LZW31 Turning on then Off Immediately

Hey All!

I believe I have the exact same issue as @ivemlucid. I got the red series dimmer switch today and attempted to install in a single-pole non neutral installation. I followed Step 5 in the installation guide (for the non-neutral setup). Quick note that the end of step (5) reads that you need to continue on to step (6), but I’ve come to the conclusion that if you’re in a singe pole setup that this isn’t required.

After installing the switch and following step (5), I try to turn on the switch and my lights flash on briefly before shutting off. When this happens, I also see what @ivemlucid describes as “the LED flashes red, then green, then blue” verbatim. I then go through the process to reset the switch and re-do step (5). I again attempt to turn on the switch and the same thing happens again.

Any thoughts on what it might be? Even thought I’m pretty confident I’m over the 25 watts threshold, could it still be the bypass?

Documentation Below:

  • 1st Picture- How I wired the switch (again, single-pole, no neutral)
  • 2nd Picture- The lights I’m attmepting to power (3xLEDs on a track light and a dome light with two LED bulbs in it- are rated at approx 37w combined)
  • Video of the behavior of the lights when I flip on the switch

Video Link (sorry, couldn’t find a better way to share): https://photos.app.goo.gl/8rUMSJP22qF5WcNV6

Here’s the lights I’m attempting to power (three LEDs on a track @7Ws each and two LEDs in a dome @8Ws each)

@marvinmatthew - This may be already addressed above, but are you 100% sure on the wiring? “Typically” the line is black, load is ehite… Have you tried swapping the wiring? Dumb switches won’t matter, but the smart switch will.

My problem ended up being the lighting load was too low. Even though it should have been a 30W load with all the LEDs, I swapped one of the old incandescent bulbs back in and the switch works great now.

I’ll have to plug a single LED bulb into a lamp later and measure the load it pulls. I wonder if it’s rated accurately or how flexible that 25W threshold is.

Either way, I’ll install one of those Aeotec bypass kits and hopefully that will let me use all LEDs. Thanks so much for your help, everyone.

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Glad to hear it’s working.

Count me among those with the LZW31 (in a 3-way, dumb switch configuration) whose lights will automatically turn back off.

I haven’t quite figured out the pattern yet, but here are some of my observations:

  • When the LZW31 is configured for a 3-way, dumb switch you can hear what sounds like a relay clicking on/off when the smart switch is controlled directly (or via Z-wave).
  • When the dumb switch is toggled, sometimes I’ll hear the LZW31 relay audibly toggle and sometimes it’s just a silent change.
  • It seems like the lights will only shut back off automatically when I do not hear the audible relay click.
  • Sometimes the lights turn back off fairly quickly (~1-2 seconds) and sometimes it happens after much longer (10 seconds, 20 seconds, 60 seconds, etc)
  • Two LED lights are being driven on this circuit. One bulb and one recessed (integrated) LED light - likely a very small load.

I was hoping I could get by with the dumb switches for the time being as I’m holding out hope that Inovelli will release an Inovelli branded Aux switch which matches the new LZW30/31 design.

While I like the idea of getting full control, smooth on/off, and dimming with the GE Aux switch, I don’t like the idea of the Aux switch being visually different than all the other switches.

I’m tempted to use another Inovelli smart switch with associations just to get the matching look, but my gut is telling me this is a bad idea. I had a similar setup with some Intermatic switches years back and the associations would occasionally get dropped rendering one of the switches in the 3-way useless. As such, I prefer the physical interaction with a 3-way circuit.

I have 2 switches, one is flaky exactly like what was described. Turn on then off then flashed rainbow almost as if it reset itself. I decided to swap with the second switch then the behavior stopped. Now that device is just not installed because I don’t want to go through the hassle of debugging. Already spent a whole days last week debugging.

I switched from the 3-way dumb switch to a GE Add On switch and the issues with the lights automatically turning off is resolved. As a nice bonus, the Add On switch provides full dimming control of the lights as well.

Two things I noticed.

  1. The Inovelli switches are a very different shade of white (more pure) than any of my existing switches (or the other smart switches I’m testing).
  2. The physical differences between the GE Add On and the Inovelli are noticeable, but aren’t terrible.
    • And with the GE Add On, you could rewire things to swap the GE Add On and the Inovelli. In my case, that would allow me to keep GE Add Ons together and Inovelli’s together so the visual difference isn’t as noticeable since they wouldn’t be side-by-side.
    • What I mean is the first switch box (eg. Line) could be wired to pass the line straight through to the second box - that way you could put the Inovelli in the second box and use the GE Add On in the first box.

Here’s a photo showing the visual difference. From left to right:

  1. Existing Legrand dumb switch
  2. GE Add On Switch
  3. Inovelli On/Off

Totally random question, but how did you get white for your LED indicator color? What’s the parameter value?

@silencery I do not think “white” is an option, yet. I think it’s in a future release though.

Thx. Yes I’m aware white isn’t available as a current option. I was referring to the photo from @josh above where the indicator looks white.

Ah, yes I think the angle is making it appear white.

It’s blue. Just looks a bit white in the photo.

To solve this problem, go into the settings and adjust the max brightness down will it stops this behavior. I had a similar issue and found it was kicking in a safety when it was getting to bright. I can figure mine out a maximum of 80% brightness and have not had any issues since.

2 Likes

Just wanted to say thank you, and let others know that this fixed the problem for me. I set mine to 90%.

@Iotguy Thanks, this fixed the issue for me as well. It was turning off after about 2 seconds after I had set local default-on value to 99

I am having this issue, too. I have a non-neutral setup, with a 24W LED panel and an Aeotec bypass. Setting the max brightness to 85% keeps the switch from turning back off and flashing red, green, blue.

What’s the problem here? 24W should be no problem for the switch. Is this indicating a faulty switch? Or faulty wiring?

Had the exact same problem as OP. Same solution works for me! Thank you so much for posting!

I too had the same issue on a LZW31. Lowering the max brightness fixed it. Mine is a non neutral setup as well.
Thanks.

Hi all, just received a shipment of LZW31s switches and after installing my second dimmer I am experiencing the turn off issue. Here is my set up. The switch is set up in 3-way with dumb on the other end. Had to manually program for neutral and then for 3-way dumb switch mode after not being able to use the 3-way after following the basic instructions. Immediately started to experience the switch shutting off after lights ramp up to 100%. I have 6 incandescent 60w bulbs (360w) on the circuit. After doing some troubleshooting with the voltmeter the issue only persists on the load terminal and not the traveler terminal. Also notices that this switch was making a bit more buzz then the first install. Tried to remove one bulb from the light fixture reducing the wattage to 300w, same issue. Luckily I had another dimmer available so I replaced the first and everything seems to be working fine with the new LZW31. I would like to know if there has been any solutions to fixing these switches. I am not excited about limiting the max dim setting as the room needs the lighting. And I don’t want to go with LED bulbs for esthetics. The alternative is to just get a replacement if no solution to date.