Quietcool Whole House Fan w/wifi hi-off-low timed control?

[mvrs]

Hi,

New here and my first post. Apologize up front if I am naive at this point. I was working on internet before it was announced to general public so I have some tech clue, but out of date on a lot of the new tech programming languages. Just started automating my house with Smartthings.

I have a Quietcool whole house fan and a wifi controller branded by Quietcool but supported by Intermatic. I think TamTech also uses this wifi controller for their whole house. This is a fairly new whole house fan product and is get really popular. Wifi Device: https://www.ecomfort.com/QuietCool-IT-36001/p76816.html?utm_term=7681676816&var1=ecomfortusa&var2=adwordsfroogle&var3=28069&keyword=GOOGLEPLA-28069&gclid=CjwKCAjw8IXMBRB8EiwAg9fgMG6JS65wKQWRZEYToDto4MjoXDFkp7vnu5nEuVtjRrOMrfxzx9EK7BoChQ4QAvD_BwE

My problem is that there is no API for the wifi device or external control for this device except for the phone app. Internatic never replied to my email but Quietcool said they will be looking at some sort of Smart device solution soon. Nothing on the internet that is of any help.

I spent some time doing some net sniffing and found its doing JSON and broke thinks down further and found its doing COAP. I setup Command-Line COAP from GIT and I am able to control the fan with COAP/JSON.

From what I have read COAP is not available in Smartthings, is this correct? Is there anyway I can control this COAP device in Smartthings or something coming in the near future. Does Eclipse or Californium work on Smartthings?

Some added info:
The wifi is not on the cloud but on your local router and is ok with me. i have an Ecobee4 (outside sensor is actually on front porch to measure outside temp and front door motion), Tado Smart AC (for minisplit), Quietcool fan and now Smartthings Hub.

My plan is to control heating and cool with ecobee as master for indoor and outdoor temperature as well as control my heat (wall furnace) and whole house fan.

Thanks,
Pat

[erickards]

Pat,

Have you been able to make any progress on your QuietCool integration? I just purchased a QuietCool WHF, and am looking to do something similar. Any help or knowledge you could pass along would be very helpful and appreciated.

Thanks,
Erick

[dodgeboy]

I would really be interested in learning what you figured out here. I have the same setup, and would like to integrate it with smartthings. It may be possible to use a raspberry pi (or other workstation/server on the network) as a COAP gateway. Have a smart app post something to the COAP gateway, and have the COAP gateway make the call to the QuietCool.

I’ve captured the CoAP exchange between my phone and the fan controller, and can see the parameters like “speed, duration,” etc. But I have a lot to learn about CoAP.

[rontalley]

Remember, dumb devices with Smart Switches!

Does this power on/off without WiFi? If so you can just slap a SmartSwitch on the power junction box and use SmartThings to create the rules as to when the switch turns on/off.

[mvrs]

Hi, Sorry just found this message…

Note: You need to have a knowledge of electrical or electronics to do this. This is an example and its up to you to keep yourself safe and also do a safe / fire safe installation.

Here is a PDF of how I wired the Quiet Wifi in along with the wall switch timer.

If I were to do this all over again, I wouldn’t have purchased the Quietcool Wifi unit, it really isn’t needed if doing Z-Wave (already had it before starting home automation). The Z-Wave relay is small enough to fit in the Quietcool Switch/Timer Box.

I was able to fit the relays in the Wifi box.

If you try to do this without the Quietcool Wifi box then I think you could do this with single pole single throw relays. You will need a box up by the fan to hold the relays.

You can write yourself so Web Core routines to automate the fan. Use the routines along with a window switch and outside temperature.

Good Luck,
Pat

[dodgeboy]

If you try to do this without the Quietcool Wifi box then I think you could do this with single pole single throw

Thanks for the detailed reply! In your first post, it looked like you were able to successfully control the fan (with the WiFi controller) via CoAP in the CLI. Did you bail on that solution? I have the wifi controller, and was planning on attempting to control it that way. I used wireshark and got the CoAP exchanges, but I can’t figure out what the arguments should be, when sending it data from the CLI.

I may take the path that you outlined above, because it is a sure thing. But using the wifi controller is intriguing, and I like the status it gives you (remaining time, etc.).

[forcedfx (Chris)]

I realize this is a really old topic but I have a Ventmatic whole house fan that uses Coap to control it as well. I’m working on a personal Android app to let me automate a lot of my separate IoT devices. The fan being one of them.

I’ve pretty well dissected, learned, and reverse engineered how the fan uses Coap to communicate over UDP. I have a feeling it’s the same method that Quietcool is using. Anyway, if someone needs some assistance I can try to help.