Shelly dimmer strange behaviours...

  • Hi all. I am quite new to shelly but I am not an idiot... :)

    I wired a shelly dimmer to regulate a 150W led driver (V-TAC VT-20155D where D stands for dimmable). To that power supply, as load, a led strip that absorbs something like 165-170W (according to the shelly's readings) is connected.

    At this time i know what you would say: the shelly dimmer is intended for a max load of 150W when dimming leds and, moreover, you are out of specs even with for the PSU. Ok, I know it, I will take my risks and so on, but I have tested this configuration and the dimmer works, but not as it should, at least not every time, and this is quite annoying:

    Often the shelly starts to light up the strip but it suddenly shuts off when reaches, I would say, 30/40% of luminosity (and, obviously, power). This happens when activated both with the momentary switches and with the App.

    Often it also happens the dimmer doesn't even react to a short press of the connected momentary switches (ie. push buttons), it simply ignores them..

    When this conditions persist it's still possible to switch the light on by keeping the push button pressed for a longer time, something more than a second/a second and a half. By keeping the button pressed longer than 1.5 seconds the dimmer doesn't dim the light, it simply starts it (at the last intensity/power).

    I already played with button debounce and transition time (trying to make the dimmer reach the maximum power more gradually) but nothing changed.


    By the way I think it's not a matter of excessive drained power because I have also a second, shorter, strip, connected to another V-TAC VT-20155D, that sucks about 140-145W (so being specs compliant) and the shelly dimmer acts exactly the same.

    The installed firmware is the last one.

    Any suggestion or should I throw them into the garbage?

    Einmal editiert, zuletzt von Withered#Snowflake#13592 (1. September 2020 um 02:03)

  • I tested the configuration with 2 other different power supply units and I must deduct this product (Shelly dimmer) is definetly garbage or, at least, doesn't support 150w if power drainage.

    Its specifications are FAKE!

    I also tested the same dimmer that doesn't work with the led strips configurations described in my previous message (150/160W) with the same PSU and same strip but shorter (about 70W of load) and it works...

    Why does Shelly say it can support up to 200W if it can't even handle 150W loads????

  • I had a similar experience, one Shelly Dimmer 2 running 3x60w halogen, kept shutting down if anywhere near full load. I replaced the bulbs with 43w ones and it's happy now, thankfully I didn't want full brightness anyway.

    The second one was in a standard lamp with a 200w lamp, that one went bang within a hour, well more phut than bang. Replaced under warranty and I put 150w lamps in that and another identical standard lamp, which is fine but not really what it claims.

    Definitely 200W resistive load is optimistic at best, it does say 150VA (only 150W if the power factor is perfect, lot less in practice) for ferromagnetic which the LED power supply will be.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Hi @eds72 , welcome to the forum. :)

    Have you finished?

    ...

    Why does Shelly say it can support up to 200W if it can't even handle 150W loads????

    This question, you should ask the producer, Allterco. ;)