Smart Light flashing when off -- non-neutral with bypass

Switches Wiring Discussion
,
1

Hi all,

My inovelli white dimmer switch is not working with my smart light. The smart light flickers when off. Does anybody have any advice? Do you think this is fixable, or should I pursue another path?

I have a white dimmer switch set to smart bulb mode and a Lifx overhead smart fixture. Because the switch box lacks a neutral wire, I have a bypass in fixture:

light pic
light pic1920×1440 104 KB

I initially installed without the bypass and unsurprisingly that was a mess. If the light fixture didn’t have power the switch went dead and the up light and downlight flickered badly. Neither were server-connected.

With the bypass the behavior is better, but not fully functional. When I turn the light off through the Lifx app the switch’s side light cycles “off - cyan - green - blue” and remains blue. The fixture’s uplight then flashes in an irregular sequence of colors. It remains server connected and responsive.

The same model light (I have two) works fine with a normal switch left in the on position.

Do you think this is a solvable problem? I’m inclined to go without the Inovelli switch, cover the switch plate and find a wireless remote button.

Thanks for your guidance!

2

It’s acting like there still isn’t enough power getting to the switch when the smart light is off. With smart lights and non neutrals, we’ve seen people in the forums needing 2 or 3 bypasses to fix the problem.

The alternative is rewiring at the fixture to send the line and neutral back to the switch (instead of the line and a load back that is sent today). That would allow you to operate in neutral mode and not need any bypasses.

3

Thanks Rohan, much appreciated.