Was prepared to do more testing on the dimmer and traveler lines as John suggested. But first replaced all the LED’s in the fixture with incandescent bulbs.
The switches now behave much differently. Here’s what I observed with incandescent bulbs in the fixtures and wiring unchanged from my most recent post (which is electrically the same as the first post – just changed wire colors between the Inovelli and dumb switch):
With the incandescent bulbs dimmed, everything works as before (dumb switch down causes Inovelli to shut-off).
With the Inovelli at max brightness, the dumb switch has no impact. When dumb-switch is pressed from up to down, lights stay at max and inovelli continues to function. – but should have continued to function and turn the lights off).
If I subsequently turn the dumb switch from down-to-up, the inovelli continues to function.
If (instead) I subsequently dim the lights (dumb switch is still down), the inovelli dims them as expected. I can flip the dumb switch up again and lights should go-out but stay dim. If I flip the dumb switch down while Inovelli is still dimmed the Inovelli shuts itself off.
So overall very weird, inconsistent behavior vs when LED bulbs are installed, and still not functioning correctly. Me thinks there is an issue with the Inovelli.
Add’l info: There are 7 bulbs total in the circuit: Two light fixtures. One has 4 bulbs and one has three. The LED bulbs are 4 watts each and rated as dimmable and the same bulbs work correctly with other Inovelli switches I have wired as single pole configs. The incandescent bulbs are 40 watts each.
I did not see anywhere here that you set the configuration of the switch. Have you configured it so that it “understands” that there is a dumb switch? This sounds to me like the LZW believe that it is alone in the circuit. The little “wiring insert” tells how to do this manually using the config button on the switch, but if you can connect to a hub like Hubitat, it is much easier to set it via Z-Wave. You want to be sure it is set that it DOES have a neutral (I think the parameter is called “power” in the Hubitat driver) and that it DOES have a dumb-switch attached. Good luck…
following along. I’m having the same issue - LZW only works with dumb switch in one position. I did do the initial programming including setting the neutral and 3 way toggle setting.
Thanks burns and I agree the config should be noted. In my case I set parameters 21 and 22 at the switch. I also re-checked my hubitat drivers and they show:
I was having an issue similar to what you described initially. Lights would only work with the dumb switch in one position,not the other. I set parameter 22 at the switch and still no go. But then I set parameters 21 and 22 from my hub to 1, and that fixed my issue.
I was able to solve my problem the same way. It appears that when I included the dimmer in SmartThings it reset those parameters to 0. Once I changed parameters 21 and 22 in the SmartThings app the dimmer now works as expected in a 3-way setup with a dumb switch.
@ragsnova - i seem to be in the same situation as you are, but must be missing something in the app. do you mind elaborating on how you changed those parameters?
I’m using the SmartThings Classic app. Also, assuming you have installed the device handler in the SmartThings IDE. In the app, select the switch/dimmer from the Things list, then click the gear in the device screen. Scroll most of the way down the list to find the AC power type and switch type setting.
I don’t yet have the RED dimmer. I got involved here as I am planning on adding on in my living room. Trying to help a possible wiring issue I started looking at the details an have come to a theory.
I believe the “Traveler” output of the Inovelli is not providing power as I believe it should.
If someone could test the attached diagrams it would help to clarify where the issue is.
In each I’ve drawn the power path in thicker lines. My supposition is when the Dimmer is “OFF” the light will be off regardless of the position of the “slave” switch.
Conversely when the dimmer is ON the “slave” switch will work fine.
Agree this is a good next step. Have been busy with work and Christmas prep but hope to run this test today or tomorrow. WIll report back with what I find.
I left it in 3-way config, disconnected the dumb switch travelers, and attached the load directly to the output. The switch still shut itself down when operating the dimmer up or down. While in this wiring config, I rebooted the switch and configured it for load-only. It worked!
I tried reconnecting the load to the traveler line (instead of load) and the switch would not power on.
I rewired it one last time in the original configuation, checked the config parameters for neutral/3-way and tested it. Still failed with dumb-switch in the down position.
I measured voltages on the switch outputs etc. but won’t bore you with all that because… I realized I still had a new red dimmer still in the box. I removed the prior switch, connected the new one, powered-it on, changed config parameters to neutral/3-way, and it works!
SO… the other switch works as load-only and the new switch works as 3-way. These are the same models and should work the same way. The previous switch is therefore “functional,” but there’s something wrong with it that doesn’t allow for proper functionality in a 3-way config. I’ll follow-up with Inovelli.
Closing out this topic from my POV. A properly working switch configured for neutral/3-way DOES work with a dumb switch when wired this way.
