jroza1 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I have a newly installed LED recessed light that flashes at the rate of about once per second. It is on a 3 way dimmer with a key pad at one end and the dimmer at the other. The light that is flashing is the center light in a string of 5. So I thought it was just the light that was bad (Chinese lights...) so I unplugged the flashing light. To my amazement, the light farthest from the dimmer (closest to the keypad) took up the flashing at the same rate. I plugged the middle one back in - turned the lights on and off and after 2 or 3 flashes from the end one, the middle one began flashing again. The C4 dimmer and key pad have been installed for some time (few years) the worked just fine- I made no changes... Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Whats the total wattage load? Are you using the standard dimmer or elv? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFUG Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 ^^Whose LEDs are you using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jroza1 Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 There are 5 lights for a total of 72.5 Watts on a dimmer and circuit that used to carry 150 Watts. These are the same Halo cans and the Same General Commercial LED lights I have throughout my house (over 50 of them) on Control 4 Dimmers and in come cases with 7 ot 8 on a single dimmer, so I fail to see that it could be the combo being that it works fine elsewhere. I pulled the airgap and killed the circuit to stop the flashing as the hallway is right outside my bedroom... Do I need to reset the dimmer for load like you do with the outlet dimmer and switch? JOsh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjeff Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Dimmers bleed through some power and it causes this flashing, it was the same issue with CFL. The bleed through will load up the light enough to cause the flicker. You will need to put them on switches or find LED lights that will work. The standard is loose and Control4 and Lutron have the same issue right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I believe dimmers shouldn't be bleeding power unless they're powered without a neutral.Of course, I've been wrong before.RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jroza1 Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Hummmm I have over 40 of the same lights in the same can connected to the same c4 dimmers as this circuit- why is this one dimmer or these 5 lights any different than the others? My electrician should be here in a few to install my last light- and I will see what he says. We're there certain c4 dimmers that don't work for retro bulbs? I know it can't be all c4 dimmers as stated above as none of the others do the same. I bought some cheap dimmers to replace the c4 one if we can't straighten it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jroza1 Posted March 22, 2012 Author Share Posted March 22, 2012 So I think there is a wiring issue- my electrician basically said "go to a switch or standard dimmer". And then wanted to spend 20 minutes telling me "how dope my $h1t is..."Apparently- my neutral is hot and everything lights up like a Christmas tree. So I have a tow wire romex coming in and three headed out. This box is a mess- more to follow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 If your "neutral is hot", that probably means you either have switch-leg wiring, or it's a 3-way circuit that is wired up incorrectly.If you are wired switch-leg, the Control4 dimmer (or any electronic dimmer) will have to pull some power through the lights to power the dimmer's circuitry, and switching to a different electronic dimmer likely won't solve your problem.If that's the case, you can either switch to a dumb dimmer (slider, etc. that's not electronic), or rewire it so there's a true neutral at the dimmer.RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jroza1 Posted March 22, 2012 Author Share Posted March 22, 2012 Interesting. Ok- so coming to the dimmer I have 2 wires white and black. The black hot the white common. Leaving to the light I have 3 wires red(hot) white and black neutral. At the far end- red (still hot) white and black. I had the keypad white to red and white and the black to black. Recommendations- ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 My recommendation is to get a better electrician.Your electrician should be able to tell you if it's hooked up in a 'switch leg' configuration or not.Powering *anything* other than incandescents the Control4 dimmer should *not* be hooked up switch leg, and must have a dedicated neutral.RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaffle8 Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Sounds like a miswire. Have your electrician check his wiring. Also, be very careful with led lights- Cree LEDs dim pretty well, but many others don't. I wish C4 would put out a compatibility chart like Lutron does concerning LEDs. Just because you have a reverse phase dimmer and a dimmable led, it does not mean that they will play nice together. Lighting science group also does a decent job with their LEDs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xc420 Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Interesting. Ok- so coming to the dimmer I have 2 wires white and black. The black hot the white common. Leaving to the light I have 3 wires red(hot) white and black neutral. At the far end- red (still hot) white and black. I had the keypad white to red and white and the black to black. Recommendations- ?Why do you have the red wire connected to the white wire on the keypad? That doesn't make any sense unless the red wire is being used as a neutral somewhere else. Just hook the white wire to the keypad's white wire and cap the red wire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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Cyknight Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Yay more commercial posts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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