New red dimmer won't turn on unless i hold the top

Digital Lounge General Discussion
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(read update below too…)
original post.
there are lots of weirdnesses in the new red series dimmers… like having to press the up paddle twice on occation (presumably once to wake up the switch, then once to turn it on) or the default dimming being randomly set to being all the way dim. so you have to turn the switch on (and notice the very little blue hue at the bottom), then hold the up paddle down to get the brightness ramped up. then it works well for a few days. then a few days later, it does the same thing where you have to press up, then hold up. getting the lights on is often an adventure in trial and error. my wife finds it amusing.

but here’s a new one… the switch turns on normally with the blue bar all the way maxed out. but my closet light is not on. then if i press and hold the ‘up’ paddle, the light comes on. when i relase the top paddle, the light does off. both happen instantly.
so i have to hold the up paddle to have the light on. anyone else seen THAT one?

SHEEPISH UPDATE: the press and hold thing was NOT the fault of the switch. it’s pretty easy to get the wires in the holes but NOT under the clamps, and my electrician had done that so one of the wires was in the hole, but would pull out with no pressure. so attaching that wire securely fixed this issue. (the pressure of pressing and holding must have been completing the circuit).

the other oddity was also not the fault of the switch (directly). some well-meaning non-techie people in my home were having trouble figuring out how to turn off the lights… so they were doing what worked and was intuitive to them which was to press down and hold. so that dimmed them lights all the way to turn them off. thus when i pressed up, it turned them back on to 0%… that explains both oddities i was seeing. darn ‘users’. my cleaner set all 30 lights in my home this way last week :wink: more people turn lights off this way than the correct way.

i suggest a firmware change that may make it more user-friendly where if the light is at dim level 0% and someone clicks the up button, that it turns the light on to 100% vs. turning it ‘on’ at 0%. imho, that makes more sense to a user for the light to come on than having pressing up do nothing by resetting the light to 0% (but on) and gets around these people that turn the light off by pressing down and holding. my 2c.

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I am experiencing exactly zero of the above issues with my red dimmers, but can understand your frustration!

Can you confirm your switch firmware version, device handler version, and confirm your device is logged as a “Inovelli Dimmer Red Series LZW31-SN” type? This sounds like a software versioning issue.

Please also take a snip of your preferences in the device settings. Some of the settings can control behavior that you are describing, it might be as easy as a preference change.

Edit: I am assuming you are on Smartthings, but what Hub are you using?

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what hub are you using?

I have two red series switches installed in the house and one dimmer. My switches have about a half second delay where i hear a click in the switch and the light turns on/off. If you press it again before that it tends to throw things off a bit. With my dimmer, pressing up on the paddle ramps up the light (based on the parameters set) to the previously used setting. Pressing down ramps it down until it turns off. Holding up or down will dim the light at the ramp rate set in the device setting page.

My previous non-smart but not quite completely dumb dimmer would turn on/off when pressed. Would go to max brightness when double tapped and had a small slider off to the side to adjust brightness.

It would be nice to have the inovelli dimmer act in a similar way. Double tap up for max brightness, double tap down for full off. I guess this can be done with “scenes” as I believe the dimmers are capable of triggering several different scenes from the switch itself.

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If you think about it, even with your old switch, double tapping up was activating a scene. Albeit a scene that you couldn’t program. With the Red Series dimmers, you have the flexibility to set it anyway you’d like. I have also used the dimmers settings to adjust the ramp rates depending on the room they’re in. Nothing like getting up in the middle of the night and having the lights go from 0 to 1 bazillion…Instantly. :crazy_face: