I think I’d like to add automation to my ceiling fan / light. They are wired on one switch but I’d like to control them separately. I know in the past I’ve used the RF remotes which worked very well with only minor occasional issues. So far in the smart home area I only really see the fanlinc by Insteon for ceiling fan/light control. Does anyone know of any other options available? I’ve heard good and bad about Insteon but I’d like to see if there is anything else out there that may work better. Currently I have a HUE bridge (zigbee) and I have zwave working on my system. Is there anything that uses those technologies to talk?
Err, what do you mean by that?
You can control the light from Insteon and the switch from zwave or zigbee, and use OH to link them.
But you can’t make Insteon components talk to zwave or zigbee or vice versa.
If you already do have zwave modules, you will also have a zwave controller running in (or attached to) your openHAB box, don’t you ?
There’s zwave dual-relay modules (with 2 outputs and 2 inputs), available from a number of vendors, such as the Fibaro FGS-222 or Philio PAN04.
You could place them in the ceiling (or wherever the cables towards fan and light do split) and connect the cable towards the switch to one input port.
Sorry @mstormi, let me be more clear. I’m looking for alternatives to the fanlinc setup. I’ll look at the two dual-relay modules but I’d like to be able to control fan speed as well and generally relays don’t handle that.
Fans are ugly stuff to control. You could try a dimmer (such as a Fibaro FGD-212) or the Fibaro FGRGBW controller (it can do PWM output of up to 24V, and it has 4 outputs, so you could attach your light, too). Qubino has a dimmer device to automatically select either trailing edge or PWM mode, depending on input voltage. But this has nothing to do with OH, it’s a pure electrics talk now.
Agreed that it doesn’t have anything to do with openhab but I’m looking for devices that users have used within openhab that will fit my needs. Maybe this is the wrong location for this but I’m looking for hardware to work with openhab. Most dimmers tell you not to be used with a motor from what I’ve found.
Most controllable fans are ultimately DC power and work fine with PWM control, provided you get access to the DC line/connector. The FGRGBW also has inputs for 0-10V potentiometers to control the PWM output.
Try it and return it to Amaz*n if it doesn’t do what you want it to.
That definitely looks interesting, and the price is right too. I wonder how hard it would be to reverse-engineer the bluetooth protocol. That way you wouldn’t have to buy the plug-in controller - you’d just have to get the receiver that actually controls the fan and control it from a Linux system that had a bluetooth dongle.
Well, feel free - but that’s why manufacturers are making so much money. Just too many people wait for a product to be ‘certified’ for their special use case instead of trying to find their own solution. As I wrote, all DC fans work fine with PWM control, so you just need to find a device with PWM output such as the one I suggested.
And that’s also why many will end up with a bunch of separate, non-integrated closed systems with a controller each that they paid for in HW and SW.
I’m curious how this works - the FCC documentation states it also uses 433 MHz. Their website implies the fan module is using Bluetooth as well. Perhaps the 433 Mhz is for the handheld remote?
The page doesn’t come up now. From what I can gather it is supposed to be released in June so this may be the ticket. I was going to start playing with @mstormi’s suggestion soon but I’m quite busy for the next couple of weeks so maybe this will be released around the same time. Thanks @LeXLuther422!
I’ve recently looked into doing the same. Have you considered this: https://byjasco.com/products/ge-z-wave-wall-smart-fan-control - It’s what I’ll be using. You’ll need a separate switch for the lights, so that means having two sets of wires going to the fan.
I’m curious too. I’m thinking about getting an Insteon hub just so I can use the fanlinc module. Not exactly cheap… especially if I get a keypad as well.
Technically, you really don’t need two sets of wires. You could just use 14-3 Romex and use the red (traveler wire) to power up the light and the black wire for the fan. Hopefully the existing wire is 14-3 and not 14-2 and you can use that instead of running new wire.
