Red Series dimmer (VZW31) won't dim consistently across the range

Product Support
1

Hi all! We are in the middle of a brand new house build and I’m excited to try to keep the whole thing as close to open-source as possible. Which as been a fun fight with my builder who is all super into Lutron RA3. Pass. So I’m testing several options and i’ve got a wiring mockup to test dimmers with our chosen lighting.

I’m testing Red Series dimmer running v1.3 and Home Assistant. Our lighting wants Reverse Phase ELV (trailing edge). I went through the procedure to set it that way. Holding the down button while tapping the program button 13 times and it responded correctly with the blue-ish light. I then successfully added the switch to my z-wave network and set option 158 to dimmer. I can successfully turn it on and off as we dim it so it seems like everything works great, right?

The thing I’m experiencing is that from about 65% up, it doesn’t really dim. 5% - 65% it dims really well. But at about 65% the light is at full power. So from that point to 100 there really isn’t any change. The other dimmers I’ve been testing seem to dim well across most of the range. For reference the lights we are using is Comfort Light & Co.

Any thoughts on this behaviour?

2

While it can put out a trailing edge wave, the Red dimmer is not an ELV dimmer. Inovelli doesn’t make any, unfortunately.

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3

See this is definitely a sign of the confusion in the industry. LOTS of companies call Reverse Phase/Trailing Edge an ELV dimmer. For instance:

Within its documentation, it says quite clearly:

  • ELV dimmers require a neutral wire for installation and perform well when paired with LED bulbs
  • Also referred to as trailing-edge and reverse phase dimmers

I have one right here on my desk. It doesn’t have anything like a low voltage connection. The 0-10v option that some true low-voltage compatible dimmers have. So in that context these Reds are an “ELV” dimmer.

So, what about my original actual problem?

4

Do you have a link to a specific bulb or fixture that you’re trying this with?

5

This is the llight: Visual Comfort & Company Entra CL3 Remodel
https://v1.element-lighting.com/Products/Details/ENTRA-CL-3-LED-Remodel-Downlight
and this is the spec sheet:

6

From the documents it looks like it is compatible but uses a fancy led driver. I would contact their support to see if having only one light on the dimmer will impact how it dims and if leading or trailing edge would give best results.

One option would be to set the max level in the Inovelli driver to make 65% the new 100%. I would set up a non dimmed light next to a dimmed one to make sure it is hitting 100% first though. I have not tested that setting, but assuming it is the same as the min level it does change the led bar on the switch as well.