Ceiling Fan Upgrade - Need some Pointers

Greetings,

I did some googling but difficult to find all the information. I have a ‘regular’ fan attached to the ceiling, and want to upgrade to a smart version. Now, there seems to be two routes:

  1. Add modules to make the fan ‘smart’
  2. Replace with a totally new fan.

I’m leaning towards #2, as my current fan is about 15 years old. The desired features are:

  1. Built-in Light (LED is better)
  2. Ability to change both Speed AND direction (CW vs CCW).
  3. Ability to talk to Alexa, and later on OpenHab
  4. Dedicated Hand remote would be a plus

Most offerings I’ve seen can control different speeds, but when it comes to direction, one needs to pull on a chain … That is ok, but my fan is in a 2-story room, and a long chain is not an option.

Based on everything I’ve seen, it seems the major players (Hampton Bay, Hunter, …) have not gotten on this train yet. Yes, there are few candidates, difficult to get the full specs.

Any thoughts/experience/recommendations ?

In Australia we have the following fans available from Bunnings. I have the older non-smart version (which uses an RF remote), but the direction change is on the remote - not the fan. I’d imagine worst case with these the direction change would be on the remote - but having said that, as all these fans are RF remote controlled, even if they are not smart fans you could use something like a Broadlink Pro device to control.

EDIT: Last image in the Bunnings link says you can change between winter/summer mode via remote or app.

https://www.bunnings.com.au/arlec-smart-4-blade-130cm-dc-ceiling-fan-with-led-light-and-remote-grid-connect_p0104208

I have several BigAssFans. They’re not cheap, and they don’t do #4 in your list above. There’s an openHAB bigassfan binding (which I wrote). They’re wifi connected, and can be controlled by their smartphone app, a handheld remote control, an optional wall controller, and of course openHAB.

I gutted a Westinghouse Comet and wrote a ESP8266 MQTT “firmware” for it. I wanted the same as TS.
The inside does not look pretty, but it is does work quite good with logic support from openhab.

Some pictures and schematics can be found here: https://www.hjemmeautomasjon.no/forums/topic/5667-byggetråd-automatisere-takvifte-westinghouse-comet/

text is in Norwegian, mybe use Google translate or something.
Or you can ask :wink:

Edit: I found ESP8266 a bit small for this task, a ESP32 is more fitting.

I have several ESP devices, both 8266 and 32, so curious about why the 8266 would be considered a bit small for the task?

Thanks

The problem is gpio state changes when the ESP8266 boots or when flashed.
There is only two ( or three) gpios that NOT change state under boot/flash.
Small was the wrong word. Rabiate fits better :smiley:

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