GE Smart Fan Control Device Type Issue

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1

There's a related issue being discussed in another support thread but I decided to create a new topic to describe a single issue and observation.

Let me jump right to it...

When you say "Alexa, Set the Fan to High", she sets the Fan to 100%. The Fan doesn't respond and Alexa responds with "The device is not responding".

The HE log shows the following for Amazon Alexa Skill log

2019-08-08 08:27:33.227 pm traceSetPowerLevel 100

and the following for the Fan log

22019-08-08 07:52:28.445 pm warnunmapped value:null

The same issue doesn't occur when instructing Alexa to set any of my GE Z-Wave or GE Z-Wave Plus Dimmers to High. The are configured with the Generic Z-Wave Dimmer and Generic Z-Wave Smart Dimmer types. The Echo Skill Log shows the 100% coming in and the device log show the device being set to 99%.

I further troubleshot the issue by configuring the fan to use the above dimmer device types and additionaly tested with Botched1's GE Z-Wave Plus Fan Control. In all cases the fan responded to the High request and Alexa responded with OK.

So this is why I think the issue may have something to do with the device type not handing the 100% correctly.

Thank You!

3

What happens when you say "set the speed to medium"?

4

By default, medium doesn't work with Alexa but you can setup a routine so when you say "Alexa, Set the Fan to Medium", it triggers and action to set the Fan to 50%.

5

That's because the Fan Switch is actually coming across as a dimmer, and not a fan. That's why it can understand High as 100% but can't understand other levels. This is the same as google home. The fan capability needs to be built into those systems before HE can sync them to it.

6

I understand it works just like a dimmer.

1-33% = Low
34-66% = Medium
67-99% = High

That's not the issue I stated.

The issue is when Alexa sends a 100%, HE should interpret that as 99% in the same way it does for z-wave dimmers but in the case of the z-wave fan it throws an error.

@bobbyD would you all take a look at this when you have a moment or maybe you're already aware.