I wanted to ask if some else is experiencing my problem and maybe have a workaround/solution for it.
I have a Fibaro dimmer which is connected to a few led spots from Philips 4 watt dimmable. Because the dimming at first didn’t work i bought the bypass module and connected it parallel over a led spot. Dimming the light is working now but my problem is when i dim the led spots with the wall switch. At the moment i hold the switch and the dimming level is going down it stops of course at level 0 but at this point the led lights are still dimmed on, now the vera shows me that the lights are off but this is not the case. When i then press the off button the lights go off.
So far as I can tell, this is the way it’s supposed to work. By default (factory settings) “on” is actually 99% of full brightness and “off” is 1%. Since you’re using very low power LEDs and you have installed a bypass module (I’m assuming, then, then you have no neutral connection) it’s possible that these “brightness” settings are far from exact.
Indeed it’s true that fully dimmed is NOT the same as “off”. Should be one push for “on”, another for “off”, and hold the switch to ramp to fully bright/dim.
The factory settings for “on” and “off” dimmed levels are programmable (parameters #11 and #12), but it’s unlikely that changing this will give you any dimmer light given your wiring arrangements. Note that the specifications define a minimum to the power range for the light (25W for 230V and 10W for 110V) - you may just be below this.
So far as I can tell, this is the way it’s supposed to work. By default (factory settings) “on” is actually 99% of full brightness and “off” is 1%. Since you’re using very low power LEDs and you have installed a bypass module (I’m assuming, then, then you have no neutral connection) it’s possible that these “brightness” settings are far from exact.
Indeed it’s true that fully dimmed is NOT the same as “off”. Should be one push for “on”, another for “off”, and hold the switch to ramp to fully bright/dim.
The factory settings for “on” and “off” dimmed levels are programmable (parameters #11 and #12), but it’s unlikely that changing this will give you any dimmer light given your wiring arrangements. Note that the specifications define a minimum to the power range for the light (25W for 230V and 10W for 110V) - you may just be below this.[/quote]
thanks for the quick reply.
I have a neutral connect to the dimmer (so no bridge made between NO) without this neutral i didn’t even get the lights to work.
As the lights are 230 volt and parallel connected i will not reach the amount of 25 watt minimum.
I also tried the parameters #12 and #13 but this just give me a smaller dim range and doesn’t change anything on my problem.
i checked some more things and i found the following in the fibaro manual:
When the key is held down, the Dimmer will always reach the extreme value of 1% or 100%.
Can i concluded from this that the light is still 1% on when fully dimmed with the switch?
Also when this is the case Vera lite then thinks it’s at 0% instead of 1%, would be possible to create a work around for it?
Can i concluded from this that the light is still 1% on when fully dimmed with the switch?
Yes, that I meant when I said “‘off’ is 1%” and “hold the switch to ramp to fully bright/dim.”
Also when this is the case Vera lite then thinks it's at 0% instead of 1%, would be possible to create a work around for it?
You could create a scene which polls the dimmer level and turns it (properly) off from time to time. That way, if it was above 10%, say, then it would remain at that dimmed level, if less, then turned properly off.
I just tested this with AutHomationHD and when set to 1% the light is still on and when switch to 0% of course it go off, so 0% will be off instead of 1% as you state.
You could create a scene which polls the dimmer level and turns it (properly) off from time to time. That way, if it was above 10%, say, then it would remain at that dimmed level, if less, then turned properly off.
The problem with this is that the best dim level for the led lights are at the lowest point “1%”, so i think this scene will not work for me.
I think the problem lies within vera because from the web interface it’s only has the option to go in steps from 10 up or down instead of 1 like in the dimmer module or for example AutHomationHD.
What does this parameter do exactly?
I read the description in the manual but form that i don’t understand what this will do.
Also when changing the Hz to a higher value this has no negative influence on the lights itself?
Parameter 20 determines the impulse length as the manual says; How long the remaining (non-cut) wave of the AC current is going to be.
For a very detailed description about dimmers take a look here: [url=http://sound.westhost.com/lamps/dimmers.html]http://sound.westhost.com/lamps/dimmers.html[/url]
The Fibaro (and all? other micro dimmers are leading edge dimmers). To work well with my 16 LEDs I am using a value of 137 right now but I do still see an occasional flicker of the light. The dimming levels work very well though, but I have adjusted the minimum and maximum levels as well.
[quote=“vidarak, post:9, topic:173865”]Parameter 20 determines the impulse length as the manual says; How long the remaining (non-cut) wave of the AC current is going to be.
For a very detailed description about dimmers take a look here: [url=http://sound.westhost.com/lamps/dimmers.html]http://sound.westhost.com/lamps/dimmers.html[/url]
The Fibaro (and all? other micro dimmers are leading edge dimmers). To work well with my 16 LEDs I am using a value of 137 right now but I do still see an occasional flicker of the light. The dimming levels work very well though, but I have adjusted the minimum and maximum levels as well.[/quote]
I will try this later at home to see if it has a good effect on the dimming level.
Yesterday i also created a support ticket to see if their is a possibility to change the steps from 10% to 1% in de UI5 interface.
You change the dimming step size with parameter 11. You can set this via the UI5. Unfortunately Micasaverde Vera isn’t very smart about z-wave parameters. Z-wave.Me’s z-cloud / z-way controller (free!) uses the database at http://www.pepper1.net/zwavedb/ to learn the meaning of parameters of each device so that it will display meaningful text for each parameter whereas with Vera you have to manually add each configuration parameter in the device properties (and still you end up with just a numbered parameter with an assigned value. You can’t add descriptions for the parameter to explain at least for your own reference what it does.) I wish Micasaverde would look to z-cloud to learn how to properly do device management.
Parameter 20 did the trick for dimming the lights even more and works perfect (used 135). I also disconnected the bypass and it still is working so no need for that thing anymore.
Thanks for the tip.
Parameter 11 I also found already but that is not what I mean. The slider in UI5 goes from 0 to 100 in steps of 10 and there is no possibility to select for example 25% or 55%. if they would change the scale from the slider so also steps of 1% are possible that would be nice.
We’re are you using these dimmers, meaning are you in the US? I am looking to try some in-wall dimmers and switches like the Aeon Micro Controllers that go behind the existing light switch.