Z-Wave Association - Instant on vs Fade on

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#1

Well, I’m sure confused.

I’ve got 3 bulbs in one of my fixtures — I added the third one today.

Now, as a note, some of my fixtures turn bulbs on instantly, and some of them turn their bulbs on with a fade (3 seconds). I’ve always assumed this was because of something with the way the bulbs and switches were associated, and there was a configuration that I had to set.

But this new bulb goes on/off instantly, and the other two in the fixture (under the same association) fade on and off over 3 seconds.

My dilemma is that I’m not sure what changes this. Is there a setting on bulbs that can let me change the way they turn on and off?

#2

If you’re talking about the Ilumin bulbs, there is a “Color fade time” setting in the Inovelli drivers that I think might be what you’re looking for. I’m not sure if the built-in drivers have the setting or not.

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#3

I’ve attempted that, already. All of the devices have the same configuration, but the devices still behave differently.

#4

After you set the value, did you click the “Configure device” button?

And are all the bulbs running the same firmware?

#5

Yes, to both points.

Edit: Figured it out. Association group 2 will automatically turn a device on/off with the device state. Group 3 will let them fade, which was assigned to the other two bulbs in lieu of 2. I’ve set them to groups 3/4 and all is well again.

#6

Looks like you already figured it out, but if you want more information on why this happens:

Association group 2 sends the Basic Set command (which doesnt support transition times), so bulbs added to this group will turn on or off instantly.

Association Group 3 sends a MultiLevel set command, which also includes a dimming duration. The Inovelli dimmers send a dimming duration of 255 (0xFF in hex). A dimming duration of 255 tells the bulb to use the factory default dimming duration (which I think is arouind 5 seconds for the Inovelli RGBW bulbs).

From what I can tell, you cannot change this behavior with the current firmware on Inovelli dimmers (although I would love to have this feature), and the current firmware on Inovelli RGBW bulbs also do not have an option to change the default dimming duration.

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#7

It’s a bit much for me, but I prefer it over the alternative. I’d love to see that added in a future firmware.

#8

Agree 100%. Adjustable preferred, dim speed matching 1 on the switches (1 sec off to on) would be fine. That’s what all of my other switches are.

#9

I would also like to see the dimming speed added to the bulb firmware to better match the dimmers. The current dimming speed variable is only used by the driver to modify the on, off, and set level commands sent by the controller to imitate how the dimmers work.

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