Jump to content

On/Off Outlet Causes Light to Flash


mbrossart

Recommended Posts

Posted

I bought a display cabinet the other day from Costco that has an LED light to illuminate the contents of the cabinet.  To ease turning the light on and off, I installed an Insteon On/Off outlet to plug the cabinet light into.  When I turn the outlet on, the cabinet light works just fine.  When I turn the outlet off, the light periodically flashes.  When I plug a different light in to the outlet, it works as expected (i.e. outlet on = light on ; outlet off = light off).  When I plug the cabinet light into another Insteon on/off outlet, it exhibits the same behavior (i.e. it flashes when the outlet is turned off).

 

Has anyone seen this behavior?  Any thoughts?

Posted

The On/Off Outlet has load sense which allows enough current to cause issues with LEDs.   Turn Off load sense (which does not turn off the sense current) and add a small load such as a wall wort to the outlet being used for the cabinet.

Posted

Turning off the load sensing. Will not stop the LEDs flashing as the current is still there. The module just ignores the toggling of the loads switch being detected.

Posted

So, will a wall wart or a nightlight in the uncontrolled outlet alleviate the issue or do I need to create a draw inline on the cabinet light?  With the uptake of LED lighting technology, is Insteon planning a fix for this?  It seems like a cumbersome workaround.

Posted

It would need to go on the controlled outlet in parallel with your LED load to do any good.

 

-Xathros

Posted

I bought a display cabinet the other day from Costco that has an LED light to illuminate the contents of the cabinet.  To ease turning the light on and off, I installed an Insteon On/Off outlet to plug the cabinet light into.  When I turn the outlet on, the cabinet light works just fine.  When I turn the outlet off, the light periodically flashes. 

 

You may want to try an ON/OFF module which does not have load sensing.

Posted

So, will a wall wart or a nightlight in the uncontrolled outlet alleviate the issue or do I need to create a draw inline on the cabinet light?  With the uptake of LED lighting technology, is Insteon planning a fix for this?  It seems like a cumbersome workaround.

There is no easy fix. LED are not the same as Incandescent which brings it's own set of headaches. LEDs has electronics in it (been covered on here many times) which is not uniform even within a manufacturers own product line. Even with Lutron's line of low voltage switches, there are numerous issues with low voltage. Until there is a standard it'll be hard to cover every case. Insteon and any other manufacturer must also weigh the pros and cons of certain types of features and if the benefit they provide outweigh the con. Extremely low voltage lights will be dim, but how many people use that compared to taking out features that can cause lights to glow but will affect users that don't use very low wattage bulbs.

Posted

Maybe your solution is to change to a dimmer module and/or to change LEDs. I'm using some I bought at Lowes (4W, candelabra base) which work well with a dimmer module. No flicker, and nice & smooth. And I kinda like the fact that the load sense current keeps the bulb lit a small amount even when off. Looks neat I think.

 

http://www.lowes.com/pd_199170-28839-LCA12C20027K3_0__?productId=4136004

Posted

I am using a 2473 OutletLinc ver. 42 without Load Sense controlling LED equipt. lamps with no problem.

Me too.  I connected my Costco cabinet to a 2473.  Problem solved.  Based on this thread, it may not work for everyone, but it worked for me.

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

May not work for every situation, but it my case adding a 9ft extension cord between the outletlinc and a lamp with an LED bulb solved all issues with controlling the LED bulb.  Previously, when plugged directly into the wall it would turn itself back on after I had turned it off.  The little bit of extra resistance seems to solve that.  I just bunch up the extra cord and stuff it under the table the lamp is on.

 

Just thought I'd share as it may be a cheap fix for some LED issues.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...