My problem is that with the Blue installed replacing a dumb switch, the lights only appear to be ~75-80% of max brightness, when the Blue is set to max brightness. It’s appreciably dimmer than before, and I have the same light on a different dumb switch 5ft away and that one is much brighter when on.
I saw from the above thread that there was something with the Red switches and 3-way, but this isn’t how mine is setup up (single switch, single-pole).
I’ll add that the ceiling can lights are older (installed ~10 years ago) dimmable CREE LED downlights purchased from Home Depot. I don’t have the specs anymore but I believe they’re 8-12w output each.
What type of lights are they? I know this sounds insensitive (not trying to be, I promise) but you can also buy a higher wattage bulb or a bypass to make it brighter.
I had to do the same thing at my house as I have almost all non-neutral switches. Gave me an excuse to buy the LED bulbs I wanted
My LEDs are in arrays (so one switch turns on 4-10 ceiling can lights to illuminate the entire room). Taken together, that’s a decent amount of wattage (no flickering so never needed to install a bypass)
I really like the Blues, but with 3 installed so far and another 5+5 on order in the April batch, I will probably have to cancel if they can’t drive my lights as bright as a regular dimmer switches.
Understood – I’m just not sure the technology in general is there yet for non-neutral setups, smart switches and LED’s. Incandescents will work perfectly. But who wants those.
I wish there was a way to tell just how much of a difference it really is so we had some way of relaying this onto the engineers to see if they could push it.
With mine, while noticeable, the rooms are still perfectly lit – just yes, not as bright as it was before. In other words, for people who come over that don’t know what the room looked like before, they would never know.
Is there any way you guys could give me an estimate on how bright it was before and how bright it is now? Pictures would be worth 1000 words, but I know it’s hard to capture light with a camera.
Edit: I just sent a note to the manufacturer to see if they can give us an answer and/or solution.
@Eric_Inovelli Ialready tossed the dumb switch that was in it’s place. To be clear, even in switch mode, this happens. I know its the same guts so it’s most likely moot. Not to be snippy but it shouldn’t be on us the customer to figure this out and it’s clearly prevalent across multiple setups. As far as I can tell, there is nothing in any documentation that alerts the buyer ahead of time but if I missed it, please advise where that notice is.
Yeah to be clear, I wasn’t implying you guys should figure this out. I have a note out to the manufacturer to see what they can do here.
Not trying to be snippy myself, but are you using a bypass? There are multiple disclaimers on the product page saying that you will likely need a bypass if in a non-neutral setting for best performance.
On the flip-side, we’ve also had reports that suggest the non-neutral setup won’t get as dim as it was before. It really boils down to the LED that’s being used and it’s virtually impossible for us to make a switch that is compatible with all LED’s as they are vastly different.
I will say that I have dropped the ball at the compatibility chart and I need to get on that clearly.
All this to say, it’s hard to tell my tone via text and I want to make it clear that I’m going to work on this and will get you an answer and hopefully a solution. I know they did some tweaks to the non-neutral setup firmware, I just don’t know if it will help in your situation if it comes down to the bulbs.
I’ll keep you posted, but here’s my screenshot as proof that I’ve asked the manufacturer:
@Eric_Inovelli Thank you. TBH, I’m not having any issue on the low end but these are my kitchen lights so that was never going to be an issue. I’m not getting any issues such as flickering etc an beyond the intensity issue, these work as expected.
I have a Black dimmer in another part of the house that I had at one point bought the bypass but they actually performed as expected so I didn’t need it.
Ok great – internal notes on FW 2.10 have some notes around max dim level for non-neutral enhancements so I’m going to try it out on one of my non-neutral setups to see if I can see a difference.
I’ll flash the firmware tonight. I’m on 2.08 as well (grrr SmartThings w/no OTA).
There are some LEDs in use, though. I find that you get what you pay for, so I stick with reputable manufacturers. If you’re paying 6 bucks a fixture/bulb, then, well . . . .
I haven’t noticed any dimness issues. All of the bulbs I use I wouldn’t want fully illuminated in any event.
