I must be missing something super obvious
Trying to install a smart switch to control 3 pendant LED lights in the kitchen.
LZW31 black series, no neutral.
When power is turned on (or air gap is disabled), the dimmerâs LED cycles red, green, blue, off, blue comes on slowly and lights turn on. Light intensity increases and the lights start flickering.
Then after about 40s, lights and dimmer turn off and the sequence repeats. Pressing Config for 10 seconds (or any length of time for that matter) has no effect whatsoever.
I have the aeotec load resistor and I believe I installed it correctly, but for troubleshooting purposes I removed it again. No difference.
So Iâm guessing this is a 2-way, as you didnât say anything about a 3-way?
Did you set parameters 21 and 22 to no neutral and single pole? If so, how did you set those parameters?
What hub are you using?
What is your load? i.e. what bulbs are you using?
Did you try swapping bulbs temporarily for incandescent to see if there is a difference?
Since this is a non-neutral, there are only 2 wires that connect to the switch with no neutral. How did you determine which is the constant hot? What color wire was that?
Yes, sorry, 2-way. (Not sure if this is important, but there used to be a dumb dimmer in this place, which was configured with a dumb on/off switch in another place in a 3 way setup. I do not need a 3-way setup anymore so I simply did not connect the red traveler wire on the dimmer side and I have completely removed the switch on the other side.)
Parameters: I donât know how to set the parameters because long pressing the config button doesnât seem to be getting me into the setup mode.
Hub: Samsung SmartThings hub.
Load: 4x EcoSmart Dimmable 31mA, 3.2W (I said 3, but I guess Iâm having problems counting )
Bulb type: have not tried that.
Wires: to be honest, I assumed that black was hot/load/live, so I connected that into Load and the white one into Line.
Typically, the white wire is going to be the hot in a non-neutral, but you still should not rely upon convention. The proper way to test this is to test between each of the conductors and the bare ground USING A METER. You may have connected the line to the load terminal, possibly damaging the switch.
I donât mean this in a bad way, but you donât seem to well versed in electrical things. For your safety, Iâd suggest you consult with a licensed electrician.
I just measured with my multi meter: ground + black: 120V, ground + white: 0V. Looks like my assumption was correct. Followed your suggestion of replacing one of the LED bulbs with an incandescent and now the dimmer behaves much more like the manual says it will: the rebooting stopped and I was able to set the parameter.
FWIW, I only used the incandescent light to setup the dimmer. After the setup was complete, I replaced the incandescent again with the LED and the reboot loop resumed. The installation of the AOTEC bypass made that go away.
I have the Aeotech bypass coming into tomorrow. Makes no sense that I have to pay $15 on top of $27 (on the sale price) to get it working. If you have to pay $15 on top of the $40 MSRP, you are better off getting a Lutron Caseta that just works. The bypass is apparently a resistor. Okay. 24K OHM, 3 watt resistor.
FYI, the Inovelli dimmers work fine with the bulb adapter that was provided in the box by C by GE. IDK I might just keep the C by GE switches (which are wifi) but I want to see how the Inovellis perform. I hope that the development team is aware of this issue, and how itâs being addressed by a competitor. Either including a bypass with the dimmer or selling one for five bucks would help out a lot with competitiveness.
Just so youâre aware, this is a user-to-user forum. Basically, users helping out other users with issues. Inovelli employees drop in from time to time. Youâll see an â_Inovelliâ in their user names.
WellâŚsince Iâm not the manufacturer than I canât answer that. How do you propose ANY switch company verify all bulbs (CFLs, LED, incandescent, etcâŚ) validate that it will work 100% with the switch/dimmer? It would be impossible and that is why Inovelli created the bulb page to help other users find compatible bulbs.
I had to buy a bypass for one of my circuits. It even had a neutral installed. Inovelli helped with troubleshooting the device and even had the manufacturer take a look at it. I tried a dimmer and a switch and I still had issues. Validated configuration and so forth. After installing the bypass I was able to solve the issue. I couldâve easily spent $15 in trying different bulbs, but would most likely end up trying multiple brands. I donât blame Inovelli or expect them to perform analysis on every brand/type of bulb in the world to see if itâs going to work. Caseta may be the better switch based on the individualâs need; Inovelli has even recommended competitors switches over their own in some cases.
Iâm trying to have constructive criticism here. One of the highest costs for a manufacturer are service and returns. Thereâs a reason Amazon offers free technical support for all smart switches they sell. If Inovelli can publish lists of recommended bulbs and either include a bypass or sell a no-neutral package with an included bypass, then they could significantly decrease their costs.
Inovelli can at least verify bulbs generally available at Home Depot, Lowes, Costco, Walmart, and Amazon, like the EcoSmart, Great Value, Cree, Philips, Feit, Amazon Basics, Sylvania, TCP, etc. IDK, try 40, 60, 75, and 100 watts for each brands. Both Lutron and C by GE have lists of compatible bulbs. Itâs not like manufacturers are pushing out new dumb bulbs every single year so updating the list shouldnât be so hard.
C by GE also includes a bulb adapter with each three-wire switch or dimmer (that doesnât require a neutral). The Inovelli dimmer works in a no-neutral configuration with the GE bulb adapter and two 60-watt Philips or Cree bulbs. Honestly, Iâm using the Inovellis just because I like to mess around and troubleshoot but itâs more profitable to sell to the masses.
Seriously, Inovelli can get rid of a lot of problems and customer support by including a bypass in the kit. Like you said, it would help even in situations with a neutral wire available. Other users on the forum have wired in a 24k Ohm/3 watt resistor to make the Inovellis work with no neutral. Inovelli could start making their own bypasses, and even have four-port connectors pre-installed. That would make life so much simpler for the user. Push the fixture and load wires into the ports, and youâre done! No wingnuts.
@mu_dut Just want to make sure that you got your dimmer going since your thread got hijacked. Post back if youâre still having an issue. As @mamber pointed out, which wire you determined to be hot goes in the Line terminal.
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