Shelly Dimmer 2, lights always on with refractive switch?

[365nice]

Hello - I’m new to Shelly and my electrician isn’t well versed in these things - so I’m having a look myself and hoping for some pointers.

I have 6 led lights, connected to a retraction switch and Its wired like the diagram - l1 to sw1, l2 to sw2 etc.

It all looks correct from what I can see, however when powered on, the lights stay on and the switch doesn’t do anything?

As I am using neutral - I didn’t think I needed the extra load addon- but is this the problem? Or do I need to configure the switch in software some way?

Thanks for any help?l.

Tim

 

[Seb Briggs]

You need to tell the module the type of switch that is connected in the app

 

[365nice]

Hi @Seb Briggs - really appreciate your help.

I did try that, and have checked I am using that setting (when I power on, and connect to the local Shelly web server it’s now showing that setting), but it still doesn’t seem to do anything other than come on?

Also, trying the software switch on/off doesn’t seem to do anything - making me wonder if there is something else I’m missing?

I haven’t done any other settings other than this as I haven’t yet got internet operational - but I thought that was ok, just to get basic operations until the rest of my kit is sorted?

I wonder if I’m missing something more obvious here?

Tim

 

[Seb Briggs]

Let me look at your wiring photo in more detail as I was in the car earlier so just looked on my phone

 

[Seb Briggs]

Difficult to tell as wires arent necessarily correctly coloured.

The one I would question is the switched line (O) as looks like it goes to two places as you are using a connector. Could you have line and switched line mixed up ?

Switched line is normally (?) brown with a blue sleeve

 

[365nice]

Hi - I’m a bit closer - I dug out a multimeter to measure voltages and what I thought was line live wasn’t - it was L for the leds, I’ve now switched it around so that the true Live is connected to Shelly L, and O is now connected to the LED’s.

So now in software everything works - the web ui let’s me on/off and dim - however my retractive switch doesn’t work as I expect - when I press up the light goes on, a second press and it goes off. The lower button press doesn’t seem to do anything?

I am using the 2 button setting in the settings screen, but do I need to do some more adjustments?

I have a scolmore retractive switch (eg click up and click down, and it returns to the Center). I think that’s the right type of switch ?

Tim

 

[Seb Briggs]

Can you post a picture from app for settings, as shouldnt need anything else setting

 

[365nice]

Ahhhh a dodgy connection on L1, so now it’s sort of working - I can get up to turn on, and down to turn off - but I dont understand how dimming works? I suspect this might be to do with switch type and debounce?

 

[Seb Briggs]

Just hold up to dim up, hold down to dim down

 

[365nice]

Just hold up to dim up, hold down to dim down

I think I’ve realised the issue - when I shut off the circuit power to check things, it forgets my settings?

I’d this normal, or is this where connecting properly to WiFi helps - as does the device retrieve its settings that way when it lowers up? Surely a power failure doesn’t require redoing all Devi e settings?

Thanks Tim

 

[Seb Briggs]

No should remember settings

 

[365nice]

Hmm - if it should remember the settings (which makes sense, as it would need that to connect to the internet), what am I doing wrong?

I took a fresh Shelly Dimmer 2 out of the box, wired it like diagram above - put the mains power on and saw the device appear as WiFi. I connected with my phone and then used Safari to view the settings page. I changed the switch type to a 2 button switch (there is no save for this?), I set the debounce to 100 (and pressed save) and I set the dim rate to 2x (there is no save for this).

When I did the above (didn’t navigate anywhere else and locked my phone) the switch worked like how I expected it.

However I turned the mains off and went to fit it all in the wall box (then decided that’s for another day), but when I powered up all the settings had reverted back to default?

I must be missing some important step ?

 

[Seb Briggs]

I can’t work out what you are doing wrong as just tested mine with a power cycle and keeps the settings

Does yours keep settings such as name and room

 

[365nice]

I can’t work out what you are doing wrong as just tested mine with a power cycle and keeps the settings

Does yours keep settings such as name and room

I haven't tried setting any of those yet - as I was waiting for full internet. Its a good test - but it sounds like I'm not doing anything obviously wrong (there isn't some big save button that I am not noticing?).

I wonder if the devices aren't happy if you don't give that initial wifi connection?

Tim

p.s. I will raise a ticket with Shelly and ask - they had initially told me that the devices don't need the internet for setup - but they did advise its best to connect them up to get newer firmware (but this wasn't mentioned as being essential)

 

[Seb Briggs]

Are you adding to the app , as that’s the only other difference I can think of

 

[365nice]

Are you adding to the app , as that’s the only other difference I can think of

I was using the web browser and not the app - as I had read it was a bit more straight forward to do it that way?

I guess I can tray the app. Will report back when I get a chance. (and thanks for the help, just knowing I'm not doing something stupid is helpful)

 

[365nice]

Shelly seems to think that I need to update the firmware - so I will try that next... it hadn't occured to me to use my phone as a hotspot to connect to for doing that.

 

[Seb Briggs]

Can you clarify what WiFi and internet you currently have and how you have been adding them .

My advice would always to only do it once you’ve got your final internet and WiFi setup

 

[365nice]

Can you clarify what WiFi and internet you currently have and how you have been adding them .

My advice would always to only do it once you’ve got your final internet and WiFi setup

At the moment I don’t have WiFi/internet back up in my house so I haven’t used any with the dimmer yet - I’ve just connected to the AP on the dimmer to adjust settings (and this is where it appears to lose them).

I had also assumed it was best to wait for full configuration - but just wanted to test out what had been installed. Perhaps this was a bad plan…

 

[Seb Briggs]

Yes the AP mode is really just for getting them to add to the proper Wifi initially , so never tried that way. This could well be your problem.

 

[365nice]

Yes the AP mode is really just for getting them to add to the proper Wifi initially , so never tried that way. This could well be your problem.

Small update on this - as I had to pause experiments, when I went back to it, the initial dimmer had remembered its settings when it was powered back on 1 week later.

I thought maybe I had it wrong , but then when I replicated the same setup on another switch it did the same and forgot its settings when I powered down to put the wall plate back into place. It’s quite strange, so there must be some strange sequence of events that causes it.

Anyway the good news is that these lights are all working well.

Appreciate the help! (Although it raises some questions for other switches which I will raise separately)

Tim