Red Dimmer - Flicker at almost all levels

Switches Wiring Discussion
#1

Hi All,

I just got a shipment of red dimmers (Wooo!) and unfortunately in this install I cannot for the life of me get the lights to stop flickering. There is an level at about 75% where they won’t flicker, but every other level will flicker.

The lights are recessed cans - https://ndrelectric.com/product/razor

I checked it with my multimeter and the load > Neutral /ground and line > load has the voltage jumping all around. (± 10v or so) Line > neutral or ground is a solid 123v. Neutral to ground is sitting at .5v

I’ve also tried it with a known good black dimmer, and the flickering still stays.

Things I’ve tried: Check and tighten all wires. Install bypass at can. Install bypass at switch.

Any thoughts as to what is going on? I’m thoroughly confused.

#2

Have you tried updating the firmware? Some flickers were resolved with the holtek file upgrade. Some people required to flash it twice. Also, it may just be the compatibility with the lights. I’d recommend flashing the switches to the latest beta firmware and re-test.

#3

Firmware updated… Not fixed. It seems like more (or all?) LED’s should work with the inovelli. Why wouldn’t some work?

Read up on the leading edge vs trailing edge but these are pretty new LED lights? @harjms

I installed bypasses on two of the lights and things got marginally better, but I don’t think I’ll be able to use the dimmers here… Unfortunate!

#4

@Dekkars

Unfortunately not all LEDs are made the same. For testing, is it possible to wire in a incandescent light?

#5

Not really. All the recessed lighting is hardwired and wiring in an incandescent might be a little crazy here.

The lights are odd. 0-15% it’ll flicker, 15-30% no flicker, 30-50% flicker, etc… There will be ranges they’ll flicker and other ranges that they won’t.

Any leads on recessed lights that will work?

#6

You got them fancy cans. I have cans, but they’re the traditional can housing and flood light canopy (led) pigtail thing. I don’t have much flickering issues with it.

One thing I noticed with your cans is the approved dimmers list: https://ndrelectric.com/storage/app/uploads/public/5e6/01a/e4b/5e601ae4b69bf032922947.pdf

I’d be interested to see if those are mosfet or triac based dimmers.

#7
1 Like
#8

I was actually looking at that document just now. Not exactly a ton of choices on the recessed front!

The wife doesn’t want to swap the cans, so I’m buying a leviton zwave dimmer that is approved for one of the circuits and a aeotec nano dimmer to be controlled by one of the red dimmers for the other.

This rapidly became more complex than I was bargaining for. Thanks for the help!

#9

The compatibility list is a work in progress. As bulbs are identified one way or the other, they’re added to the list.

#10

Did you ever get your Nano Dimmer installed with your recessed lights? If so, did that eliminate the strobing/flickering in your recessed lights?

#11

@cppadam - it never worked! We had to go with Leviton dimmers to make the setup work. I miss the scenes, but they dim beautifully.

#12

I just installed 20 wafer lights using nano dimmers (I went with Fibaro as they power on quicker than Aeotec). Instead of installing them at the switch, I installed them at the light (one per each run of lights) and turned my red series dimmers into virtual 3-ways using the association tool. Everything works great!