Trying to figure out if I have incompatible hardware, or if I don't have this set up properly in Hubitat with the drivers or settings or other.
With a GE UltraPro ZW3010 Zwave dimmer controlling a set of lights, once dimming gets down to about 75% the lights start to flicker very noticeably. Operationally, I need to dim this to less than 75%
Hardware:
Lights: 12v LEDs, connected to a driver/power supply intended to support line voltage dimming, which states the line voltage dimmers must be “any standard MLV/ incandescent TRIAC leading edge” dimmer switch.
Switch: UltraPro ZW3010
Switch Firmware: No info given on Hubitat device page (unlike w Inovelli switches)
Hubitat:
C7
Flash rate setting: 750ms
Driver: GE Enbrighten Zwave
I know I could set the minimum level in Hubitat to75% to stop the terrible flickering, but that will not get the lights dim enough.
Despite a exhaustive web search it does not seem GE/Jasco/Honeywell publishes the type of dimmer this is. Is it perhaps NOT "a standard MLV/ incandescent TRIAC leading edge dimmer"?
Does this switch need a different driver? If so which one?
Is there a way to update firmware in this thing? If so, how?
These devices are not great as they dont automatically adjust themselves to your load. You have to do it manually by as you say setting a MIN value in the device page and a MAX as you will find that past a point they won't get brighter as well. If you do not do this 2 things happen, one you get the fliker and 2 they take ages to report their state because they are still dimming or raising even though the lamp is hit its high or low.
With any device like this there is normally a minimum load and the lamp tends to flicker more when that's not hit, so that's the 1st thing you need to do is find what the min and max load is.
You can get over the flickering (provided it is indeed a dimmable fitting and driver) normally with the help of a bypass on the circuit.
The last thing is the driver, there is normally a minimum level on this as well, it depends on the quality of the driver but as a rule
10% min bad quality cheap driver
5% min standard medium quality
3% min good quality
1% min are very high quality
When I manually lower the dimmer under about 75%, the lights start to flicker. The lower I put the dimmer, the more the lights flicker. Does this mean the ZW3010 is incompatible with the lights?
If I set the min value in HE on the Device page to 35% (highest min level allowed) the lights still flicker. When the min/max are set to 1/99 respectively, the flicker starts at about 75%, and I need to dim them lower than that.
By "device" are you referring to the switch or the LED driver?
If the switch, the only info I can find is the max wattage for LED, which is 300w dimmable.
If the physical driver for the LED lights, it's spec sheet has no information about a minimum load, but the Max load = 40W.
The power consumption of the length of LED strip I have attached calculates to 34.41 w
Please explain what you mean by a bypass on the circuit. I googled, but did not get much. The switch and the LED hardware driver is a dimmable. The LED hardware driver spec sheet states: ""Constant Voltage Electronic Phase Dimmable LED Driver.""
The LED hardware driver spec sheet states: "- * Dimming: phase-dimmable down to 1% with TRIAC dimmers"
that does not sound correct. it should be constant "current" you need to reduce the voltage to dim the load. Could you give some more details of the device please and i'll check. So now i'm thinking what is happening is the PSU is shitting out when you see the flicker as you have dropped the voltage past the point the driver can handle.
As you said there is nothing letting you know what type of dimmer it is, so looks like you have a miss match somewhere. Looks like the driver to the dimmer, could just be that the load is too small. The bypass would help with the flicker but not with the range.
