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0-10V dimmer issues with 8ft led strip lights

johnnyh55

Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2014
Messages
21
So I am wiring my garage and I have one 120V power feed feeding 3 different switches which will have 4 90W 8ft led strip lights each. I have ran a 14/2 and an 18/2 LV wire from each three dimmer location to the first light fixture on each switch leg. From there I have ran another 14/2 and another 18/2 to the next fixture and so on. The fixtures are Premise CS3 90W Led Strip light and they have an AGT B-T310-2000 LED driver. I have bought 3 Eaton SF10P 0-10V dimmer switches. So I installed the first light on every circuit and then I installed the second one on the first circuit and I figured I would install a dimmer instead of the temporary on/off switch to try the dimming.

When I turned the circuit on both lights were flashing like dim to bright, and when I would dim them they would do the same but with lower light output. I then ran temporary wires outside the walls since I thought I had bad wiring somewhere, so I ran 14/2 and 18/2 from the switch to the first light and ran the same outside the ceiling to the second light and it behave the same way, so I knew the wiring wasn't the issue. I then played with the adjustment wheel on the Eaton dimmer and this stop the flashing but also reduce light output as to get them to stop flashing, the light output was about 50% what it should be. So I thought maybe I had reverse polarity on the LV wires somewhere but I triple checked and also used the multimeter and polarity was correct.

One thing I did notice though, is that if I didn't connect the led driver ground from the second fixture to the 14/2 ground(so leave fixture ground unhooked) it would work fine, no flashing and full light output. Well I couldn't out why, so I said ill try to buy a different brand dimmer and on the spec sheet of the led fixture there's a Leviton logo, not sure why, maybe that Premise led company is owned by them so I ordered a Leviton DS710-10Z dimmer and hooked it up with the ground from the second fixture also reconnected and it worked, I had no flashing and full light output. The only thing I noticed with the Leviton is that if I dim the lights to the minimum the 1st fixture appears to be off and the second one has a slight glow to it, like they are not at the same intensity, I am not sure if that's normal or not.

I noticed on the Leviton dimmer the adjustment wheel adjusts the lowest output but on the Eaton the wheel adjusts maximum output, I am not sure if that has something to do with it. I called the electrical supply house and since I bought the fixtures and dimmer 3 years ago and I am only installing the now, I can't return them but even the guy at the counter says he never heard of that, usually 0-10v is universal and that's what I thought too but from my reading on here I guess there is much more to 0-10V then being universal.


I was just going to buy 2 other Leviton dimmers but was wondering if anyone know why the lights behave like that with the Eaton dimmer?

Also is my issue with the first light being dimmer then the other one normal? I adjusted the wheel on the dimmer so at lowest brightness they are all the same but when I do that there is not much range left, its pretty much just low, medium-high and high, the slide dimmer has almost no effect when going from the low position to the medium when set this way.



Here's link to the led lights spec sheet:
https://premisens.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1711991602010_CS3SpecSheet.pdf


0-10V good information document:
https://assets.lutron.com/a/documents/048587_web.pdf
 
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wyliesdiesels

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Aug 14, 2012
Messages
20,011
Location
Modesto, CA
They are actually not universal. some dimmers are not compatible with some drivers due to how much voltage and steps they are capable of handling. check with the driver to see which dimmers it is compatible with.

also there should be a few adjustment dials on the dimmers for high and low end trim. some drivers also have adjustment dials.
 
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gte718p

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 12, 2009
Messages
3,972
Wyliesdiesel pretty much hit it on the head. The 0-10v signal can be produced in several ways. It can be continuous, stepped, or PWM. Some controllers are sensitive to the type. If the controller is looking for discrete steps for simplicity sake lets say 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 or 10 volts and you send it 9.5 it can become confused. For a continuous range signal it is normal for the lights to be slightly different. Wire length and inductance can change the control signal slightly. There is normally an adjustment for it.
 
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