Random on off Cree bulbs (October/November 2018)

@Nezmo,

I experienced my first Cree bulb “flash” last night, and the only event I caught was this:

It happened exactly when the bulb flashed (7:20pm), but I did not do anything to send a configure command. This bulb has been at the current Cree firmware since August. This makes be believe the latest hub firmware did do something to make these start flashing.

I also found several other “configure” entries in the device’s event log - all while we were gone over the holidays.

@Phil_Kelly @Ryan780 @pswired , do you see the same “configure” log entries around the same time you’ve noticed a flash?

Yes, this is consistent with others. SmartThings believe the Cree FW crashes. The flash is the bulb restarting and the config is sent from ST when the bulb restarts.

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Thanks for the quick reply @Nezmo.

I just looked at the rest of my Cree bulbs, and about 3 of them had a configure command sent in the last 7 days, 1 did not have any, and other 7 have had a few.

Interesting. I can tell you for sure that I did not see any flashing until now. It’s not bothering us yet, but I sure hope something is figured out.

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I have about a dozen bulbs with no flashing and no “configure” commands sent, but I’m also using a V1 hub.

Could it be related to the V2 / V3 hubs and V1s are unaffected?

And IF you have any Zigbee devices meshed through them you will have issues with those eventually. I think I made that point before.

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It only happens with the updated Cree FW that was enabled with the ST V2 Hub FW update recently. Your Crees are likely still on the prior, good FW.

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Yup, I remember. So far so good though. I did a zigbee mesh rebuild with all my bulbs powered down, and then I readded them a day after.

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I have been having issues with my Cree bulb (only one) since some time in November. I just came across this thread.

I don’t know if the bulb is flickering at all, as it’s an outdoor bulb. But it does come and go as “unavailable” (mostly unavailable now, only seems to show available and accept commands shortly after I power it off then back on).

Is being “unavailable” a symptom of the firmware issue? Is there a fix?

Thanks!

I have three Cree bulbs, my biggest recent issue was with them wreaking havoc on my Zigbee mesh. I would unplug them, and everything would go back to normal. I did a Zigbee mesh rebuild with the bulbs unplugged, and everything went back to being rock solid. I also has some issues with them randomly turning on after the firmware update as well. I emailed Cree for advise, and without me even asking they have offered to send out replacement bulbs, and the are even including a return label for the old bulbs. I’ve accepted, but TBH I’ve kind of lost faith in the cree bulbs. Wondering if it would be better to sell the three new bulbs and replace them with hue bulbs. I already have a Hue hub and some bulbs set up with Smartthings. Irony is these bulbs were the most stable thing on the network before.

P.S. Cree support is pretty amazing.

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Agreed. They were the most stable bulbs till this random flickering issue.
FYI after few email exchange, I am also getting replacements. Now i just need to find a spot where flickering lights is not an issue.

As far as reeking havoc on your mesh…these bulbs are ZLL (Zigbee Light Link) and other HA devices are ZHA (Zigbee Home Automation). In theory, ZLL devices should be able to be repeaters for ZHA devices. In practice, most of them SUCK at doing this and will just drop the message if they have trouble repeating it. For this reason, I have all my cree bulbs on my Hue hub (yes, they are compatible). The Hue system is ZLL and therefore they won’t run into the same problem there. Plus the two networks are independent so they don’t clash with each other.

As far as the bulb being unavailable, does your outdoor socket always have power (you’re not shutting it off with a “dumb” switch are you)? Do you have a strong enough signal in the area to reach the bulb? Where’s the closest repeater? As far as I have scene, the bulbs re-setting because of the firmware have not caused any of mine to become unavailable. It might be happening if your bulb is on the edge of your mesh and not able to immediately re-establish communication with the hub.

Same issue here. I have maybe 5 of these bulbs and the flash randomly though out the night. Very annoying. i was hoping I could just change some code and call it day, it doesn’t look like it though.

Just replaced all my Cree bulbs with new ones that Cree sent. Disabled OTA for bulbs in the hub. All seems well now- my flaky zigbee devices are back online and no more flashing.

Would be nice if ST would pull the faulty firmware so that I can reenabled OTA for all devices.

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BTW to replace all these bulbs without rebuilding a million automations, I used the “copy the zigbee network ID” trick in the IDE to swap new bulbs out for existing devices. Worked great.

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To close the loop on my posting here … today I received my refund check direct from Cree.

Well, Cree sent me 15 bulbs after calling rather than emailing. My opinion of Cree has improved.

However, flashing continues on all new bulbs.

Does anyone know if a Wink hub or ANY other hub has this issue? My ST hub may find its way to the landfill.

The issue is with the FW on the Cree bulbs themselves. For example, some have reported the issue continues with the bulbs on the Hubitat platform as well.

New bulbs are okay until they they get the updated Cree FW. You can stop that Cree FW update by turning off over the air FW updates for Zigbee bulbs in the ST IDE. But if they update they are basically toast.

Bottomline, this is a Cree problem, not ST.

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But ST pushing Cree to provide new firmware that is issue free would go a lot further than each of us individually asking for new bulbs and turning off firmware updates.

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Did anyone here experienced the Cree connected bulbs flashing on/off at random for the passed 3 days? Getting annoying. Maybe it is time I start installing the remaining smart switches.

It hasn’t stopped for me A continuing months-long annoyance even after Cree replaced every bulb