Gledopto Zigbee MR16 bulbs not dimming properly using dimmers

[s2alexan@gmail.com]

I have a couple of Zigbee MR16 spotlights, I wish Philips made these but Gledopto is the only company I can find that makes MR16 Zigbee bulbs.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001430888642.html

I want to be able to dim them using a Zigbee dimmer, I have both Philips Hue dimmer switches and Lutron Aurora dimmers. Dimmers and bulbs are all connected to the Hue bridge, but the bulbs don't dim properly with the dimmers.

1. They dim perfectly using the Hue app, and using HomeSeer with JowiHue, and Google voice control.
2. They dim perfectly using the Zigbee dimmers when they're in RGB mode
3. If I set them to "white color temperature" mode in the Hue app, and set the brightness in the app, and keep the app open, the dimmers control the bulbs just fine. But as soon as I close the app, or as soon as another Hue device changes (for example I activate a Hue motion sensor and some other light bulbs turn on), the dimmers will cause the MR16 bulb's brightness to jump all over the place. Both Philips Hue and Aurora dimmers do the same thing.

Gledopto support just says "they're not designed to work with dimmers", but that's not listed anywhere on their documentation, it was just something they made up when I asked for help. I was hoping the JowiHue plugin's extra settings would give me a bit more control, but I can't seem to find anything that works. I tried setting the transition time for on/off/dim actions to 0, but that didn't make a difference.

One thing I was thinking is I could break the connection between the dimmer and the bulbs in the Hue Hub, and somehow have the dimmer control brought into HomeSeer, and use HomeSeer logic to dim the MR16 lights using the dimmer state. But I'm not sure how to do that, and I believe since the Hue Hub needs to be polled, it would probably be unusably slow.

Any other ideas for how to use the JowiHue plugin to get these MR16 bulbs dimming properly?

[w.vuyk]

There sure is a way to enable a dim function by HS events, but it takes a few steps to enable it.

I do not know the aurora dimmers, but if you check the Philips hue dimmer on the status/graphics page you will find the dimmer has a status for holding the dim button. You can work with this by triggering an event that enables another event when the status of the dimmer device becomes Dim up Holding or dim down holding.
The event that gets enabled is a recurring event that runs every second (or any speed you like) and dims the light up or down by a few. If you release the button, another event should trigger that disables the recurring event so the dimming stops.

Wim

[s2alexan@gmail.com]

Thanks! That seems pretty straightforward to set up. But do dimmers connected to the Hue hub instantly create events in Homeseer when a button is held, or does it have to wait for polling? If the latter, then if I had my polling set up at 4s, then it could take up to 4s for Homeseer to recognize that I'm holding down the button, right?

[w.vuyk]

You are right! I missed the remark you made on this. Indeed the Philips Hue bridge is being polled, so a response of the Philips Hue dimmer would not reach HS immediatly, but only at the polling frequency. You would need deCONZ with a Conbee or Raspbee as those give an immediate response through a websocket.
I think the events I described to you might not work nicely on the Philips Hue bridge.

Sorry for missing this!

Wim

[stefan]

Thanks for the clarification, and that makes sense. I really like the Hue bridge for some of its other app integrations, so I wouldn't want to get rid of it, but I have a few Zigbee devices (including these lights) that don't work well with the Hue bridge and I would consider a Conbee or Raspbee just to deal with those. Is it a problem having two separate Zigbee networks? I assume I should run them on separate channels?

[w.vuyk]

You can still leave the lights on the Philips Hue bridge, but move the sensors and dimmers to the deCONZ gateway. The events of HS can tie the light on Philips Hue to the dimmer of the ConBee. They can coexsist together in the same house in any number or combination with the plugin. I have here a Raspbee, Conbee and philips hue bridge running without issues between them. You only need to change the channels if you feel there is interference between them or the wireless network. As a precaution it is good to make them use seperated channels I guess.

[stefan]

This seems like the right solution, it would be nice to have the flexibility to use those dimmers and motion sensors instantly in HomeSeer. Thanks!