- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
re: Smart light switches?
Posted on 1/13/17 at 3:11 pm to bbap
Posted on 1/13/17 at 3:11 pm to bbap
quote:
The GE's do dim to off slowly. But i've never had the other issues you state. I also don't use the switch exclusively. Unless I'm right next to the switch i use the Google Home. I only have dim lights switches in the kitchen and living room. Not the bedrooms.
i think if i could SEE the lights i'm dimming with the GE switch it would be much less of an issue. you'd get used to how it works if the lights are in the room. from where the switch is, you can kinda see the light on the yard but you can't actually see any of the floods themselves. its like flipping a blind switch.
thats one of the reasons i put these on my home network in the first place. i have 18 outdoor floods controlled by 3 separate switches located in vastly different parts of the house
i wanted to be able to turn all the floods on or off at the same time.
This post was edited on 1/13/17 at 3:12 pm
0
Posted on 1/13/17 at 3:16 pm to bbap
quote:
It shouldnt. With the GE's you just install an add-on switch that are like $15-$20 bucks.
*if* he goes with GE.
if you go with leviton, your only option is the $2 plastic switch cover you can screw over it which i confess i've used in multiple places
the problem is for a 3-way switch to work there is a wire connected directly to both.
smart switches like to be powered all the time (well most do)
traditional switches have a mechanical 'on/off' circuit disconnection with 3-way switches having a pigtailed wire going to the second switch in a see-saw pattern. this is why you can get into situations where the lights are off but the switch is UP instead of down. The OCD in me has to go find the other one and make sure its down so i don't have a switch in the up position with the lights off.
because smart switches don't completely interrupt the power but handle it through electronics, removing the current (by flipping the other switch off) turns off your fancy switch rendering it useless.
so GE came up with a 'sister switch' that is smart enough to work with the smart one in a 3-way configuration.
Lutron said 'frick it all' and just included a plastic remote you can leave on the coffee table or install in place of the other switch. its 'fake' (battery operated) but the battery lasts a bazillion years so thats not really an issue.
make sense?
This post was edited on 1/13/17 at 3:19 pm
Posted on 1/13/17 at 3:20 pm to CAD703X
quote:
--- GE/Jasco ---
This little fella has gone offline on me a few times. It does use both top and bottom rocker with a little blue LED at the bottom that is BRIGHT AS frick. You can use a trick to disable that, but that brings me up to my next problem.
If you 'hold down' too long on the switch when turning it on (easy to do because the damn switch slowly faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaades the lights on and faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaades the lights off) you end up setting the brightness level to something less than 100%.
Very annoying. This is on my front floods and wife/guests tend to switch it on when leaving the house and don't see the lights come on right away and end up turning them on at 10% or something crazy. Think of when your automatic window on the car is going up and you hit the switch again and it freezes and you get the idea.
Always 10%. I come home from work at night and see the lights barely shining and realize the wife messed with it.
Its not her fault. That delay is a problem. The switch UI is flawed. GE 6 sigma my arse.
Also when you turn it off you expect to see the little blue LED come on..no no..it takes a good 4-5 seconds before it lights up indicating the lights are TRULY off because its doing the laaaaaaaaaaaaazy fade shite.
Yes, read my other post in this thread on the first page. I kind of regret buying these GE dimmers and might return both of them to Amazon. I'll have to look into Lutron. Link me to the model you bought?
It doesn't look like Wink allows for any advanced programming. I see all sorts of github shite to control the GE slow/lazy fade out but I know of no way to implement this using the UI and hardware I have (Wink hub 2). And they really hate my LED bulbs. Every single one I've tried (dimmable) emits massive flicker when the GE fades them off. But sometimes it fades off just fine. It varies for whatever reason. But turning off a light becomes an unpleasant experience with these things. Maybe link me to the bulbs you're using the GE dimmers?
Posted on 1/13/17 at 3:21 pm to CAD703X
yeah it makes sense. i had no idea other switches went the route they are going. without seeing them in action i believe i much prefer the GE switch (at least over the leviton).
I've done a couple of 3 way switches with GE and they work great. My living room actually has a 4 way switch and i've replaced the main and one of the other switches with an add on. I haven't gotten around to replacing the last switch with an add-on and the wife no doubt will flip that switch even though i've told her to stop using it.
I've done a couple of 3 way switches with GE and they work great. My living room actually has a 4 way switch and i've replaced the main and one of the other switches with an add on. I haven't gotten around to replacing the last switch with an add-on and the wife no doubt will flip that switch even though i've told her to stop using it.
This post was edited on 1/13/17 at 3:24 pm
Posted on 1/13/17 at 3:23 pm to jdavid1
Posted on 1/13/17 at 3:23 pm to ILikeLSUToo
quote:
And they really hate my LED bulbs. Every single one I've tried (dimmable) emits massive flicker when the GE fades them off. But sometimes it fades off just fine. It varies for whatever reason. But turning off a light becomes an unpleasant experience with these things. Maybe link me to the bulbs you're using the GE dimmers?
None of my leds flicker with my GE dimmable switch. I think i installed some super cheap ones off of amazon because i wanted 3k and home depot didn't carry any. i want to say the brand was hyperikon or something like that.
Posted on 1/13/17 at 3:25 pm to ILikeLSUToo
quote:
but I know of no way to implement this using the UI and hardware I have
i'm almost positive when you send the 'off' command from wink to the GE-switch controlled lights they do the lazy fade out too.
its the same command you are giving by hitting the physical switch itself.
Posted on 1/13/17 at 3:29 pm to CAD703X
i never realized this bothered people so much. Its not like it takes more than a second or two to go from 100% to completely off.
Posted on 1/13/17 at 3:43 pm to CAD703X
No review for the Linear switches ?
Posted on 1/13/17 at 3:59 pm to bbap
quote:
i never realized this bothered people so much. Its not like it takes more than a second or two to go from 100% to completely off.
It's kinda annoying. I can live with it, but given the option I'd prefer to not have it. I'd rather them go off/on to full brightness than to have them dim off, yet remember the brightness setting.
As for the bulbs, I do not have the flash/flicker issues at all with the dimmers. I have 3 switches and an add-on. Pretty cool too that the add on switch functions the same as the parent (dimmer) switch. I do like the idea of the led ladder on the switch though.
Posted on 1/13/17 at 4:47 pm to TigerWise
quote:
No review for the Linear switches ?
wanna send me one?
Posted on 1/13/17 at 5:38 pm to bbap
quote:
i never realized this bothered people so much. Its not like it takes more than a second or two to go from 100% to completely off.
It only bothers me because for some reason they aren't playing nice with my bulbs, so when the light fades off, it does an annoying flicker at full brightness for about half a second before they turn off, when they get to about the 10-15% level. It's just not a "clean" way to turn off a light, and that kind of stuff bothers me. I don't mind a light not being able to reliably dim to less than 10-15% or so, but I don't want to see it frick up like that every time I turn off the light.
Posted on 1/13/17 at 5:41 pm to bbap
quote:
i want to say the brand was hyperikon or something like that.
These? LINK
I have the 4000K versions connected to my dimmers. Reviews sing the praises of the dimming capabilities, so I'm starting to wonder if both my dimmers are bad, or the wiring, or the fixtures.
This post was edited on 1/13/17 at 5:55 pm
Page 2 of 2
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News