I recently bought a batch of HS-WD100+ dimmers, and after installing one I'm pretty happy with it. The one thing that I can't yet figure out how to do is to trim the min and max dim range to better match my bulbs. Earlier posts referenced this issue as a feature request but I have not seen anything since then.
Ideally there would be a setting to trim the dim range to exactly match my bulb, as some other dimmers have.
I tried about 10-15 different types of bulbs out across a handful of manufacturers and each had their own quirks, but most had a dim range significantly lower than that of the dimmer. One bulb in particular had issues at the low end of the dim range, so that every time the load was turning on locally and the brightness ramped up, the bulb flickered like crazy until reaching 5-10% dim level.
I had the best luck with Philips bulbs, as Homeseers list would indicate, but even these maxed out at about 85% dim level. My main issue is one of usability: I like the feature of ramping the brightness up and down when switching on or off, but when the bulbs max dim level is significantly lower than the switches there is an annoying latency between pressing the off button and any visible effect.
My current workaround is to manually set the dim level to the max brightness of the bulb, so when turned on the dimmer returns to the last dim level. This lets the basic local turn on/turn off behave very well and smoothly, with instant feedback of the bulb starting to dim. The problem with this workaround is that the LED indicates that the bulb is not full brightness (when it really is), and that other people in the house mistakingly set the brightness back to full occasionally.
Any assistance or advice is welcome; I'm new to the whole home automation scene
Sidenote: While the Philips bulbs generally had the highest dim range, I could not actually find the model number that was listed for sale on Amazon. Does anyone know where to purchase this exact bulb? The only Philips bulbs I could find were "Warm Glow" bulbs, which appears to switch LED drivers to switch to the "warm glow" at low dim levels. This led to a noticeably non-smooth dimming experience as the drivers were switched. I am currently using Feit Electric bulbs, which seem to dim very smoothly and have great color, but max out on brightness at around 65-70% dim setting.
Sidenote 2: 100ms is commonly accepted as an acceptable response time to feel "instantaneous" in human interface design. The full dim range seems to take roughly 3 seconds with the default settings (1% dim every 30ms), so getting to even the best bulb with 85% dim as the max brightness means almost half a second before any dimming begins after hitting the off switch.
Ideally there would be a setting to trim the dim range to exactly match my bulb, as some other dimmers have.
I tried about 10-15 different types of bulbs out across a handful of manufacturers and each had their own quirks, but most had a dim range significantly lower than that of the dimmer. One bulb in particular had issues at the low end of the dim range, so that every time the load was turning on locally and the brightness ramped up, the bulb flickered like crazy until reaching 5-10% dim level.
I had the best luck with Philips bulbs, as Homeseers list would indicate, but even these maxed out at about 85% dim level. My main issue is one of usability: I like the feature of ramping the brightness up and down when switching on or off, but when the bulbs max dim level is significantly lower than the switches there is an annoying latency between pressing the off button and any visible effect.
My current workaround is to manually set the dim level to the max brightness of the bulb, so when turned on the dimmer returns to the last dim level. This lets the basic local turn on/turn off behave very well and smoothly, with instant feedback of the bulb starting to dim. The problem with this workaround is that the LED indicates that the bulb is not full brightness (when it really is), and that other people in the house mistakingly set the brightness back to full occasionally.
Any assistance or advice is welcome; I'm new to the whole home automation scene
Sidenote: While the Philips bulbs generally had the highest dim range, I could not actually find the model number that was listed for sale on Amazon. Does anyone know where to purchase this exact bulb? The only Philips bulbs I could find were "Warm Glow" bulbs, which appears to switch LED drivers to switch to the "warm glow" at low dim levels. This led to a noticeably non-smooth dimming experience as the drivers were switched. I am currently using Feit Electric bulbs, which seem to dim very smoothly and have great color, but max out on brightness at around 65-70% dim setting.
Sidenote 2: 100ms is commonly accepted as an acceptable response time to feel "instantaneous" in human interface design. The full dim range seems to take roughly 3 seconds with the default settings (1% dim every 30ms), so getting to even the best bulb with 85% dim as the max brightness means almost half a second before any dimming begins after hitting the off switch.
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