Fanlinc - Light flashes with Insteon traffic

[boojew]

Hey guys - I need some help here. I recently acquired 2x Fanlinc rev 3.0 units and installed them - each paired with a KPL. The KPL does not control the load - the fanlinc does. After a few weeks, we started to notice that the fanlinc light (attached to hardwired LEDs in the fan) would randomly flash when insteon traffic is generated - even it seems when it comes from another circuit. I have one other Fanlinc (I believe as a rev 3.0) for which this has never happened. My ISY is on 5.0.13D, but I highly doubt it is related to that...

Has anyone ever had a similar experience? Any solution? 

Thanks!

[drich]

Interesting, I'm having exactly the same problem. I contacted Insteon support, and after getting upset at the person who was telling me "it can't do that", got it escalated to engineering. They suspect a bad Insteon device that is causing interference with the LEDs. 

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to track down any bad devices by air-gapping them one-by-one through the house. The next step is to start throwing circuit breakers to see if I can track down if there really is a bad device, or if these particular LEDs are just sensitive to Insteon traffic and there's nothing I can do about it.

The only other thing I can think of is to somehow put a filter in-line with the lamps in the fan, but building something that can filter out Insteon traffic is beyond my skillset.

[larryllix]

Interesting, I'm having exactly the same problem. I contacted Insteon support, and after getting upset at the person who was telling me "it can't do that", got it escalated to engineering. They suspect a bad Insteon device that is causing interference with the LEDs. 
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to track down any bad devices by air-gapping them one-by-one through the house. The next step is to start throwing circuit breakers to see if I can track down if there really is a bad device, or if these particular LEDs are just sensitive to Insteon traffic and there's nothing I can do about it.
The only other thing I can think of is to somehow put a filter in-line with the lamps in the fan, but building something that can filter out Insteon traffic is beyond my skillset.

Look for an option to enable and disable this in the admin console page for device

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[Brian H]

It is the LEDs in the fans flashing on Insteon power line commands not the LED on the module flashing with Insteon traffic? That can be controlled On or Off as pointed out.

The bulbs are rated for dimmer use? Not all are and using a non dimmable LED bulb on a dimmer can be a problem.

I have seen filter kits made to keep the signals out of a Load flashing. I believe it was from a UPB equipment manufacturer but the filter covered the Insteon and X10 power line frequencies also. It went between the modules Load connection to the lights themselves. If you put it before the module. It would filter out all the signal and the module stopped .

It could also be the design of the module itself. I know early Insteon dimmers use to flicker their load on power line signals. They changed a coil in the module to help reduce the flickering.

[Brian H]

Found a thread here on the ZFN10 I was thinking about.

https://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/10120-diy-noise-filter/

[drich]

Thanks for the pointer, I'll have to see if I can come up with a filter that will fit in the fan canopy along with the FanLinc as a test. 

I haven't yet found any other options for the LED lamps, the fans have candelabra bases which really limits what is available. The only other lamps I've found claim to be dimmable but only dim little before going out completely. It's very possible they don't put enough inductive load on the circuit for the FanLinc to be able to dim them, or they are just junk.  However, only the first lamps flicker, the second set doesn't show the same problem.

Since this is happening in two fans with the same lamps and FanLincs, it isn't a single bad FanLinc. At first I suspected it was the RF in the FanLinc interfering with the lamps, but turning that off doesn't make any difference.

[larryllix]

Makes me wonder about enclosing an RF transmitter inside a metal box. 

Reminds me of another person changing all his X10 pool control units over to Insteon. 4-5 Insteon RF  transmitters all inside one sealed metal box might be a problem, even buring out the transmitters from standing waves.
 X10 worked great for the same application.
Newer Insteon devices provide options to shut off the RF system.

[cwitter]

I can't help with the flickering, but wanted to point out https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PJEZQXS/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 these bulbs work really well with the fan linc and dim very well. 

[drich]

To follow up, I ended up just replacing the LED lamps and it has (mostly) fixed the flicker issue. The original lamps I was using were from GE, I now have ecosmart lamps from Home Depot. I  still get an occasional flicker when they are dimmed way down, but it's not constant with every Insteon command like the GE lamps.

[Techman]

Dimmable Led bulbs have a built in driver circuit. Some manufacture's bulbs (and driver circuits)  are more compatible with Insteon than others. I've had good results with CREE and ECOSMART bulbs. They can usually be dimmed down to about 10 -15% without issues.