Some but not all of the Aurora AOne zigbee Devices have been officially certified as “works with SmartThings.” This includes some of the micros, the pocketsocket and the battery operated remote. So far it does not include any of the all-in-one light switches.
Also, no word yet whether these will work as a repeater for the Xioami sensors (many zigbee devices do not.)
These are nice looking devices. We will have to wait on community reports to see which features are in the official DTHs and how well they work.
Many people are interested in the all-in-one light switches because they do not require a neutral but note at the present time those have not been officially certified and they either might require custom code or they might not work at all with SmartThings.
April 2019 Update
Oooh… The all-in-one rotary dimmer has been added to the official list and does not require a neutral. (This is still UK only for now.) It’s not quite an all in one as you still have to buy a cover plate, but it’s definitely interesting.
These look really interesting! I wonder how the rotary dimmers work when they can be changed remotely too. i.e wall dimmer is set to 50%, I set it to 100% in the app, I then turn the wall dimmer a few degrees. Does it jump back to +/-50% or does it go from it’s current value? I guess it depends if it has a fixed minimum and maximum adjustment like a normal dimmer or if it has endless movement.
I saw them at a trade show a little while back, and if my memory serves me correctly it’s a rotary encoder that twists endlessly - that way there is no ‘state’. You just turn one way to increment upwards, the other for down, and press to toggle power.
Could be getting them mixed up with something else though.
We have installed a few of the Aurora Inline Dimmer switches. Generally they are good but having a couple of issues. When the dimmer is turned up to full brightness (which is the default if a light is turned on at the wall) the lamps can often flicker. If the brightness is reduced just a little the flickering ends.
I have noted the devices are rated for 220-240v but our mains voltage is around 252-253v. Could this elevated mains voltage be the cause and if so what would be the solution. (No circuit of down lighters controlled by the inline dimmers has more than 6 lamps and they are rated at 8W).
Also the dimmers and some of our sengled bulbs keep disconnecting from SmartThings and need to be deleted and reinstalled. What might be causing this?
I know this isn’t the answer you want to hear, but never use any electrical device, smart or dumb, outside of the range it is rated for. It becomes a fire hazard.
If the device was safe to use at 250 v, the specifications would say so.
Is there a simple way to reduce the mains voltage to useable parameters? In the UK the declared voltage and tolerance for an electricity supply is 230 volts -6%, +10%. This gives an allowed voltage range of 216.2 volts to 253.0 volts.
The plus or -10% will be OK for many devices specifically manufactured for that environment. You can check with the manufacturer and see what they say since they are primarily selling in the UK.
For reference, you can buy voltage regulators which will smooth out spikes, as well as limit the voltage. A big one capable of doing a whole home won’t be cheap though. A quick google threw this up:
Not necessarily recommending this, as it’s a big cost for potentially little/no payoff.
They’re quite rare in the UK though because our grid is extremely reliable. It’s not like in some countries around the world where power fluctuates wildly. Normally, people buy smaller ones to power specific appliances (servers, high end audio gear, etc) because most household stuff is capable of dealing with +/- 10% deviation from the stated range.
It’s very strange that they’re flickering at full power. Normally ‘full’ means the dimmer is effectively off. Flickering usually comes from attempting to dim the bulbs. I’d get in touch with Aurora and ask them.
They asked what lamps I was using and it’s exactly the same ones as their test rig. As they haven’t experienced the fault they can’t help.
They did confirm that the 220-240 spec does include standard UK fluctuations of 230v -6% or +10% so a voltage regulator isn’t needed.
But was rather irritated when I was told that they don’t recommend having them connected to a switch as when the switch is turned off the product is not live. But this is exactly their selling point, that they can be retrofitted to conventional circuits.
The flickering stabilises after a while but is really odd as random lamps in the circuit flicker, they don’t all do it at once.
Although they can be retrofitted to a conventional circuit, it should be in such a way that the aurora device itself is always live. That’s true of any networked device, including, for example, the aeotec nano which does not require a neutral.
The networked device might either be “upstream“ (closer to the power source) or powered by the neutral. In either case, turning the switch on and off should not kill the power to the networked device.
I would suspect that was what the company meant. So it may come down to exactly how you have your system wired.
I am having some vision issues so I can’t read the wiring diagram. I will have to leave those discussions to others. Hopefully someone will have some suggestions.
Hmm - okay that’s really interesting. I thought they’d have terminals on them that you’d connect the switch to, just like Fibaro, Aeotec, Qubino etc. But if you follow those wiring diagrams, you’ll kill power to the module when the light switch it off, which will prevent you from turning on remotely. What a poor design! You want to keep all powered devices on as much as possible, if nothing else so they can contribute to the mesh.
They do make wireless keypads - I guess what they’re suggesting you do is common out the Live and Switched Live inside the switch permanently, and replace the switch with a wireless keypad. But not sure if those keypads work with SmartThings?
EDIT: When I say ‘suggesting’ I mean the way they’ve designed the product. Their diagrams and tech support are saying use a regular switch, which to me is totally the wrong way to do it.
It sort of makes sense though. If someone who is just visiting my house wants to turn on a light then they should need the app or other device. They can just flick the switch twice (from live to off and back) and the lights come on. It also means if the WiFi or internet connection don’t work you still have an element of control.
My problem is turning on the lights (either from a live but off state or fully off to on) the lights flicker randomly. This only happens at 100% illumination, if it’s dropped down marginally the flickering stops.
It sort of makes sense. But the approach taken by others (Fibaro/Aeotec/Qubino) means that you get the best of both worlds. The module is permanently powered, and the regular light switch just acts as a volt free input to the module (not in the way that it breaks the permanent power to the module).
It surprises me that they haven’t done this too.
But as you said - back to your specific issue of bulb flickering, I’m afraid I can’t offer much additional advice here. Only thing would be to check for any loose connections between the fittings? Maybe try running some on a bench, see if you can replicate the issue that way.
My guess (Purely a guess) is that they chose this design so they can say that their device does not require a neutral. Which it doesn’t, but that’s because it’s “downstream” of the wall switch and is being powered by the load.
