leds glowing with light switch off. varilight eclique dimmer

[cypher007]

it also has some electronics to do the remote controlled on/off function. ive not got a ac current meter to check the amount it pulls, and varilight are being evasive about it. in the mean time ive fitted a 18W halogen candle bulb, £3 for 2 from asda, this has fixed all the problems.

im going to try and borrow an ac meter to get an accurate current reading. then we might be able to work out how many suppressors it will take, if this is going to work using this method. there glow fix says it uses less than 1 watt, so im wondering what is inside it, as aurora do a glow fix but its just a dummy load 50W, pointless.

re ban-all-sheds, this is more a matter of principle to fix it. im fed up of companies saying yes it works fine, only to find out you need to buy something else to actually get it working.

 

[cypher007]

The illumination of the switch will pull considerably more power through the lamp when the switch is OFF than a normal switch.

It is a bit strange that a 0.1 μF cannot supply enough power to illuminate the switch.

how much current will 2 suppressors flow? in parallel?

 

[bernardgreen]

Unfortunately a standard multi-meter will not give a result that could be used to calculate the necessary capacitance. This is because the meter expects a sine wave form of current, the current through the switch, both ON and OFF will not be sine form.

Without information from the switch designers it is a case of trial and error.

 

[cypher007]

well spoke to soon the lounge lights came on of there own accord today, after I programmed the remote control function (it always does it when this function is used), all we did was turn on the immersion heater for god sake.

I think ill be returning all these frickin things and putting in normal light switches.

on a side note the one upstairs which runs 4x megaman gu10 dimmable led's, which I thought was working ok, seems to forget what brightness setting you last used. not sure if this is a useless feature or just the dimmer acting up.

 

[cypher007]

the 4 leds upstairs came on by them selves when the missus turned on the bathroom lights. guess these dimmers just don't work with leds and the remote function, or in the case of the downstairs lights don't completely turn off.

ok tried something different, I took all the leds out and just had 2x 18w halogens in the downstairs light. no random on/off and no glow.

so there you have it. if you want dimmable leds don't use a varilight remote touch dimmer. if you use it with halogens it work fine.

 

[cypher007]

got up this morning to find the 2x 18w halogens on. not sure when they came on, maybe when I used the electric shower?

checked the light wiring some time back and it appears to have been totally rewired, new colours.

 

[cypher007]

just wondered if the weird problems could be caused by some Ethernet over mains adapters that ive got? I have 2 that were in an old BT vision set.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Throw them away and find out.

http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/powerline.htm

http://www.ban-plt.org.uk/fuss.php

 

[cypher007]

nope removing the eop's didn't help. so basically varilight touch dimmers seem to have a problem even on a basic 2x 18W setup.

 

[cypher007]

well after some weeks varilight sent me 2 new dimmers running the latest firmware. the result so far is they don't come on randomly when remote programmed, but the 3 remotes ive tried don't work either. the switch responds during programming and that's it, after that the switch doesn't respond to the remote.

I will try with the 18w halogens in but I think these dimmers just don't work. varilight even apparently tested these before they sent them. maybe they only used the varilight remote? either way im not buying a remote as I have a pile at home as it is.

id have to give varilight customer service 8 out of 10 and the eclique 3 out of 10.

 

[mcbonez]

The wattage is too low for the dimmer to operate am sure that's what causes that's look for the min load

 

[bernardgreen]

This thread is almost a year old.

 

[JohnW2]

This thread is almost a year old.

... but presumably not quite old enough to trigger the 'big red warning'. Does anyone know what the theshold is?

Kind Regards, John

 

[Iggifer]

I think >2 years, I haven't seen 'this thread is more than 1 year old' yet, but I guess it could happen

 

[JohnW2]

I think >2 years, I haven't seen 'this thread is more than 1 year old' yet, but I guess it could happen

It's easy enough to test - I'll have a go when I have a spare moment!

Kind Regards, John