That’s what MANY of us thought from reading their marketing of these devices…
You have event control, but unfortunately when you dim down all the way you effectively cut power to the load.
I hope they get this resolved before the competition (with better resources/deeper pockets) figures out there’s a market for this functionality.
I just spent all day installing some LZW31-SNs and it seems like I have a newer one with firmware 1.48. With this firmware and “Smart Bulb Mode” set to “Yes” I can turn the switch off and dim it (LED changes) but it does not affect power output to the smart lights. I have some with 1.47 and 1.35 where turning off the switch remotely with “Smart Bulb Mode” set to “Yes” turns off the lights and dimming the switch remotely does funny things to the smart bulbs.
Was there an update in there to Smart Bulb Mode or is something messed up in a positive way with my install?
Smart Bulb Mode came with 1.47, so I wouldn’t expect it to work on the 1.35 dimmer. The menu option comes via the DH so you’ll see menu items for things your firmware may not support. (I’m presuming these are on your SmartThings hub . .even though this is a HA based thread.)
There is no difference between 1.47 and 1.48 as it pertains to you. (The only change in 1.48 pertains to Hubitat.) So your 1.47 switch should work normally as you are expecting with Smart Bulb Mode turned on.
So the TLDR is you need to upgrade from 1.35 but the 1.47 ought to work fine.
Thanks, I guess I didn’t realize where I was after I searched, but I am looking into Hubitat as well for the local control. Are the only ways to update firmware via the UZB dongle or within Hubitat? I may just put the $30 towards a Hubitat.
Try dimming ALL the way down (hold the paddle so it goes to the lowest dim setting). The power will cut off.
Try dimming ALL the way down (hold the paddle so it goes to the lowest dim setting). The power will cut off.
It doesn’t. To be clear this is welcomed behavior, I just don’t know why it’s different on different switches that are also 1.48. Also, I was lost when I posted in this thread as I have ST. However, to be clear, with “Smart Bulb Mode” enabled on one switch there is nothing I can do to cut the power to the actual fixture the bulbs are in, they stay fully lit.
But yet on another Red dimmer you have the power does cut off at lowest dim level? And they are both at the same firmware level?
Both switches have the same settings in ST and are the same firmware (1.48).
Switch 1 is in a gang that controls a bathroom light fixture with Hue bulbs in them. With this switch, with Smart Bulb Mode on, there is no way for me to turn off the bulbs or anything and this is the behavior I want. When I press down on the paddle, the switch LED turns off. When I hold down the paddle, the switch LED slides down as if it were dimming a light. However, the smart lights are unaffected.
Switch 2 is in a gang that controls a switched outlet and I have a lighted air freshener in there to test its power. With the same settings, if I press down on the paddle, the outlet turns off and the switch LED turns off. If I hold down the paddle, the outlet is unaffected and the switch LED slides down.
Something does not seem right here…
From the ST control interface (I don’t use the product so assuming there’s a web interface) set the dimmer to 0% brightness (ie, do not set the dimmer to “Off” but dim all the way down) and tell us if the smart-bulb still has power.
Also, are you using a neutral wire with this dimmer?
Those both seem to be expected behavior. However, it doesn’t sound like the switch settings are the same. It sounds like Disable Local Control is turned on for Switch 1 and not turned on for Switch 2. That’s why you can turn the power off on Switch 2 using the paddle, but you can’t turn the power off on Switch 1 using the paddle.
And just so you’re aware, you shouldn’t be using a dimmer on a receptacle. If you are in the US, that’s a NEC code violation for good reason. The only exception is if you use a special type of split receptacle that only accepts a special type of plug for the dimmed receptacle only. I’ve never actually seen one of those in use.
I’ll have to check the settings later and report back, but I think I enabled local control to test this. The difference though is that pressing the paddle down turned off outlet on switch 2 and pressing the paddle down did not turn off the light fixture on switch 1.
you shouldn’t be using a dimmer on a receptacle.
It will be a scene controller only and will have dimming features disabled. I want the outlet to have 100% power at all times and I thought inovelli switches are able to do that with Smart Light Mode. Only one outlet on the receptacle is controlled via switch and its not in use.
The Smart Bulb Mode does make the switch put out full power. But it’s still a dimmer, not a switch. This is one case where that thing about sounding like a duck doesn’t work. Just because turning on Smart Bulb Mode makes it sound like a switch, it still isn’t a switch.
And because it’s not a switch, it’s not rated for non-bulb loads (like motors). The dimmer is rated for BULBS only, not other types of loads, 400W max. The reason the NEC doesn’t allow dimmers on receptacles is so that you don’t plug loads like a vacuum cleaner into the dimmer receptacle because the dimmer can’t take that load.
It’s a safety thing . . get a switch.
I don’t plan on using the outlets and can even put outlet covers in them, but I’ll look into getting switches. It still doesn’t seem like that would explain the differences between the powering of the two loads between the two switches, unless I’m missing something.
I was only bringing it up because it seems like the Smart Bulb Mode on my one switch performs how some in this thread want, including me.
The switch uses a relay which can handle a higher load.
I would never expect pressing and releasing down on a dimmer to allow power to continue flowing once it turns off. This is the desired effect we are requesting, but do not currently expect.
If the dimmer LED bar is lowering while holding the paddle down, then DLC is almost definitely disabled, allowing local control of the switch.
I hope I am resurrecting the right thread on this. I don’t yet own any Inovelli products but am in the same boat as others in that I want to control my hue bulbs from the switch. What is confusing to me is I don’t know which product I need to buy. Does it have to be a red series dimmer or would the black series (currently on sale) on/off work for this? I currently use zwave with HomeAssistant and Hue using their zigbee controller.
From reading this thread it seems you can 1) keep power from being cut to hue 2) dim up/down from the switch which once the LED bar gets to the dim level you desire it sends a command to hue (or is it to homeassistant to hue) to dim to that level? What isn’t clear to me is exactly which Inovelli product(s) I need to accomplish this. Another related Hue thread pointed to https://support.inovelli.com/portal/en/kb/articles/how-to-setting-up-device-associations-home-assistant which indicates the black series is supported but I don’t know if it can dim up/down remotely and not locally. It seems kind of wasteful to get a dimmer switch that isn’t doing any actual local dimming.
On a side note is it possible in HomeAssistant to set certain color profiles with double/triple/quadruple taps on Hue and if so which products do I need?
For me the ideal use case would be as follows
I know I am asking for more than what this can do but I would be interested to implement as much of that as possible.
You may want to wait for the Blue Series as they’ll be zigbee and will work better with Hue.
Oh I didn’t even know about this. I found and red the other thread on the blue switches. It wasn’t clear to me though how it will control a Hue bulb. If it can be paired with a hue hub and controlled that way then it is a winner. If I need a separate zigbee controller then I don’t imagine that will work all that well.
You will need zigbee hub, but echo devices, ST, etc. all have them. Additional cost, but probably your best bet.