Samotech advice UK

Hi guys, I have 4 Samotech 323 Dimmers which work flawlessly with my GU10 LED's. I'm very happy with them and they have WAF.

I'm looking at changing my landing light to a chandelier which will most likely have a transformer. Presumably, dimming is not an option in this case (or am I wrong).

So, two questions:

  • if dimming is not an option with transformer lights, what is the recommended samotech device to support my dumb 2 way lighting circuit in terms of on/off.

  • if dimming is an option with my transformer 2 way lights, what is the samotech option

Apologies for the lame questions but I find the Samotech website and their literature really poor...Stu

No way to tell untill you get the device down, there are dimmable drivers and transformer though but depending on the age they were not as "standard" as they are now.

You can get relay pucks that sit behind the switch, however they almost always need a neutral so depends on what you have at your switch.

Dimmable ones you would have to match to the device and most are LED only now so they wouldn't be able to dim a old transformer.

In my case, I can wire with or without a neutral.

As you are aware, most fancy lights nowadays have low voltage transformers in their bases. I was wondering if anyone out there is dimming lights which have transformers using any of the Samotech products.

Unfortunately, I really find the Samotech website and their literature poor. I think they're missing sales due to people not grasping which of their products to buy....Stu

there are different types of dimmers, i just changed a light it had an old fibro (i think) dimmer, this wouldn't work with the led driver/power supply, with out flickering, so had to change it to a triac dimming module which what was compatible for the led power supply

might be better getting a standard dimmer switch (leading edge) putting that in and see how it works, if its ok you can use a triac/leading edge module module, else you will need a trailing edge dimmer

I think I've found some of the answers. But samotech have many devices to chose from so which device to use isn't blatantly apparent.
Not sure why the neutral is used to feed the switch. See below


EDIT, just to answer my own question. Samotech have emailed back and it's correctly wired with the switches fed by the neutral wires

Yes mostly a "driver" these days, but I don't think you got my point. You cant/ shouldn't do anything until you have checked that device behind the fitting. You cant just stick a dimmer on and see if it works, it's dangerous to stick a dimmer on a none dimmer device.

So the 1st thing to do is take a photo of the device then depending on that will depend on the next stage.

BTW SAMOTEC is just re badged sunricher. So there website might be better.

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I use these, have about 40 of them behind all of my light switch gangs.

For on/off you need the Samotech SM308 Zigbee relay. For dimming you need the SM309 Zigbee relay.

However, you will need a neutral wire for these to work

@BorrisTheCat sound advice and thanks for the link explaining the different dimmer types.
Appreciate the consideration regards low voltage lighting drivers :+1:

Hi, cheers for this @mabstrategy . Just out of curiosity, do you have any of the 2 channel 308's. The diagram above shows the light switch feeds connected to the neutral. Is this an error in the diagram i.e. should it be connected to the Live wire.

The 308 single channel shows the switches wired to the Live so it seems odd that the 2 channels are wired to the neutral

Also, for the 308 (non dimmer) do the switches need to be retractive switches or will a conventional UK toggle switch be fine.

Thanks in advance

Thanks for this. I'll take a more detailed look at sunricher

You need retractive swithes unless you are happy double clicking a standard rocker switch (an awful option imo) - re. wiring, I can't help you there, got an electrician to do mine. I would say that Samotech CS are pretty responsivee if you send them an email, mind. So just ask them directly.

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Just re-reading again, not sure how it's wired, but if you mean '2-way' when you say '2 channel' then yes, I use many 308s and 309s in a 2-way fashion (i.e. one relay for 2 switches controlling the same light). All I know is that you need retrctive switches to do this. I also have a 3-way setup using one relay.

Hi there. Sorry, I mean 2 channel meaning that you can control 2 lights independently. Basically for a 2 gang switch (These can both be 2 way such as a landing light)

The 2 channel ones are useful in situations such as a hallway where the 2 gang switch can control a hallway and also a landing light for example.