I have several locations in my house where I have a LZW31-SN installed with 4 Great Eagle BR30 4K lights installed. All dimmers are at the same 1.48 firmware level. The only settings I have adjusted on the dimmers was changing the the min/max level to 40/90 and the bulbs have worked 100% of the time.
In one the locations the dimmer/bulbs are not working correctly. What happens is that the the lights start ramping up to the max level, flash on and then turn off. If I turn the bulbs on to the minimum level they work 100% of the time. I also noticed that if I change the ramp up setting to 0 (instant on) they will turn on at max level about 95% of the time without issue. I also tried swapping out 4 bulbs from a location that is working correctly and put them in this location and the same issue occurred.
Prior to using the Great Eagle bulbs I was using Hyperikon BR30 3K bulbs in the problematic location and they worked perfectly. They were higher wattage (12W vs 9.5W). If I add one of these bulbs back into one of the cans in this location, the issue goes away and the lights work 100% of the time.
Some more details that may be relevant:
All dimmers are wired using neutrals
The location that is failing is in a 3-way using a dumb switch, but I also have another location with the exact same setup that works correctly
Is there anything else I can troubleshoot. Any more information that is needed? Is this a case where I need to add a bypass? Upgrade firmware?
This is just a shot, but instead of setting a default min/max, set the range specifically for that installation.
Reset to 1/99 first and then operate over the range to determine your min and max, then reset the parameters. Not sure this will help, but it is worth trying. It seems that the issue is specific to that one switch OR that particular installation.
Does it seem like it’s fairly or fully bright at 50%? That might be your max. If it’s dimmer than it ought to be when that happens, then there is something else going on.
I was able to slowly step the dimmer up to 99 brightness one time today. But once I turned it off and then attempted to do it again it kept turning off at around the 50 level.
Ordinarily I would think it would be the bulbs, but you are using those bulbs in other places and they are working fine. Additionally you swapped in the same bulbs you know are working fine and the problem continued. I’m leaning toward there being a fault with the dimmer.
If you don’t mind swapping things out, take the dimmer that you are having a problem with and put it in place of one of the ones that you know is working fine with the same bulbs. If the issue then happens there, then that would pretty much confirm in my mind that the dimmer that is faulty.
I did some more testing yesterday. I have 4 of the same bulbs installed in the following setups (mentioned previously):
1-way - max level is at 99; bulbs work 100% normal
3-way w/ dumb switch (working) - changed the max level set to 99 and it works. It does occasionally fail to turn on correctly (lights start ramping up and then turn off) from the dimmer. If I go to the dumb switch and turn them on the switch will click off and then flip the dumb switch back to on the lights will turn on and then I can operate via the dimmer again.
3-way w/ dumb switch (failing in original message) - changed the max level to 99 and I can get it to turn on but far less frequently than the working 3-way above. It does exhibit the same behavior as working 3-way setup where cycling the power through the dumb switch eventually gets the dimmer to work for a period of time.
Additionally I left the lights on in all of the setups above and the 1-way and working 3-way stayed on for 4+ hours without turning off. The failing 3-way turns itself off at random intervals - sometimes after several minutes and sometimes longer than that.
I will try to swap the one that is not working with the 1-way dimmer tomorrow to see if the issue still persists.
I ordered different bulbs so that I could confirm whether the dimmer or the bulbs were the issue in the 3-way setup. I was able to find some equivalent bulbs from Sunco Lighting. When I swapped in the Sunco bulbs, the 3-way setup works perfectly. I do not get any flickering when dimming and they turn on/off the way I would expect them to. Problem solved!
