HS-W100+ wall switches premature failures

[MichaelBender]

I purchased a number of HS-W100+ switches from Amazon on October 31st, 2017 and four of them have stopped functioning, the white LED at the bottom just blinks at about 2Hz and the switch does not respond to remote commands nor operate locally with the rocker. I have tried power cycling the switches (turning off the breaker, waiting a few minutes, then turning it on again) but to no avail. Any ideas? The 4 that have failed only had a lifespan of about 5 years which seems pretty short for a light switch.

I also have about 50 Lutron Caseta wall switches and about 20 TP-Link switches, and they have all been working reliably.

Thanks for any advice.

[tlovgren]

This is the flashing LED of death. The switches have a bad capacitor that has blown and are dead. You either have to replace the capacitor or the switch. I emailed Homeseer about this very issue tonight after reaching the end of my patience. I purchased over 100 switches and installed them throughout my new build 3.5 years ago. I've had a 10% per year failure rate. Just tonight, I replaced 1 switch and the power surge from flipping the breaker blew 4 other switches on 3 different circuits.....how the heck that happens is beyond me. I have torn down the last 10 switches to blow and have finally learned to successfully repair them and have been able to reuse 5 after replacing the capacitor but it takes about 30-45min per switch. It doesn't help that the header is an unusual pitch (2.0mm) and pin length so I am having to make this from bare wire rather than a proper header/connector pins with a bracket.

https://youtu.be/MsDTi53qq4Q (repair video)

Good luck.

[MichaelBender]

Thank you for the link to the repair video. I will repair the 4 that are not working and replace the capacitor in the remaining working switch, but I will be replacing the HomeSeer switches with either Caseta or TP-Link Kasa switches. As I wrote to HomeSeer support, while I appreciated their generous discount offer on new switches, I am not confident that new HomeSeer switches won't fail in a few years and then I am opening up my switch boxes and replacing switches once again. There are no actual features of the wall switch that I need other than to respond to remote commands to turn on and turn off and to broadcast switch status back to something that is listening. Both Caseta and TP-Link Kasa switches do this.

[Wade]

It doesn't help that the header is an unusual pitch (2.0mm) and pin length so I am having to make this from bare wire rather than a proper header/connector pins with a bracket.

https://youtu.be/MsDTi53qq4Q (repair video)

Here's a link to a replacement header that I've been using. Only difference from the original is it only has one of the plastic insulators. You can either try to salvage an insulator from the original header or just hold the boards at the right spacing as you solder. I've done it both ways. The marks on the pins are at 3/16" and 1/4". 1/4" is the spacing for purpose of these switches.

[randy]

I repaired several Dragon Tech, Jasco and HomeSeer 100 series switches with the failed capacitor. High ESR and low capacitance. They were all 85 degree caps. I replaced them with 105 degree rated at the same value. I spent 40 years in electronics repair and drying out electrolytics have always been a problem. It seems that these small ones used in the last 15-20 years are even more prone to failure. We always went back with 105 degree rated caps (almost all manufacturers used the less expensive 85 degree components) and had few if any repeat failures.

In the height of the camcorder phase we would see dozens of the surface mount capacitors fail. They went with a more environmentally friendly electrolyte, that would swell and leak after a few years. These radial and axial lead caps just dry out.

I have not had a 200 or 300 series HS switch or dimmer fail. I only have 2 100 series devices in use. Out of my original batch of 15-20, almost all of the switches failed. I never had a 100 series dimmer fail.