Lights flicker when switchlinc beeps

[apostolakisl]

I have my kids bedroom lights set to shut off after 30 minutes, and during the last minute I have the beeper set to beep once per second as a warning.

 

I noticed the other day that a different set of lights on a different switch flicker in sync with the beep. It is as if the beep is drawing huge current with each beep. Of course, the beep is not doing that. The kids lights are icon dimmers (2876db v.39) and the other light that actually does the flickering is on a 2476d V.38 (at least that is the load switch). The load on the flickering light are LED's. The load on the kids lights are incandescent (and they don't flicker, only the led's on the other switch).

 

Any idea on what the mechanism of this would be?

 

I'm going to rule out power draw and consider that the problem is either in the 2476d responding to the beep command from ISY erroneously with a flicker, or that the lights themselves are responding to the power line "noise" that is the beep command. But I can't think of a reason either of these would happen.

[LeeG]

Try a different command such as Query rather than Beep. I suspect it is the powerline traffic in combination with a dimmer driving LEDs rather than a specific command code or the device actually beeping.

[apostolakisl]

So I went to test your theory. And of course it isn't flickering no matter what now. I'll try in the morning again.

[apostolakisl]

This morning I was able to get the flicker to happen. Yesterday evening it was still daylight and perhaps it just wasn't dim enough for me to see the flicker.

 

It flickered with query. So indeed it would appear to be something with the powerline "noise" that is an Insteon command. Not sure whether the root of the flicker is in the switch or the bulbs. All 3 bulbs on the switch seem to be in unison, so the switch itself is certainly a reasonable candidate.

[TJF1960]

I would try to swap one of the lights with an incandescent to see if the added load dampens the flickering of the LEDs.