Exactly, what Radio Frequency (RF) is it? 433Mhz?
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I donât think you understandâŚ
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Maybe I didnât understand your point, but you seriously misunderstood it and missed mine. While it very well may be on the same frequency, it is communicating directly to the switch a few feet away, not trying to make it all the way to my hub 2 floors away.
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If you have a Zigbee switch and a Zigbee canopy module bound to each other, they communicate directly without going through the hub. Both also are repeaters and will strengthen the Zigbee mesh.
Itâs also worth noting that the Zigbee canopy module has an antenna wire (compared to the switches which do not) which do help to increase itâs communication range, especially with metal fan boxes since it sticks out intoi the canopy, not just in the junction box.
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My original comment, a little ways up, I was wanting to keep the lzw36 wall switch and control the canopy via the hub. Going from the lzw36 wall switch to the zigbee paddle is a huge downgrade. Unlabeled buttons on it with scene control vs dedicated buttons is not something I want to do. Which is why, I said that was very sad to hear they are not intending to produce a z-wave version.
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In any case, the other commenter was just being an immature troll.
Totally fair. Project Walt should help with some of that, but will still require you to replace the switch with a Zigbee one.
That said, even without a Zigbee switch, the external antenna will likely be good enough to get you a signal to your hub (assuming of course you donât like in a house with metal / cinderblock / plaster walls and your house isnât a giant mansion. Of course, your mileage may vary, but I think itâs worth a shot.
I had the wink/king of fans canopy module before the lzw36 which was zigbee. I had 3 or 4 peanut wall plugs to signal repeat and still wasnât stable. Wife approval factor plummeted and I was a very early adopter of the lzw36. Unfortunately one was problematic and had 2 warranty replacements before they stopped producing them. Really crap situation as there is really nothing else on the market that features the same functionality. Namely, separate clear controls on the wall, stable, supports lighting and fan and doesnât require a second load wire to the fan to control the lighting. Sigh. Thanks for your actually helpful comments, itâs much appreciated.
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For what itâs worth, if you want to control the zigbee canopy module via your hub, doing so from a z-wave wall switch is entirely possible - Iâm using an old z-wave switch I had lying around on which the relay seems to have gone bad, but the z-wave side was still working fine. Programmed it up to control the fan portion of the canopy module without issue.
Of course, itâs not as nice as direct binding, but I doubt anyone would notice the difference.
EDIT: of course, that doesnât help with signaling at allâŚ
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My concern is that the canopy module has to reach all the way to the hub directly, it I would have to go back to putting zigbee repeaters all over again which I would prefer not doing. I built out a robust z-wave network over the years with probably thousands of dollars in pieces and parts, that swapping to zigbee entirely is not an option either.
Right. I realized that after typing my reply, thus the edit 
Iâm actually kind of in the same boat, except I think the range will be fine in my case (much closer to the hub than you are), so I can probably get away with mixing the two protocols. Still less than ideal though.
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What hub are you using? Zigbee has changed a bit with chipsets and with the right channel chosen you may not need the same number of repeaters as you did previously. Added benefit is that youâd be able to use both zwave and zigbee going forward. Just an option to think about
Habitat c7
Two things that are particularly relevant to the problem you are describing:
- The King of Fans/Hampton Bay Fan Controller module was well known for being prone to this exact problem, likely because of a weak antenna.
- On early models, some users were able to open the module and replace the antenna, which I think used a standard uFL connector. (On later units, I think people had problems doing this, maybe because the connector changed or was soldered or the unit was hard to open â I canât remember.)
- FWIW, I had occasional problems with this myself that went away after swapping the antenna, though I eventually replaced it with an LZW36 (and now VZM36, which is also working well).
- You can find many posts about this in the Hubitat forum and likely elsewhere, though it seems to have taken until about 2019 for people to have caught on that there might be a problem with the device and needing a bunch of repeaters in the same room for a single device isnât normal (e.g., Hampton Bay Zigbee Controller - Intermittent Connectivity - Resolved - #13 by neonturbo - đď¸ Get Help - Hubitat).
- Peanut Plugs are also problematic Zigbee repeaters for some users, so this also might not be helping your case. (See, among other things it links to and others you can find with a search: Great Peanut Panic of 2020: What's the issue with the peanuts? - đŹ Lounge - Hubitat)
In short, I wouldnât shy away from Zigbee if your experience with the King of Fans unit is your only experience â though I understand the hesitation if you have absolutely nothing else for repeaters, since thatâs a good idea in any case (especially if you donât have a C-8 or later that will likely get better range with the external antennas).
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Ordered one to try since there no reason to wait out the z-wave version anymore 
Why back and checked, been waiting for a replacement to be released since March of 22. Uggg 2 years waiting
While I was beta testing this, I created a work box that housed the canopy module. I wired the canopy module to to two outlets; one for a light and one that controlled a fan. The housing was a 4 gang metal box, in my garage, behind a steel door and stucco walls, with my Hubitat C-5 two rooms away. I had ZERO issues with signal strength to the module. All firmware updates went through without issues and all commands were sent.
VZM36 + VZM31-SN + ZHA
Checking back after a couple weeks to see if there had been any progress.
Somehow I managed to upgrade my VZM31-SN to fw 2.17, but I donât see endpoint 3. Any ideas?
The instructions and pics in the bindings guide donât match what my ZHA looks like so Iâm finding a few things tough to decipher:
- When binding in ZHA, should I be using individual or group?
- I donât see how to bind a specific endpoint to a specific endpoint, as outlined in the canopy guide (e.g. âVZM31-SN/VZM35-SN EP3 â VZM36 EP1â). It appears the binding is device to device. What am I missing?
SoâŚthrowing is out there and iâm interested to hear the possible solutions. I will be installing the module into a fan that does not have a switch dedicated to it (I use a remote/voice assistant to turn on/off for both the light and the fan). is there a zigbee smart button I could use and create an automation for using the fan and/or the light? Thank you again!
From what you describe you have power to the fan box with no wired switch. Since you are presently using a remote and voice control, the fan presently has a module compatible with the existing remote.
Hopefully the fan has an AC motor (a lot, but not all, fans with remotes have DC motors), as the module is designed to work with AC motors.
Any smart button compatible with your hub should work to run automations to control the light and the fan. It doesnât have to be Zigbee (for a button). For switches, a Zigbee switch is recommended so that you can bind the switch to the module, but this doesnât apply to buttons. And a Zigbee switch isnât even required. Any scene compatible switch will work so long as it can send commands to the hub.
I believe you have to factory reset it and add back into your network to see the EP03.
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