Hey all, the other day I was reviewing parameters and saw that in the Blue Fan switches, there’s a parameter titled “Smart Bulb Mode,” but the options to select are Smart Fan mode. Took a look at the parameters list and sure enough, it calls out a Smart Fan Mode with a description that makes sense. I guess my question is though, if a switch is in Smart Fan mode, how do you associate switch commands with it? I’m using HA and Z2M, so do you just write an automation in HA that continues to listen for the input and then sends the signal accordingly? With Light switches, I’m able to use binding to send commands to Hue bulbs without writing an automation, so is there something similar with fan switches that I wasn’t aware of?
Sorry, I feel like this is a dumb question, but there’s something I’m just missing/not grokking here.
I use Smart Fan Mode for a couple of my ceiling fans.
They came from the factory with an RF control module that includes the fan reverse function. So no pull chains, no reverse switch, and the Blue canopy module can’t reproduce the reverse function, which we do make use of.
The light portion of the canopy modules in those fans is wired directly to the light fixture. But instead of wiring the fan portion directly to the fan motor, it is wired to the original RF receiver module. Smart fan mode lets it provide continuous power to that RF receiver.
I have a Bond Bridge that can send RF signals to the RF receiver.
In my HA dashboards, I directly expose the fan entity from the Bond Bridge. So the Inovelli bits don’t come into play at all.
I also have an Inovelli switch and a ZigBee remote that are bound to the canopy module. For that to make anything actually happen in the fan requires an automation in HA that syncs any canopy module fan speed changes to Bond Bridge commands.
All that said - if you are able to wire your canopy module directly to the fan motor, smart fan mode is of no use as far as I can tell.
Yeah, the main reason I’m asking is because I am still searching for (or trying to decide on) a solution for what I want to do with fans in my house. Definitely seems like reverse isn’t possible and would require a lot of work from my research and convos with others on this forum. I’m also planning on replacing all the ceiling fans in my house, so I’m trying to figure out a solution before making a substantial purchase.
I guess where I’m getting lost in your response is what are you actually using the switch for then? How does turning the switch “on” or “off” work when the switch is in smart mode. For example, when “smart mode” is enabled on light switches, even when the switch is “off,” the power to the bulb stays on (because it’s supposed to). So what does the “on” or “off” part of the switch actually do in your setup, and how is it controlled?
Power for the fan runs through the switch. Both the line and load wires are connected to the line connector on the switch. This provides continuous power to the canopy module. The switch itself doesn’t have smart bulb mode or smart fan mode enabled.
The light portion of the canopy module is wired directly to the fan’s light fixture. The fan portion of the canopy module is wired to the original fan RF receiver module. In the canopy module, smart bulb mode is disabled, and smart fan mode is enabled.
The paddle of the switch is bound using Zigbee bindings to the light function in the canopy module. So I can control the fan light with the wall switch paddle.
The config button of the switch is bound to the fan speed function in the canopy module.
When I push the config button on the switch, the canopy module fan speed goes to medium, for example. But this has no effect on the actual fan speed due to smart fan mode being enabled in the canopy module. But the HA automation sees the change and tells the Bond Bridge to send the “medium” command to the original RF module.
To be honest, I kind of hate this set up. But it was the best I could come up with without replacing fans that we otherwise really like.
For our other fans that have a physical reverse switch, the original RF modules and smart fan mode are not used, and they are much more responsive.
Okay, so reading this back to you: you enable “smart fan mode” on your switch, but the paddle is only being used to control the light. The only way you control the fan is by using the config button + a HA automation to send a command via Bond. Is that correct?
In general, “smart” mode just means that power is allowed to flow continually to the connected device. Beyond that, the configuration of bindings or automations to actually control the smart device is up to you.
I see on my fan switches that the setting is called “SmartBulbMode”, and the value you can select for that is “Smart Fan Mode”, which is a bit confusing. Regardless, it just means that the power flows if it’s enabled.