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Troubleshooting a possessed z-wave dimmer

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    Troubleshooting a possessed z-wave dimmer

    So I have a dimmer (old cooper) that has recently started changing on it's own. As in, I'll wake up in the morning and come down to find that the switch is on and set to, oh say 8%. Over the course of 24h this seems to happen occasionally, with no consistent rhyme or reason as to why it's happening. When I look at the homeseer log, I see nothing in the log that times in with the switch changing that would suggest something is triggering it.

    I've ruled out (so far) an errant device association on another device or an errant linked device. It's possible that the switch is just starting to go flaky, and I've been thinking about swapping it out for a different brand anyways. However i would feel better knowing what the root cause was first. Anyone have any suggestions on how to try to track down what may be triggering it?

    regards,

    Paul

    #2
    I have something similar, old 300-series Cooper Aspire dimmers, about 8 years old. Same thing, will get flaky, specifically when it comes to device associations. Will also lose local status tracking on the dim LEDS. Usually pulling the air-gap to power them down and up solves it for a while.

    My suspicion is that these dimmers don't do well with voltage spikes, the only dimmers that exhibit this behavior are on the same electrical branch. If you want to replace and match the existing aesthetics of other Cooper dimmers you might have, they now make Z-wave+ versions of these dimmers.

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      #3
      Originally posted by TC1 View Post
      I have something similar, old 300-series Cooper Aspire dimmers, about 8 years old. Same thing, will get flaky, specifically when it comes to device associations. Will also lose local status tracking on the dim LEDS. Usually pulling the air-gap to power them down and up solves it for a while.

      My suspicion is that these dimmers don't do well with voltage spikes, the only dimmers that exhibit this behavior are on the same electrical branch. If you want to replace and match the existing aesthetics of other Cooper dimmers you might have, they now make Z-wave+ versions of these dimmers.
      Maybe a transient neutral or line on that branch?

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by TC1 View Post
        If you want to replace and match the existing aesthetics of other Cooper dimmers you might have, they now make Z-wave+ versions of these dimmers.
        I have a whole home of the older Cooper switches going on 10 years and I haven't had any flake out yet... I did look the other day for the Z-wave plus version and didnt find any. Where did you see them for sale?

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          #5
          Originally posted by prsmith777 View Post

          I have a whole home of the older Cooper switches going on 10 years and I haven't had any flake out yet... I did look the other day for the Z-wave plus version and didnt find any. Where did you see them for sale?
          Take any of the older model numbers, like RF-9540, and increment by 100 to get the Z-wave plus model: RF-9640.
          Most decent electrical supply houses will have them or can order them, here's one of the best prices I've see:

          https://www.ktool.net/eaton-wiring-d...spire-300w-ds/

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by TC1 View Post

            Take any of the older model numbers, like RF-9540, and increment by 100 to get the Z-wave plus model: RF-9640.
            Most decent electrical supply houses will have them or can order them, here's one of the best prices I've see:

            https://www.ktool.net/eaton-wiring-d...spire-300w-ds/
            awesome. Thanks

            Comment


              #7
              I too have a whole house full of at this point really old (14 yrs) Cooper Aspire switches. Probably 40 dimmers, 10 switches, and 5 scene controllers. I have also had problems with them through the years that periodically required resetting the dimmers or flipping off and then on power to the switches. I have not as of yet though had to replace any that actually failed completely. A few weeks ago, I upgraded to HS4 Pro and consequently replaced my original z-troller with a homeseer Smartstick+. It has not been an easy transition. The biggest problem I faced was that numerous slave switches that had associations with a primary light fixture seemed to trigger not just the primary on and off -- but another 30 or 40 lights throughout the house. Support indicated that I shouldn't be using Associations for this purpose but should have them all programed as events. That came as a surprise because as I said, I've been using associations in just that manner for many years. In fact there are some lights that have up to four slave switches all keeping track of dim levels through reciprocal associations. Happily, and at least for the moment, I solved the all on problem by removing and then readding the association with Homeseer in any switch that was triggering an all on of lights. But my question for those who have Cooper switches is do you still use associations or have you reprogrammed Homeseer using events to put on lights that might have 1-4 slave switches controlling the primary? Also, it looks like this might also be accomplished using the Linked Device button that shows up for the dimmers only, but the instructions say "It is possible to create a cascade of links with several devices. However, more complicated linking should be done using HS4 events."

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                #8
                Originally posted by cbarner View Post
                But my question for those who have Cooper switches is do you still use associations or have you reprogrammed Homeseer using events to put on lights that might have 1-4 slave switches controlling the primary? Also, it looks like this might also be accomplished using the Linked Device button that shows up for the dimmers only, but the instructions say "It is possible to create a cascade of links with several devices. However, more complicated linking should be done using HS4 events."
                I absolutely use associations with my 300-series Cooper Aspires, that way, all the lights work even if Homeseer/hub is down. I've joined multiple light circuits in my kitchen together via 4-way dimmer associations. There *is* a trick to it though, there's a secret (unpublished) parameter on the Aspires that make this work in terms of all the dimmer statuses being in sync. I've posted it in these forums before.

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