New Zwave products from Fibaro

[xanhoera]

The dimmer in this series seems to be able to connected the way I want, unfortunately I don't have(need or want) a dimmable lamp.

Would it be a problem to use the dimmers (same price) instead of the switches (with non dimmable lamps)? And only use On/Off commands for the dimmer? That'll work I guess? At least that was my understanding.

[Sooty]

Yesterday, I also tested a dimmer and 2 x 1.5 kW relay unit.

The relay units do indeed need the extra neutral wire.

The dimmer works fine with an incandescent lamp. To try with various non-dimmable CFL's I set parameter 10 to 0 and parameter 13 (min dim level) to 98. Whilst this works, always taking the lamp to 98% whatever dim level is sent, I do still get flickering with the 3 non-dimmable lamps I tested when in the off position. I tried both a Varlight and a Megaman dimmable CFL and they both seemed to work fine. No flickering in the off position and they dimmed OK.

I was about to connect the bypass when I thought (as there are no instructions with it) "where is it supposed to go". Should it go across the lamp terminals or between the live input and the linked neutral/output? Something tells me that is it supposed to bridge the lamp. If thats the case then it will need to be installed at the lamp location.

As part of my testing I measured the power consumption of the dimmer. In the off state I am seeing an average 2.5 watt usage. This seems quite high. The Home Easy in wall dimmers I have are consuming less than 1 watt i nthe off state.

In summary, if I am going to go Z-Wave, then I think I have 3 options:
1. Replace all my CFL's with eco halogen lamps then I can just use the dimmers in standard form.
2. Try to find dimmable CFL's or LED's that will work with the Fibaro dimmer.
3. Install the relay modules at the lamp location where I have the neutral wire.

I am quite sure that I will be going with option 3 as I don't really need dimmable lights.

Paul..

[hkmod25]

Yesterday, I also tested a dimmer and 2 x 1.5 kW relay unit.

The relay units do indeed need the extra neutral wire.

Actually I dont understand that the problem is. It WAS allways (X-10, Z-Wave, ...) the same req. for relay switch - you NEED to use both L and N...

I was about to connect the bypass when I thought (as there are no instructions with it) "where is it supposed to go". Should it go across the lamp terminals or between the live input and the linked neutral/output? Something tells me that is it supposed to bridge the lamp. If thats the case then it will need to be installed at the lamp location.

Yes, across the lamp terminals.

[j.hoekstra]

The switch needs a 3-wire system. However, the dimmer needs only 2 wires and you can reprogram it to work as a switch.

At this time one word comes to mind I understood it the other way around. Let's see what the supplier can tell me.
Undortunately it's a rental house, so changing the wiring beyond the swtiches is not going to happen....

[Patrik.b]

How is the wireing done in the rest of Europe ? Here in Finland 99% of the cases you have a connection box in the celing behind the lamp. there you have both wires to the switch,and Line and Neutral.(L and N). Why not put the fibaro receiver there ?

[Sooty]

It's the same here in the UK 99% of the time. When there is just one light fitting in the centre of the ceiling then normally there is the conection box behind it so the Fibaro or other relay could be installed there. This is the way I think that I will do it.

Here in the UK, the problem seems to arise when you have multiple light fittings like recessed downlighters. The junction box should be behind one of the lights, but invariably it is not.

It would appear that even when using the neutral wire on the dimmer, there is still a current passing through the output terminal causing the flickering with CFL's.

I can confirm that installing the bypass solves the flickering problem with non-dimmable CFL's. At least it has with the lamps I have tested.

I also installed the 2 x 1.5 kW relay today. I have set one relay with an auto off timer which is driving another mains voltage relay for controlling my electric gates which require a 0 volt pulse and the other relay is controlling my gate lights. So far everything seems to be working fine. The big plus for me being new to Z-Wave is the status feedback

[j.hoekstra]

How is the wireing done in the rest of Europe ? Here in Finland 99% of the cases you have a connection box in the celing behind the lamp. there you have both wires to the switch,and Line and Neutral.(L and N). Why not put the fibaro receiver there ?

I would like to do that as well, but I'm not an electrician as I said before.
I made a picture of the connectionbox:

The black wire comes from the switch(only one, not two...), the red from this box and go to the lightbulb.
I guess I could connect it as follows:
Green is L and red should be N then(will measure later) The black wire should go to S1 and light connected to O and return to N. Like on the manual if I read it correctly.
I'll have to get myself some switching wire and 'lasdoppen' for the extra wires then I guess. Will be next week then.

[DRuw]

@j.hoekstra: Dude what a mess.... fire you electrician.... this is as far as I (not an expert) can tell not according dutch building regulations...

In the Netherlands, we also have a box in the ceiling with the neutral (blue) and the switchwire (black). The power wire (brown) ends at the switch and goes to black after the switch.

So its not possible (I think!) to connect the fibaro there since you dont have the power wire there... either way, you have to pull a power wire to the ceiling box and install the fibaro there or pull the neutral to the switchbox....

Why on earth do you guys in finland have a line wire there?

line----switch----lamp----neutral or line----switch====switch---lamp----neutral is normally our setup in the Netherlands (look closely, i used colors )

(ps: again, im not an expert but the newer buildings have the wiring as discribed above.... The green and red in the picture are possibly older standards but I cant imagine why the old red one is changed to blue (as you described) and the old green is changed to brown.... they look to much alike and could cause dangerous situations.. be sure to measure them!!!!)

[Fantic]

Don't worry, these are just the old colors used untill the 70's, there are still around in many older installations. these are the colors and their functions:
code - function - old color - new color
L = Hot Wire = Green = Brown
N = Neutral = Red = Blue
G = Ground = Gray = Yellow/Green
S = Switch = Black = Black

So your green wire is the L and the red wire is the N.

[Reiniertc]

Hi There,

I've implemented a Fibaro Dimmer FGD211, in combination with homeseer .25 and an Aeon Labs USB stick
The dimmer is associated with group 3, which results in a perfect status update, including dimmer level.

I've tried to implement a Fibaro Switch 3kW FGS211, but somehow it isn't as easy as implementing the dimmer.
After including the switch in my network, it creates 3 devices (1 root, 2 switches). Only 1 of the 2 switches actually works.
The thing is: the switch won't automatically update the status to home seer. I've tried to associate it with group 1, 2, 3: no combination works.
Also: manual polling of the switch works, automatic polling of the switch doesn't.

At first I thought it was a reception problem, but the switch is installed 4 centimeters next to the dimmer. Also: home seer can reach the switch when I optimize the network.

Is there anyone out there with a FGS211 with a setup that successfully updates the status?

[Patrik.b]

Why on earth do you guys in finland have a line wire there?

Sorry if my english isn't the best

We have ofcourse power and neutral in the conectionbox by the lamp, and from there power goes down to the switch and from the switch back up to the lamp.

[Henk_J]

I do have a similar problem. If you check the log you will find that only the root device changes status if you press the connected switch. But to control the device from homeseer you have to switch the child instance 1. Problem is that the status of this instance will not be updated in homeseer.

So to check the status just check on the root device and to control just set child instance 1 on or off.

[Henk_J]

@reiniertc: Just found out that if you only associate group 1 to homeseer all works fine. Also deleted switch 2 which is useless and all works as expected.

[Reiniertc]

@reiniertc: Just found out that if you only associate group 1 to homeseer all works fine. Also deleted switch 2 which is useless and all works as expected.

Thanks Henk_J.
Somehow the root device doesn't change status either. it just stays "no status", regardless of the status of switch 1.
I've changed association to group 1, but my problem remains the same...

[Henk_J]

Hmm strange. I've included the homeseer screen for the root device and chils 1 instance.

switch2.png (95.45 KiB) Viewed 12271 times

switch1.png (120.03 KiB) Viewed 12271 times