Hampton Bay Zigbee Fan controller

Gotcha… Thanks…

This is sort of like putting together a puzzle. Good thing I like doing this stuff.

I hope I didn’t just mess up. I ordered the controller from the first post in this thread from Home Depot.

It says remote control, but the pics show all of the parts, the remote, and the receiver / controller… Hopefully everything I need will be in there.

It has everything that you need.

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MEH, I’d say as soon as it gets to your house, hook it up immediately and test. Mine are dropping like flies, especially when in the canopy. very weak zigbee signal. You may have trouble pairing also.
Mine was not a good experience, have had to re-pair several times, even the one on my test bench.
Wish there was a better solution
CLARIFICATION-when I said in the canopy I meant installed in the fan with antenna out of canopy as opposed to my bench testing unit, which is not yet on a fan, but still drops

You wil usually need to make sure that the zigbee antenna is OUTSIDE the canopy. I have these on 2 fans in our house for about 18 months.

The fan closest to the hub (in the same room) has never, ever dropped.

The fan in our bedroom has occasionally dropped after a power loss. Though it has been a long time since it has even done that. I have a "peanut plug in the bedroom to act as a repeater.

Yes, these controllers do have weak radios so a strong mesh is important. @JDRoberts has also explained how the fan blades themselves can even affect the signal.

Overall, I have found them to be a worthwhile alternative if you only have one line to the fan canopy.

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Not sure how many times this needs to be said, but do not expect to use this controller without a Zigbee repeater in the same room! Also, the antenna MUST be outside of the canopy and not pinched! Get some tin snips and clip a hole.

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Very true. In my situation even with a repeater and antenna fully outside the canopy, still having issues.
I’ve thought about taking it apart to try an add a better antenna to see if that helps.
The included remote is also glitchy. I have another non-smart fan remote and it works 100%

The remote is simple RF. Nothing smart about it.

If you are installing with the antenna inside the canopy here doing it wrong. The instructions clearly show to have these ZigBee antenna outside of the canopy that’s why the spacers are there.

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If you are in a 2 story House @JDRoberts has mentioned that you may achieve better results with your zigbee repeater if you can install it in the room ABOVE the ceiling fan. Sometimes the movement of the fan blades when the fan is on will interfere with the zigbee signal.

Our home is single story so I was unable to do that. I made sure that my repeater was on the same side of the fan that the antenna was extended from the canopy so it at least had line of site.

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Brilliant, I never thought of that. I’ll give it a shot. Was getting readt to rip it out and put in an IFan02, but I’ll try that suggestion and move my peanut to the loft above the fan.
And the tiny antenna they include is fully outside my canopy(as is the RF antenna)
Thanks Guys

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Yes I know I have 2 RF only remotes for other fans, and they work 100% on those non-smart fans. The RF on the KOF controller seems much weaker and glitchy

That’s odd. I have never had an issue with the RF remote on either fan. Even doing the few times the bedroom dropped off of ST, the remote always worked. Wonder if you might have a “flakey” controller?

Anyway, you probably already know this but in order to get the controller to use the repeater, you have to remove power to the hub for 20-30 minutes. This includes batteries too. This way the routing of your zigbee mesh will be rebuilt. When I did mine, I even unscrewed my Cree & GE bulbs and left them without power until everything else was back up. The bulbs will try and act like repeaters but do a lousy job of it. I guess the Ikea bulbs are ok though. Another tip from @JDRoberts.

Ugh. I was hoping to get away with not having to have repeaters in each and every Room. Mind you the distance from this ceiling fan to the hub is probably 12’. Although there’s a wall in the way. I was planning on adding smart plugs to each of the bedrooms for individual lamp control. Could you perhaps recommend a low cost effective model that acts as a repeater as well?

My whole interest in this device is to try to avoid all the sheet rock work in additional wiring involved in using separate switches and fan controllers for the lights and the fan speed.

This is what I used in the bedroom. It works with ST but the power monitoring DOES NOT work though.

I think I read that the Ikea plugs were inexpensive and worked as well.

The Iris plugs use to be recommended until they were killed off.

I’m sure others will have additional suggestions for smart plugs.

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I have GE zigbee wall switches installed in the hallways. Helps build a stronger mesh for these fan units as well as the door/window sensors and keen vents across the house.

No zigbee issues in over 2 years. Have over 50 zigbee devices.

Folks,

It seems that Amazon has the Sylvania Smart Home 72922 Sylvania LIGHTIFY Smart Plug for $23.14. That’s a pretty good price, but is it a good smart plug?

I guess the question is, how weak is the ZigBee radio on these things?

As a reminder, I am coming over from Iris, and have had mostly Iris 1st generation contact sensors, which are ZigBee, the radio in the ADT ST hub seems stronger than the Iris one, and I only had issues with disconnects on the 2 furthest sensors, that went away after I added the Iris ZigBee smart plug to an outlet in the kitchen on the other side of the wall from the 2 sensors in question. (Garage doors, and master bath window). After doing that, I had zero drop outs.

I am planning long term to add 2 smart plugs to each bedroom (one per nightstand lamp) and 2 in the living room which gives me a total of 7. In the bedrooms, I am pretty sure if I can find them, I am going to want 2 outlet smart plugs. Probably going to have to look for one that is individually controllable. Most likely just do an outlet instead of a smart plug…

I guess the question is, how weak is the ZigBee radio on these things?

Based on all the responses from users in this thread, it can be assumed the radios are very weak. And coupled with the possibility the fan blades will further degrade the radio’s performance, it’s almost a guarantee that you will need a repeater.

The one fan controller I don’t have a repeater for is about 8 feet from the hub, in the same room, and the only obstruction is the wooden side of the cabinet the hub is installed in.

I seem to recall that others in this thread have needed repeaters even when the fan controller is very close to the hub but in the adjacent room.

Well I guess that means this room gets the first ZigBee outlet in the house… It will still be about 8’ from the repeater, and will have a bed in between… Not much of any way around that.

I am going to do the install and try it for now without the repeater. This is a guest room, being used as a test anyway, but I think I need to start investing in outlets…

My peanut plug repeater is under the bookcase headboard of our bed. It’s used as a means to kill power to the heated mattress pad in case we forget to turn it off in the morning. I have had no issues with the fan controller losing connection with the peanut plug repeater in this location.

How hard is the Peanut plug to set up? I like the price tag, what features are there / missing from it?