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I have a new DVSTV installed to control LED lights. It is installed on the line side of a 3-way switch circuit. It is not switching. When 110V is supplied to the black wire, neither of the switched load wires (red and red/white) is hot, in either switch position. The ground wire is connected. Is the switch bad, or is there some additional test or function to investigate?
Hello rimrock, if the dimmer was wired hot, it may have damaged the dimmer internally and would explain why you are not getting any output. The easiest way to troubleshoot this would be to call our 24/7 technical support team at 1-844-588-7661.Originally Posted by rimrock
I have a DVSTV dimmer controlling a Mean Well ELG-150-24B driver / power supply. The driver provides power for LED strips which are the main source of indirect illumination for the bedroom; the total load is about 90 watts. The low level adjustment on the dimmer is turned fully counterclockwise which should make full dimming available, but it does not. The recessed adjustment on the top of the dimmer makes little or no difference.
Problem: The LED lights cannot be sufficiently dimmed. According to my non-calibrated eyes, they can be dimmed to about 10% of full brightness which is insufficiently dim for certain activities.
Because the LED lights will dim completely if the 0 - 10V control leads of the driver are connected together, it appears that that the driver is not the problem.
When I emailed Lutron technical assistance (twice), the responses indicated that they had not completely read the emails. They actually wanted me to provide the model number of the fixture but obviously there is none.
Suggestions?
Hello FRE000,
Thank you for your post!
I went ahead and confirmed with our engineering team that the DVSTV will never short the circuit. What this means is at the lowest dim setting it will still not be fully shorted, like connecting the violet and grey together does. It is not a fault with the dimmer, the dimmer just cannot short the circuit like the driver needs in order to turn off.
How our dimmer works with a driver is that the drivers sends a low voltage signal (10V), and then we send back a certain voltage based on the dimmer. At high end we send 0V and low end an approximate value, such as 9.8V, but never the full 10V back.
If dimming to off is required, we would recommend contacting Meanwell or other dimming companies to see if they have any recommendations.
Hope this helps!
Julia K.
FRE000's reply to Julia:
Thank you for your reply.
The DVSTV dimmer is designed to be used with 0 – 10V controllable drivers. Thus would expect Lutron to be concerned that the Lutron DVSTV does not work satisfactorily with the Mean Well ELG-150-24B driver and would make an effort to solve the problem. It is disturbing that Lutron indicates no interest in solving the problem. Moreover, Lutron could communicate better with Mean Well than I could since Lutron is a manufacturer and would be more credible.
There is nothing in the Lutron specifications to indicate that the DVSTV is compatible only with Lutron drivers.
I never expected that the DVSTV would fully short the driver control leads. However, the fact that shorting the driver control leads does cause the LEDs to go out indicates that, via the control leads, it is possible to control the driver output through its full range. Also, there is no reason to suppose that the control leads must actually be shorted to extinguish the lights, unlike the assumption in your reply. With a proper potentiometer I could determine exactly what resistance is required to extinguish the lights. However, it seems to me that that’s what Lutron should be doing to determine whether the DVSTV is compatible with readily available drivers as it should be. Obviously the range adjuster has an inadequate range.
Also, I do know how the system works. Perhaps I should have stated my credentials. Before I got my degree in business administration, I had a trade school certificate in industrial electronics and worked for seven years as an electrical technician. Also, along with my degree, I had two years of physics at the college level. From reading material on LED drivers, controls, etc., I am aware that the DVSTV is a sinking type of dimmer and, to cause dimming, basically reduces the resistance between the control leads as the slider is moved downward. Clearly, as the sliding control is moved downward, the DVSTV is not reducing the resistance sufficiently enough to cause full dimming.
I hope that my reply will induce Lutron to investigate and determine what must be done to make the DVSTV dimmer compatible with all readily available 0 - 10V controllable drivers. That would prevent other customers from being severely disappointed with Lutron and indicate Lutron's commitment to customers' needs.
Hello FRE000,
We thank you for this inquiry and have forwarded this to our product development team.
For now the only way our dimmer will turn off the lights is through the line voltage side, which would be the rocker proportion of the switch.
Thank you,
Julia K.
Dear Julia K.:
I’m happy to learn that you have forwarded the DVSTV matter to your product development team.
I have since experimented with the Mean Well ELG-150-24B driver by using a potentiometer to control it instead of the DVSTV. By doing so I have verified that by reducing the resistance connected to the driver 0 – 10V control leads, it is possible to achieve a lower light output than the DVSTV could achieve. However, the potentiometer I used was too sensitive towards the lower resistance end for me to provide you accurately with the actual resistance required.
It is certain that Lutron could modify the DVSTV so that the resistance between the control leads, with the low-end trim wheel turned fully counterclockwise, would have a lower minimum resistance. That would enable the DVSTV, when connected to the Mean Well ELG-150-24B driver, to achieve greater dimming and still be fully compatible with other drivers.
The suggested change would increase the marketability of the DVSTV.
Hello FRE000,
Thank you for taking the time to test the Meanwell product with your potentiometer to further assist us. We have forwarded information on to our product development team as well.
Sincerely,
Julia K.
I have a Diva Duo DVW-603PGH-WH Dimmer. It was working before I changed out my light fixtures. This is being used as a single pole. The switch works to turn & off, however dimming does not work. I made no change to the swtich and have been using it for a few months. Have I done something wrong? I went from 3 60wattt to 4 60watt bulbs.
I was able to install the previous dimmer and it is working fine.
Hello MAGALAHO,
Thank you for your post!
If you added the additional light with the power on this could have damaged the dimmers triac, hence no dimming. Also if you went from incandescent to LEDs, this could explain the lack of dimming as well as the DV-603PGH-WH is not rated for LEDs.
The easiest way to determine the root cause would be to call in to our 24/7 technical support line at 1-844-588-7661.
Hope this helps!
Julia K.
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