Problem with Gira dimmer and scenes

[stianj]

Hi!

Sorry for writing this in english. I do read German quite ok, but my writing looks like something from Google Translate, and I don't want to neither embarass myself or insult you with that...

I have three Gira 2174 00 dimmers. I also have a Homeserver, but I even tried disconnecting it to be 100% sure it's not causing my problems - so that one's out of the equation.

The problem is when using scenes. I have added switching feedback object to the switching group address, and feedback brightness value object to the brightness group adress - both because of Quad Client updating, but also to have the LEDs on my Tastsensor 3 show the status of the switching object.

4 out of 5 times (roughly...) it works perfectly. But some times, maybe 1 out of 5 (but it's not consistent, sometimes it fails several times in a row) I get the wrong brightness value. It happens on different channels.

To me it looks like the dimmer is using the "switch-on brightness" value from ETS instead of the scene brightness. I've been struggling with this for weeks, and I really can't seem to find the cause. And I can't understand that I'm the only one being hit by it, so it must be something I'm doing wrong...

I'll attach a few screenshots showing my config. Would be happy to provide more if there's something I've forgotten.

Hopefully someone might explain this... Thanks in advance!

[bramlangen]

Stian,

The Gira dimmers I have are all 1057 (the UP model). What you try to achieve works fine where I have those UP units employed. The parameter screens are different between the UP and your 4-gang model, so I cannot do a 1-on-1 comparison, but I would expect these Gira devices to work more or less the same.

I noticed that you have your switching and dimming feedback GA the same as the controlling GA. It may have nothing to do with the issue you experience, but to make troubleshooting easier I would create separate feedback group addresses, and set those communication objects to include the read flag. When you get a wrong brightness value when calling a scene you can then use the Group Monitor recording to see the actual brightness value the channel transmitted. You may then be able to trace the cause of that wrong value (for the components I am sure the value is 'right', it just is different from what you expect - there will be a logical explanation for it).

Bram

[stianj]

Hi,

thank you very much for your reply

Yeah, I think the fact that I have feedback GA and controlling GA the same is a huge part of the problem. I was aware of this, but I omitted that fact on purpose, was hoping someone would tell me what I was trying to do was not going to happen, or what I was doing wrong.

I did use GA monitor, but the problem is that there is no brightness value transferred - I only see the value feedback, which is correct. It seems to me the dimmer is actually ignoring the scene brightness value, and just using it's "switch on brightess value" instead...

When I remove the switching feedback from the GA, it seems to work reliably. (Or, it has worked perfectly for a few days, this morning when I left the house and pressed the "Away"-button, one channel didn't turn off. But that's hopefully just a fluke). But the reason I don't (ideally) want this, is that I have my Tastsensor 3 set up with "Toggle" on the rockers. This is so that it's easier for guests to turn on/off lights - they just have to find the right rocker, not the right side of it

When I have the feedback on a separate GA, separate LED-object and using a central address in HS everything works as expected, except the following scenario:

A dimming channel is off, and I start a scene that switches that channel on. If I then later want to turn that channel off again (and not using a scene to do it), and press the rocker (which has function: dimming and commands Darker (TOGGLE) and Brighter (TOGGLE), it just turn the light to 100% brightness (which I understand from the manual of the dimmer is expected when you send a "switch on" telegram to a dimmer channel that is on), and I have to press another time to turn it off.

This annoys me, and it annoys my guests. I really can't believe that it's supposed to work like that, but I'm unable to see what I'm doing wrong...

I'm sorry this post is a bit untidy, but hopefully it's understandable...

[bramlangen]

There should be a setting for that. I have it set that a short press toggles the light on (to the last brightness) or off. A long press dims up or down.

[stianj]

Yes, I'm aware of that setting, and I'm using it. and that works if I don't use scenes. Problem is when using scenes, the TS3+ does not know that the channel is actually on - and is therefore sending a 1 to the switch GA.

Whenever not using scenes, it works as expected.

And when I had the feedback object in the same GA as the controlling object, this also worked as expected, except that I some times got wrong brightness level.

I'd really be interested in hearing from people having the same Gira dimming actuator and using scenes...
Thanks

[stianj]

To clear it up - the problem was that I didn't put the rocker object in the feedback GA as well... It's so obvious now when I know, but I would never have found out on my own!

Thank you Gira Hotline