LampLinc and LED Christmas Lights

[ResIpsa]

Is there any reason why I shouldn't use LampLincs for the the LED Christmas lights I'm putting up inside my house, so long as I set the ramp rates to 0.1?

[Brian H]

They may glow dimly when off. The Local Control Sensing current maybe enough to keep them glowing dimly.

 

Even though you can disable the Local Control. The current is still there; just not acted on.

 

If you get a glow. One fix is a small incandescent 4 watt night light connected to the output of the LampLinc. Using one of those power cubes that allow you to connect more than one item to an outlet.

[ResIpsa]

Unfortunately, the LED glow is a characteristic that is not limited to the LampLinc. I started dealing with LED glow and ApplianceLincs last year. Rather than use the night light idea, I've gotten in the habit of attaching a spare power adapter from an unused piece of electronics to the same extension cord. That always solves the glow problem, and there's no annoying 4-watt light bulb lit near the plug when the Christmas lights are on.

 

Speaking of load sensing, do you know if the OutletLincs have it? I'm kicking around the idea of migrating from ApplianceLincs to OutletLincs, which would allow me to eliminate about 50% of my wall warts.

 

They may glow dimly when off. The Local Control Sensing current maybe enough to keep them glowing dimly.

 

Even though you can disable the Local Control. The current is still there; just not acted on.

 

If you get a glow. One fix is a small incandescent 4 watt night light connected to the output of the LampLinc. Using one of those power cubes that allow you to connect more than one item to an outlet.

[Brian H]

Well only a guess here. The OutletLinc on-line manual indicates you can turn local sensing on and off. If it is like the ApplianceLinc the current is always there. You just set it to follow or ignore the load bring toggled.

 

My light bulb thing as you know is not the only way to stop the flickers and dim LEDs. I have even see some X10 users where the current is much higher than Insteon Modules. Use some 220,000 Ohm 1/2W resistors to drain the current.

 

Update: I did some tests and found the 220K resistor does not help much with a 15 White LED screw in bulb. Tried it with a few X10 and Insteon Modules. With a 56K 1/2 Watt. A New ApplianceLinc HW 4.1 still glows, but an old HW 1.3 no visible glow. I know that the new HW 4.1 ApplianceLinks do not sputter and click on my known problem load that drives the old ones crazy. I also have measured a higher local sensing current on the new models.