Hi everyone! Seems like you guys really know your stuff here so perhaps someone has done this already and I can’t find it in the search.
I have a Hunter Abernathy ceiling fan with light. I have 2 switch wiring and 2 switches one for light one for fan. However this fan is weird it has to use the wireless remote that came with to work. The remote turns everything on and off, speeds and dimming of the light.
I have wired it as the instructions so I have separate light and fan power except it doesn’t control the light or fan directly it just tells the remote box what to do. The remote also handles reversing direction on the fan by holding down buttons.
The light I think I can bypass the smart relay thing and get direct dimming as 120v AC comes out of the light sockets. The fan however I haven’t tried to figure that out yet. I have read some fans now are DC and the receiver box is a transformer too.
I want to wire this thing to work with zwave fan controller and zwave dimmer switch. Has anyone messed around with one of these fans with a remote before?
I have been thinking about getting another zooz multi relay and take the remote apart. Then wire the remote to that so when you flip the switches it would just click the relay enough times to perform the function I want. Or I could use 2 light dimmers and not connect the light dimmer to the fan load just use it as a display for what I have clicked for fan speed even?
Hunter has some smart fans but mine is not smart and their wiring instructions are not very good with doing anything besides using the remote.
This sounds like the fan I have. Basically having it on a smart switch is useless as everything must be controlled by the remote. I got a Bond bridge which allows me to tie all my automations into HE. I just hardwired the fan to power and put Zen34 remotes in place of the switches at the wall. It works pretty well.
Yeah I was just learning about the bond thing that transmits on the fan’s frequency and when I replace the other fan we have in the future that could tie in there as well. I am thinking to take apart the fan today and see what the receiver box in the fan actually does.
Are you sure? My Bond integration appears to be local. At least it asks for a local IP and local access token... no user name or pw... doesnt appear to be any calls to a cloud service.
This is why I am a complete idiot. I blocked my home automation vlan from WAN access, went into the bedroom and said "Alexa, turn on fan." Nothing. Then I thought "damn! He's right! It does require internet access!" Fortunately it only took me a minute to realize the issue.
The BOND automation does not require the bond hub have access to the internet. The alexa automation... obviously does
Ok I did a thing here now I am trying to figure out how to integrate this. I picked up a BroadLink RM4 Pro because it was half the cost of the bond and people on here say it works. It does work so far on its own I was able to "learn" my fan's remote to this box and it controls the fan and light easy peasy.
Next I need to integrate this to Hubitat which should be easy based on what people say on this board. Then I am going to install a dimmer switch or fan control switch into the wall so you can see what the speed is set at and change it locally. I have a 2 gang box and thinking a dual switch one for the fan power and one light power then the fan speed switch next to that. So the fan won't be connected to the load of the dimmer/fan control it will be on the on off power switch. The dual switch would just be there to cut power to the fan locally if needed, I don't know if it is legal to just hardwire it I think a local cut power switch is probably a good idea.
So now comes the tricky part of figuring out how to sync the desired speed of the fan from the switch to the actual fan speed set with the remote. I can have that switch show on my dashboard in HomeKit and see it and control it somehow but I am trying to think the best way to do this...
Maybe the Bond thing does this better but I was hoping this one could also control an IR stand fan in another room which it can do.
Anyone have ideas on how to first find the fan speed and get it to stay in sync with the wall switch? I am thinking if I make a rule if the dimmer goes to x% it would press the speed up button x times to match it. Since the dimmer/fan switch will be completely separate from the load I really am going to just use that as a local control and control it remotely using just that dimmer which needs to drive the BroadLink...
Bond is simple and works well for me w/six fans i control with it. Down side for you is that it's about $100 for the Bond bridge just to control one fan. Solution: Buy four or five more fans and then the Bond bridge cost is much less per fan. I know...genius.
LOL yeah that is what I am thinking will happen...
Can you or have you had the Bond thing sync with a wall switch like a dimmer with no load? To be able to display the current speed and turn it on and off.
Fan power wired always on inside the switch box, Pico installed over the wiring which is used to control fans/lights using ABC (Advanced Button Control) app via Bond integration.
Wall switch controlling all power to the fan (light and fan) that is left on. Pico on nearby table w/same setup as above.
AFAIK you could set up something like you note above. A multi-button device like a pico allows you to set up on/off, dimming up/down from the Pico, which makes it very convenient.
Ok that makes sense I was thinking instead of the pico remote to use a hardwired switch to do it. Mostly because I have an extra couple of dimmers around. This BroadLink thing is interesting and it will serve a different purpose but I am going to order a Bond for the stupid remote fan.
I do this as well. I hardwired my fan and light in the box and use Zen34s over the two gang box.
I originally had both tied to on/off switches. I had rules for the light and fan so that if the switch was tuned off, I would immediately turn it back on and then send the off command from the bond hub. That worked but for the light it meant you would see it briefly come back on and then get turned off. I decided that wasn't optimum.
I have a virtual fan setup and all my rules control the virtual fan. Anytime the virtual fan changes that command is sent to the actual fan via the bond hub. It is possible for it to get out of sync with the virtual fan if someone uses the fan remote. but I keep it stored away. When using an on or off switch it seemed to get out of sync quite often. Since I have switched to keeping it on constant power it has been doing well.
