I've been a long-time user of Hubitat, bought a C3 back in 2018 and have never looked back. Currently I have a C4 and have maxed it out I think (working on adding Rain Machine to it) and my Hampton Bay fan controllers keep dropping off, even with some Iris plugs installed.
I took advantage of the C7 sale over the weekend, and then I remembered that I had bought a C5 a while back, so I pulled it out and started researching how to migrate from C4 to C5. That's when I read some suggestions to set up multiple hubs and use Hub Mesh. I had read about Hub Mesh in the past and thought "Nah, I don't need that" but changed my mind! I plan to leave the http stuff on the C4, put all the Zigbee on the C5 and put all the Z-Wave on the C7 when it arrives.
I thought I was going to have some problems with the Hub Mesh, but am extremely pleasantly surprised to have absolute no issues using it! And I don't experience any sort of delay in my rules and apps. I'm so impressed at how well that works, wish you guys could program my Netgear Orbi!
So I wanted to give kudos and appreciation to the Hubitat team for Hub Mesh: @bravenel, @mike.maxwell, @gopher.ny, @bcopeland and anybody else I might have missed. Thank you for such a great tool (in addition to the BEST home automation hub ever)!
FWIW, my Hampton Bay fan controller drops off too, with a number of Zigbee plugs around. It doesn't help that the radio is inside a metal enclosure, and even the Hampton Bay remote struggles unless really close to the fan. This fan has no associated switch, so rejoining entails throwing a breaker in the garage 5 times. But, at least it does rejoin and then work for a couple of months...
Thanks for your kind note. We all really appreciate it. Helps keep us motivated to continue to improve Hubitat!
So there have been several fan threads lately and the fact that Innovelli is short on product at the moment, why not just gut the fan canopy of the controller and throw in a shelly tied to the speed capacitors to turn off and on and control speed? (Just and idea and I'm probably asking something you've already thought about)
For me, access to the fan canopy entails complete dismounting of the fan, a two man / two ladder operation -- one that I really don't want to do again.
I wish someone would make a fan switch/canopy pair that had zwave/zigbee intelligence in the switch, and it communicated with the canopy module via the power wires (not RF). Similar to how my old Lutron IR Maestro fan/light switch works. That thing has been rock solid for 10+ years, never needed a reboot. My guess is the tech is similar to how Maestro remote dimmers communicate with the main - via the traveler and neutrals.
My Hampton bay fan controller has been solid for maybe nine months now (two Sonoff ZBR3’s and a Leviton plug in dimmer in the same room) until last week my wife unplugged the Christmas tree and the Sonoff switch !!! I had just reused the switch from a lamp that got moved to make way for the tree. Now the damn fan has dropped and I’ve just been kinda waiting to see if it will come back on its own. I have an inovelli for the fan in the bedroom and should have bought two when I had the chance!!
Oh, yes, Hub mesh is awesome. I was a late adopter to Hub Connect and by the time I tried it they had the kinks worked out, but hub mesh just works as expected out of the box.
Someone, maybe @JDRoberts gave me the best advice ever. Get a repeater "above" the HBFC. Once I put a repeater above the fan, in the loft above, the controller stays on the mesh. Something about the blades screwing with the signal..I think. It only fell off when my painter flipped all the breakers in my family room. And man it is really a PITA to get it to reset.
And the remote, don't point it at the fan. I found it works better if it's parallel with my leg, have no idea why
As usual with the "magic" of RF, I have no explanation. I just know if I point the remote at the fan, it behaves inconsistently. However leaving it pointed down at the floor, it works much more reliably. If you have the device, try it. As far as metal in my leg, it could be. I was hit by a car going 40mph, broke my leg and not sure how they fixed it. I was 5 at the time.
