilumin bulbs at the office tho.

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Just updated the OTZ and BIN files with my hubitat setup. Will follow up if I run into any issues. The next of the red dimmers I install will be with smart bulbs (and neutral at switch), so I am hoping things are looking good with this firmware.

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Damn, wish I had seen this before I finished updating every one of my dimmers. I don’t think the hubitat fw updater supports .bin

@Eric_Inovelli I have a few different smart bulbs here. I have tested two ZigBee bulbs (both Sengled but quite different in features and wattage) and they both flicker/fail the same way. I have two LIFX bulbs and those also do not work. I suspect what is going on here is electrical and not simply a software/firmware issue. Perhaps for smart bulbs to function correctly in a non-neutral situation a ghost load (aka bypass?) would help?

Yeah that may help – but what’s the total wattage on the circuit again?

Just updated one on neutral w/load through ST and seems to be working. Updating the z wave associated no load switch now. Will update with any issues.
Also on a side note I completed this OTA via ST without exclusions or resets with Z wave PC controller. In the past I had to reset or “replace” after firmware updates…shows updated in IDE!
Also rec’d shipping confirm update for my fan+light switch, woot woot!!

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How did you do this OTA via ST? Just add the z-stick to your ST as a secondary controller or some other way? This would make my life sooooo much easier. Do tell, kind sir.

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Seconded. ha ha. @GrantsAuto

Many minds want to know this. I will test it out ASAP and see if we can duplicate the results.

I think I figured it out. I found an old post of EricM’s on the ST community site. I will say the update is taking a LONG time (been at it around 24 minutes and it’s only halfway through Target 0). I paired it through my laptop, instead of my desktop…I’m going to move it back to my desktop and see if it speeds back up.

Here’s the thread: https://community.smartthings.com/t/connecting-a-z-stick-gen5-to-smartthings/60077/4