GE/ Jasco 14294 smooth dimming to a specific level

It is about 2 years that I am working with different generations of GE z-wave dimmers. Coming from lighting background, from day 1 I felt the need for “smooth dimming to a specific level”. I tried the different Device handlers capable of double tap and etc…, but I couldn’t make this simple part working.
It seems the hardware capability is there because with normal on/off pushing it actually dims up and down smoothly, but not if we use “set level” in ST.
On the other hand, doing this through software and sending several commands with different set points does not seem very productive to me .

Any suggestion for this issue?

This has been discussed several times in the forum in the past. Perhaps a search will turn up those discussions…

Essentially, you cannot depend on accurate timing when attempting to periodically send ‘set level’ commands, due to the ST architecture. However, if the dimmer itself supports this feature, it might be possible to ask the dimmer to ramp the lighting over time.

Perhaps others know additional details—I’ve never tried this myself…

Just commenting here because I’ve struggled with this for a while. SetLevel commands are instant and it’s obnoxious when scenes are running, do to the delay in lights. It was like light bombs going off around the house. As of today, None of the “enhanced” device handlers provide configuration for newer (2015+) GE dimmers to actually ramp on setLevel changes. However, there is a hidden parameter not listed in the advanced config by the manufacturer. This param sets the ability to actually ramp on setLevel changes. Ie “set level to 90%” by default would be instant this param allows it to slow ramp.

Parameter 6
Value: 1
(Value 0 (default) =instant, 1=ramp)
Length 1 byte

Now the dimmer will slow ramp when setting specific values, not just Turn on/Off commands.

I don’t use the enhanced drivers, to change this I just changed the handler to “Z-wave Tweaker” and issued parameter 6 and value 1 change there. I then switched back to “dimmer switch” so local processing is achieved and all settings were retained.

1 Like

@patrickacollier I cannot believe I missed this message for 2 years!!!
Thanks The Zwave Tweaker and setting parameter 6 to 1 worked great!