RGB Controller questions

Plugins & Plugin Development General Plugin Discussion
#1

Hi all
Just bought a couple of Z-Wave Plus TKB RGB Dimmer Modules. Connected up to an RGBW LED strip and a 12v supply. Paired nicely to the Vera Plus but damned if I can get it to light up.

I can see the status LED on the Module change.
I get voltage (about 0.5v) across the channels when I configure it as a generic RGBW dimmer, but no light on the strip.

Am I doing something immediately and obviously stupid?
Do I need to terminate the strip or anything?
Is 0.5v enough to light things up?
Is there a better control app?

It also doesn’t light up if I control it as individual devices (there are 5 individual devices)

Hope someone can assist!

Cheers

C

#2

Just curious, do you have + & - reversed? For the light strip not the module.

#3

0.5v not enough to strike the LEDs, but the driver/controller will be pulsing the voltage, so depending on how you’re measuring it, you may get an incorrect answer. An oscilloscope would be best
 (everybody needs one!)

No, the strip doesn’t need to be terminated, but you must get the right sort to match the driver. There’s common anode or common cathode, 12v and 24v, and constant voltage or constant current driver
 need strip and driver to be compatible.

#4

Don’t believe so. There’s a Red, Blue, Green and white wires. And one black one

I connected them to the red, green, blue and white terminals. And the GND.

Oh. Do you think I should be connected to the 12v?

C

#5

You are a gent sir. Now observing that the voltage (measured between colour channel and ground) goes up as the sliders move down
 I wonder if the black wire is in fact 12v


Here’s the strip:

Here’s the module:
https://www.vesternet.com/collections/z-wave-modules-rgb-rgbw/products/z-wave-plus-tkb-rgb-dimmer-module

As far as I can tell they should be compatible

Cheers!

C
PS I’ve been looking for a reason to by a 'scope :smiley:

#6

When I connected my fibaro rgbw module I had the ground connected incorrectly. Once I figured this out all was well. What is the brand and model . I need to look at it to get a better understanding.

#7

All good. Black wire needed to be 12v not, not ground :smiley:
Thanks all!

C

#8

The +12 and GND power the module. The RGBW outputs will be open-drain FET switches to pull the particular channel to GND and light that color. You need to make sure that the +12 supply also goes to the COMMON terminal (not sure how it will be labeled) on your strip.

1 Like
#9

Spot on, sir.

Black. Unhelpfully :smiley:
C

#10

Yeah. Not what you’d expect. Good luck!

1 Like
#11

Now I just need to work out why Vera says it’s on when it’s off. And vice versa.

C

#12

@Catman glad to hear you are almost there. Have you done a engine reload or restart the unit
 Good Luck.

#13

Just done that, yes.

It’s not really the end of the world :slight_smile:

The LED is on on the module when the module is off also.

These are not for installation for a few weeks, so plenty time :wink:

Thanks!

C

#14

Look for ReverseOnOff variable or a parameter on the device manual.

#15

Thanks

So the ‘manual’ (I assume it’s called this as you need to pick up the single sheet) helpfully has:

Configuration parameter 1 to change the state of the indicator light. Great set that to zero and the LED on the device will do its thing

I’ve done similar to some of my socket modules but can’t see anything in the existing parameters that makes a lot of sense.

Is this Device Options > Add Configuration settings > 1 default 1 do you think?

Much appreciation for all the help!

C

#16

Another oddity: The ‘Dimmable Light’ keeps turning on at 1% brightness.

Nothing comes up on the LED’s themselves nor the individual Dimmable lights that are each of the colour channel sliders.

I’ve removed the RGB Controller device to eliminate that but still happens.

06 09/19/19 12:38:22.719 Device_Variable::m_szValue_set device: 143 service: urn:upnp-org:serviceId:SwitchPower1 variable: Status was: 0 now: 1 #hooks: 6 upnp: 0 skip: 0 v:0xc501d8/NONE duplicate:0 <0x763a0520>

50 09/19/19 12:38:22.720 luup_log:148: (RGBController::onRGBDeviceStatusChange) RGB device has just switch on <0x763a0520>

06 09/19/19 12:38:22.720 Device_Variable::m_szValue_set device: 148 service: urn:upnp-org:serviceId:SwitchPower1 variable: Status was: 0 now: 1 #hooks: 0 upnp: 0 skip: 0 v:0xc501d8/NONE duplicate:0 <0x763a0520>

06 09/19/19 12:38:22.731 Device_Variable::m_szValue_set device: 143 service: urn:upnp-org:serviceId:Dimming1 variable: LoadLevelStatus was: 0 now: 1 #hooks: 0 upnp: 0 skip: 0 v:0xc90cd0/NONE duplicate:0 <0x763a0520>

Any thoughts how I can track this down?

I can work around it, but would rather not if that makes sense.

Cheers (again!)

C

#17

It’s a while since I investigated this. IIRC, fully dimmed is not 0%, so it’s not the same as “off”.

Do you still get 1% when it’s really turned off?

#18

I can set it to 0% and the switch will go off. The challenge is that when it reverts to 1% the switch goes to ‘on’.
That means that when I issue a ‘turn on’ command. Nothing happens


Reactor can send a ‘SetColourTarget’ which can control brightness and colour, so as I say, not the end of the world.

Cheers

C

#19

@Catman

I was thinking about getting a couple of these TKB RGBW controllers as they are pretty cheap on Aliexpress.

Did you get yours all working and sorted ?

Do they work with the Vera RGB Controller plug-in ? And in Imperihome with a colour wheel ?

Assuming your using Imperihome that is.

Thanks.

#20

Hiya

Yes I got them working acceptably.
The RGBW plugin works fine, but I can’t test in Imperihome as it won’t log in.

Never quite got the on / off thing sorted but I just set the colour code direct to the colour wheel with reactor and it works to turn on and turn off works fine. The actual RGBW devices in vera still seem to randomly go on to 1% but the plugin devices work just fine.

Hope that helps?

C