Dimmer 2 and 17 LED bulbs?

[Mo19 1]

Hi guys,

 

I am working on a project in which one of the ceilings has 17 GU 10 LED bulbs in it and the problem, as you probably already can predict, is the brand and wattage of the bulbs themselves. I thingk that it will be a must to sepparate the 17 bulbs into 2 circuits but 1 will have 9 bulbs and the other 8. So, one dimmer 2 for 9 bulbs and one for 8 bulbs... Sounds crazy, right? Even though they will be synchronized there will be some delay for the second Dimmer to react, but that is fine, because that is the only option.

 

Even if we know the wattage of the LED bulbs we, for sure, do not know their PF, which you can not find even in the manufacturer's website. Fortunately I have 9 LED bulbs - GE, 5.5W, 380lm, 3000k and i will test them and i hope that even if the PF is like 0.5 (I hope it is above) the Dimmer 2 will handle them.

 

So, any suggestions, tips and tricks are much, much appreciated

[speedy 64]

Hi.

So there should be no problem running all your lights with one dimmer version V2.

From the manual: 

• supported dimmable light sources (power factor > 0.5) with minimal power of 5VA using FIBARO Bypass 2 (depending on the type of load)

The dimmer V2 also have a lot of safety built in, temperature, over current, surge etc so you ca easily detect if there is an issue or not.

And also as a tip, adjust the "Max brightness" setting to around 75  is usually in the ballpark (you can adjust this to fit your needs) You never have to run a LED light at 100%.

The automatic process of finding optimal dimming levels is very good but sometimes it needs som tweaking.

 

Finally.

If you have 17 lights, can't you divide them into groups, controlling different areas or are they all spread out across the ceiling as a general light?

Sometimes its nice to have different areas controlled separately depending on room function, and i guess its a large room with 17 spotlights.

You can then create a "room in a room" feeling with light even if there are no walls.

Edited September 4, 2017 by speedy

[Mo19 1]

Thank you for the tips.

Yes, all 17 are spread out across the ceiling and sepparating them into two section is not possible.

 

If i got it right, you mean that 17 with 1 Dimmer 2 and a Bypass 2 will be OK? If the bulbs are 17*5.5w = 93.5w and the Dimmer 2 can handle like 100W if the PF is 0.5 (which i hope is not the case and it is like 0.6 to 0.8 in the best case scenario)? Or, i can suggest to install 2 dimmers for those 17 led bulbs and only the first will be controlled via the phisical button and the other will be linked to it via "Device grouping" option which works super good, even though my test was with Dimmer 2 and the old one and the loads are different and there was only a sec. of delay which i think is becuse of the different load and one has a transfomers with 12v halogens and the other has a 220v bulbs

[speedy 64]

29 minutes ago, Mo19 said:

If i got it right, you mean that 17 with 1 Dimmer 2 and a Bypass 2 will be OK? If the bulbs are 17*5.5w = 93.5w and the Dimmer 2 can handle like 100W if the PF is 0.5 (which i hope is not the case and it is like 0.6 to 0.8 in the best case scenario)?

 

You don't need a Fibaro Bypass, that is only for loads below 5VA. (Maybe not super clear)

 

If you need to use 2 dimmers:

My recommendation in your situation is to use association instead of Device grouping.

Associations doesn't need the HC2 and is faster and can be dimmed together.

 

So if you dim the lights connected to the light switch  to 5% from 100% only when you release the button a command is sent to HC2 and then back to the other dimmer (not connected to the lightswitch)

This means that the other lights are still @ 100% when you release the switch.

If you use associations the dimmers "dim" together as one light.

[Mo19 1]

Yes, they dim together but only via the phisical button. When i try to dim the first one (lets call it the main one or the master one) the slave does nothing... Only in grouping the slave works from the button and from the app/web UI, and yes, there is a delay because of the commands going from the master to HC2 and back to the slave.....Am i missing something?

 

About the Bypass. yes, i got it  Thank you

[speedy 64]

59 minutes ago, Mo19 said:

..Am i missing something?

 

Did you enable Homecenter 2 in associations?

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I cant test it right now, but as you say association together with device grouping will work fine.

 

Edited September 4, 2017 by speedy

[Mo19 1]

It is enabled in Endpint 0, Group 1, multy channel. Not sure why i have Endpoint 0 and 1. In Endpoint 0 i have 4 groups and in Endpoint 1 i have 3 groups and in the manual (page 17) is written that it has 5 groups and thats it  (see the attached picture).

 

"association together with device grouping will work fine" not sure is it possible, because when i group the devices, the slave dissapears so i can not check the associations, which i presume are not going to work any more.... I will give it a try and test, even though the two dimmers are different....

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Edited September 5, 2017 by Mo19