Air Gap Switch on Insteon Switches Really Air Gap?

[shannong]

I have a Dual-Band SwitchLinc On/Off 2477S v.43, as reported by ISY. My garage fluorescent lights are attached directly as load on this switch.

 

I began having an issue where the garage fluorescent lights wouldn't turn off  with my timer program built for that. At first, I assumed it was noise since I had a pair of flickering bulbs. So I walked up to the switch and clicked it off. The brightness indicator went to the bottom showing off. They were still on.

 

I tried switching them on/off again. They were still on. Frustrated, I pulled the air gap switch on bottom. The light on the brightness indicator went out showing power was cut. THEY WERE STILL ON!

 

I pushed the air gap switch back in. Then turned them on/off again, and they went out this time.

 

This has happened more than once. So the air gap switch on the bottom can't truly be an air gap switch.

 

Any thoughts on this?

[paulbates]

I don't know about the airgap part. I have had outlet lincs display odd behavior  like this from noise and become non responsive. After filtering the noise, it behaves normally.

 

In the case of a yard light transformer, it could take up to 20 minutes of being on before the behavior appeared, and then power had to be removed from the switch to get it back to operations

 

Probably a snubber or XPNR on the load side will resolve this.

[Teken]

I have a Dual-Band SwitchLinc On/Off 2477S v.43, as reported by ISY. My garage fluorescent lights are attached directly as load on this switch.

 

I began having an issue where the garage fluorescent lights wouldn't turn off  with my timer program built for that. At first, I assumed it was noise since I had a pair of flickering bulbs. So I walked up to the switch and clicked it off. The brightness indicator went to the bottom showing off. They were still on.

 

I tried switching them on/off again. They were still on. Frustrated, I pulled the air gap switch on bottom. The light on the brightness indicator went out showing power was cut. THEY WERE STILL ON!

 

I pushed the air gap switch back in. Then turned them on/off again, and they went out this time.

 

This has happened more than once. So the air gap switch on the bottom can't truly be an air gap switch.

 

Any thoughts on this?

 

The air gap is designed to act like you turned off the power at the breaker. It essentially (physically) breaks the contact from line source. If it didn't remove power from the load that means one of several things were at play here.

 

- Air gap was not pulled all the way until it bottomed out.

- Air gap contact (arc) is not properly spaced per design.

- There is another path of line voltage still present.

- The PSU has shorted in the closed position.

[larryllix]

I believe the air gap is a safety thing.

You have to be able to shut the power off completely to change a light bulb, standing in water with bare feet,  with a shorted filament bulb that's full of gasoline. Trickle currents are not allowed while kids hold onto the outer metal ring screw thread or put their hand palm  on the halogen bulb to change a lightbulb.

[stusviews]

The air gap is just that. Pulling it out creates a space (air) between to contacts. It can be pulled almost entirely out while still maintaining minimal contact. It's important to pull the air gap out so that the detent is engaged.

[BCreekDave]

I have the same situation but in my case the root cause was that the switch I was air gapping was the slave (non-load controller) in a 3 way setup. When I air gapped the load switch everything functioned as expected.

 

 

Sent from using Tapatalk

[Brian H]

If you had any of the old hardware 2476S Switchlincs. They do not have the Air Gap Switch. Pulling out the set button will just break it off.

They also have a completely different Factory Reset procedure.

Later hardware revision 2476S module did have the Air Gap Switch.

[Teken]

Specifically the older 2476 ST units that had a built in timer did not have a proper air gap inside. As an aside this device continues to be improperly supported in the 994 Series Controller firmware. When selecting the options tab it will declare a fault which it never did in previous generation of firmware.

 

Once you close the error message attempting to change any value in the 2476 ST device do not take or can be applied.

[Brian H]

I didn't have any of the 2476ST models but do remember them also being reported as having no Air Gap switches. As do my early 2476S and I believe also the old Icon models.

[shannong]

I can confirm the air gap tab in this switch is definitely not an air gap device. It may have been intended as one by design but is definitely not in reality.

 

I can no longer turn these lights off via any method. I've pulled the air gap tab .out and the brightness indicator goes off. The lights stay on. It can't be an issue of not pulling it out far enough because the brightness indicator does go off, and I've pulled it very hard until it reaches the end.

 

Chalk this up to another shoddy design by Smart Labs.

[larryllix]

If you have been operating bulbs with a starting ballast and the gap was not making good contact the contacts could be welded together now.

 

Contacts that fallback under weakening spring pressure and not by a driving force mechanism are usually not a good design and tend to do this. Add some manufacturing oils and dust and a surge creating ballast and you have a burnt contact.