Dimmable Zigbee LED lighting with brightness adjustment while off

Hardware
1

I (and others in the past) have searched for a way to have zigbee lights where you can adjust the brightness without turning the light on, so that (for example) you can set the lights to low brightness if they’re turned on at night.

I’m pleased to say I’ve found the kit that makes this happen - at least on the current firmware!

I wanted the following:

  • LED strips
  • Dimmable
  • Zigbee
  • Physical dumb light switch
  • Ideally brightness adjustment without turning on

For a while this combination of the above seemed impossible. However, I figured I’d buy some kit that seemed to manage most of the above and see how it performed.

I bought the following:

MoesGo ZigBee Smart Alexa Dimmer … https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09Y1H53ZS?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

VARICART LED Driver 12V 12W… https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08172G3N5?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

YUNBO LED Strip Light Natural… https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07K15H4L3?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I connected a retractive switch to the zigbee module and wired it all up. I added it to z2m and it seemed to work as expected.

I figured I’d try adjusting the brightness while off in z2m, assuming it would either turn on the LEDs or just ignore the setting. To my surprise it registered the change and the strip came on at the set brightness when I pressed the physical switch!

This means I can now set an automation to dim the lights at night and no matter how they’re triggered (motion, switch, HA etc) they will come on at the right brightness!

1 Like
2

This is brilliant! An LED driver that supports TRIAC dimming wired to a ZigBee TRIAC dimmer.

Thanks for this!

Just going to circle round:

3

hi,
I too am looking to do this but my plan was using both a zigbee smart switch AND a zigbee LED driver that if motion is detected at night, the automation will reduce brightness to the driver and then set the smart switch to ON. a very long workaround.

But yours is interesting, your zigbee module can directly dim the 12V led strips behind the driver?

Switch → module → driver → led strip?

Thanks.

4

Not ‘directly’ no, the dimmer module just dims whatever is attached to it. In this case it’s an LED driver instead of a bulb.

I plan to have that exact automation - set the brightness at night automatically, then either motion or the switch will turn the light on, but already at the right brightness. I can still then manually dim/brighten from the switch or the app.

5

Guess we both are on a similar path.

Didn’t know that a dimmer module can directly dim lights attached to an LED driver. I always assumed the driver will be the one needed to have the dimmer function. This will change how I want to design my lights.

Also I am getting some smart Switches that has decoupled mode. Which might help in the constant power issue.

In your case… Can have a wireless dimmer knob by MOES too. Sounds like a good device.