Lockups, Uninitiated On/Off, Strange behavior

Hi, all. Having weird issues and support can’t seem to help me. Posting here as a last resort. I’m a bit disappointed and frustrated. Used to be a huge Inovelli fan and purchased $800+ of the new switches…only to have erratic behavior.

Hub: ST Gen3
Switches: LZW31-SN Red Series Dimmers
Lamp types: both LED and Incandescent. (doesn’t seem to matter with this problem)
DTH: Inovelli Dimmer Red Series LZW31-SN
networkSecurityLevel: ZWAVE_S0_DOWNGRADE

Odd experiences we’ve had:

  1. Dimmer with “lock” in the “on” state. Pressing or holding button one (down) to turn it off does not turn it off. HOWEVER, when you press button one (up) the lamp dims off them back on. Once the lamp is back on, you can press button one (down) to turn it off normally. This happens multiple times per week to several switches.

  2. Lights turn on and off without any intervention (and switch log entries showing up). For example, today in the bathroom, the vanity light went off, then on…then off…then on about four times in the matter of a minute…maybe 30-45 seconds (sorry, I wasn’t expecting to time it getting ready for work. LOL). The logs show the following…even though no one else was there to physically press the button:
    2020-05-28 10:44:44.242 AM EDT
    11 hours ago
    DEVICE power 0 Master Bath - Jan’s Vanity power is 0 W
    2020-05-28 10:44:41.779 AM EDT
    11 hours ago
    DEVICE switch off Master Bath - Jan’s Vanity switch is off
    2020-05-28 10:44:41.038 AM EDT
    11 hours ago
    DEVICE physical button held Master Bath - Jan’s Vanity button 1 was held
    2020-05-28 10:44:39.015 AM EDT
    11 hours ago
    DEVICE physical button pushed Master Bath - Jan’s Vanity button 1 was pushed
    2020-05-28 10:44:31.478 AM EDT
    11 hours ago
    DEVICE power 9 Master Bath - Jan’s Vanity power is 9 W
    2020-05-28 10:44:27.155 AM EDT
    11 hours ago
    DEVICE switch on Master Bath - Jan’s Vanity switch is on
    2020-05-28 10:44:26.273 AM EDT
    11 hours ago
    DEVICE physical button pushed Master Bath - Jan’s Vanity button 1 was pushed

  3. Using a Red Series On/Off (LZW30-SN) to control our undercabinet lighting, the lights flicker at odd times quickly off and on. We first thought it was lightning, but it’s definitely the lights that flicker on and off. We have noticed that the “Energy” setting is getting reset in the log for some reason:
    2020-05-28 5:42:11.297 PM EDT
    4 hours ago
    DEVICE energy 0.014 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.014 kWh
    2020-05-28 5:35:08.422 PM EDT
    4 hours ago
    DEVICE energy 0.012 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.012 kWh
    2020-05-28 5:30:30.434 PM EDT
    4 hours ago
    DEVICE energy 0.010 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.010 kWh
    2020-05-28 5:25:59.105 PM EDT
    4 hours ago
    DEVICE power 21 Undercabinet Lights power is 21 W
    2020-05-28 5:25:53.418 PM EDT
    4 hours ago
    DEVICE energy 0.009 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.009 kWh
    2020-05-28 5:23:32.833 PM EDT
    4 hours ago
    DEVICE energy 0.008 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.008 kWh
    2020-05-28 5:21:11.430 PM EDT
    4 hours ago
    DEVICE energy 0.007 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.007 kWh
    2020-05-28 5:18:50.694 PM EDT
    4 hours ago
    DEVICE energy 0.006 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.006 kWh
    2020-05-28 5:16:30.757 PM EDT
    4 hours ago
    DEVICE energy 0.005 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.005 kWh
    2020-05-28 5:11:56.174 PM EDT
    5 hours ago
    DEVICE energy 0.004 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.004 kWh
    2020-05-28 5:09:35.300 PM EDT
    5 hours ago
    DEVICE energy 0.003 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.003 kWh
    2020-05-28 5:07:18.932 PM EDT
    5 hours ago
    DEVICE energy 0.002 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.002 kWh
    2020-05-28 5:01:10.455 PM EDT
    5 hours ago
    DEVICE power 22 Undercabinet Lights power is 22 W
    2020-05-28 5:01:08.763 PM EDT
    5 hours ago
    DEVICE digital switch on Undercabinet Lights switch is on
    2020-05-28 5:01:08.493 PM EDT
    5 hours ago
    DEVICE physical button pushed Undercabinet Lights button 1 was pushed
    2020-05-28 11:25:58.209 AM EDT
    10 hours ago
    DEVICE power 0 Undercabinet Lights power is 0 W
    2020-05-28 11:25:58.074 AM EDT
    10 hours ago
    DEVICE energy 0.000 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.000 kWh
    2020-05-28 10:41:02.641 AM EDT
    11 hours ago
    DEVICE physical switch off Undercabinet Lights switch is off
    2020-05-28 10:20:35.699 AM EDT
    11 hours ago
    DEVICE energy 0.021 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.021 kWh

Any help would greatly be appreciated. I really want to love these…but I need to get these problems ironed out.

Thanks,
JB

Honestly this was a similar frustration I had with ST v3 hub. I started off with ST and it worked great with the GE porch light I had and ST outlets for the dog bed. Until I added the Inovelli the hub was ok. I’m so glad I made the Hubitat switch. The frustrations you ST users gave had is just not worth it (ST hub not the switches)

ST user here for at least five years. I’d say I’m above average, but no expert. I have a hard time believe its the SmartThings hub and are thinking more and more that it’s the Inovelli implementation, especially my other non-Inovelli devices are rock solid. Just a couple of minutes ago, our undercabinet lights turned off and back on (driven by a Red Series Switch). There is nothing in the logs…except that, again, energy reset to 0. I’m not sure what this means and wonder if @EricM_Inovelli is out there. His original (pre-Red Series) DTHs were solid.

Here’s the current log entries for the undercabinet lights (which are on a switch):

2020-05-30 6:50:09.937 PM EDT
moments ago
DEVICE power 22 Undercabinet Lights power is 22 W
2020-05-30 6:50:09.535 PM EDT
moments ago
DEVICE energy 0.000 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.000 kWh
2020-05-30 6:50:04.625 PM EDT
moments ago
DEVICE energy 0.421 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.421 kWh

Man, those are really strange issues. What are the configurations for these circuits? Neutral vs Non-Neutral & 3-way configuration?

#2 The button presses are really suspect. That would only show up if the button was actually pressed or the switch thought it was. Could the button on that one be like “stuck” or something? I haven’t seen that, but if no one is there when those are showing up the there has got to be something wrong with that switch.

#3 sounds like an incompatibility with the load type. Can you let us know the model and specs of the lighting?

Strange indeed…and the wife is losing patience, so I appreciate the help. If you can’t figure these out, then I know they can’t be solved. These are all standard load connections. I have not even attempted my 3-ways due to these oddities. I have tried both Neutral and Non-Neutral (wiring), but I would say most I have wired in the neutral. This happens with both LED and incandescent. Not that it should matter, but the entire house uses GFCI circuit breakers (at the panel). Would that matter at all?

If the button is “stuck” it would be stuck on all of the Red Series dimmers I have (since it’s been happening to every one), so pretty unlikely. Paranormal activity would be more likely…maybe I need to put a camera on one of the dimmers. LOL The wild thing is I have one Inovelli dimmer from your original run (I want to say its a 31S) and that thing have been 100% rock solid.

Happens on both incandescent and LED. Incandescents are a 3-lamp fixture, a 5-lamp fixture, and a 9-lamp fixture. The LEDs are Elite RL677-1000Ls (surface mount/can lights (https://iuseelite.com/product/rl677-1000l/)). Some of the surface mount lights are single lights…and others are 3-5 lights on the same run (think kitchen island or four corners of a living room). Again, I’ll mention that every circuit in the house (okay…ALMOST every circuit) is on a GFCI breaker at the panel. I have been slowly updating to v1.44 firmware and it seems to be getting less frequent…or maybe corrected completely. I know FOR SURE the undercabinet lights (sorry…don’t know the brand…I’m sure its a non-descript builder LED specials) have not had the issue since the new firmware. At least not that we have noticed. And I verified the “energy” setting is not getting reset at random intervals since the new firmware has been applied…so that’s super promising.

Okay…I’m all ears and putty in your hands @EricM_Inovelli. Let me know if you’ve got ideas or if you’d like me to try anything.

I don’t believe that this should make a difference. I know these aren’t super common, but I haven’t heard of issues here. I have one installed in my breaker box, but it is an outlet only circuit.

The button press thing is really throwing me off. I just don’t know how it is possible for those button events to be sent without someone actually pushing the button.

One thing I am wondering is if the switch type and 3-way configuration are set correctly. This can be done in the device preferences. With the original firmware some people had to change the setting to something else and then set it back. For example, if you are using neutral you would change the setting to non-neutral and then change it back to neutral. Same thing with the 3-way config. Change it to 3-Way toggle and then back to Single Pole. I believe this was corrected in one of the firmware updates, but it might be worth a shot.

So we were just sitting on the couch and the Foyer light turned off. Looked at the logs and it does not say this one was done via a physical button. This dimmer has firmware 1.35 (haven’t updated it yet):

2020-06-19 9:01:36.288 PM EDT
9 minutes ago
DEVICE energy 48.435 Foyer Light energy is 48.435 kWh
2020-06-19 9:01:35.832 PM EDT
9 minutes ago
DEVICE power 0 Foyer Light power is 0 W
2020-06-19 9:01:33.062 PM EDT
9 minutes ago
DEVICE switch off Foyer Light switch is off
2020-06-19 8:54:24.179 PM EDT
16 minutes ago
DEVICE power 87 Foyer Light power is 87 W
2020-06-19 8:54:23.446 PM EDT
16 minutes ago
DEVICE energy 48.426 Foyer Light energy is 48.426 kWh
2020-06-19 8:48:32.733 PM EDT
22 minutes ago
DEVICE power 88 Foyer Light power is 88 W
2020-06-19 8:48:31.703 PM EDT
22 minutes ago
DEVICE energy 48.417 Foyer Light energy is 48.417 kWh
2020-06-19 8:42:31.168 PM EDT
28 minutes ago
DEVICE energy 48.408 Foyer Light energy is 48.408 kWh
2020-06-19 8:30:32.281 PM EDT
40 minutes ago
DEVICE energy 48.391 Foyer Light energy is 48.391 kWh
2020-06-19 8:18:32.939 PM EDT
52 minutes ago
DEVICE energy 48.373 Foyer Light energy is 48.373 kWh

@Jbaskerville - This sounds like the dimmer is set to 100. With the 1.35 firmware, you should set max brightness value to 80%.

The dimmer shows 78% percent in the ST app (which we never change as full brightness is too bright for that fixture).

80% for max brightness? Huh? Please explain…I’m not tracking…

Look here. It was fixed for 1.41 software.

Aha! Thank you…I wonder if maybe it went above 80% and shut off them. Although if it’s set to 78% one would think it would stay there and not fluctuate. I guess this means I need to flash all of the switches. @EricM_Inovelli…any ETA on when the next firmware will be released (if you can share your roadmap)? I have a large qty of these devices, so updating them takes a significant amount of time. If you’re close to the next release…I might just wait.

1.44 beta is the latest. Hopefully stable version to be released shortly.

1 Like

We just released v1.45 of the firmware. Do you have the ability to test a firmware update? I would love it if you could test the circuit that you are seeing this the most on. Especially if you could test firmware 1.44 and then 1.45 for comparison.

Sure…just downloaded them. I assume this won’t interfere with the Zniffer results?

So I had challenges with the 1.45 firmware on one dimmer. Sent you a PM on that.

With the undercabinet switch (which was upgraded to 1.17) it again turned off and back on by itself at 9:10am this morning. The only thing in the log is:

Date Source Type Name Value User Displayed Text
[2020-06-25 9:10:27.221 AM EDT
44 minutes ago ](https://graph-na04-useast2.api.smartthings.com/device/3f587c2b-58f5-43c2-b314-338d0f3146d8/event/3ce1d2e0-b6e5-11ea-ba0a-024919d68898?all=&source=&max=25) DEVICE power 21 Undercabinet Lights power is 21 W
[2020-06-25 8:09:52.654 AM EDT
2 hours ago ](https://graph-na04-useast2.api.smartthings.com/device/3f587c2b-58f5-43c2-b314-338d0f3146d8/event/c678d750-b6dc-11ea-9887-0634805e38a4?all=&source=&max=25) DEVICE energy 0.036 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.036 kWh
[2020-06-25 7:09:51.897 AM EDT
3 hours ago ](https://graph-na04-useast2.api.smartthings.com/device/3f587c2b-58f5-43c2-b314-338d0f3146d8/event/6440c5f0-b6d4-11ea-b072-060251fb1a2e?all=&source=&max=25) DEVICE energy 0.014 Undercabinet Lights energy is 0.014 kWh

I think I’m going to replace it with a standard dumb switch to make sure it’s not the fixture…but I will say it’s happened a lot less with the 1.17 firmware.