White Smart Switch + Toggle Switch Multi-way Behavior

I’ve added my second white Inovelli to my house on a new circuit with about 6 switches. I installed it in the position where there is power all the time on the line conductor. It works and all the dumb/toggle switches work too (ok I only tried about 3 or 4 but I suspect they’re all fine and I don’t use them all anyway), but depending on any of the toggle switch positions, the white smart switch may be up on/down off OR down/on/down/off. Is this normal?

Is this normal behavior? Just replaced it and the second switch does the same.

No, the dumb switches should toggle from the current state.

Did you configure the switch mode as a multi-way with dumb switches?

Yes, down and C 5x = violet
Also, up and C 3x for on/off.

I’ve also noticed when the inovelli is in the down/on down/off scenario it’s reporting incorrectly to HomeKit. I have to click the HomeKit virtual button twice to toggle the lights on or off and HomeKit always reports it as off.

I can’t help with Homekit … just the wiring.

In any of the dumb switch positions, does the Inovelli switch power off? In other words, unresponsive, no LED bar, you see the switch boot up when a dumb switch is pressed, etc? I know you said that you provided the switch constant power, but for some, the electrical testing is less than optimal, hence my question.

Hi Bry and thanks for the replies. The Inovelli always has power. Just had my helper keep an eye on the White switch light bar and it never loses power. What is interesting and might be a red herring is that line, load, and traveler are in the same Romex. This is an older house and it’s been rehabbed and rewired so there is a neutral in this part of the house including this wall box. I also reversed the load and traveller lines and no real change, same odd behavior.

The load and traveler in the same Romex is perfectly fine, presuming you have a line in one box at a load in the other. In that configuration the third conductor in the Romex, usually the white, should be the neutral being passed from the line box to the load box and then up to the light. Is that how you have it wired?

This wall box has two different sources of power (two different breakers, even different panels), one for the outside lights that I’m trying to use the Inovelli with, and one for the inside lights. The neutral is coming from every other Romex bonded together. The 3-Romex that this switch is using is the power, load, and traveler, no neutral. In this setup, the line and load are in the same location.

Okay, I misunderstood your wiring configuration. Putting that aside for now, let’s confirm your original issue.

As far as you know the dumb switches work properly. Your issue is that sometimes you need to press the DOWN paddle on the Inovelli to turn the light ON? Is that right?

Yes. I verified all the toggle switches before the install and after, they all work.

Depending on the position of those toggles, the Inovelli can either:
1 work properly, up is on and down is off, and the led agrees with that status, and HomeKit works as designed, life is beautiful! :wink:

OR with any of the toggle switches in the ‘other’ position

2 down on, down off, led full bright all the time. In this case, when controlling the circuit from HomeKit I have to click the switch in the app twice for the light to cycle, furthermore, one click it will report correctly and one more, incorrectly.

I can’t figure out the pattern of how HomeKit reports when cycling the light from the inovelli when in this condition, but I understand you’re not focusing on HK, but that is hwy I bought the switch so I can add it to automations in HK. Thanks again for your time. This one is puzzling me. I imagine it may be how the house is wired, but I just don’t know how to fix it without rewiring the whole place!

Okay, so you’re saying with the dumb switches in some positions the Inovelli paddle presses work correctly but Inovelli paddle presses do not work correctly with the dumb switches in other positions.

I’m just trying to see if we can get the switches working properly via the paddle presses. Not concerned with Homekit at this point.

You have a line and load in the same box with the Inovelli. There is a 3-wire Romex that leaves that box and goes to the first dumb switch. Describe the connections of those three conductors in the Inovelli box.

Correct.
Sounds good, thanks.
Yes, The 3-wire Romex is wired to the Inovelli as follows:
Black - Line, confirmed has power all the time no matter the position of the other toggle switches
White - Load
Red- Traveler

I found a bundle of whites, so I added the jumper and used that as the neutral.

I also confirmed that with the Inovelli oremoved from the circuit, I can jump black to either the white or red (depending on the position of the other dumb switches) and the light will turn on.

I’e also reversed the white and red at teh Inovelli and it doesn’t make a differance.

I just added a photo. As I mentioned before, this wall box has to power sources from two different breakers. The house has 3 sub panels and they are likely not upto code, as the addition was done 20 years ago, the neutral I’m using doesn’t directly go to the light circuit, perhaps that has something to do with it? I’m no electrician, but understand the basics.

This is a strange issue. I am leaning towards some sort of signaling issue but can’t quite put my fingers on it. I have a couple of thoughts.

I know you replaced with a different switch, but have you factory reset the switch? If you have not, try that to see if it makes a difference.

Also, did you tell me that there were two separate branch circuits in the box with the Inovelli? In other words, are the two switches in that box one separate breakers? If that is the case, is there just one neutral bundle in the box, or two?

I had the first one warrantied, it was doing similar things but after a few tries, I could no longer connect to it via HK at all. I’ve not tried a factory reset and that may help, but I just received a Meross 3-way in the mail today and replaced it with that, and I hate to say it, but it’s working flawlessly.

Yes, there are two branch circuits in the same wall box on 2 different breakers and even two different sub-panels. One bundle of neutrals. One white from the other power branch, one to the other light, and one I have no idea where it’s to or fro…

I think I’ll leave the Meross down there controling that light and move the Inovelli somewhere else, do a reset and try again. Worst case, I have a non three way application where I can use it.

My thread network down in the basement isn’t great and I gave up a HomePod from my office to even keep that switch connected, so it may be a win-win-win! Although we may never know why this happened or the true resolution! Things that make me go hmmm

Thanks again for all your time. I originally posted this when it was happening to the first switch. Once it happened to the replacement I bumped and you were kind enough to work with me, but I had already initiated plan c, ordering the meross. Amazon is slow up here so I was hoping to get it resolved before it arrived and not have to resort to such tactics but this house is already a mishmash of brands and this is a room I’m not in much, just needed to add these lights to automations.

No problem. The one thing I would suggest in that line box is to separate the neutrals into two bundles. If there are two branch circuits in the box, the neutrals should be bundled separately. Not sure if that would help the Inovelli situation but that was the last thing I was going to suggest. It’s possible that the bundled neutrals could have caused a signaling issue.

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