There is no official integration. AFAIK, @dman2306 still maintains the integration he developed, linked to here;
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That's the integration that I'm using. I saw in the code that there are a couple of references to Smart By Bond, so that gives me some hope that it will work.
Mainly I'm looking for "field reports" from anyone who has already added a SBB fan/light, to get an idea of how well it works and what (if any) functional limitations the Bond API imposes.
We've been using the Bond and that integration for a couple of years here, controlling 3 fans - the most used one is in our master bedroom, where I have wall-mounted two Picos to control fan speed and fan lights. Never a problem.
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Oooh, that's a hard one. I think they're Hunters, but they've all been up there 15+ years, so I don't remember. They all came with this kind of remote.
Looking at the integration linked here by @dman2306 it looks like it’s only for the bond hub and not Smart By Bond which is hubless fan controllers. Can anyone confirm they are using SBB (without hub) with HE?
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@bob23 - that's the info I'm looking for. The code for the integration has some references to SBB, but I haven't looked at it or the API closely enough yet to know for sure.
Hi @briangray.tx , I found info in this thread Support for Bond hub - #4 by jchurch that discusses the SBB without Hub by getting info from the app and using that. I haven’t had the time to test this yet but we’ll be trying it since it seems it should work.
Yes this will work with SBB. Basically the SBB acts like a "hub"
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@dman2306 - Thanks for the confirmation - and for your work on the app.
I already have a Bond hub installed that controls two fan/light units. If I add a SBB fan/light, do I need to install a second instance of the integration to control the SBB unit, or will the instance I already have talk to both the hub and the SBB?
@briangray.tx the GitHub page says it only supports one hub but as I was combing through the thread someone set up multiple instances so I’d try it
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Yeah you’d just install a separate instance of the app for the SBB since the app can only be configured for one hub.
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Good to know. I have previously used the hub, but slowly moving to SBB at the new house.
@Hatallica - I am just starting to look into SBB fan/lights. I would appreciate any observations about the devices you have. In particular, I'm interested in fan noise level. Ease of installation? Reliability?
For my wife's office, I recently installed the Minka-Aire Concept IV. Our criteria was:
- Not out of place in a mid-century house
- Bright LED light
- DC motor for the fan (quiet, efficient, wide range of speeds)
- Easy to adopt through Bond, but also has remote control
Install was a treat until the light kit. For some reason, I could not get the connector pins and sockets to align, so I snipped them and used Wago connectors instead. The Bond app picked it up immediately.
Admittedly, I have not added it to my HE hub yet. For marital security, I don't automate anything in her office until she asks, "why doesn't it know to do xxx?".
Minka-Aire is not the most expensive and certainly not the least. On their website, I recall being able to set a filter to only see smart fans. Based on my experience, I will certainly look at them first for our next room.
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@Hatallica - Thanks for the report. I've been looking at the Minka-Aire page a god bit. Glad to hear that you're happy with them.
Last month I asked the group about support for "Smart by Bond" devices in the Bond app. Today, I installed a Minka Concept IV (which has Smart by Bond). As @Hatallica said, the installation was easy. (I had no trouble with the light kit. I wish that the canopy cover was a bit larger - I had to work at getting all of the wires tucked in.)
Connection to the Bond app on my Android was easy. I then connected it to a second instance of the app in my HE. HE found the device (including fan and light). It works as expected. I am able to control both the light and the fan from the HE.
The only thing that appears to not work as I expect it to is the status polling. If I change the status of the light or fan with the Android or with the remote control, the status on the HE does not update after the polling interval.
@dman2306 - I can see the polling happen in the log at the expected intervals, but I can't see any info about the data that is returned. Is there a debug switch that will show more detailed info about each status poll?
Update: I am seeing the fan status updating as expected, but not the light status.
More than a year ago I added a Minka Aire Concept IV Smart-by-Bond and the app works as expected. Today, I added a second identical fan in my bedroom. I am trying to configure the second fan in HE, but I'm running into a problem.
In the cloned app, I set the IP and token. The app finds the new fan correctly, and lists it as an option on the Devices page:
I the click through to the end of the app's configuration and switch to the Devices page. The MBR fan is not listed as a device. The only Bond device shown is the fan/light in the living room (previously installed and still working).
The docs for the Bond app does not indicate that there are any additional steps. Am I missing something? What should I be looking at?
A side question: is it possible to rename one instance of the app itself? Instead of "clone" I would like to add the room to the app's name.
Any suggestions?
I found a solution to my own questions...
I originally cloned the app because I had some minor tweaks to the code that I wanted to preserve. I decided to take a different approach:
- export the modified app code to my computer
- edit the downloaded file to change the name of the app
- delete the (non-working) cloned instance of the app
- in the Apps code menu, add a new app
- click the Add User App button
- copy/paste the downloaded code (with a new name)
- complete the process
- in the Apps menu, add an instance of the modified app
- run the app and add the IP and local token
- complete the configuration process
I then went to the Devices menu, and the new fan and light are there. Both the fan and the light are working as expected.
