Recently changed out an old switch that controls one of my LIFX A19+ bulbs to a Red Series Dimmer. I wired it with neutral, set it to instant on off, and it paired with zwave fine, and seems to be fine for simply controlling the bulb via the switch
However, oddly enough now i cannot turn off my LIFX bulb via its own software. When i turn it off via the app it turns back on within a few seconds. Its interesting as well that I can change the bulbs brightness settings up and down and nothing weird happens, the settings stick just fine. But, when i turn off the bulb via software, it is turned back on within a few seconds.
I’m wondering if theres some off interaction with the dimmer switch. It is the only bulb on the dimmers circuit. HomeAssistant graphs show the dimmer at between 2 - 10 Watts of draw.
@terminalArbiter Question: How are you controlling the bulbs? Are the bulbs in the ceiling OR are you controlling outlets and the bulbs plugged in with lamps?
Did you disable local control on the Smart Switch and use Scenes to control the bulbs? If not, Lifx bulbs are Wifi; so if you turn them off at the switch without disabling local control; the bulbs need time to reconnect to the wifi in order for you to control it from the lifx app.
To solve: Make sure to disable local control on the switch [leave the switch in the “On” position], and use scenes to control the bulb on/off/dimming. Hope that helps
@ny_robert
I have not progressed to using Scenes / other features of the Inovelli, just trying to get the base case working (relay off, wifi control of LIFX bulb)
The light is in a ceiling fixture, wired to a wall switch (the Inovelli in this case).
I am attempting to control the bulb via the LIFX wifi app.
I have disabled the relay on the Inovelli (by clicking config 8 times).
I have set param one on the Inovelli to instant on/off.
Then what I do is press the bulb off on the LIFX app.
The apparent behavior I see is that the bulb turns off for a second or so, then just turns back on.
I do NOT see the inovelli switch changing states.
I have a similar setup with Hue bulbs and Inovelli switches and they work ok [A slight delay but they work]. Not sure why they turn off and back on. To isolate the issue; put the Lifx bulbs in standard sockets without a smart switch and see what happens.
The Lifx app is not going to change the state of the Inovelli Switch. The Lifx app only changes the state of the bulbs.
I just swapped the LIFX A19+ (light 1) that my Inovelli Dimmer controls and another random one (light 2) in the house (hooked up to a dumb switch)
Light 2 exhibits this off to on behaviour when attached to the Inovelli.
Light 1 when moved to a dumb switch does not show the behaviour.
The switches (inovelli and dumb) in this case are only controlling 1 light at any given time.
Are there any logs / stats i can pull from the Inovelli that could be of interest? (I am running homeassistant and use an aeotech usb zwave hub).
EDIT:
Additional observation.
If i use the LIFX app to dim the LIFX A19+ to 5% (but not 4% since that activates IR and changes power draw), then the bulb seems to turn off, then flicker twice and then turn back on to full brightness (as if it had been turned off).
@terminalArbiter I just replaced my GE switch with a Red Series dimmer and am seeing the exact same issue with my LIFX bulbs. I thought I was going crazy, but luckily google found this thread. Have you found anything to fix this behavior?
@jmedemar
Not yet. I opened up a ticket with Inovelli, but so far have not been able to get it fixed.
They asked me to try a few things, but I got no meaningful results so far. Ill paste what ive done (and reported to them via email) below
Ok. I have tried a few different things now. (The Smart bulbs cannot have Inovelli set to anything but instant on off, transition messes with their software settings)
LIFX A19+ bulb, Inovelli Red Dimmer Set to instant on/off
Observation is: When the Bulb itself( via LIFX App ) is dimmed below 5% or turned off , It momentarilly loses power and restores its state
LIFX A19+ bulb (same one as above), Normal Dumb Switch
Observation is: When the Bulb itself( via LIFX App ) is dimmed below 5% or turned off , No observed power loss or state restoration
Hue BR30 bulb, Inovelli Red Dimmer Set to instant on/off
Observation is: When the Bulb itself( via HUE App ) is dimmed across full range , No observed power loss or state restoration
10.5W Dumb LED , Inovelli Red Dimmer Parameters 1-4 set to 3
Observation is: Inovelli switch held down, or pressed to allow 3 second transition, Full range of dimming observed, no oddities
65W Incandescent Bulb , Inovelli Red Dimmer Parameters 1-4 set to 3
Observation is: Inovelli switch held down, or pressed to allow 3 second transition, Full range of dimming observed, no oddities
This is a pretty simple light circuit, 1 Inovelli Red Dimmer with Neutral hooked up to 1 Fixture with 1 LIFX A19+
I tried it with another LIFX bulb (a BR30+) with the same results.
Is it possible you could try simulating this in your lab perhaps? If you have a LIFX A19+ or BR30+ to test with?
I havent heard back in 5 days, so I’m not sure if they are trying to reproduce or not.
Having heard that you have the issue as well, it seems to be some kind of incompatibility with the LIFX bulb, but seeing as the LIFX works in other dimmers/switches, it points to the issue being in the Inovelli Dimmer.
I have held off on installing 10 other Inovelli Dimmers since many of my light circuits are going to suffer from this exact issue.
Thanks for the update on your support ticket. I guess I will contact support too so they know there is an issue. Seems like a problem that the dimmer advertised for smart bulb mode doesn’t work with smart bulbs. Lol.
I was able to get my bulbs to go off eventually by trying it 8 or 10 times, but that isn’t very handy for the wife or kids.
@jmedemar Get any response from support? (or figure out how to fix it).
At this point I have just held off on installing more of my Red dimmers, and replaced the one LIFX on the Red Dimmer with a hue bulb until I find a fix.
This is the response I received from support. No answers yet.
"Thanks for reaching out!
We have had a couple people reach out regarding the LIFX Bulbs and the compatibility with our dimmers - Unfortunately we do not know what’s causing the troubles here, other then the fact that there may be a compatibility issue between the bulbs and our switches.
Our team is out of the office at a conference the rest of this week but I will leave this ticket open so that hopefully someone with a bit more technical experience than me could take a look at this."
Have you got a response yet from Inovelli? I’ve been waiting for a response from them for another LIFX issue since December 27th. I have sent multiple follow-up emails with no response.
You are correct.
My use case at least:
To still support a human pressing the button on the wall [with relay bypass on] (and my automation will take over it, using home assistant and maybe zwave scenes to control the LIFX light via its API). Meanwhile the background automation done in home assistant and node red still controls the smart light directly via its own API.
I attempted to wire 2x LIFX A19 Bulbs with no-neutral (red series dimmer switch). I installed an Aeotec Bypass in parallel to the bulbs. Whenever I try to turn the switch on, the bulbs flicker, and the switch either freezes/stops responding to commands or resets (at which point the voltage on line/load is 60V).
I’ve been in contact with Inovelli with this for almost a month, including emails from Nicole/Eric… and haven’t heard back anything for the last 2 weeks. At this point I’m likely to just return the dimmer as the customer service/technical support is lacking.
I just installed a Red Series Dimmer w/neutral and internal relay enabled and so far everything is working just fine.
I can control the light via the app just fine and also via the dimmer level in the hub(Hubitat) and at the switch paddle.
Flickering starts at 36% via the switch paddle which is to be expected.
I did not experience the light coming on by itself after turning it off in the app.
Tested with internal relay disabled and light functions correctly via the app just fine, no flickering. Be sure you have the switch level at 99 before disabling the relay or it will be stuck at that level. If you forget you need to go into the device settings and manually set the level at 99.
I will test next with no neutral.
!!NOTE!! LIFX bulbs are expected to be on 24/7 so I recommend that the internal relay be disabled, if you don’t do that then we really can’t help you because our switches are not designed to work this way with smart bulbs like LIFX including our own ilumin bulbs.
Edit:
Tested with no neutral using our bypass device did not work. Light flickered at any level.
It also reset the bulb requiring me to setup the bulb again in the LIFX app.
Recommendation is that neutral is used for LIFX bulbs.
This was also my experience with Hue bulbs. They were fine with no neutral until they got to low levels, then when it got “low enough,” everything was lost (power to the dimmer included, usually needing a restart — pull of the air gap — to get it back). I even tried adding three bypasses from two different manufacturers to see if this was of any help; it was not (and that was just to experiment, not something I’d recommend really doing even if it did — not sure how much heat or other concerns there would be with these).
Inovelli is lucky that I wanted the LZW31-SN more than I wanted the Hue bulbs, which I replaced with dum dimmable LEDs and whose functionality I am mostly replacing with a Light Strip in the same room. Not ideal, but it’s the best combination of things I can get as chosen from the things that actually work.
My suspicion is that this would be the same with any smart bulb. Their power needs vary in ways that aren’t controlled by the dimmer switch itself, and I’m guessing that might be confusing for it without a neutral (though FWIW I had bad luck on one even with a neutral, something I’ve posted about elsewhere).
The “required recommendation” wording is a bit conflicting, though.
