Fibaro Dimmer 2 and light goes off after less than 1 asecond

[Alex 32]

I have one problem:
I tried to install the new dimmer 2.

Everything worked fine so far (inclusion, automatic detection).

I have two momentary switches. If I use one of them controlling light works fine.

I am having two light in a row (two lamps at different positions).

 

The dimmer 2 module is connected to L, N. The output of switch 1 is connected to S1 (the other switch is connected to the first switch via

Light 1 is connected to O, than to the second light and back to neutral.

(So phase is connected to L of the module and input to the switches, neutral lead to N and end of second light, output of switch is connected to S1 and this "O" from the module is connected to the first light)

 

 

Now the problem:

If I switch on the lights via app or web page it goes on to the dimming value I want.  but only for very short time (less than a second).

So it switches off directly.

If I repeat this it happens again. But after the third or fourth time the light stays on.

After switching it off again and waiting for a minute (I have not measured this) I can reproduce this behaviour.

 

 

What have I done wrong?

Any more details needed?

[reading123 0]

I can echo this - v3.3 reduces the instances where it turns off again, but doesn't eliminate it entirely.

In some of my circuits there's no difference between v3.3 and v3.2 - they both turn off equally often.

[gruberb 0]

I had the problem with light switching off when triggered by a scene (toggle switches worked).

Situation Fibaro Dimmer 2 v3.2 in 3-wire connection and 12x6W dimmable LED lamps (no bypass)

7 toggle switches connected to S1 (switching L) and a motion sensor triggering a scene.

 

Setting parameters 6 and 8 to 0,12s solved my problem.

[yagyu 0]

Alex, I have seen the similar problem. I have configure parameter 2 = less then 60% and it works fine.

lets play a bit with param 2 

[Alex 32]

I had the problem with light switching off when triggered by a scene (toggle switches worked).

Situation Fibaro Dimmer 2 v3.2 in 3-wire connection and 12x6W dimmable LED lamps (no bypass)

7 toggle switches connected to S1 (switching L) and a motion sensor triggering a scene.

 

Setting parameters 6 and 8 to 0,12s solved my problem.

This made it even worse for me.

This morning I had to push the button 5 times until light stayed on finally.

Now I have changed them back to default values again.

 

It is a 3-wire-setup with two momentary switches (about 4m cable)

[petergebruers 1,268]

It's always interesting to know if it's a 2-wire or a 3-wire setup. The 2-wire setup depends on the load to supply power to the dimmer, so I'd say it is more sensitive to the type and rating of the load. Setting parameter 2 doesn't make a difference for a 3-wire setup, but it is crucial for 2-wire.

[gruberb 0]

I recognized that my 'stable' setup still has sometimes (once every 2 days) the problem of switching on and off when triggered by the scene.

Using toggle switches always works without problem. With Dimmer 2 v3.3 I had problems with the toggle switches, thus I changed the dimmer to another one that was v3.2.

My toggle switches are connected by quite long cables (shortest is 3m, longest ~7m), but I dont see why this should affect the scene triggered switching, unless theres some parasitic signal comming from the load getting injected in the wires connected to S1. To eliminate this root cause, I will try to use a solenoid between switches and S1 - will post results here.

[petergebruers 1,268]

(...) some parasitic signal comming from the load getting injected in the wires connected to S1. To eliminate this root cause, I will try to use a solenoid between switches and S1 - will post results here.

Yes, if you have an oscilloscope, you might be able to figure it out (I did). You need a 1:100 probe for the 3.2 version, a 1:10 will not do. And you also must use a safety transformer. But you'd also have to reverse engineer how the S1 input works, I did some guessing, but, yeah... The solenoid should work (if it is due to the long cables). Alex tried this relay and it worked, but it was too big to fit in a wall box (you need soldering skills to connect it properly):

Please login or register to see this link.

[gruberb 0]

Thanks fo the info! I find it funny to do this for a simple task as switching on a light - my lady is already laughting at me, imagine I put an oscilloscope next to the installation - she would clearly call me a freak. My dimmer's are fortunately setup in a large box, so there is space, however I find it a bit weird to have such high-Z inputs for switching as they will always be prone to noise of any kind. It may be related to 2/3 wire compatibility though. I was once tempted to use a reed contact (those still exist) and put some bifillar coil around, but that is also everything else than out of the box. Thus I ended up buying some solenoids (I got those -->

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).

 

As I killed on dimmer2 v3.3 I opened it to see if there is any thermal protection and at least i can confirm there is a thermistor coupled to the heatsink of the FET for overvoltage protection. Seems I need to dig out my old microscope to see how the S1/S2 inputs are layouted.

 

An alternative option might be to use an inductor in series to the wire(s) going to S1 (just before the dimmer) - as there is little current flowing, it should bot be a problem to use a low power device (e.g 1mH). But I have to say in some cases this is far from being easy to use.

[petergebruers 1,268]

Thanks fo the info! I find it funny to do this for a simple task as switching on a light - my lady is already laughting at me, imagine I put an oscilloscope next to the installation - she would clearly call me a freak. My dimmer's are fortunately setup in a large box, so there is space, however I find it a bit weird to have such high-Z inputs for switching as they will always be prone to noise of any kind. It may be related to 2/3 wire compatibility though. I was once tempted to use a reed contact (those still exist) and put some bifillar coil around, but that is also everything else than out of the box. Thus I ended up buying some solenoids (I got those -->

Please login or register to see this link.

).

 

As I killed on dimmer2 v3.3 I opened it to see if there is any thermal protection and at least i can confirm there is a thermistor coupled to the heatsink of the FET for overvoltage protection. Seems I need to dig out my old microscope to see how the S1/S2 inputs are layouted.

 

An alternative option might be to use an inductor in series to the wire(s) going to S1 (just before the dimmer) - as there is little current flowing, it should bot be a problem to use a low power device (e.g 1mH). But I have to say in some cases this is far from being easy to use.

How did you know my wife calls me a freak?

Please login or register to see this image.

/emoticons/default_icon_biggrin.gif" alt=":-D" />

Nice relay.

I've tried various combinations of L, C, D, R. If you want to discuss that with me, I suggest we continue via PM, this will be of no value to the average user here plus I am always very, very worried that people will do dangerous things when working with 230 V.

[dhendo 2]

An update - I've just installed my RMA'd replacement v3.3) dimmers (as there is no ability to update - a whole other rant! and installed them (3-wire, retractive 3-way switches, ~7m between switch and dimmer, default settings so far) and the issue is still there. It *may* be slightly less often than with the v3.2s, but it is definitely frequent enough to be a major issue.

I'll play with the parameters to see if they make any improvement, but I'm not overly confident.

[petergebruers 1,268]

It's not that I don't want to help, but I ran out of ideas. It's difficult without seeing the actual situation. Also need some test equipment. Sorry...

[dhendo 2]

Peter - no problem - I wasn't expecting any answers - just posting to update people in the same situation - especially if they think that v3.3 is going to fix the issue.

Hopefully it can save some pain of RMAing and reinstalling to find the same issue persists!

[m.roszak 763]

dhendo, sorry to hear that you still have issues.

From the other hand I think that your issue is different, there are different factors in this subject.

Please contact support to diagnose your issue with v3.3 - it is crucial to us to make the best products.

[Alex 32]

I hoped I would not have any more problems with dimmer 2.

But 20 minutes ago I had a problem with dimmer 2 v3.3 and just one switch connected to it.

The light should have been triggered by a scene but it did not went on. And later the scene turned the light off and the light was flushing for a 1/10 second.

(This scene was running fine for more than half a year now, debug output also says that everything is fine).

[synthol67 0]

Hello,

I have also the effect that sometimes the light goes off after i switch on the light (Even with the box eedomus also with the switches)

My Schema : I have 4 Switches with 2 LED lamp.

 

I change some Parameters :

6 - 0,03

34 - 0

1 - 20 %

23 - 0

 

And it works now.

Sometime when i try to swicht on with the box, it's goes off immediatly but it's goes on always the second try.

 

I have the V3.3 of FGD212.

 

But i think there are still bugs with more then 1 switches and 2 or more lamps

[theplayernll 0]

I have the same issues.

I can turn on and of and dimm the light perfectly by all of the 3 momentary switches (Gira 015100).

If i want to turn on by the Fibaro app the light goes on and turns off directly. after 3 times the light will stay on. (this is the only problem, turning it on by the Fibaro app all the 3 momentary switches works perfect!)

 

I have tried some of the tips and tricks in this topics but it is no helping.

 

The light is in total 220W (chandelier with 9 25W bulbs)

 

I have the FGD212 Dimmer 3.0 version 3.3

 

This is the wiring:

 

Please login or register to see this image.

 

The wallboxes are still open so i can try things.

 

[Andyman 0]

It seems like the dimmer 2 is very sensitive to spikes from starting loads.
I have 4 different dimmer 2 that goes off by itself when I start other loads.
For example when I turn on my outdoor light with 240w LEDs connected to an other switch two different dimmer 2 in different rooms goes to off and after about 5-8 sec they goes back to on.
When my wife turn on her hairdryer in the bathroom I can see a quick glitch in the light in two different room  and then they goes off for 5-8 sec and then back on.  

If I change param 37 to “device permanently disabled…” instead of “Three attempts to turn on…”
they never go back on after they had shut down.

With hard load on dimmer 2 I think it can disturb itself when turned on.

Earlier in this thread I have read about people that have problem with cold lamps (which takes a lot more current to turn on than warm lamps) and people that have seen their light give three tries.

Try change p. 37, if it stay off the problem surely is that the dimmer detects a fault that doesn’t exist.

Maybe time for Fibaro to look through this feature and change criteria’s for what should trigger this event or maybe make it adjustable for user so we can switch it off.

 

Andreas

[theplayernll 0]

Update:

 

I know what the problem is, its the length of the wires from the momentary switches. If i install just one momentary switch it works, if i instal 2 or more it don't work. The wires to the momentary switches are +/- 15 to 20m.

So i try something else, i have installed 5 momentary switches to the dimmer with only 30 cm of wire and it works fine. After that i have installed one momentary switch with 100m of wire and it goes wrong.

 

So the problem is just the lenght of the wires to S1

 

I don't get it, because all 3 momentary switches works fine, i can turn the light on and off and dimm on every 3 of the momentary switches, only if i want to turn on the light by app or web it fails and need 3 try's to go and stay on.

 

Please Fibaro, now you have enaugh information to track this problem. If i can help you guy's with some tests etc. please lett me know!

 

 

 

I have the same issues.

I can turn on and of and dimm the light perfectly by all of the 3 momentary switches (Gira 015100).

If i want to turn on by the Fibaro app the light goes on and turns off directly. after 3 times the light will stay on. (this is the only problem, turning it on by the Fibaro app all the 3 momentary switches works perfect!)

 

I have tried some of the tips and tricks in this topics but it is no helping.

 

The light is in total 220W (chandelier with 9 25W bulbs)

 

I have the FGD212 Dimmer 3.0 version 3.3

 

This is the wiring:

 

Please login or register to see this image.

 

The wallboxes are still open so i can try things.

[peppito 0]

I got this problem in two houses. 

Have you got anymore ideas? 

Tried every parameter in this thread, sometimes it works flawless for a time. But not for ever...

[Igy 23]

Another issue with dimmer 2 v3.2. When I set the level of the light by the scene for e.g. to 10%, than light will continuously increase its intensity step by step during 10 seconds. In the control panel it still states that its at 10%, but consumption is much higher than its supposed to be. When I set it again to 10%, lights dim and consumption goes down. After a while it repeats. When I try this when the dimmer is in use for a while, dime level stays stable. Anyone experience this kind of strange behavior?