I have several Red Series dimmers (and switches) all controlling smart bulbs with the local control disabled. I installed a dimmer yesterday with a neutral and am having an issue where all the bulbs flash/flicker constantly when turned on. None of the other dimmers or switches have done this. I also hear a hum/buzz coming from the switch and maybe the lights? I’ve done about as much troubleshooting as I can think of including a factory reset. Could this dimmer be defective?
Update: I switched around 2 dimmers. A dimmer working in a different room has the same issue when used in the problem room. This rules out that it could be a defective dimmer. The only difference between the two installations is in the working room, the dimmer has a load of 3 LED bulbs. In the problem room, the load is 5 LED bulbs.
A loose connection maybe? I’m thinking at the connection to the neutral wire in the back of the box (not the switch). I had a issue where I was seeing some inconsistent behavior and that ended up being the problem.
@Ma2J I wish! I checked that already unfortunately and it wouldn’t have done the same thing when I moved the dimmers around if it was just loose. Thank you for the suggestion though!
Are they different bulbs in the two rooms? Just curious if you can switch them. I’ve seen non-dimming bulbs act weird on dimming switches. I also had a fancy LED A15 bulb that wouldn’t turn all the way off that made a buzzing sound when “off”. I had to switch it for a non-dimming bulb.
I have almost all of my red series dimmers set to act like on/off switches with ramp rate 0 and have non dimmable bulbs in almost all of them. I haven’t had many issues but there has been some trial and error.
1 Like
In another thread about a similar issue, someone mentioned that the light appeared to be at full brightness when the dimmer was at about 80%, and when the dimmer went above 80% the light started flickering. They addressed the issue by configuring the dimmer’s max setting to 80%.
1 Like
@flipontheradio They are LED smart bulbs so I need to keep them turned “on” all the time which is why I disabled the local control so the relay in the switch would never get turned off. In the working room, there are 3 small E12 bulbs. In the non-working room, there are 5 BR30 bulbs.
@NeighborGeek with the smart bulbs not sure if I should have them set at 80% or not or if that could damage them. I ended up just capping the line and load together and running a jumper from that to the line on the switch and left the neutral in as well. This keeps the load of the lights off the switch while still keeping the switch powered to be used in the smart bulb scenario. It’s not ideal because the lights are hardwired on permanently with no way to cut power to them but they aren’t flickering!
I found the other post referenced (Red Series Dimmer - Flickering at Full Load - #6 by feens - General Discussion - Inovelli Community) and @EricM_Inovelli is tagged there as well so I’ll see if they have any ideas.
Ah dang, I’ve seen other threads where smart bulbs and
the dimmer switches don’t seem to get along. Sorry I couldn’t offer any assistance.
Good point, I forgot that these were smart bulbs and you have the relay disabled. In that case, adjusting the dimmer probably doesn’t actually affect the power output to the load anyway, it would just tell the hub to dim the bulbs.
Oops. 
I’m actually hitting a similar issue with my Hue bulb and the Red Series Dimmer.
Setup:
- The Inovelli Red Series Dimmer switch is associated with a socket
- Socket (1) has a floor lamp plugged into it
- Floor lamp (2) has a Hue color bulb plugged into it
- A Hue hub as well as a Hubitat Elevation controls the above
- Local relay is OFF
- Smart bulb mode is ON (although I’m not convinced it does anything)
Problem:
- When I set my bulb to certain CTs (including 2000, 4000, it will begin transitioning, then go out for a moment, then come back on with the wrong CT (about 3000). See this 3-second video.
- Hubitat logs show nothing special, e.g.
dev:5 2020-10-11 15:18:35.894 [info] Nightstand color temperature was set to 4000°K
- Hubitat logs show nothing special, e.g.
- Seemingly randomly, the wattage will change around, despite no requests (that I’m aware of) to do so, that will cause flickering of the bulb in question.
- Hubitat logs:
[dev:6] 2020-10-11 14:53:03.687 [info] Test dimmer: Power report received with value of 9.7 W
- Hubitat logs:
I tried:
- Reproducing this issue on other outlets → can’t do
- Reinstalling the Inovelli, ensuring that the wire connectors etc. were all tight → same result
- Swapping the Hue bulb out for a new Hue bulb → same result
- Swapping the lamp out for a different fixture → same result
Any ideas? Help truly appreciated!
Update: problem #2 just occurred, and I’m noticing a possible cause (see the third bullet):
[dev:6] 2020-10-12 10:18:37.492 [info] Test dimmer: childRefresh(null)[dev:6] 2020-10-12 10:18:12.015 [info] Test dimmer: Power report received with value of 4.9 W[dev:6] 2020-10-12 10:18:12.012 [debug] Test dimmer: MeterReport(meterType: 1, precision: 1, scale: 2, size: 4, meterValue: [0, 0, 0, 49], rateType: 1, deltaTime: 0, previousMeterValue: [])
What is that MeterReport action? Can I kill it?
Did this ever get resolved? I have the same issue, but only in one room where I have 6 recessed lights. Other rooms with fewer lights don’t have the issue.
I’m about to pull the switch and just hardwire the lights direct and bypass the relay on the switch. Kind of annoying.
Interestingly, I’ve found that disabling the power reports seems to resolve the issue (all 3 of them). I have many red series dimmers running firmware 1.57 and they all have this issue. It does seem to occur/be more noticeable at higher power levels.
Suspect there is something up with the intermittent power report that causes a slight interruption of power.