Dimmer, distinct on/off?

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plastbox
Posts: 22
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2023 9:45 am

Dimmer, distinct on/off?

Post by plastbox »

Ok, quick question to assuage my curiosity..

I have a Nexa dimmer and a Tellstick. I can control it just fine, but what I want to know is why ON/OFF doesn't switch the light on/off, but rather dims it to 0 or 100% respectively.

Is this a limitation in the way the dimmer itself is programmed, meaning the Tellstick sends an ON-signal and the dimmer smoothly increases power up to 100%?

..or..

Is the limitation in telldus-core, meaning the Tellstick sends the equivalent of "-dimlevel 0 -d <unitid>" when I tell it to turn a dimmable unit off?

If the limitation is in the dimmer itself, could anyone recommend dimmers with the proper reactions to on/off commands?

Thanks!
Zaman
Posts: 243
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2023 9:45 am

Re: Dimmer, distinct on/off?

Post by Zaman »

The reason for this is the way that the dimmer is built.
Don't know if there are any dimmers on the market that works any other way though.
Videonisse
Posts: 70
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2023 9:45 am

Dimmer, distinct on/off?

Post by Videonisse »

This is a feature usually called "soft start/stop" and it extends the lifetime of your light bulbs, why do you not like it?
Betongtøffel
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2023 9:45 am
Location: Oslo, Norway

Re: Dimmer, distinct on/off?

Post by Betongtøffel »

As I just described in another thread, I have registered a Nexa dimmer both as a dimmer and a switch to get around a bug in the XBMC plugin for Tellstick Net. The dimmer behaves identical whether it gets the 0% signal as a dimmer or an off signal as a switch. I can only conclude that the dimming effect is a basic function in the hardware.

I have some older dimmers from Waveman that behave a bit different from Nexa. When turned on from the off state, they go straight to the last dim level it had when it was on last. When turned off they dim down like the Nexas. The Waveman dimmers can not be set to a specific value, and are not that useful with Tellstick. I think are discontinued anyway.
My home cinema light automation: Tellstick Net, dimmers and switches from Nexa and Waveman, Raspberry Pi running Raspbmc with Tellstick Net XBMC plugin. Everything is controlled by the TV remote using CEC.
plastbox
Posts: 22
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2023 9:45 am

Re: Dimmer, distinct on/off?

Post by plastbox »

Videonisse wrote:This is a feature usually called "soft start/stop" and it extends the lifetime of your light bulbs, why do you not like it?
It's a matter of principle I guess. I want the device to turn off when I tell it to turn off, not "dim to zero percent". After all, what is the point of implementing on/off when -b 0 -d <deviceID> is the exact same thing as a "soft start"? I just wish Nexa would give me the choice, rather than forcing an inferior implementation on their customers under the guise of "soft start, it's better for your bulbs". :wink:
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