Let me start by saying that I love that Inovelli is pushing the envelope with smart switches. I love the feature set that they have included in the switches. Other companies are still playing catch up. However I believe that the basic functionality of the switches/dimmers are being ignored or not being tested thoroughly.
I have a few Zooz switches but was drawn to Inovelli because of the features of the switches. Here’s my experience: I pre-ordered 1 red series dimmer and 2 black series dimmers (also purchased red series on/off from Amazon) and all 4 have various issues.
Scenario 1: (LZW31 Dimmer in a 3 way setting) The switches automatically turn off by themselves at random times. I’m using neutral wiring in all locations with standard incandescent bulbs (I know it’s time to upgrade to LED). Here’s a sample video that shows what happens: https://youtu.be/N-Ga6q9PNGc
Scenario 2: (LZW31 Dimmer - single pole with dimmable filament bulbs) - Had to use the bypass in order for the lights to shutoff (no problem there) but I have to set the maximum brightness to 80% or the switch will shut off. Also the smartthings classic App doesn’t report power consumption. Is that becuase I have the bypass installed?
Scenario 3: (Red Series On/Off randomly loses power but the SmartThings app still says that it’s on but the bulbs are unavailable. More details in this post
Scenario 4: (Red Series Dimmer controlling a chandelier with 6 B10 incandescent 40w bulbs). Can’t set lights to 100% b/c the lights will automatically turn off.
It just seems that my home has to adapt to the switches to get them to work, rather than the switches working for me seamlessly. I want to love Inovelli switches but they are becoming frustrating to everyone in the house.
On #4 have you by chance removed any of the tabs on the switch? Max wattage drops to 200 if you remove all 6 tabs and with 6 40w incandescent bulbs you would be at 240 watts at 100% brightness.
I feel the same way though I am not as invested as you are. I too like what inovelli is doing and hope that things get cleared up as I want to continue using their switches. At this point though, I have one that was a 2 month project in a 3 way set up and it didn’t work as advertised. I ended up taking it out and using it as a standard on/off where it has been fine.
What bothers me the most is that here on the forums, where people are active and willing to try things, and responsive to feedback and genuinely receptive to wanting to make things work, inovelli has gone radio silent. There used to be responses but I have seen little to nothing posted by anyone from inovelli in a while. This, after getting a “guarantee” that something would come more than a week ago.
I thought so too but when I press off on the switch the bulbs were still on but faintly. The bypass made them go all the way off but no energy is reported in the SmartThings app.
That was my thought as well. I only removed 3 tabs on 1 side to fit inside a double gang box. So i should be within range. Not sure what to make of it.
You should only need the bypass if it’s non-neutral*, so I’m assuming that’s your setup. Power monitoring only works with a neutral connected to the switch.
*unless you mean that you’re using both, which I’m tempted to try in one location where I do have a neutral and am using smart bulbs (so local control disabled) and find that the switch sometimes crashes/turns itself off if I dim the smart bulbs (via software, nothing to do with the dimmer itself) as if I weren’t using a neutral and the dimmer “ran out” of current to power itself…
I’m using both. I installed the dimmer with neutral wiring and the filament bulbs would not turn off completely. I then added the bypass and the bulbs now turns off all the way. Next time i’m home I’ll take a pic of the bulbs. Before I installed the smart dimmer, I had a dumb lutron dimmer switch.
I also have this issue with smart bulbs (Hue) but I’m using a non-neutral configuration. When I turn “off” the hue bulbs via software, the switch resets. I was assuming that this was due to loss of power to the switch due to low load but since you’re having the issue with the neutral in place it’s making me rethink that. Perhaps it’s an overcurrent situation triggering a failsafe in the switch?
I have the bypass installed but it hasn’t made a difference in the behavior. More load on the circuit however does seem to resolve the issue. With a 25 watt bulb in the same fixture as the Hue bulbs everything works correctly. This is obviously not an ideal solution. I’m in the process of testing to determine what the minimum load is to prevent the reset behavior.
I wish I knew what was happening. I have three dimmers at my house: two with neutral and with two (each) Hue bulbs. In one of these rooms, both Hue bulbs are normally on, and I haven’t noticed any problems. In the other rooms, I often like only one bulb on but have modified my scenes to include both bulbs, even if one is just on at the lowest possible level–it seems to keep the dimmer happy. I have a neutral and would understand this happening if I didn’t, but since I do, I’m not sure and am just trying to work around it. (I guess I could try a bypass even though I shouldn’t need one, but using both lights is easier.) Glad I’m not the only one, at least.
In my third room, I wanted to use the dimmer to also control Hue bulbs, but I didn’t have a neutral there. It worked fine with both bulbs were on, but if I soft-dimmed them to below about 50-60%, the dimmer lost power and so did the rest of the circuit, even when I had a bypass installed (in fact, even when I had three bypasses installed in parallel with the load for purposes of testing to see if I could get anything to work reliably). I wanted the dimmer more than I wanted Hue bulbs in that room, so I kept the Inovelli and went with 100W-equivalent dimmable LEDs instead (the only kind I could find where a pair would still keep the dimmer powered). I wanted the Hue bulbs pretty bad, though, too, so I’m looking into DIY lightstrips to replace the color and color temperature control I’m losing.
I wish I knew exactly what was happening either. I’ve posted about this in a couple other threads but haven’t received a response from staff or much experience from others, either.
I put together a bench setup for testing tonight and was able to get to a few working solutions to the Hue issue in my Non-Neutral configuration.
Solution 1:
Have at least 1 bypass installed and setting the switch as follows:
Max Level = 65
Min Level = 45
Default Levels (Switch and Z-Wave) 100
I also disable the relay control at the switch which locks the dim level at the switch and keeps the bulbs powered.
Solution 2:
Add at least 4w of additional load to the circuit. More details on this in section 4 of the testing methodology below.
Test Setup:
1 LZW31-SN (Non-Neutral, Single-Pole)
2 Medium Ceramic Bulb Sockets
1 Candelabra (C-Size) Ceramic Bulb Socket
2 Hue White and Color Ambience Bulbs (3rd Gen)
4 Watt Incandescent Bulb (C-Size)
3 Aeotec Bypasses
Hubitat Hub
Methodology:
Initially I set it up with the two medium bulb sockets empty and no bypass. As expected the switch didn’t power on at all.
I added the bypass and the switch powered up and functioned correctly. No bulbs were present in the sockets.
Added 2 Hue White and Color Ambience bulbs to the medium sockets. Switch set to Max Level 100 and Min Level 1 (Defaults). Bulbs powered on but turning them “off” via software caused the switch to reset. This was the expected behavior based on my in-wall experience.
Connected an additional C sized socket to the test circuit with a 4w C-base incandescent bulb (nightlight bulb). The additional load from the bulb was enough to make everything work correctly with no changes to the switch settings. This put the total load at approximately 5w. 4w from the bulb and 1w from the bypass. This is a viable solution if you can hide away the 4w bulb someplace and are able to replace it when it inevitably burns out.
Removed the 4 watt bulb and socket from the test circuit. Added 2 additional bypasses for a total of three. Each bypass is rated for 1w so in theory this was adding 3w of load. When the Hue bulbs were turned “off” via software, the switch reset. I only have 3 of the Aeotec bypasses on hand so I wasn’t able to test with more than that.
Removed the additional two additional bypasses. Increased the Min Level on the switch to 45% which is the maximum setting that value supports. The bulbs flicker and are unstable unless the dimmer is at least at 60. I started reducing the Max value by 5 and testing after each reduction. The magic number seems to fall somewhere between 65 and 70. With those settings it works reliably and I can turn off the bulbs via software without the switch resetting.
Additional Notes:
I can’t speak to the long term effects on the Hue bulbs from running them at 65. However, there was no noticeable difference in the max brightness of the bulbs when using that setting on the switch vs the Max set at 100.
I’ll put in a feature request to see if the Min Level value can be allowed to exceed 45. I’d love to be able to set the Max and Min to the same values to lock out the dimming capability but not have to disable local control and lose scene capabilities at the switch. Disabling the relay control at the switch locks out the dimming capability while leaving scene control enabled but that’s not practical for every situation. With the relay enabled someone could dim to the min value at the switch (45) which will cause the bulbs to flicker and reset. The switch still remains stable but it’s not an acceptable user experience. Also, when the switch loses power the relay control must be manually disabled again as it reverts to enabled by default.
Using more than 3 Aeotec bypasses may create enough load to resolve the issue but that gets expensive quickly.
Another option could be a higher wattage resistor but it wouldn’t be UL certified or meet code. I’d also have some concerns over heat depending on where it was installed. From a safety perspective this solution is definitely not ideal.
There is an interesting anomaly when using the auto-created Hue scenes. They all work except “Concentrate” which causes the bulbs to reset but not the switch.
I have some Lutron lut-mlc devices being delivered tomorrow. These are similar to the Aeotec Bypasses but come in at about half the cost. I’m going to introduce them with and without the Aeotec to see if there is any difference. I’ll post an update here once I’ve had a chance to test them. More info on these devices can be found here.
If it were only insufficient load causing the issue it shouldn’t be occurring in a Neutral setup, but there is hard evidence that it does so there is still something else going on here.
@BertABCD1234 If the full feature set of the Inovelli switch isn’t a requirement for you I’ve had an excellent experience with the Lutron Aurora Dimmer for Hue. It installs over a standard toggle switch and works very well. I have two of them installed in locations that aren’t practical for an in-wall smart dimmer due to switched outlets.
Couldn’t agree with you more. I shouldn’t have to set my lights to 80% or 60% for the switches to function. Just need the basic function of the switches to work.
The Lutron Bypasses had no effect. I tried them alone and in parallel with the Aeotec. Alone the issue was actually worse and with the Aeotec there was no noticable improvement in behavior.
I reluctantly ended up fabricating a resistor based solution. Two 5w 10k resistors per fixture generated enough load to keep the switches from rebooting when the Hue lights were turned “off”. However, I wouldn’t openly advocate this solution. The resistors generate a fair amount of heat and I do not consider them safe for enclosed fixtures or above recessed cans. The two locations I used this in are in well ventilated semi- flush mount fixtures with at least 12" of clearance from any combustible materials.
I do keep parameter 11 set to 99 on all my switches since they seem to behave better when the relay is disabled.
I have not done any experimentation with the power and energy report parameters. I’m waiting on a replacement switch for one that was DOA. I should be able to test that in my bench setup one it arrives. I don’t currently have any spares for testing.
