I was thinking the same thing, but wouldn’t something like a rubber grommet just prevent you from closing the cowl all the way? I was able to feed my RF antenna through a hole in the bracket, but had to run the risk of cutting the Zigbee antenna off.
Also in response to your previous messages, I may just have a bad unit. I haven’t had a chance to try installing it on one of my other fans to be sure though.
So I have been following this thread and others like it. I have gotten a little confused. I was wondering if anyone who has already spent time playing with options could possibly give me some insight into my best option. I am finishing up a remodel and have two ceiling fan mounts. I wired both to separate two-gange boxes with the intent to install switches to control the lights and fan speeds. I was looking at getting the GE Z Wave fan and dimmer switches. The issue I am having is that its costly and does not allow me to reverse these fans remotely. Is there any good option here? It appears as though all fans allow for a remote OR a wall switch. I have noticed some fans do have reverse on the remote. That would be nice but I also want them to be Z Wave compatible so I can control them with ST. I was wondering if I could find a fan that would allow me to wire the speed and light to the z-wave switches but wire only the reverse functionality to a wireless remote? I know it sounds like a pain, but I really want ST integration for the speed / lights and I am installing them about 15’ in the air so reversing them will not be fun if I have to do it manually using a ladder. Sorry for the ramblings but I have been researching this for a couple weeks and dont know if what I want is even possible. I really need to decide on what to buy fairly soon and the peps in this thread seem knowledgeable. An all zwave solution would be GREAT but I dont think the reverse functionality is working for anyone via z wave yet… thanks again.
It sounds like you are asking for more than what is currently available out of the box today. I would recommend you list your desired functionality in order of priority to help you narrow down your decision. For example how important is it to have reverse function compared to say having a wireless handheld compared to z-wave or zigbee compared to the look of the fan you want installed ?
When purchasing a fan if it has built in remote capabilities be careful because it may likely not be compatible with adding fan speed control. Typically if the receiver at the fan is removable you are good to go.
GE Zwave Fan Controller Option doesn’t have wireless remote options, nor does it have reversing capability
Zigbee Controller has several wireless remote options such as handheld, in-wall, thermostatic. It also has light dimming control included. Reversing is only good on a specific fan
If you really want the remote reversing capability I think you only option is going to be the Gardinier 52 in. LED Brushed Nickel Ceiling Fan at the moment that has it built in to their motor and ceiling fan control. I haven’t gotten any reports back that the zigbee device reversing function works with anything else. And that is only by the remote and not via ST. Somehow Wink has it in their app in configurations but it hasn’t been figured out how to get it done in the beta version of the ST mobile app.
Or if reverse function and fan look is important to you then you might have to sacrifice controllability. Pick out the fan you want that looks good and has a remote with reversing function. Depending on the fan selected your most likely control would only be like a SmartThings switch controlling power to the fan on-off only. And then speed, light and reverse control would have to come all through the remote and not SmartThings.
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As a person who uses a wheelchair and has limited use of my hands, I do understand the desire sometimes to automate something which would just be a simple button push for someone else. 
If you have a fan with the following specific features:
One) it can be controlled by the zigbee controller we’ve been discussing in this thread AND
-
it can also still be controlled by its own remote AND
-
its own remote has a pushbutton to reverse the fan direction, something like this:
Then you could do all the regular stuff we’ve been discussing in this thread with the zigbee controller. Plus take the fan’s own remote and put it in a box stand that had a $49 Naran Push microbot positioned to push the reverse button.
You would also need the $89 Naran Prota bridge. One bridge can support up to 40 Microbots.
The Prota has its own IFTTT channel, which gives you good integration with SmartThings that way.
https://ifttt.com/microbot_push_for_prota
By attaching the microbot to a stand/holder rather than to the remote itself, you can still slide the remote out and use as a handheld.
This system can work just fine, it just looks a little weird, and, if this is your first microbot, it’s expensive: $89 + $49 + whatever it costs you for the stand. So it would be worth it to someone like me, but maybe not to an ablebodied person.
BTW, Naran is a South Korean company. Excellent engineering, but their English doesn’t hit quite the same standard. 
“Blinders” in the following video means window coverings.
You can buy the microbots from Amazon or from their own site. They occasionally go on sale for a set of one bridge and three microbots for about $25 off the regular price. They have a new generation coming out which has built-in Ibeacon functionality which is pretty cool and helps justify the $49 price, so you might want to wait for that or it may be that once the second generation is out the first generation will be discounted. We will just have to wait and see. The second generation is due out at the end of June 2017.
https://www.amazon.com/Starter-Kit-Push-Sugru-Automation/dp/B01JRYT6L8
I have these and use them at my house, for example for a blender which has a start button which is difficult for me to use. Some people use them to retrofit devices that they really like but which are not networked, like a fancy coffee maker. And some people just use them for old devices which work great but have no easy way to retrofit.
Another Option, but this one is really expensive
If you have a fan you love with a remote you love but adding the zigbee controller would mean the remote no longer works The other option would be to get a microbot for every button on the remote that you want to automate. It would work, but at $49 per microbot, the price would add up quick. So I just mentioned this one for completeness.
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Thanks for all your help and info!
Great info, I will have to think a little more about this. Thanks!
Another data point: just got my controller installed. I had to cut a slot in the cowl with a reciprocating saw for the antenna wire, and used electrical tape to protect the wire from the sharp edges. It’s not exactly elegant but it works. Device software worked perfectly, major kudos to @dalec
The result works despite the flimsiness of the antenna, but the Zigbee connectivity has proven unreliable; every time I touch the antenna (say, to put back the cosmetic collar that covers the top of the cowl) of breathe on it, the hub no longer can see it. The distance to the hub isn’t that great (25 feet with 2 walls between) but this is my only Zigbee device so there’s no mesh. I’ll experiment with either hub position or adding a repeating device. I wish there were a way to know for sure whether the antenna has a flaky connection or this is simply the limitation of Zigbee in my house.
Mine isn’t so finicky, I touch and move the antenna without issues, you might have a faulty controller?
Possible, but adding a SmartThings smart plug to the same room to act as a Zigbee repeater seems to make it work reliably. It also gives me an integration I hadn’t considered before; if I plug my CPAP machine into the smart plug, I should be able to make a piston that fires when I put it on at night.
Just a suggestion, but seriously think twice about plugging any medical equipment into a smart plug controlled by ST. The ST hub and cloud infrastructure isn’t terribly reliable and there are any number of ways that your cpap machine could accidentally end up with the power switched off when you weren’t expecting it.
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Hey guys, I was browsing the internet looking for any complaints with the Home Depot Home Decorators Wink fan as I am a Wink user and I read the whole forum and have seen many complaints about the fan loosing connectivity often and I can tell you from my experience having owned the fan for about 2 months and having been through 10 calls to Wink and 1 to Home Depot that the receivers are faulty quite often. I have a great Zigbee mesh network with no device drops except for my fan dropping every 5 hours or 7 days or even sometimes as good as 3 weeks and its not the hub distance as that is 6 feet away and its not interference from my Cree bulbs as suggested by Wink as I removed them and still had the same issues.
I have used to controllers one with the thin Zigbee antenna and one with the upgraded antenna both have failed over and over again and I think I will give it one more try with one last controller.
Sorry to hear you are losing connectivity as well on the Wink side of the house. Thanks for posting your experience and if you don’t mind as you continue to try different things let us know back here.
We are trying to figure out the pattern of zigbee communications dropout. It seems your experience is being mirrored here as well in that there is a high randomness when the zigbee loss occurs from several days down to hours.
Here is a bit of an update on that zigbee dropout problem. My controller as been working perfectly for more than 2 weeks. It is running Dale’s thermostat.
Yesterday, for no apparent reason, it lost communication with the hub. Came back on it’s own. Worked great for a while. Then tonight, lost contact with the hub again.
Everything else on my system is working as it should, although I do find Smartthings to be a bit slower to respond these days.
There seems to be a combination of things making it extremely difficult to troubleshoot dropout issues with this controller.
- firstly, the genreral stability issues with ST lately, including app slowness, status updates and device dropouts.
- secondly, there have also been complaints on other forums regarding dropouts using the Wink hub and this fan. They describe the exact same issues. Works fine for 2 weeks, few days, hours…and then looses connectivity for an indefinite period of time.
Neither Wink nor the controller manufacturer have responded to the problem yet. Unfortunately, it seems to be a “wait and see” for now.
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Just to chime in with my 2¢. I’ve been systematically trying to test my hub location relative to the two fan controllers. It’s been a cycle of moving it a few feet at a time and leaving it in place for a day to see if it perseveres.
I have a webCoRE piston that tests communication and reports any failure. I can tweak the time interval, so for instance, overnight it checks hourly; if I’ve just moved the hub, it’ll check every 3 minutes.
I can’t say what will happen if it goes a few weeks, but in 1-2 day tests, once the hub is in a good location it usually stays reliably connected. If I move it to a “bad” location, the disconnect typically manifests itself within an hour and never comes back. Then I move the hub right under the fans and begin the process anew. Each time I move the hub, I renew the mesh.
One new element that is seeming to help fingers- crossed 
is placement of an Iris 3210-L as a ZigBee repeater midway between the hub and fans. I’ve also removed several conflicting RF generators (a Wink Hub, Osram GardenSpots, Blink module) and moved a 2.4gHz router farther away and set it to Channel 1. I’m also awaiting a Digi X-Stick to use with XCTU software to map my ZigBee network to see if that tells me anything.
It would be nice if SmartThings, Wink or KOF identified a problem to fix, but it may just be, as @JDRoberts said, that sending a 2.4gHz signal through spinning fan blades (in my case, metal blades and located outside) is always going to be problematic. Good thing I view this as a hobby!
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Thank you for the update Stephan,
at least now we know. The silver lining is that it does come back on it’s
own. Mine came back online around 5:00AM.
2.4gHz is going to be hard to nail down. Think of all the devices you and your neighbors have using it. Then think of how many are Mobile.
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Thanks so much for troubleshooting this way!
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Fans are really tricky because the blades themselves create interference. I do still highly recommend that for anyone who has the option, you put a zigbee repeater on the floor above the fan and off to the left or right about 3 m. That should take the fan blades out of the equation as far as getting signal back-and-forth from the hub.
I know that isn’t going to be practical for everybody, but these are Omnidirectional antennas, so work with the full 360° when you can. 
so, if I purchase the Gardinier 52 in. LED Brushed Nickel Ceiling Fan, itll come with everything I need to start from scratch? being in Canada may be a bit harder to get my hands on this fan, but if I can I rather go this route.
Also, are the Belkin wemo smart switches considered ZigBee repeaters? or should I just get the Iris smart plug, I assume that works with smartthings?
any help would be greatly appreciated.