When I bought my house 5 years ago, I could not for the life of me figure out how to turn the fan on. Digging around in the attic I got my answer, it wasn’t wired up to anything. The prior homeowner must have installed it himself and then used an extension cord to power it up. He got rid of it for the home inspection I guess. Anyway, looking for a quick diy solution I rigged it up the same way to an outlet. Added a light kit to it and has worked great for years.
Do I have any options for automation on this setup? Easy approach would be to add a smart outlet to where the fan is plugged in, but that would toggle the fan and lights together which is not always what I’m looking for. Hue bulbs would do the trick too as I’m mostly insterested in controlling the light, but they are pricey and my last resort.
you'll need a Zigbee repeater in the same room as the fan. Im using the Sylvania Smart + outlet that's around $20 on amazon prime, seems to work just fine.
Just wanted to give props to the HE team - I set aside a few hours last night to install/pair/configure the Hampton Bay controller and I was done with the whole thing in about 20 minutes.
Hooked it up to the fan and it just "worked". Paired easily, driver was automatically set, and was in business. Before I could even think about how to separate the light and fan devices, I found the slider button that did it. Great device integration!
One thing I see mentioned about this zigbee fan controller often is needing to have the antenna stick out of the fan housing. Is this universally true? Are people able to run it without doing that? I think I'd lose a lot of WAF if I had antennas sticking out of the fans.
I paid no mind to where the antenna was placed, but its certainly not sticking out of the fan or visible from the room. YMMV I suppose. Its been mentioned that zigbee repeaters help alot with this device.
My antenna is hidden in the fan shroud/housing that conceals the wiring. However, my shroud is plastic, not metal. You will definitely need a Zigbee repeater in the same room as the fan for reliable operations. Make sure that repeater is installed and working properly before you try to pair the HBFC to the hub, so it will route through the repeater and not try to direct connect to the hub.
Oh god I just watched the installation video on HD's website.
They want you to stick that hideous antenna out of it?
My fan that I want to install this in for some reason has a mesh design throughout the metal housing, I plan on smooshing it up against that and hoping my Tradfri can reach it.
I will not have that little white dongle affixed to my ceiling.
Yea the Tradfri is pretty close.
Maybe Ikea's new little USB charger with Zigbee repeating capabilities will make it to my kitchen counter if I have issues.
I hate having an outlet with no job to do.
I have this controller, signal is very weak, It dropped off, but later discovered it was Hubitat's issue. By simply disabling zigbee then renabling the fan came back.
To disguise the ugly antenna, paint is the same color as the ceiling. The signal is poor enough and without the antenna I have a sense it will not be as reliable.
From reading it seems many people are having issues with the fan controller over at ST forum.
PS- This is not a repeating device from my XBee scan, only an end device. And there is some magic in having a peanut plug around if you have pairing/repairing issues.
Anyone find the included remote fan speeds are non responsive? I get high and off, that's it.
From HE I can control everything
I have a metal shroud on mine and the antenna is inside. Strange thing...the antenna is on the opposite side of the fan from the hub. So, I needed to place a zigbee repeater actually further away from the hub than the fan in order to keep the fan working consistently. I know it sounds nuts but it worked.
Yes, I just ran a quick test using the remote control included with the HBFC. The Zigbee controller does properly send to Hubitat the status updates of the fan and light.
