I recently installed a blue series dimmer switch, and I want to use it with some Sengled color-changing bulbs. However, upon turning the switch on, the bulbs flicker very fast.
I figured out that these smart bulbs do NOT support an in-wall dimmer, but I thought that wouldn’t be an issue if I use them in smart bulb mode? I tried a simple on/off mode and they do the same.
To test, I grabbed some dimmable non-smart bulbs, and sure enough, they worked fine. Is there any way to use non-dimmable smart bulbs with this switch?
So the first thing to understand is that smart bulbs should always be fully powered. You do not want the switch controlling the bulb via its wired connection. So to accomplish this, make sure that the switch is put in the Smart Bulb Mode. This will ensure that the bulbs are continuously fully powered and that pressing the paddle will not cut power to them.
I believe your bulbs are Wi-Fi. So you will control them via commands from your hub. Use the multi-tap capability of the switch to use scenes to turn the bulbs on or off or change the dim level.
I know, my problem is that even while fully powered they flicker. The only time they don’t flicker is when I have one smart bulb and one non-smart bulb installed, in which case they work fine.
Tried that, the value doesn’t hold. After I write it, it just goes back to “Bool.False” when read (setting the leading_or_trailing_edge). Interestingly, power_type is also 0 despite me having a neutral connected.
You can only switch to trailing edge with a neutral installation. Since the switch believes it’s a non-neutral, it won’t let you switch switch.
I would troubleshoot the non-neutral issue as that isn’t correct. Maybe re-visit your wiring. Is this a true neutral where hot and neutral originate in the switch box? I’m asking because some have tried the incorrect approach of borrowing a neutral in an attempt to turn a non-neutral switch loop into a neutral.
I believe so, both were found in the switch box. I had an electrician wire the switch, but I just checked and there is ~100V AC between hot and neutral.
The switch still reports no neutral though, and behaves like there is no neutral in the sense that when the lights turn off (in smart bulb mode) there isn’t enough power to the switch and the switch also turns off until I manually turn the smart lights on with an app.
What you describe sounds like a classic non-neutral. Regarding figuring out if you have a neutral or not, if you can pull the switch out and take pictures so we can see the connections to the switch and clearly inside of the box with all of the connectors, we can take a look.
BTW, I cannot think of any condition for a neutral installation to have significantly less than 120 VAC.
So I actually figured it out… and wow, is it weird.
Basically, there’s a hidden 3-way switch that is the other end of the 3 way here. I have no clue where it is, and neither did the electricians, but it’s in the wall somewhere and periodically likes to turn itself off. The solution was to flip the line and traveler (load as it’s wired) wires in the switch. I am not sure how they got flipped in the first place randomly, and I suspect I’ll have to do it again at some point.
Either way, it’s working now, neutral and all. Thanks for all the help!
