I recently installed two inovelli on/off switches in a double box. Each of the on/off switches are part of their own 3 way configuration with their own dumb switch. One of the switches everything works well and I can flip the lights on and off in succession from either the inovelli or dumb switch.
For the other inovelli switch if the dumb switch is in position A, it’ll work fine. But in position B the inovelli on/off switch will require a delay for me to switch the light back on. With the lights off and I press the top of the inovelli switch the lights turn on, then I press the bottom and they turn off. If I immediately press the top again the LED indicator turns blue as if I turned on the light but nothing happens. I have to press the bottom of the switch to turn it off and wait about 5-10 seconds to turn it on again. With the dumb switch in the opposite position I can turn the inovelli switch on and off in rapid succession.
I checked the wiring and tried using another inovelli switch and another dumb switch and each time it’s the same thing. I can repeat this every time. Am I missing something?
Hey @exo - first, I just wanted to say thanks for joining the community and ultimately, thank you for the support. It really means a lot.
With that said, let’s figure this out!
Question for you - are the loads the same in each 3-Way? In other words, do you have the same bulbs in each setup? Also, is the bulb on the 3-Way that has a delay an LED?
Thanks for the fast reply! One of the loads has 2 leds and the other has 3 leds. The one with the lag is the one with the 3 leds. The leds are all the same model, 15w leds. What confuses me is that it works fine with the dumb switch in one position and then lags in the other. When I switch the travelers to different positions on the dumb switch it flips it.
The box has the romex from the panel coming in and then 4 romex going out, 2 for each circuit for load and dumb switch.
The dumb side works fine. It’s the smart switch that gets the delay if the dumb switch is in one position, the smart switch works fine if the dumb switch is switched to the other position.
There’s two 3 way circuits that run into the same box. One works fine. In the other, the smart switch gets a delay if the associating dumb switch is in position “off”. If the associating dumb switch is switched to the other position then the smart switch works fine with no delay.
The delay in the smart switch is that I have to wait to switch it on for it to work. If I don’t wait to switch it on the led in the switch will turn blue but nothing will happen. I have to turn it off again and then wait about 10 seconds and then hit the on side of the smart switch and then it’ll work.
Awesome, thanks for the video, that’s actually super helpful. Just so I’m clear, at the 0:08 second mark is when someone flipped the dumb switch off, correct? Then at the 0:16 second mark, someone flipped the dumb switch back on?
Then at the 0:20 second mark the dumb switch is off and then flipped back on at the 0:30 second mark?
Last question. When the dumb switch is off, and you turn on the smart switch, does it ever turn on the light? Or is it just that the LED bar turns on, but the load doesn’t?
The dumb switch wasn’t flipped at all in the video. The dumb switch was left in the “bad” position that causes me to have to wait before flipping the smart switch on.
The smart switch will turn on the lights if I wait a few seconds to turn on after turning it off. If I try to turn on the smart switch immediately after flipping it off only the LED bar on the switch lights up.
If I flip the dumb switch to the “good” position then the smart switch toggles on and off with no problems.
Gotcha – ok that’s strange, let me pass it on to the team.
I did notice that this morning (which I didn’t catch last night) in that if you press the button immediately after it’s off, the switch acts up. I didn’t catch that last night.
And just to confirm, it’s only doing this on the one with three LED’s?
Last question and then I think I should be good with the information to pass onto the team. Is the Line/Load in the same box or are they are in different boxes? Better asked, which 3-Way setup did you use for each of the switches?
Thanks for all the information, it really is helpful!
Yes it’s only doing this on the three LED run. I only have the other one to compare it to for now but the smart switch with two LEDs toggles on and off fine no matter what position the dumb switch is on.
The line and load are in the same box. Both smart switches are configured the same way but only the 3 LED light has this behavior. If the dumb switch is in the “good” position everything works fine.
I just wanted to Chime in and let you know that I am seeing this exact same issue one of my Red Series switches i a 3 way configuration. With the dumb switch in one position the smart switch is 100% repeatable. With the dumb switch in the other position often the switch doesn’t turn back on without and off…wait… on cycle of the smart switch…
Yes, if you don’t wait about 10 seconds to switch back on it won’t turn on. I believe it’s also true if it starts on. If you go off, on, off in quick succession you also run into the same issue but I can’t test that at the moment.
I tested it with a zwave controller earlier and the same behavior happens with that particular switch. In testing I got it stuck with the lights on earlier today and had to cycle the dumb switch to turn the lights off.
OK, I’ll be testing this tonight while I test out the dimmers too.
Stay tuned!
EDIT:
Ok, just tested the rapid on/off with Line/Load in separate boxes with a GE 8.5W LED bulb and I can’t replicate the issue (don’t mind the OSHA violations!):
I will try a 4-Way with Line/Load in the same box just for kicks.
Question: I just want to be clear on if this is what you’re doing on your end in terms of speed. In addition, is there anything I’m missing? I can also try a lower wattage bulb too if that would help.
Here’s the 4-Way Line/Load in the same box (same setup w/GE 8.5W LED bulb):
Yes, that’s about the same speed. It puzzles me too because with the two smart switches in the same box one works just fine. When I put another smart switch on the circuit that has the issue it did the same thing so I’m thinking it’s just something with my configuration. I jump power (line) from one smart switch to another since there’s two switches in the box. Would that have an affect?
In my configuration I have been able to fix the lag with incandescent bulbs and/or certain brands of LED… I had a few GE bulbs in other lights and when swapped into the fixture the issue goes away.
Kyle has all the details on the 5 bulbs I test, but to say the least my issue with both 4-way and 3-way concerns went away…
I have the same exact issue. Today I have discovered that reducing the number of bulbs in the circuit to exactly one bulb makes the issue go away. When using two or three bulbs in the same circuit and when set to the traveler wire, the switch performs in the same manner that you described.
Does using exactly one problematic bulb in the circuit make the issue go away for you? Perhaps the issue is that the Inovelli switch struggles to detect multiple LED bulbs in the same downstream branch.
Question for you all: what Hub/Gateway are you all using?
What we found for Home Assistant was that if the switches were paired securely, this (for some reason) caused this issue.
However, as some mentioned, it may be the bulbs.
I’m testing a few scenarios and I’m waiting on some Satco bulbs to arrive for another person having an issue – but so far, I’ve tested three bulbs downstream with over 200’ of wire and it worked perfect, so I’m a bit puzzled as well bc I can’t replicate the issues above.