So I am actively and aggressively migrating my devices from Smartthings to Hubitat, and I ran into a couple of snags.
They revolve around the Hampton Bay / King of Fans Zigbee ceiling fan / ceiling fan light controllers.
For the front bedroom, I was able to get the devices added, and in turn added to Alexa. I am simply unsure of how to do simple things like turn the lights on, and off. Set the intensity level, Turn the fan on and off, and set the fan speed...
In the kitchen, I am unsure of why, but I can not seem to get the controller to reset and trip into pairing mode. And yes I did the 3 seconds off, 3 seconds on 5 times repeatedly and no joy.
So I am looking for advice on how to actually get these to work.
Oh boy. These are fun. Two pieces of advice I remember seeing a lot on here (I also used to have one and needed this from time to time):
their antennas seem to be very weak. If you don't have a repeater nearby (same room or maybe room above--or both), neither pairing nor daily use will likely work. You may need to bring the hub close to get pairing to work, and I seemed to have better luck even with resets this way too (no good explanation...). On at least older units (someone mentioned the design may have changed), it was possible to open up the unit and connect a better antenna.
if the reset procedure doesn't work, keep trying. Try slightly different intervals if what you're doing doesn't work after a few tries. They are really picky about this, it also seems.
it doesn't really male sense, but someone mentioned that certain things may not work for if the remote batteries are dead. I do not remember if this was one of them.
For reset the instructions are wrong. The reset is on/off in one second intervals. I found this by accident, after picking up a hammer to "fix" the device.
You can search the forums for alexa control, others have figured this out. I use Google exclusively
are the antennas outside the fan box? And I found the remote should NOT be pointed at the fan, hold remote straight down , parallel with your leg, works much better
the HE antenna/signal is worse much worse compared to ST
This is remediated by using repeaters
The resultant HE platform is so much better than ST, and fast as hell, even when your router is disconnected from the internet
Back to KOF fan controller, can you get the controller to flash the attached fan light after the reset sequence?
Even with that, I've had trouble getting it to connect. Do you have any peanut plugs around? If so they are magic when getting these fan controllers paired, although not totally necessary
No peanut plugs. I have a mess of Iris V2 and Ikea Tradfri smart plugs though. There is a Tradfri plug in the wall immediately below the fan and it should act as a repeater.
As I understand it, any Zigbee device that is mains powered should act as a repeater. But I may not fully understand it.
This particular fan controller is not a repeater. It could be yours is bad I guess if you can't get it to reset. You could order another and swap out to confirm
These devices are nice, once you get them connected and have another repeating device very near it.
The KoF controllers have very weak radios. Yes, @Rxich, the Peanut plug are a magical necessity for making the fan controller work with any hub. The placement of the Peanut needs to be as close as possible to the fan.
The reset process is extremely difficult to effect. I had one that took days of trial and error to get reset. Keep trying. If you’ve spent an hour trying to reset it, stop, and wait a couple of days before trying again. That way you will be less likely to be tempted to rip the entire fan out of the ceiling. The rhythm of your on/off sequences will have changed slightly giving you a greater chance of success.
Btw, I used it with ST and HE. The experience was the same nearly impossible to setup after the initial installation. Works well IF you have a Peanut plug installed very close by.
If you want to start with a new controller, don’t buy one. PM me. I’ll send you one that’s new in box.
No joke on wanting to rip the whole fan out of the ceiling.
I really can't do that. Funny thing is, I got this fan second hadn from an electrical contractor neighbor that does lots of fan and fixture upgrades for folks. My wife LOVED it and the neighbor gave it to us. I don't think it was ever actually turned on in the house after the buyers closed on it as he did the fixture swaps as part of their move in prep... I had to change out the light kit because the original was was beyond ugly, but the rest of the fan is fantastic, and with the light kit we found... We have a unique fan that my wife would absolutely kill me if I ruined it.
@Rxich on the repeater issue. I checked when I got these controllers and was setting them up in SmartThings. According to Ikea and lots of online chatter, it appears the Tradfri Wireless Control Outlet (I.E. Smart Plug) is a Zigbee repeater. And I had no radio problems with any of these controllers prior to the last month when this one kept dropping off of Zigbee, but it kept cropping up with Smartthings cloud problems so I figured it was a Smartthings problem. I probably have a dying controller.
Two pieces of advice I remember seeing a lot on here (I also used to have one and needed this from time to time):
