ZigBee Fan Switch | Project Zephyr (Blue Series)

Is white already a given? That would be my vote for color.

I just wanted to say I’m super excited about this product! We have three fairly basic Hunter fans installed in our place. But I’m short (and have disability/health issues) so turning off/on and controlling speed is always a pain. I’ve been considering the Lutron series but haven’t been able to convince myself it’s the best option. Having your product as an alternative that will not only turn off/on but control speed would be a dream! And with Hubitat able to expose to HomeKit…awesome. And also super happy to see that these will support Matter!

I’ll have to check our actual wiring but I know our main living area just has a single fan switch with no lights, which should work fine and the two bedroom fans have separate light and fan power switches. I currently have smart bulbs in one of the fans already so might not need to do more there.

Just out of curiosity, whereas the pull chair has three set speeds, I noticed you mentioned two wires that should be available to control speed. Does this mean that speed controlled by the switch would be more variable (like a dimmer for speeds) or will it also have three set speeds like the pull chain? I don’t honestly mind that much either way (certainly not a dealbreaker) but I’m curious how it will work.

If I can help test these at all, please let me know as I’d be most happy to!

For directly attached ‘dumb’ fans, it is three speeds. For ‘smart’ fans it will be levels 0-100

Great question – there will be a dedicated fan paddle. Unfortunately it has a longer Air-Gap than the other switches, so we couldn’t share tooling with the 2-1’s.

I will add the variation to the site shortly.

Awesome! Happy to be in your consideration set, that means a lot!

Great question – @mamber summed it up perfectly.

Initially you’ll have to pull the chain to set the fan on the highest speed, but once you do that and install the switch, you’ll be able to set the fan to low-med-hi from either the switch, remotely or via voice control if applicable.

Thanks for volunteering! We’re at the end stages of testing these, but if there’s any other projects you’re interested in testing in the future, let me know!

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How is everything going with these? Are you still on track for April/May?

Great question! As far as I’m aware, yes we should still be on schedule. We do have a call on Thursday where I should be getting an updated timeline if things change.

I know there were rumblings of the MG24 having longer lead times, but we placed the order back in January so I don’t think it will affect this batch.

Ping me if I don’t give an update by EOD Thurs!

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Will do and thanks for the quick response. I only needed to order 5 of these, but they will certainly fill a large void in my setup at home. I’m looking forward to these.

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Hi, I’m looking for a smart switch to control a 120V AC, 2A, 196W duct booster fan.
I would like to be able to turn the fan on and off, as well as adjust the speed.
Is this something that could be done with this planned switch?
I could not find a max watt, amp or HP rating.
All the other switches I could find were to adjust a 3- or 4-speed fan.

Did you mean 120 VAC or is this a DC fan that is feed 120VAC and stepped down to DC?

Sorry, my mistake, I corrected the post. It is an AC fan, Fantech FT 10XL.

Their datasheet I just found lists 2.24A, on the website I found it lists 2A so not sure which it is.

It is NOT a smart fan

Thanks.

Yeah, their power specs are a little wonky. Looking at the data sheet you posted, 2.24A @ 120VAC is NOT 190W, it’s 269W.

In any event, the Blue Fan switch is rated at 120VAC @ 2.5A (300W). So your specs are under the published max. I don’t think the fan switch has been tested with a duct fan, but that shouldn’t be any different than a bathroom or ceiling fan.

Quick update – conservatively speaking, this is looking more like a May / June release now as we are not expected to get the MG24 samples until the first week of April as the firmware engineer has been working on fixing the Blue 2-1 switch firmware while also finalizing the Z-Wave 2-1 (which is done now).

This is, unfortunately, the downside of having only one firmware engineer :confused:

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Thanks for the reply, and yes their power ratings are all over the place.

One more question.
Does the blue fan “switch” allow me to control fan speed or does it just turn the fan on and off?

I’m asking since I don’t see speed control mentioned anywhere on the product website.

Andreas

It is either on/off or 3 speeds.

Only 3? I know some fans have up to 6 speed settings (so 3, 4, 5 and 6 are all possible).

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Yes only 3 unless the designed was changed. I have an 8 speed but it’s a DC fan so on/off mode will work for it and just use the manufacturer’s remote.

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That’s not what I am looking for, I was hoping it would work like a manual fan speed controller that I can buy for a duct booster fan.
Here are two examples.

The fan I’m using needs a variable type drive.

This is not what you need then if you’re looking for a rheostat type device. You may be able to wire something in line and use bindings to control it from a blue switch, but the fan switch will not have that much adjustability.

Keep in mind that your smart fan switch isn’t controlling the 3 or 4 speeds built into a non-smart fan; when driving an AC motor, it’s directly controlling the power supplied to the fan to produce the same effect as the built in pull-chain or a fan speed switch. And it won’t work with a DC fan as @harjms mentioned.

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@MarkTr322 I understand that - but my point was, the amount of power you’re supplying is 0% 33% 66% 100% (for a 3-speed fan).
Surely it should be easy to configure the switch to change it’s steps to 25% 50% 75% 100% (for a 4-speed fan) or 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% for a 5 speed fan.

If a manufacturer comes with a 4 or 5 speed controller (even though it’s just an AC motor, not a DC motor or smart fan, so theoretically any speed would work), you would hope the switch could emulate that. And it’s not exactly a difficult thing to do in firmware to have it able to change how many set points (3-6) to use, so it doesn’t feel like you’re losing out on functionality.

I don’t think the switch is built with more than a 3 speed circuitry. I don’t think it’s a firmware changeable item.

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