Flickering/Pulsing Light

[RPSalty]

The problem is with the light that is not part of the Insteon system at this time.

The LED light = VONN VMC32100AL https://www.vonnlighting.com/product...-technologies/
The light switch = Lutron TGCL 153P dimmer

The light will momentary flicker in these cases: Insteon Android App is opened; either of two 6 button switches is pressed on or off (any button does it); activating a scene.
The light does not flicker: Android app controls one of the two 6 button switches; android app controls a single responder in the scene that makes the light flicker. (This is after the flickering that occurs when the Android App is opened.)

......removed the Lutron TGCL 153P dimmer, the light is now hard wired.....

No flickering.

So one could easily think the Lutron dimmer is not compatible with the Insteon system. It surely doesn't like with the Android App queries to see the status of lamps. I would love to throw more money at the system and get another 6 button switch, but is that really what the problem is?

[stusviews]

That's correct. The Insteon app is compatible only with Insteon dimmers and On/Off switches.

[RPSalty]

I hope you don't think I'm trying to operate the non-Insteon dimmer with the App. Just so I am clear, if I had several non-Insteon dimmers, all the lights on the non-Insteon dimmers would flicker when an Insteon switch/controller or the App operated a responder?

[stusviews]

It's possible.

[RPSalty]

So far I have tried three different styles of dimmers, all of them have performed poorly. The Lutron Maestro had a high RFI suppression, and that was the worst of the lot. I hope that the incompatibility is not with the light. I have substantially more invested in the lighting than in Insteon. I need to figure out if now is the time to jump ship. I'll try an Insteon dimmer, but I'm not planning on changing out the whole house, just the X-10. There was no issue with the HUB running X-10's just the reliability.

[BLH]

It is most likely the Insteon and other automation protocol Power Line signals. Getting into the other brand dimmers electronics.

Others have reported similar findings. So you are not in a unique situation.

I have seen a Lutron choke kit they sell to stop the flashing with automation commands on the power lines. Outrageously costly and hard to find.

I have seen posts on other forums where a experienced in wiring user. Has bought a heavy current coil and added it to their Lutron dimmers with good results.

[Wingsy]

It won't be just the Lutron dimmer that will flicker your lights when there is Insteon traffic on the line, Insteon dimmers will too. Some of them at least, and not with all LED lights even of the same brand/model. I have around 70 Insteon devices in my house and I'd say about 1/4 of them flicker to some degree when there is a burst of Insteon traffic. The 6-button dimmers seem to be the worst. My theory on why this happens is since Insteon sends data over the power line when the line voltage changes polarity (zero-crossing), and this signal is or can be several volts, it interferes with a dimmer's detection of when a zero-crossing occurs, essential for a dimmer to precisely control the on & off time of the voltage it sends to the LED lamp.

[stusviews]

The zero-crossing lasts for an instant. there is a tiny window of opportunity just before and just after the zero-crossing occurs that the Insteon signal can use, but the total time is measured in nano seconds.

To date, no one has positively identified the cause of the ALL ON, but theories abound

[RPSalty]

In my situation replacing the Lutron dimmer with an Insteon 6-way dimmer switch solved the problem.

Something more to add to the start of this post regarding causing the flickering. I have string lights around the poles for the Tiki Hut. Each string has an Insteon dimmer module. If I turned on all four poles via a scene the Vonn lighting would flicker, but if I turn on each pole individually, no flicker. There was also no flicker when the sting lights were connected to X-10 dimmer modules. The reason I changed the X-10 modules is because the HUB wouldn't turn on all four consistently (all had the same X-10 address). However the X-10 controller would and no flickering.

One more piece of info to pass along about the flickering. There are two Vonn fixtures in my home and both were dimmed by Lutron dimmers. If both lights were on, there was no flickering. If only one light was on, didn't matter which one, there was flickering. I didn't discover this until I was waiting for the Insteon dimmer on the one. For now I have the second Vonn light on a toggle switch until the additional Insteon dimmer arrives.

[stusviews]

Insteon is not X10, although support fot X10 devices was included. That said, Insteon handles X10 devices somewhat differently. In order to accomplish both protocols, X10 devices require a small delay between each device that's being turned on. That's why you had difficulty turning on several devices with the same address.

In any case, Insteon has been dropping X10 support, partly because of the limitation I mentioned and many other difficulties with the X10 protocol, but mainly to enhance Insteon features.

[silverton38]

One small issue with dimmable LED bulbs. The activity of Insteon on the power line can be interpreted by some dimmable LED bulbs as a change in voltage power and can cause some flickering while insteon wire line codes are sent. Each LED bulb actually works on DC power using a transformer and a very small computer monitors the line voltage and controls the bulb. This only happens when there is a lot of insteon activity and goes away when this ends. This would affect any bulb in your house even if it is not on an insteon switch.

[RPSalty]

Since all the dimming switches are changed to Insteon my flickering issue has gone away. The VONN lighting that was troublesome and pricey is not like conventional LED lightbulbs. I'm sure there is some sort of computer controller in the light, but all is good for now.