I am using the King of Fans device handler from dcoffing. It works fine, but every few days I look in the IDE and there are 5-6 child devices for each fan speed. I delete them in the IDE and they are created again in a few days. These multiple fan speed child devices are also appearing in the Google Home app and the Alexa app. I delete those also but they keep coming back.
I have two fans with these receivers. Only one has multiple child devices for the fan speeds in the IDE but both have multiple entries in Google Home and Alexa.
It has been a week and no duplicate child devices have been created!
I unplugged the hub for 30 minutes and also removed Alexa and Google from SmartThings.
I plan to add Google first then a week later add Alexa.
Added 01/05/2020. The duplicate child devices have returned. I have done nothing since the previous post. No Alexa or Google integration has been performed. I have not linked SmartThings to either ActionTiles or SharpTools.
I’m stumped …
Added 01/11/2020. Now there are at exactly 10 instances of each fan speed in the IDE for child devices of this fan. My plan is to remove the Hampton Bay receiver from SmartThings and anything in the IDE to do with this fan. Then I will pair it again and see what happens. What puzzles me is there are three fans all with the same Hampton Bay receiver using the same DH. This is the only fan with an issue. This fan was the second to be installed.
This is an update to my previous post about multiple instances of the light and fan speeds. I did nothing to correct this until just now. Everything was working and Google could control the fan and light At last count there were no less than 50 instances of each fan speed child device and fan light in the IDE under the fan section. I was hesitant to remove it from the IDE and attempt to pair it again because if the worst happened and the receiver needed to be replaced, the ceiling would be destroyed. I used a ceiling medallion to cover the antenna wires and used Gorilla glue to attach it to the ceiling not planning on going back in.
Today I bit the bullet and removed it from the IDE. Fortunately the re-pairing went well. Now to see if the receiver is like a rabbit making copies of child devices.
Ok this is maddening. Now there are THREE instances of each fan speed in the IDE plus THREE instances of the light. This is after removing the receiver from the IDE, removing power from the receiver and then pairing it again.
I have two other fans with the exact same receiver, running the same DTH and child devices. Neither of these have extra instances.
You might want to try resetting the controller. When it says “turn off the fan”, that means cutting power…not just pressing the button on the remote. When I did mine, I did it by disconnecting and reconnecting the wires to the controller. Make sure you remove all the instances in the IDE first.
I reset the receiver and got the 3 flashes when it reset.
It has been an hour and there are 3 instances of each fan speed in the IDE.
Arghhh. Now there are 20 of each fan speed and light. It is possessed. This is after removing it from the IDE and resetting it again. I refuse to rip the ceiling down and will just delete the receiver once in a while
Perhaps the light bulb (not smart though) went on in my head.
For each King of Fans DTH, there is a setting FOR EACH fan whether to refresh the children or not. The other two were set to false so i assumed the finicky receiver was set to false. I entered false in the box and have not had any more children pop up.
Maybe someone will have these issues and stumble across my posts.
Correction. The demon has returned. Multiple instances of each fan speed in the IDE.
I removed the fan speed child device DTH. If i want to change speeds (which I rarely did before smart fans) I will use the remote.
Possibly another reason. This fan is the only one that is also controlled by the Hampton Bay remote. I have not used that remote in a few days and all is ok so far. If this continues I will add the child device handler back in the IDE and not use the remote for a week.
Some of you may wonder why my persistence. For many years I had “never give up” preached to me by my father, a member of the greatest generation. . In fact, his headstone has this exact phrase engraved in the marble.
Everything was great for a few days now there are 4 of each fan speed and 4 for the light in the IDE. Something I noticed is the device ID has been 798F the last few days until yesterday then the device ID changed to D1AE then changed to C105. I did nothing and purposely have not fiddled with anything or used the hand held remote. This has to be a clue. Each fan speed and light child follows these Device IDs. In other words there are the 5 fan speeds for each duplicate device ID in the IDE.
The Zigbee signal in the room with the finicky fan is weak so a few months ago I purchased a Zigbee smart plug socket made by 3A that acts as a repeater. I have noticed at times in the IDE the “next hop” from the fan is the Zigbee repeater, other times the next hop is the hub. Since sometimes it works without the repeater i will remove it and force a Zigbee repair.
It has been 4 days and no duplicate child devices have been created! Keeping fingers crossed. This would not be an issue normally but when there are several child device duplications in the IDE, voice commands to Google to adjust the light or fan speed are returned with something similar to what HAL says “I’m sorry Tom. I’m afraid I can’t do that”
Should have known. This morning the fan and light did not respond to voice commands nor through the classic app. About an hour later the fan and light were back to normal. Then an hour later back to no response. When it was not responding, I looked in the IDE and saw the fan and two fan lights in the list of things whereas normally the fan and one fan light is on the list.
The device ID for the fan changed and accordingly a new light child was created. Going into the properties for the fan there are two of each fan speed and only one for the light. One set of fan speeds have the original device ID and the second new set of fan speeds have a device ID that matches the new fan device ID.
From what I have been reading, the fan controller might have gone offline (when it did not respond to my commands) and when it came back online it has a new device ID and still would not respond until I deleted the duplicates with the new device ID.
I have a zigbee repeater about 8 feet from the fan and have experienced this multiple creation with the repeater in the mesh and without.
When it was not responding everything in the IDE appeared no different than when it was responding. I used the remote to turn on the fan and light which did work.
Again, not asking for help unless you have a suggestion other than swapping out the Hampton Bay receiver which would involve extensive ceiling repair because I used a polystyrene ceiling medallion to cover the antenna wires and that is glued to the ceiling.
I said it before. I think I have it figured out. Really.
The RSSI for the fan controller was about 76 and over 20% of the messages transmitted to the device failed. This is with an A3 zigbee wall plug in the next room closer to the hub.
The A3 wall plug is discontinued so support is lacking. I added an IKEA Tradfri zigbee bulb to the mesh in the same room and everything has been working correctly since. My thinking is the A3 was not consistently relaying messages to the hub. I know bulbs are not very good repeaters but this is still a work in progress.
not planning on going back in.
