BigGiantFreakHead Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 Had been an Insteon/ISY person for years. When I sold the house where all the equipment was installed, the equipment was left for the new owner, so I am starting over. All of the lighting in the new house is LED (and the fixtures are dimmable). I bought a Polisy just before moving and am looking to get up and running. From what I have read, Insteon went through a rough patch, and I am not seeing any devices on their website that will support LED dimming - it is mostly incandescent and halogen. Since I am essentially starting over, would Z-Wave or Zigbee be a better option? If so, who makes decent switches that can dim and control LED fixtures? ... or are there newer technologies that I should consider? Link to comment
lilyoyo1 Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, BigGiantFreakHead said: Had been an Insteon/ISY person for years. When I sold the house where all the equipment was installed, the equipment was left for the new owner, so I am starting over. All of the lighting in the new house is LED (and the fixtures are dimmable). I bought a Polisy just before moving and am looking to get up and running. From what I have read, Insteon went through a rough patch, and I am not seeing any devices on their website that will support LED dimming - it is mostly incandescent and halogen. Since I am essentially starting over, would Z-Wave or Zigbee be a better option? If so, who makes decent switches that can dim and control LED fixtures? ... or are there newer technologies that I should consider? All of them including insteon. https://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/34826-zwave-700-series-tips-and-tricks/ Edited February 28, 2023 by lilyoyo1 Link to comment
DennisC Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 1 hour ago, BigGiantFreakHead said: Had been an Insteon/ISY person for years. When I sold the house where all the equipment was installed, the equipment was left for the new owner, so I am starting over. All of the lighting in the new house is LED (and the fixtures are dimmable). I bought a Polisy just before moving and am looking to get up and running. From what I have read, Insteon went through a rough patch, and I am not seeing any devices on their website that will support LED dimming - it is mostly incandescent and halogen. Since I am essentially starting over, would Z-Wave or Zigbee be a better option? If so, who makes decent switches that can dim and control LED fixtures? ... or are there newer technologies that I should consider? Take a look at these ZWave devices: https://www.getzooz.com/ Link to comment
Geddy Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 5 hours ago, BigGiantFreakHead said: I am not seeing any devices on their website that will support LED dimming I think it might depend on the brand of LED you get. Every light in my house is now LED and all my Insteon on/off and dimmers work just fine with the LEDs I have. I use the Philips dimmable LED. I have nearly full range for dimming. I don't want/need/care about anything < 10-15% brightness so I'm not a snob like some that cry when they can't get 3.1415926% brightness. I know many others here use LED on Insteon dimmers without issues. It does depend on the quality of bulb and the application. But mine ranges from can lights, recessed lights, to ceiling fans with 3 and 4 bulbs in the light kit. I use the standard paddle dimmers and 6 button keypads as dimmers (for the ceiling fan kits) and don't have any problems. *knock on wood* Link to comment
larryllix Posted March 1, 2023 Share Posted March 1, 2023 I use WiFi controlled LED RGBCW bulbs throughout using the MagicHome/LEDenet protocol. I have only two LED lamps that use Insteon LampLincs in my bedroom and they dim fine down to about 12% with better brands of bulbs. I have about 15 more LampLincs in my junk box currently. After I downsized I have never installed any SwitchLincs back into service as I use Alexa vocal control mostly now. If that fails they are all fully operable from a wall switch or a WiFi mobile app. No cloud required, just a router. If that also failed they will operate via BT on a similar app. I was going to implement Zwave also but after testing a few devices I decided against full Zwave expansion. They seem poorly implemented after Insteon experience. RGBCW bulbs run about $8 each now and come in various sizes up to 10W each. I have many RGBW 5m strips that are compatible, as well as two floor lamps that only do whites from 2500K to 6500K from the same apps and ISY software. Link to comment
BigGiantFreakHead Posted March 1, 2023 Author Share Posted March 1, 2023 Thanks for the help and responses. I should have been a bit clearer in my lighting situation - the fixtures I want to dim have integrated LED lights, not fixtures with LED bulbs. The standard Insteon 2477D dimmers will not work, as the fixtures in the house require ELV dimmers. Link to comment
Geddy Posted March 1, 2023 Share Posted March 1, 2023 1 minute ago, BigGiantFreakHead said: the fixtures I want to dim have integrated LED lights, not fixtures with LED bulbs. The standard Insteon 2477D dimmers will not work, as the fixtures in the house require ELV dimmers. Perhaps even more information for the specific fixture you're using. I have several fixtures with integrated LED that do work fine with Insteon dimmers. I don't know the brand as they were installed by my electrician and I didn't think to get a detailed list of product installed at the time. I found an interesting read from searching for ELV/Triac info. Quote What about LED lights? They’re all electronic, so they need ELV right? Not necessarily. Some lights can work equally well with leading edge and trailing edge, some prefer one or the other. Same goes for LED power supplies for LED flexible strip lights. It depends on the device, there is no hard-and-fast rule. There's even a couple of old threads on these forums about the question: Link to comment
lilyoyo1 Posted March 1, 2023 Share Posted March 1, 2023 28 minutes ago, BigGiantFreakHead said: Thanks for the help and responses. I should have been a bit clearer in my lighting situation - the fixtures I want to dim have integrated LED lights, not fixtures with LED bulbs. The standard Insteon 2477D dimmers will not work, as the fixtures in the house require ELV dimmers. The information on needing an ELV dimmer was pertinent to the conversation. Eaton and levitation are the only 2 zwave companies that I know of which makes ELV dimmers. There may be others but I'm not aware. Lutron caseta dimmers are also ELV Link to comment
dakall Posted March 1, 2023 Share Posted March 1, 2023 19 hours ago, Geddy said: ... can't get 3.1415926% brightness. That's irrational. 1 1 Link to comment
larryllix Posted March 1, 2023 Share Posted March 1, 2023 That's irrational.lolWiFi bulbs get 1% brightness in any colour. Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk Link to comment
xlurkr Posted March 2, 2023 Share Posted March 2, 2023 7 hours ago, larryllix said: WiFi bulbs get 1% brightness That's singularly good performance. -Tom 1 Link to comment
larryllix Posted March 2, 2023 Share Posted March 2, 2023 (edited) 11 hours ago, xlurkr said: That's singularly good performance. -Tom Thanks for your illuminating comments but it seems like my bulbs are all screwed. Edited March 2, 2023 by larryllix 1 Link to comment
BigGiantFreakHead Posted March 2, 2023 Author Share Posted March 2, 2023 As for the specific fixture, the one below is the most pressing as they are a bit too bright at full power: https://kuzcolighting.com/product/vesta-at7972/ I also want to have some of the ISY functionality I had in the old house to turn on an hour after sunset and turn off later in the evening. There are other fixtures in the house, but they are not a high priority right now, so I want to make sure I get the proper infrastructure in place first and then be able to expand later on. Link to comment
lilyoyo1 Posted March 3, 2023 Share Posted March 3, 2023 5 hours ago, BigGiantFreakHead said: As for the specific fixture, the one below is the most pressing as they are a bit too bright at full power: https://kuzcolighting.com/product/vesta-at7972/ I also want to have some of the ISY functionality I had in the old house to turn on an hour after sunset and turn off later in the evening. There are other fixtures in the house, but they are not a high priority right now, so I want to make sure I get the proper infrastructure in place first and then be able to expand later on. The best thing for you to do is buy a few different dimmers and try them. There are thousands of mfg out there and countless different models (not including changes made to their same models). Link to comment
noobmuch Posted March 11, 2023 Share Posted March 11, 2023 On 3/1/2023 at 6:35 AM, larryllix said: have about 15 more LampLincs in my junk box currently Did you want to sell those? I don't have need for all of them currently but if we can agree on a price, I'd take all of them to make it less hassle for you to piecemeal sell them. Link to comment
larryllix Posted March 11, 2023 Share Posted March 11, 2023 8 hours ago, noobmuch said: Did you want to sell those? I don't have need for all of them currently but if we can agree on a price, I'd take all of them to make it less hassle for you to piecemeal sell them. Send me a PM. I am just on my way out. Link to comment
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