[BETA v0515] Hampton Bay Zigbee Ceiling Fan/Light Controller

Wow that was fast. Thanks Dale

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Hi[quote=“Albert_Lo, post:18, topic:85084”]
Curious, have you tried to see how this would work with Google home?
[/quote]

Yeah with GE it is less intuitive because you have to use a level command and give the correct threshold percentage, or you need to setup a virtual switch/button tied to a fixed level command that will give you correct speed. I have the GE Speed controller.

This device handler with zigbee receiver is FAR easier and is intuitive just like @stephack shows on Alexa.

So for Google Home, it is just like Alexa and you have all the same points exposed for voice use (or any smartapp)

Assuming you named your device “bedroom fan”:
Bedroom fan light
Bedroom fan
Bedroom fan low
Bedroom fan medium
Bedroom fan medium high
Bedroom fan high
Bedroom fan breeze mode

So you would say the wake command of Hey Google or OK Google and then
"
turn on bedroom fan low"
"
turn on bedroom fan medium"
"
turn on bedroom fan" to resume the last state before it was turned off
"
set bedroom fan light to 50%"

or some shortcuts for using voice on Google Home
"
turn on bedroom fan" and that will automatically turn on fan to last state PLUS the Light as well
"
set bedroom fan to 50%" no need to say LIGHT, Google knows only the light has level commands

Thanks for the reply.

I installed the fan but I cannot get the darn thing paired with ST. Any advice?

I had the same problem with it not being seen while trying to pair at first. What ended up working physically flipping the switch off for a good 30 seconds, then following the off/on for 3 seconds as prescribed above. Also, in my experience the fan paired immediately, so after i turned it off/on 5 times, the lamp flashed 5 times on its own and then showed up in smart things with a generic name.

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Luckily I did catch it after the update, looks great! Also, the operation has been -very- good, the only issue i’ve ran into is that ST doesn’t seem to know when the light switch is turned off, cutting power to the fan so whatever mode it was in last it gets stuck in.

Eventually, I plan to get this http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-Bay-Universal-Ceiling-Fan-Wireless-Wall-Control-68109/205846346 and bypass the switch so it’s always powered on, so that will become a non-issue.

Use your breaker to cycle power for the reset because your switch should not be wired to disconnect power to the zigbee receiver. Of course you can leave the wiring as is just put tape on the switch to let people know not to use it.

Of course this makes sense; right? Because it is impossible for ST to know anything about the device that you have turned the power off to? So the issue is you have it wired wrong if you didn’t remove the wall switch from the circuit or if you have incoming unswitched power at the fan use that instead of the switched power. Any wireless remote you use whether it is this zigbee or the one you referenced in your link the instructions will tell you disable the existing control switches like your wall switch and the put the fan chains in light ON and fan speed HI and never use them again. All control from now on comes from the new device because the local control isn’t compatible with the wireless receiver and cause the “issues” you describe. Leave the device always powered and your issues don’t exist. Here are the instructions from the unit you plan to get.

If you want local wall control that device works very well.

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Got it to work! Working very well.

For future Google home users, you have to authorize each device.

Room Fan Low
Room Fan Medium
Room Fan Med-Hi
Room Fan High
etc.

I changed their nicknames to respond to Room Fan Level 1, Room Fan level 2, etc.

Feels more natural to say Turn on Room Fan Level 2

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Thank you for your well thought out response. I think I may have been unclear, I was aware of the reason for this. Still I believe what you posted may be very valuable to future visitors to this thread. Sorry for being unclear!

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It was my mistake! I thought you were identifying an issue with the device handler with your statement and I was only trying to show you how to eliminate it or at least be aware of why it behaved that way. :blush:

Good point. In Alexa you simply say “Discover devices” and she goes out to find all new devices. With Google Home you need to go back in the Google Home app and do it all manually every time you add new devices to have your Google Home see them.

I have a question about the speed child controllers. Since I have Android, I do not see them in my Smartthings app. They do not appear on my list of devices on the IDE either.
The problem is that I need to call them to get a specific speed with either Alexa or Google Home. The original name is quite a mouthful, so how can I change those names?

I do know that with Google Home, you can give a nickname to each of those. So that works. But you can’t change those names in the Alexa app.

You can always go back and recreate them with a new shorter name to start with so that SmartThings and Google Home, Alexa all have the same shorter name. Why would you want a longer name in SmartThings to begin with?

Got it working. Thanks

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Just as a heads up to everyone
the names of the child fan speed will change based on the name of the parent Fan device. If you change the child names manually (only an option in IOS) they will be renamed automatically the next time the parent is initialized.

In other words, choose the parent fan name wisely because all the child speeds will use it as a template.

If Parent fan = "Living Room Fan"
then child speeds = Living Room Fan Low, Living Room Fan Medium, etc

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Can this controller also reverse the fan? The current fan units I have already have a RF remote that I would like to replace with one of these but would like to have reverse capability as well as there is no physical switch on the fan to reverse it.

[quote=“dario_rossi, post:37, topic:85084”]
Can this controller also reverse the fan?
[/quote] The device is capable of sending a reverse from the hand held remote. Whether or not it will work with yours nor not I don’t know of any way to know if that will work unless you try it.

@dalec I bought the controller like you outlined, installed it, even moved my smartthings hub into the same room, cannot get this thing paired to save me life.

Installed the custom device handlers, go to Add a thing and it spins. Toggled it on, toggled it off, any advice?

See post 22-23 above and let us know.

Well, I had tried it initially and it wasn’t working. I had to do it 3x and managed to fry a port on the router, but alas it’s working. It was worth the pain.