We can have the engineer investigate it further for sure. Since you are in our Teams account, I can have you work directly with the firmware and hardware guys so we can try to replicate it. I’ve only seen this a few times (I know things get amplified in the forums and it makes it seem worse) but I’m all for improving the switch if we can so let’s work on it together.
Has there been any update on this? I recently purchased 10 dimmers and with the first 2 I’ve installed I’m seeing constant flickering. Hoping to get this resolved instead of returning the dimmers
What troubleshooting steps have you taken? For example, did you try switching from leading to trailing edge? Do you get the same results with a different brand bulb?
I’ve tried trailing/leading edge.
I’ve turned off power monitoring.
This happens with both the GE and feit electric bulbs that I have.
Also it occurs from 1% all the way up about 90% brightness.
All of the bulbs claim to be dimmable.
I’m not attached to the bulbs I have installed, if there’s a known working dumb light bulb out there I’ll gladly buy a few to try.
Thanks.
No answers from me, unfortunately. I have Feit globe bulbs in multiple locations, on both dumb and Inovelli Blue/Red. For those on the Inovellis, I get an almost imperceptible amount of flickering at extremely low dim, maybe a couple of percent above off. I’ve just adjusted the min up a bit to compensate. But in your case it’s almost the entire range.
Do you have any of the “issue” bulbs on dumb switches? If so, any flickering there? My Feits on both the Inovelli and dumb switches will flicker at one point of my clothes washer’s spin cycle, so I know Feits are subject to some sort of interference. If you don’t get the flickering on the dumb switch bulbs then this won’t apply, but if you do I’d look for a motor load that you can temporarily turn off to evaluate. i.e. pool pump, recirculation pump, etc.
The only suggestion I have is that if you haven’t already, upgrade to the latest firmware.
Thanks for the detailed reply!
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to test the Feits on a dumb dimmer however the GE bulbs had a lutron dimmer before the inovelli and that had no issues.
Are you by any chance able to point me towards some help for checking and updating the firmware? I’m running ZHA and it says everything is up to date, but I’m not too sure I trust that
I’m the last person you want giving you HA advice, lol. I’m sure someone will respond here shortly.
In the meantime, there’s this:
Okay, so it looks like my dimmers are on 2.18 which appears to be the latest.
I haven’t updated them, so this is what they were delivered with and are flickering with.
Well it currently looks like switching to Philips bulbs has solved the problem.
Thanks for all the pointers along the way.
What kind of phillips bulbs? I just put in my first few switches and am experiencing the flickering mentioned in this thread with GE LED bulbs.
@Eric_Inovelli/@EricM_Inovelli , you mentioned having an engineer look into this. Did anything come from that? I’m experiencing the exact same issues described here with the 5 dimmers I recently ordered.
Yes, they think they have identified what may be causing it and we’re doing some testing with it with people who are experiencing it. It really depends on the type of flickering you have though as there’s random flickers or there’s flickers that happen at low levels, it’s really hard to replicate and pin-point.
However, once we finish these tests, we can share the beta firmware file with you and see if it helps?
They rolled it out initially for the White Series as it seemed to be more prevalent there, but I know they are replicating it with the Blue Series.
What it boils down to is optimizing the read/write commands that are happening on the MG21/MG24 (in your case the MG21). Sometimes, in the right circumstances, the network read/write commands can cause the chips to process the data and causes the lights to flicker. This was a hard one to track down as I must have purchased 20 different bulbs and never experienced it myself. I also have 70+ Zigbee devices (40+ switches) at my house and have never noticed it.
But, I hope this solves it as clearly others are experiencing it also.
If you can shoot @Kaleb_Inovelli your contact info (email is fine) he can coordinate a firmware file for you if you want to test out the firmware when we get it for the Blue 2-1.
Ok Awesome,
Ive installed 3 of the 5 switches I ordered and have had slightly different flickering behavior with all of them with both LED and incandescent bulbs (each circuit uses a different type of LED bulb normally, incandescent was just for testing)
All of them seem to have the flicker happen at anything less then ~90% dimming. Its hard to say if it happens more frequently at lower dimming levels as the change in brightness is more noticeable at low dimming than at higher levels.
Of the 3 switches I have installed:
switch 1: I would describe this ones “flicker” as more of a pulse, where it ramps up slightly brighter then back down to the set level over around half a second or so
switch 2: much more abrupt flicker
switch 3: more in line with switch 1, but harder to say since i dont have those lights dimmed as often
I will definitely reach out test the firmware
Sounds like @Eric_Inovelli is helping out, but I have just a couple more questions for you.
- Is it a continuous, barely noticeable faint flicker, or a sudden, noticeable blackout-like flicker?
- How often does it occur?
- Do you notice a difference between leading and trailing edge?
- If you remove one of the switches from the network (with a factory reset - choose the most noticeable switch), does the problem go away or improve?
- I have a short video of the pulsing of switch 1, but the form wont let me upload it since im a new user, happy to send it if you can recommend a way. Switch 2 is more of a sudden flicker.
- Frequency can vary, anywhere from ~15 seconds to ~15 minutes
- other than trailing edge being perceived to be brighter, i dont think there was much of a difference.
- didnt have time for this tonight, will try to soon and report back
Bumped you up a trust level. See if it lets you upload video now. Otherwise you can upload to imgur / Google drive and paste a link here.
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Video of switch 1. The video does make it appear slightly more abrupt than it actually is (assume my phone is trying to compensate for the changing lighting), but hopefully it gives an idea. There are 6 LED lights in this room, all the same model, and they all pulse in unison
That looks exactly like what I reported over in Blue Series Dimmer Switch (VZM31-SN) is flickering - what to do about it?
Was just able to test resetting one of the switches last night. Factory reset at the switch and then the only config I did was enabling dimming using tap sequences. Verified the switch no longer reported as online in HA. The problem still occurs, at roughly the same frequency, was sitting in the room for ~ 1hour last night and it happened around 3-4 times.
Other observations:
- The switch I tested I feel like alway used to pulse brighter, but after the reset it seemed to only pulse dimmer. Although my spouse disagrees and says it did both bright and dimmer before.
- The other 2 switches I have installed alway seem to flicker dimmer. I am using flicker vs pulse deliberately, with flicker being more abrupt, and pulse being more gradual. Although, since each of the 3 circuits is using a different type of LED light, I’m wondering if a flicker vs pulse is just a result of the bulbs handling the change in power differently
- One pattern i think i might be noticing is that after the switch has been off for a while, it takes a while for the first pulse/flicker to happen (maybe 15-30 minutes), then after the first pulse/flicker it happens more frequently
So I have this same thing happening, all bulbs flicker at the same time, doesnt matter incandescent or LED or any combination. And at pretty high dimming levels too.
I’m gonna swap out the Blue with another one I have that isn’t doing that and see if the problem follows the switch or the fixture. I am suspicious, (without being able to explain why) that it’s related to the fixture. A bit of fooling around yes but worth it because yea, it’s super annoying.