I have three Sylvania Smart+ Model 75696 bulbs on a single switch. These are zigbee bulbs, not bluetooth or wifi. Until earlier in August, these bulbs worked flawlessly. Two weeks ago, that changed.
The bulbs just go dark. SmartThings app shows them as “on” at full brightness. But, they appear off.
I have removed and re-added them from SmartThings many times. I have turned the switch off to reset them after removing them from SmartThings before adding them back a number of times. I have even left them out of the fixtures for a period of time hoping there might be a hard reset.
The only change that occurred in my house around the time this issue cropped up is that I allowed Vivint to add some devices to my house. That included their hub, door bell, thermostat, smoke detector, glass breaking monitors, door sensors and leak detector. Those devices were removed earlier this week but my issue still remains.
I cannot find a way to update the firmware.
Has anyone experienced anything similar or have ideas on what I can do to resolve the issue?
Reminds me of another person using LG bulbs, but I think the problem in that case was that one of the default device handlers stopped working with Zigbee bulbs which use the ZHA Zigbee protocol.
The thing that worked was changing the device handler to Sylvania Ultra IQ.
I am using the default. When I bought the bulbs, all I did was screw them in (one at a time), turn on the switch, click the + in SmartThings to add them by brand, and name them.
Could be worth trying another device handler, such as I described previously.
Maybe someone would post a how-to, I’ve had a hard time finding one that is concise and to the point.
Although, I’m not sure how long such a remedy will work, if it does at all. There is a lot depending on how recent, and near-future changes are implemented with Smartthings.
Did your bulbs fail right away or after some period of time. I have had my Sylvania bulbs for a few years now and they have always worked well. It was only after allowing a third party company come in with some smart home/security devices that I started having the problem. I was about ready to just replace them but, starting last night, one of my bulbs has stayed on until I turn off the switch. The change I have made was what James (blkwll) above suggested. I switched the type to Sylvania Ultra IQ and it has stayed on all night last night. Then, after cycling the switch this morning, that bulb has stayed on for the past 7-8 hours. Before I was lucky to get even one hour.
I was able to use one of the SmartThings websites to see the configuration. There, under “Type” was Zigbee Dimmer. I looked at that setting and found out I could change it. Among the options was Sylvania Ultra IQ. I changed one of my three problem bulbs (on the same switch) to Sylvania Ultra IQ. Then, through resetting the bulb and turning it all off and on (maybe several times), I left it alone. The bulb managed to stay bright all night. This morning, I changed the other two bulbs and cycled the switch. That bulb that I worked on last night has stayed bright for the past 8 hours. The other two bulbs did not stay bright. So, maybe I was not holding my tongue just right when I was working on those bulbs. I will keep playing with it. But, something in all of that seems to be making a difference.
I suppose it would be nice to know what exactly has helped the situation, but something is better than nothing, I guess. Let us know if you figure anything out definitive.
Mighty odd, for sure… I’ll think on it some more, if anything comes to mind, I’ll follow-up.
Thanks, James. I can’t say it has resolved the issue entirely. But, two of the three have remained on for as long as overnight. But, then, today, they went dark again. I am sure I need to keep investigating. I may end up having to replace them. But, it won’t be with Sylvania/LEDVANCE. I can’t get their Support group to even acknowledge my contact.
My SmartThings app shows the bulbs on and bright. But, the bulbs are dark.
I can use the app to turn the bulbs off and back on and they will illuminate. I can use the app to change the brightness and they will illuminate. Or, I can scroll to the bottom of the page for the bulb, and continue “scrolling” (sort of like refreshing) and the bulbs will illuminate.
Through all of this, there is no record of an event in the history log showing the bulbs going dark.
I guess i could create an Automation that triggers the bulbs to dim to 99% every 20 minutes. Then, another automation that triggers them to brighten to 100% if they have been at 99% for five minutes. If they are simply going to sleep and changing the brightness level awakens them, that should keep them on. LOL
It does seem like there is something putting them to sleep, and powering them off at the same time. That’s just the sort of thing that would drive me nuts, but mostly because I wouldn’t be able to let it go, and basically do what you are doing.
No doubt that it’s an educational endeavor, none the less, and might serve to help someone else that has had, or will have the same issue.
thew were fine for 6mo to a year. Then they did the dim thing. Sometimes they would be fine and stay fine. Some times they would start out fine then fade and some times they would turn on stuck as faded. Also of note, all the ones that did this to me were “hanging” (threads top, bulb bottom). I have not had any fail that were the other way around.
Megan, it’s interesting to hear your bulbs were hanging. Mine were oriented the same way. I have since moved one to a different location with the threads down. I will confirm if mine are working correctly now.
so once mine started exhibiting this dimming, changing the orientation was never a long term fix. My guess is there is a heat related failure that is happening inside. I switch to Sengled bulbs and they have been rock stars
I had two Sengled bulbs for a few years. They have performed well. I replaced my Sylvania bulbs with Sengled because I need light most of the time.
But, I plan to continue to work with the Sylvania bulbs in a location that is more intermittent. Maybe I can confirm the orientation as being the issue.
Based on LadySupply Megan’s comment about the orientation, I moved on of my Sylvania bulbs to a table lamp with the orientation (instead of the previous “down” orientation). That seems to do the trick. While I usually don’t leave those lamps on as I do the previous locations, I tried it out for over 24 hours without a failure. I have used that bulb a few other times for 1-2 hours and it hasn’t failed.
Thank you to everyone for your help and thoughts on things go try.