Make your existing non z-wave, RF remote controlled Ceilng Fans Smart (Bond)

Your solution is much better. I wish I had thought of that.

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Bond support got in touch w/me regarding the setup/communication issues I had shared w/them, and they confirmed a couple of things that are good to know:

  1. As @Hydro said above, when offering networks to connect to, w/mesh networks like Eero and Orbi, the Bond app will show an SSID for each AP and the base router (the app doesn’t fully support mesh networks yet). So in my case with an Eero router and two satellites, my network SSID is listed three times in their app. You should be able to select any of the instances of your SSID.
  2. They said my communication issues (having to reset the Bond and re-connect to the second iteration of my SSID in their app) isn’t something they’ve ever heard of, so hopefully a corner case.
  3. They’ve heard about the iPhone crash during setup from one other customer, but have been unable to get useful logs, or to replicate it internally. So again, sounds like a corner case.

BTW - Bond support is excellent, very responsive and knowledgeable.

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Just to be sure I understand what you are referring to, when you say “Tasker” you are refering to this app:

Correct?

And this Autoremote:

And this Autoinput:

Yes, though I have been using the free Autoremote which limits the message to 2 characters.

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Thanks. This is actually a possible work around for other Alexa intergration issues I would like to improve as well. For one, Alexa Routines don’t like Alexa skill commands currently. Which ties into the second issue, Alexa skill commands are wordy. This seems like a way to shove an Alexa command to it from a ST activation. Direct integration is always preferred. But when not available, indirect integration fills the need.

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I am very impressed with the technical support and the developer team at BOND. Without going into details, I had a problem, and the team came back with a fix in two days with a new Beta. Great things to come.

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So quick question about the Bond. I understand it will control an RF controlled fan, but it won’t give you feedback will it? Tell you whether or not the fan/light is on if you use the actual fan remote to control it?

At this time no, but SmartThings integration is set for end first quarter or middle second quarter of this year. of course I don’t know for sure as this was told to me, when I asked.

But even if it IS integrated with smart things. It still won’t be able to get the state of the fan if the Bond isn’t used to turn it on/off, correct?

I really like this product because it’s cost effective and simple. But 90% of the time in my household, people use the wall switch (in this case, the fan remote) to turn lights/fans on. So in order to keep all this integrated into everything else with future HA in mind, this wouldn’t work simply because you can’t program it to turn the light off after a certain amount of time if the room is unoccupied when it doesn’t even know the light is on.

Correct
 it’s impossible. In fact, you can send the on , then on and it will go off, or vice versa since it;s just a toggle.

I agree that it can’t tell the state of the device. However, whether it is just toggling on or off depends on the specific remote. For example, my fan remote has an off button that only sends an off command.

If you use the remote, there is no way that BOND would know the status.

Bond will never actually know the status of your fan (or whatever else is connected to it), if I’m understanding correctly how it works.

Using a device’s remote will definitely mess with whatever state bond thinks your fan is in.

But even if you never touch the physical remote, when it sends an “on” command, it doesn’t know whether the fan received it. Same for any other command. It may say “on” in the app, but that doesn’t mean your fan actually turned on.

Or am I misunderstanding how it works?

I agree, but if they implement it like iHome plugs and WeMo plugs then yes you will see the status, as it is a Cloud to Cloud implementation. If I turn on an iHome plug from the SmartThings app it knows if it is on or off.

I’m not referring to any other integrations.

If I have a bond, it sends an RF signal to my fan.

That signal may or may not have been received. Bond doesnt know.

I’ve run into the same problem with sensibo pods that I try to use to control my window a/c’s.

Sometimes the temp setting on an a/c gets out of sync with what sensibo thinks it is. It’s not because someone used the a/c remote (although obviously that would cause the same issue). It’s because the a/c didn’t actually respond to the last sensibo command. But sensibo doesn’t know whether or not the a/c responded to its last command.

I believe that’s correct
unless the fan itself is “smart” and can communicate its status back to ST or IFTTT or Bond app (or whatever), no one can know the fan status with certainty unless you’re standing there looking at it. You can know the last command you sent, but that’s about it.

Not an issue for me, as we only turn on fans when we’re in the room with them.

Yes that would appear correct, no smart device no status. I have no idea how BOND will implement the SmartThing integration. Hopefully soon we will find out.

I think the best they can do w/out a physical mod to the fan is to allow sending fan on/off, and speed, and light on/off and level commands to the fan directly from ST w/out having to go through IFTT. That will be sufficient for my uses. Unless they are going to sell a module that connects to the fan and reports back I don’t know how they could do any more than that. In the end these are dumb fans which can’t share status.

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As it is now I have it setup with IFFFT and Webhooks and a simulated MiniMote. I can turn it on, off Hi med Low speed. But no status, and no SmartTiles.