Totally makes sense, so the fan controller gets line and neutral. The. Outputs controlled hot to fan motor, dim hot to lights and common?. I looked at the picture you attached and saw hot and neutral in and only two wires out so was confused. The way you describe makes by brain hurt less 
Haha, yeah – anything electrical makes my brain hurt a bit too. I’m just a marketing guy who they let color between the lines at work. I know basic electrical only because I’ve installed a bunch of smart switches and my dad is an EE so he bails me out when I need it 
Anyway, maybe these will help a bit:
That is actually very helpful, slightly different than what I thought however actually more simple. The neutral I have typically seen go through the controller but really there is no need to so your design makes sense.
Now in a typical dumb setup the feed from the electrical breaker comes into the switch then the output of the switch goes to the fan. In your design the breaker feed is simply to power the switch then always RF commands to the fan controller? Which also gets an always hot feed?
Yes, correct on both accounts!
Major thumbs up 
. Can your standard dimmer light switch work the same way? I asked that as a new topic in another part of the forum because my Sylvania recessed bulbs only want zigbee commands and want constant power.
Whoops, yeah my bad – I had that answer drafted, but never actually sent it! I just replied here (in case anyone else wants to read it): Dimmer Switch question
The short answer is that it works a little different, but also similar in that it can turn into a, “button controller”. You essentially can disable the internal relay of the switch (which makes it so that when someone presses the switch nothing happens to the load) and then send Z-Wave Central Scene Commands to the HUB (which then relays the commands to any device controlled by the HUB).
The major difference between the fan/light switch is that the fan light is meant to directly talk to the fan module, whereas in the Dimmer switch scenario, only other Z-Wave devices can be directly controlled by the switch (ie: Hue, Osram, LIFX would not be able to be directly controlled as they are different protocols). However, as noted, Hue/Osram/LIFX could be controlled via a Z-Wave Central Scene Command (you tap the switch > command is sent to the HUB > HUB sends command to bulb).
Hopefully that makes sense?
So, if I’m following the bouncing ball correctly, If I am just Toooo much in love with my Hampton Bay Zigbee controller, I can indirectly control the Light and Fan on that controller? The ONLY reason I might consider this configuration is that the HB unit has 4 speeds and currently the Inovelli only has 3(?). For what it’s worth, I think the HB speeds are like 25, 50, 75 and 100%
Edit: But that would be at the cost of power monitoring as that circuitry is in the fan module. Correct?
Lol, there is a lot going on in this thread, but it’s definitely fun seeing the various questions!
Can you help me understand how the HB unit works? I’m assuming it’s a ZigBee module that is wired into the fan canopy and you have some sort of remote on the wall? If so, what is at the physical switch (or do you just not use that?)
Sure! I’ll do my best 
The HB unit has both a Zigbee and an RF radio in it. This allows you to control the fan (4 speeds, Breeze mode and of course On/Off) and the fanlight (brightness & On/Off) from either the Zigbee (via Hub) or the provided handheld (RF) remote.
Unlike your unit I don’t believe that there are any smarts in the RF connection i.e. the Remote control is only a Transmitter, the Fan Unit RF is only a Receiver.
The only smarts, that I am aware of, are built into the Zigbee controller i.e. On/Off/Speed and brightness control/monitoring. But NO power monitoring.
Currently, I have a single, normal dumb switch in line with the fan controller to control power to the entire fan (again, no fourth wire). I leave this switch on all the time so the Fan module has power (Duh! ). Thus, control fan/light functions with the radios.
Hampton Bay does make a RF Remote control that mounts into a switch box. Even though it “Looks” like a switch, it still uses a battery and requires you to directly power the Fan controller. Which can cause issues if you need to reset the Zigbee radio (I won’t go into that here). Howeverrrrrrr! IMHO, the switch is Ugleeeeee!. It’s really off white and sticks out like a sore thumb and the buttons feel cheap and sloppy. I bought one. But, because of all the drawbacks mentioned above, I have refused to install it.
Sorry for somewhat derailing this thread.
One last question I think this brings up, since osram hue ect are zigbee I know they can’t talk to zwave directly. However with a hubitat wouldn’t that act as an interpreter? Allowing the communication to pass and translating it to the correct protocol?
I don’t have a hubitat yet so I could be way way wrong here.
I have a Hubitat HE and love it. Although I can control my Hue lights via a Z-Wave dimmer, the lag between the dimmer and light changing is a bit too long for my liking. I don’t believe this lag has anything to do with the hub. It has more to do with the loop timing… i.e the time it takes the dimmer event to go from the switch to the hub and then to the light. Kind of why I am excited to see these: Z-Wave Smart Bulbs Packaging. I think Z-wave association will fix the delay issue.
I left my computer at work, so apologies in advance if this is short or I miss something!
@Ma2J - ah makes sense on the fan setup. So, theoretically you could definitely use one of our existing switches and use tap sequences to control the fan and lights. The drawback would be that you’d have to remember what tap does what and there also may be a slight delay (Z-Wave to HUB to Zigbee).
With the new fan/light switch, the main buttons will have scene control on them so you could setup the switch to have the fan button do the following:
- Tap 1x = Turns fan to last level
- Tap 2x = Turns fan to 25%
- Tap 3x = Turns fan to 50%
- Tap 4x = Turns fan to 75%
- Tap 5x = Turns fan to 100%
However, there would be some drawbacks such as the LED bar wouldn’t reflect the proper fan or light level and you wouldn’t be able to use the dim buttons on the side to smoothly transition the lights.
But you’d have 4 speeds 
Yeah Hubitat, ST, etc speak multiple languages and can interpret some things, however some things just do not translate properly. One of those things is the Dimming in real-time command. I can check with our CTO on the more technical answer, but that’s my understanding.
I’ll dig further and get a better answer!
What support is there for the fan switches in regards to developing plugins for home automation systems. I currently am using Domoticz and find it a rather easy system - the software supports z-wave but I assume all things z-wave are not the same. Any insight would be helpful.
Hey great question @moengiant! I’m not super familiar with Domoticz, but I’ve got this question out to our CTO for a more thorough answer.
So, the great thing about Z-Wave is that it’s a very standardized protocol and all devices have to go through a rigorous certification process to ensure forward and backward compatibility. In addition, Z-Wave is brand agnostic in that all brands should work with each other (this is different than ZigBee and WiFi in that they were not standardized until recently).
The issue lies in the HUB/Gateway that controls the various devices. Some companies choose to block certain manufacturers due to strategic partnerships. While others simply are not advanced enough to support all the various Z-Wave commands.
This is why you see asterisks by a lot of our products – there’s a lot of advanced firmware inside these devices and not all HUB’s have caught up to the advancement in firmware. As noted above, the devices will be forward and backward compatible, and this is true for all the basic functionality (ie: On/Off/Dim, etc) but advanced functionality may vary.
I believe Domoticz, from what I’ve heard, is pretty good at keeping up with the latest and greatest Z-Wave has to offer, but again, I’ll double check.
I’ll check around the plug-in scenario for Domoticz, but for other HUB’s, yes, you can definitely write plug-ins and Eric (CTO) has written many different ones for SmartThings, Hubitat, etc.
Hope this helps!
I did not see any option to not have a controller in the fan/light housing. we installed one of our fan/lights using the existing dual slider switch the other three we used the Inovelli dimmers for the lights and the hunter remote for the fan. I guess it would not be a big deal to rewire the Family room fan/light but a lot of fan/light combos are wired with dumb slider switches.
Yeah, it was a real bummer, but we had to opt out of this feature for the Gen 1 due to the below:
Is this what you’re talking about? Sorry I’m on like 2hrs of sleep with the newborn lol!
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Is the switch going to have a parent and child device in the hub in order to be able to control the fan & light independently through Alexa?
Also, will be able to use the light switch as just on/off (disabling the dimming) while keeping the fan speed options?
Read through all the comments, but unsure if this was covered indirectly.
Currently have a Maestro Fan/Light Control MA-LFQ35M with an Accessory Switch MA-ALFQ35. There was originally a basic 3-way switch set up, on main floor and one upstairs, to control all power. The Maestro allows either switch location to control the canopy and the fan or lights independently.
Would we (I) be able to use 2 of these switches to control the canopy module in the same way?
Cheers,
Ryan
Hey @EAN2007 – excellent question. Let me follow up with the manufacturer to see how they plan on laying this all out. I know we had the disable relay function in the PRD (Project Request Document) – and for them to be separate, but I never got a definitive answer on if we could do this.
I put a note out to them the other day and the PM said they had to check with the firmware engineer – but I haven’t heard back, so I just sent another message.
@EricM_Inovelli – you may have an idea here on the parent/child device? Or at least what you submitted to them?
@MKITGO2 – this is actually another great question. I would think, in theory, this would be possible as the RF part of the switch can be paired to the module (via push pins) and you should be able to set both to pair to the module.
At the very least, you could associate the switches together so that Switch #2 would be able to send commands directly to Switch #1 and then #1 would send the RF command to the canopy.
Hope that makes sense? I’ll look for a clearer answer from the manufacturer as we start to work on firmware, but I do know my workaround via Association would work.
@Eric_Inovelli - That makes complete sense and would satisfy my needs for sure!! Not sure if you plan to sell a version with just an additional switch or not, but would certainly help in this situation. Thanks for the quick reply.