ZigBee Fan Switch | Project Zephyr (Blue Series)

You can find it at the top of this page, the home page as @mamber suggested (although I will be changing it to the Red Series shortly), or from the main menu, it should show up as, “Blue Series - Fan Switch” (2nd one down).

Hope that helps!

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Project Update:

No real update on this project – we’re in a slight holding pattern while we wait for samples of the MG24. As a quick refresher, we had tested everything on the MG21 and the switch was ready to go, but per the community (and us), we made the decision to upgrade to the MG24. The manufacturer is saying it will take a couple months to develop the firmware for the MG24, but we’re pressing them on that as we are under the impression that there should not be much of a change.

Side note: If anyone from SiLabs or someone who is familiar with the MG21 vs MG24 can weigh in, that would be great.

The manufacturer also is about to leave for Chinese New Year, so we may not see an update until early February. Just want to give a heads up in case I don’t provide an update in a couple weeks.

As of right now, we’re still on track for the April / May production run.

Great to hear about moving to the MG24 chips instead of MG21s.

Will these fan switches require a module in the ceiling with the fan to operate properly (i.e. fan on/off and speed control)?

No, you need a dedicated fan circuit and gang on the wall for this.

A dedicated fan circuit? Is that code?

Not “dedicated circuit” as in “on its own breaker”, but a separate wall switch with its own wire to the fixture.

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Yeah sorry I meant it’s own load wiring. My bad.

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You will also need neutral at the switch. There is it (presently) a way to have a non-neutral configuration. So if you have a switch loop currently for your ceiling fan, you’ll need to look at options (different switch, zigbee module in canopy to bind etc…)

Is it safe to assume that if the switch controls only the fan, that it has its own wire to the fixture? I have 2 switches, one for the light on the fan and one for the actual fan.

Yes, if you have two switches already then you’re all set to replace with one of these and a light switch.

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I’ve read through most of this page and I think that I follow the capabilities, but I am looking to confirm.

I have two use cases in my house:
First: Living Room has a AC ceiling fan and a 2-switch gang box. One toggle switch controls the power to the fan and the other does nothing does nothing. The fan speed is controlled via a pull chain. It sounds like I can replace the 2 switches on the wall with a Blue 2-1 Switch to control the lights and a Blue Fan Switch to control the fan.

Second (and the one that I am confused on): Bedrooms all have ceiling fans with one toggle switch on the wall that controls the power to the fan and a pull chain to control fan speed. If I am following correctly, I would need to put in a second switch on the wall (to mimic the Living Room setup) or go with a different product. Is that correct? Where I am confused is that Eric has a picture from May that shows something that looks like it goes in the ceiling to allow for one switch at the wall.

I am fine with 2 switches for the Living Room, but would prefer to have a solution with only one switch for the bedrooms.

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I think you should be good depending on what that switch that does nothing is wired to. If it goes up to the light and is just disconnected up there, you should be good.

There are usually a couple different scenarios (that I’m aware of, I’m not an electrician though and am just going off personal experience with ceiling fans):

  • There is a 12/3 or 14/3 cable coming into the box (ie: Black, White, Red & Ground) and the Black and Red control the fan speed and lights. If you have this, then you’re good to use two switches down there (Blue Series 2-1 for lights, Blue Series Fan for fan)
  • There are two separate 12/2 or 14/2 cables that are coming down – one is for the fan and one is for the light (you’re also good here to use both switches)

If you don’t have this setup and only have one 12/2 or 14/2 wire coming in, then unfortunately you will need the Fan/Light switch that we used to make and are bringing back.

NET: It really depends on what that switch does that does nothing and if it’s wired to the fan or not. At the very least if your one switch controls the fan, you should be able to use the fan switch.

Yes, this is correct. We had a solution for this, but unfortunately had a falling out with the manufacturer so we’re having to start from scratch.

The picture I posted (I think what you’re referring to) is what I tried to explain above (sorry for the confusion… I’m not the best at explaining things).

Scenario #1: You have either one load cable coming into the box that has black/white/red that goes to your fan (you will also have another cable in your box that has Line/Power – hopefully…) or you have two load cables coming into your box (likely 2x black/white cables) – one of the black wires is for the fan, whereas one of the black wires is for the light.

In either case, if you want to use our switch, you will have to have two light switches – one for the fan and one for the light. If you want one switch, unfortunately we don’t have a solution for that right now, but we plan to work on one.

Scenario #2: You have one load cable coming down that has only a black and white wire inside (plus a separate cable that carries power). If this is the case, then if you want both fan and light control, we don’t have anything right now that will solve for that. We used to, but we’re redesigning it and hope to have it back in the summer.

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Thank you very much! Your explanations were good, I just didn’t catch on that the solution that you had pictured wasn’t viable anymore.

I’m still waiting to get my Home Assistant setup installed and very much looking forward to putting in all of my Blue series switches. I wish you success and good luck on expanded products.

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Are there any plans for a combined fan/light control like the current Red Series product? None of my fans have a place for two switches in the current j-box, and I really am not looking forward to replacing 6 j-boxes in the house (currently they are controlled with an Insteon FanLinc and a Insteon KeypadLinc). In addition, at least two of the fans are only wired with a single pair of wires, so I don’t have separate control wires for the light and fan. Most of them were just ceiling lights at one point, so whoever wired them initially only ran hot, neutral, and ground.

I’m thinking I should have purchased 6 of the Red fan controls while they still existed… :slight_smile:

Hopefully sometime soon but time will tell.

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I can’t find the answer anywhere in this thread, but will these work with low startup current exhaust fans like the Panasonic Whisperquiets? I assume so since it has a neutral?

They should! It’s more about the switch handling motor loads and the whisper quiet should definitely be minimal load.

I have 3 rooms with something like scenario #2. There is 1 switch with 5 wires:
Black
Black
Red
White
Ground
(the fans connections to the wires also plays a role into the behavior of the switches. Adding complexity.)

To keep it simple, I was planning on getting a blue-series FAN switch and a Zigbee light bulb in the fan. The Inovelli blue FAN switch would control the fan motor, and then I would program a couple virtual switches in the Blue Series to control (on/off/dim) the lights. (I am hoping that smartBulb or scenes can allow this to work?)

If you notice any issues or have suggestions, please let me know. Thanks!

I think it’s been asked a couple of times and we still don’t have a solid answer as to which color paddle we should be ordering for these switches. Let us know! Thanks!