Switch: VZM31-SN 2-1 Switch on/off or dimmer
Bulbs: Sengled Smart LED Multicolor A19
Hub: Hubitat C8
Working on my last switch install of the apartment, I have power going to a light fixture with two Sengled Bulbs in it, and a single line going down to the switch (white is the line, and black is load, tested).
These bulbs have a watt rating of 8.6W so together the theory is their combined watt being 17.2W. When the bulbs are screwed in and smart bulb mode is enabled, the led strip on the switch tries to cycle through it’s cyan blue green colour, meanwhile the bulbs are flashing.
I am now aware this is below the 20W requirement for a non-neutral setup and read into a bypass device. I bought the Aeotec Bypass device and installed it (hopefully correctly) in the light fixture. There is a mar for the line bundle, and a mar for the neutral bundle. I attached an end of the of the bypass to each bundle and tightened the mars back tight. Still the same issue, have I installed the bypass incorrectly? Is it possible I need more than 1 bypass, I don’t truly understand how they’re helping in a non-dimmer mode.
Had anotehr look, and did a quick change to the electrical. In the fixture there is a bundle that includes the hot, that goes down to the switch on the white wire connects to line. Black connects to load and back up to the fixture. Where that mar is, I connected one end of the bypass. That same mar feeds the two black wires for the lights, and on the other side I connected the other end of the bypass to the neutral wires. Is that what you meant? If so, same issue.
What does adding a second bypass do? Is it just adding more load to the line if the light bulbs don’t draw enough?
Correct on the wiring as long as the white bundle is neutral (same that connects to the lights). But right on the black bundle coming back up from the switch.
Yes adding a second bypass will just add more capacitance to the circuit. Not guarantee though. Just others have had success when one failed to work.
Alternatively, and saying without recommendation, you could rewire the fixture so the light has line full time and send line and neutral to the switch. You already are using scenes to turn the bulb on and off so you would just program the switch that way. The downfall is the socket at the light bulbs will always be hot and you’d have to open the circuit breaker to interrupt power if you needed to perform maintenance or swap out fixture.
You might also want to try other brand bypasses. I was troubleshooting a particularly persnickety pain in the ass feint bulb where 2x Aeotec bypasses didn’t work. It ended up working with 1x Aeotec and 1x FIBARO Bypass
Just to note, the smart bulbs will be no where near 17.2W load all the time. They’ll drop to almost no load when off and that causes there to not be enough load for the switch to work. Because they are almost no load when off, you need more bypass to get enough load compared to using the switch with a dumb bulb sincea dumb bulb is a load all the time.