I can create the problem two ways. 1) use the app to turn the fan on and it immediately turns back off. The app history log shows that the fan was told to turn off. 2) use the physical switch to turn the fan on and it turns back off immediately. Again, app history shows the fan received an “off” command.
Steps I’ve taken:
I’ve turned off all automations in the app, and disabled the old webCORE stuff (sad).
I tried to airgap the switch and exclude the device, but the app just kept spinning… It would never exclude the device for me to add it back… help?
Brand/model of the fan controller?
Are you linked to Alexa?
Can you describe the steps you took to exclude the device? Confused by the pulling of airgap and exclude the device part you mentioned.
If you pull the air gap switch, there will no longer be any power to the radio inside the device, so any exclude attempts will fail at that time.
To do a successful exclude, the device has to be on power.
For some older GE switches, there was a sort of “buffer overrun” problem where the only solution was to reboot the switch by cutting all power to the switch and then restore it. That was sometimes done by using the airgap switch and then resetting it for normal operations. But you can’t do an exclude in the middle of that: you have to restore power first.
Thanks for the quick response!
I believe it is a GE fan controller. I meant that I tried restarting it via the airgap button. Then I tried excluding it - it just says “force delete?” - should I do that?
Sorry - it’s been a few years since I really played with this stuff. About a week or two ago I noticed this issue and now that it’s my day off I want to fix it.
That said, if you turn any kind of switch on at the wall that used to work and it immediately turns itself off again and you haven’t recently added any new automations or devices on that circuit that’s almost always a surge protection safety feature in the switch itself, nothing to do with SmartThings. (If you want to verify this, unplug the hub, then try the switch at the wall. If it still turns off immediately, it’s an electrical problem.)
The first thing to do (with the power off, of course) is check to make sure that none of the wires are dusty or coming loose at the point of connection.
After that if the problem recurs it’s likely either a circuit problem (like lots of little shorts or surges on the line) or the switch going bad.
You can try a different switch in the same location. If it has the same issue, it’s an electrical problem and you need an electrician.
If the new switch is fine, probably the old switch just went bad, it happens.
