This weekend, I replaced 6 GE/Jasco dimmers with the Inovelli Red dimmers. In my house, I have full neutrals.
Boy do they look pretty.
I also like the fact that I could keep my existing GE/Jasco add-on switches for 2 of the 6 dimmers which were 3-way...this setup works great.
However, these dimmers really suck as dimmers.
The GE/Jasco could dim my LEDs down to 10%. The Inovelli won't turn on the same LEDs until I hit 40%. I know the LEDs are good dimmable LEDs as I could dim them down to 10% with the GE/Jasco.
Also, the GE/Jasco had better "resolution" when changing dimming levels. The Inovelli just don't dim well.
They are pretty, and I like how they function and the LED bars. However, they are horrible for their main function of dimming.
Has anyone figured out a way to make this do their main dimming job better?
Thanks!
Edit: I am using the latest Inovelli drivers through the Hubitat Package Manager (great app there).
I've seen some people report that the Inovelli dimmers are more "jagged"/"step-y" compared to others when dimming (e.g., that you can visibly see the levels increase/decrease sharply, as opposed to smoothly dimming, between each percent/unit of level). Some people have mentioned this in the Inovelli forums, and staff have responded, but I'm not sure that there is a universal solution that has worked for everyone. Here is one idea:
Another is to make your your bulbs are supposed to work well with dimmers that are MOSFET and leading-edge, as the Red Series are; while your bulbs worked well with GE, it's possible the GE was TRIAC and/or trailing-edge, or had some other difference that would affect bulb dimming. Inovelli has a list here of ones they know to work with the Gen 2 (Red Series and Black Series) dimmers, though some of it is community-contributed and I'm not sure that the "no sharp dimming" criterion was part of what any bulb needs to make it, just that it works at all: https://support.inovelli.com/portal/en/kb/articles/compatible-bulbs-gen-2-dimmers. Still it may be helpful.
The 40% thing can be solved by changing a preference that Inovelli's driver should expose (parameter 5 or "minimum level"). However, some people have reported that this makes the problem above worse across the remaining levels, so you may or may not want to keep it that way--but it could be worth trying. If your bulbs don't actually get as dim at the minimum level, that's another story, and this won't help with that, but I'm not sure what you could do about that problem (you shouldn't need a "dummy load" like the Aeon Bypass since you have a neutral, but it might help?).
I should note that I do see this a bit on my bulbs, too, but the bulbs are cheap and I kind of expected it; it also doesn't bother me, since normally the bulbs get set to one level and stay there, rather than constantly changing where I'd see the "step-y" dimming. That particular setup is also no-neutral, so I'm hesitant to change much now that I have it working. Ha. (I have more, but everywhere else is controlling smart bulbs in an always-on, neutral setup, so I don't have any other comparisons...)
That's my usage for dimmers too. I have levels I want during certain time ranges. If motion triggers a light on, I set the level according to the time range. I have a few of the Inovelli dimmers but can't say I've ever noticed step-y.. probably because I don't slew between levels. That is to say, it could... I could have motion during the final minutes of a time range, then re-trigger again during the next time range 2-3 minutes later. Presumably the light would slew between the two levels, but it must be so rare in my home that I've never seen it.
Their drivers have a quite a wordy explanation in the UI the last time I used them, but if that's all Greek to you, the manual that came with your device (there should be a paper copy if you got a real box; not sure about the 10-packs or other special units) or that is available online also has an explanation. Match the parameter number in the drive (recent-ish versions show this) with the number from the manual. The manual's explanations are probably worse since they look like they are translated from the manufacturer...but maybe between the two of them, it will help.
The sheets that shipped with the dimmers were printed in fly-spec 2 font. Being old, my arms just are not long enough to read these!
The quick Google-fu brought me the same sheets...with explanations that, I guess, make sense to a devout Inovelli user...not an Inovelli Padawan like myself.
I'm an electrical engineer who can't figure out what they meant...the setting in the first part, augmented by the disclaimer in the third part, influences how the flux capacitor induces electron-like motion in the thingy from the 10th part...all getting you to a list of "accepted" dimmable bulbs..when they don't even handle incandescents properly.
Like I said...I will play around more tonight. Hopefully I will be able to get these to function more like a dimmer...and less like a pretty switch with 3 levels...
I like that the Involli Red Series Dimmers create a child that allows you to set an LED color and turn it on/off like a regular switch. When the alarm is set, the LED bars go red...when the alarm is disarmed, I turn off the child switch and the bars go back to the default blue color I set.
