Searching for a new LED bulb dimmer

Other Types of Lights LED Light Bulbs
1

I’ve bought 12 Videx A60eD 10W E27 4100K dimmable bulbs, unfortunately they all have a very noticeable flicker with LED 200W Videx Binera dimmer.
After the same problem appeared with a replacement, the seller told me that all their new batch dimmers aren’t compatible with A60eD bulbs, but other dimmers may work.

Any good LED dimmers I could buy in Ukraine or from AliExpress, that may work? Preferably under 30$

2

What you are describing is almost certainly a dimmer-type mismatch, not a faulty dimmer and not faulty bulbs. Here is the mechanism, because it tells you which fix is worth your money.

A “dimmable” LED bulb contains a switching driver. It does not present a resistive load; it draws current in short bursts near the mains peaks to keep its internal capacitor topped up. A leading-edge (TRIAC) dimmer works by chopping the front of each half-cycle and then needs the load to keep drawing current above a holding threshold until the TRIAC latches for that half cycle. If the bulb’s driver has no bleeder circuit, the current falls under the holding threshold, the TRIAC drops out early, the bulb’s capacitor discharges, the driver restarts - and you get exactly what you describe: a steady, rhythmic flicker at a couple of hertz, or a faint glow when the switch is off.

Two details point straight at this. First, 12 x 10 W is 120 W, far above the minimum load of any 200 W LED dimmer, so minimum load is not your problem. Second, the seller told you the new batch of dimmers is not compatible with the A60eD - that is a shop admitting a waveform incompatibility, not a defect.

Ranked fixes, cheapest first:

  1. Keep the dimmer, add holding current. Put one 15-25 W incandescent or halogen lamp in parallel somewhere on the same switched circuit, or fit a dimmer bypass module (a small capacitor unit wired across the load). Both give the TRIAC something to hold onto. Ugly, wastes a few watts, works.
  2. Replace the dimmer with a trailing-edge (RC) type. This is the correct fix. Trailing-edge dimmers chop the back of the half cycle, which is what a capacitive LED driver actually wants, and they do not need a bleeder. Look for “trailing edge” or “RC dimmer” explicitly - the marketing phrase “LED dimmer” on a product page tells you nothing about which of the two it is, and most cheap ones are leading edge.
  3. Check the bulb’s own compatibility list. Dimmable bulbs are usually tested against a published list of dimmer models. If the A60eD datasheet does not list your dimmer, assume it is untested rather than compatible.
    Under your budget, the parts worth looking at are the Shelly Dimmer 2 (trailing edge, works two-wire without a neutral, and lets you set minimum and maximum brightness so you can trim out the unstable bottom of the range), the Fibaro Dimmer 2, or any universal RC dimmer from a European brand. On AliExpress search for “trailing edge dimmer” and read the listing for the words RC or trailing - if it only says TRIAC or SCR, it is the same thing you already have.

A quick diagnostic before you spend anything. Note at which brightness the flicker appears:

  • only at the bottom of the dimming range: a trim or minimum-load problem, fix with option 1;
    • at every level, including full brightness: the bulb driver is incompatible with the waveform, fix with option 2;
    • only on some of the 12 bulbs: mixed production batches, and no dimmer will fix all of them.
      One more thing worth checking on a 12-bulb circuit: if those bulbs are split across two or three dimmers rather than one, each dimmer only sees 30-40 W and you may be near its minimum load, which produces a different and much less regular flicker than the 2 Hz pattern you describe.

Disclosure: I work for a manufacturer of LED lighting, so driver behaviour is professionally interesting to me. Nothing above is a product of ours and there is nothing for sale in this post.

2 Thanks
3

Thank you for the reply.

I have noticed that these bulbs are indeed very sinus-dependant, they flash simultaneously with each generator “cycle” I can hear, but that is without a dimmer, just a switch.

From grid AC and videx dimmer it was flickering always, no capacitor was installed, there were no recommendations for anything, just a connection scheme in the manual.

All bulbs can be connected in paralel — two Horoz Electric Mendoza-6 chandeliers are used, the switch “cup” has no neutral.

A couple days ago I bought two dimmers on AliExpress for testing, both together cheaper than videx dimmer:

  1. Standard dimmer
    https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004819094864.html
  2. Dual channel touch switch dimmer
    https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001280418272.html
    The seller says that capacitor adapters are included, probably these:
    https://www.bseed.com/products/bseed-dimmer-switch-adapter-and-wifi-switch-capacitor

Will see which one works the best.