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Fireplace control


Ctsvnino

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Hello everyone. So the house were working on is new construction and want to control the fireplace. As we all know c4 discontinued the fireplace switch. So been reading about and so far best option is a cardaccess relay. Since the electrician doesn't want to wire nor touch which I think they just don't their ass from their elbow lol. So since this is something I don't want cause problems or blowing it up. How can I know what to connect to fireplace to make this work? Will post link to model and manual. If anyone can help me please do.Fireplace link 

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This actually leads into an integration request i planned on posting for a remote dealer / programmer

I had a Napolean LN62 fireplace during my recent renovation. The original C4 dealer originally agreed upon handling the integration, but in the end said it could not be done. 

The Napolean model i purchased utilizes a Proflame 2 transmitter, after a little digging i found a potential way of making it work (I'm sure there are more elegant ways of accomplishing this, but i am an end user that is technologically challenged to put it mildly). This particular controller uses a 315 mhz signal, so i purchased a Broadlink Pro+ learning remote transmitter. Used the proflame 2 remote that came with the unit & 'learned' the on / off and + / - functions to the app. The app it uses is called ihc - now i have the ability to control the unit through my phone, but i am hoping to have a remote dealer incorporate this function into the actual Control4 program my house runs. It is also nice to have the +/- control. From my understanding the communication goes APP -> Wifi -> broadlink -> RF -> Fireplace. It's tucked into a nearby cabinet, so i was not left with any eyesores either 

Also, there are a few transmitters that use a dedicated app & bluetooth that some manufacturers are using now. I do not know much about it though 

Good luck with the fireplace - let me know how you end up solving the integration 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I ran a cat6 line to the fireplace enclosure, to power an extra HC250 I had, and used the relay on the 250 to activate the switch. Works perfectly. 

And if I ever decide to add any additional automaton to the immediate area I have the controller handy to utilize. 

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We have 3 Napoleon units. 

Fireplace 1:  One came with the Napoleon remote.  The way that the installers and electricians configured it is that there was a wall switch hooked to 120V that had to be left on (otherwise the fireplace didn't have power), and then the remote would work.  If you turned it on via the remote, and then subsequently used the wall switch to turn it off, the next time that the wall switch was used, the fireplace would simply come on without doing anything with the remote (it remembered the last state, and wouldn't receive any on/off commands when the wall switch was off).  The whole way that this worked sucked, because if you sat down, and then reached for the remote to turn it on, if the fireplace had been turned off via the wall switch, the remote didn't function at all, so you had to get up, walk to the wall, flip the switch, and then the fireplace would come back on without doing anything with the remote.  This led to a few months of confusion between myself and my wife, and eventually I called the HVAC guys and the electricians.  They basically just claimed they didn't know much about the remote, and if I wanted to use the remote just to leave the wall switch up.  The electricians claimed they wire them all for no remote, because it's optional, so if I happen to have the remote, just don't use the wall switch.  Easier said than done when there's multiple people that could turn it on / off.

We had only a Lutron setup at the time, so what I did was used were Lutron components, but the same could be done with C4 components as well.

Once I realized how they were controlling the first unit, I changed the wall switch to a RadioRA2 switch (non-dimmer), and threw the remote away. 

Fireplace 2:  When we added another of these fireplaces in the basement, I had them set it up the same way, without the remote, and simply used a Lutron wall switch to turn it off / on.  This gave me control of it from anywhere via keypad, and subsequently through C4.

Fireplace 3:  On a third fireplace, they ran LV wires to a dual gang box on the wall next to it, and put two decora rocker switches into the box hooked up to the LV wires that ran to the fireplace.  One switch controlled the fireplace on/off, and the other controlled the fireplace light.  These were simple circuits, so when the circuit was closed, the fireplace or light would be on, and when the circuit was open, they'd turn off.  On this setup, since it was all just LV, I put a RadioRA2 visor control receiver that has three contact closure relays on it (so the same thing could be accomplished with one of the card access units) under the fireplace where all of the fireplace electronics are located.  I then replaced the wall switches with Pico remotes just to eliminate having two switches that did nothing, and make sure that someone walking into the room could figure out how to control the fireplace...  I didn't have a great way to run the wires away from the fireplace to avoid heat, but the visor control receiver has been living here fine for years, along with all of the fireplace electronics.  Had I had a choice, I would have located this somewhere else, because besides being subject to some heat, it's also basically in a metal enclosure, which usually isn't great for RF.  My lutron main repeater is about 20' away, and I've never had any issues.

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4 hours ago, Cartnj said:

Doesn’t it get hot in that enclosure ? I just ran a 18-2 from my controller to the fireplace 

Not mine. But I did put the 250 into a corner that i built a small enclosure with sheet rock in case that situation did arise 

i was gona run 18/2 but because of the distance and the possibility of a tv over the fireplace in the future, I wanted to future proof it a little 

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  • 8 months later...

@RC11

I have a Broadlink Pro+ and a Proflame 2 controlled fireplace.  I am unable to train the Broadlink Pro+ because it appears the signal is not constant out of the Proflame 2 remote.  It appears to send a burst versus a constant signal.

Any pointers on how to train the Broadlink Pro+? 

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I have a Broadlink Pro and Peoflame remote.  I was able to program the Broadlink to turn on and off the fire place (separate learning for each command).  I have been unable to program the rest of the remote functions.  Had anyone been able to do this?  Any tips?  FYI I can turn On and Off the fireplace via Google Assistant with my voice currently.

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  • 1 year later...

I just built our house and made sure to include a 2 wire lead to the media closet so that I could use the contact closure on the EA5 to switch the fireplace on and off.  Since most gas log sets are microvolt controllers all you need is the ability to control the contact closure on-off switch.

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On 11/26/2019 at 5:32 AM, pharlan said:

I have a Broadlink Pro and Peoflame remote.  I was able to program the Broadlink to turn on and off the fire place (separate learning for each command).  I have been unable to program the rest of the remote functions.  Had anyone been able to do this?  Any tips?  FYI I can turn On and Off the fireplace via Google Assistant with my voice currently.

Were you ever able to get this to work?

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3 minutes ago, Hizzle said:

I just built our house and made sure to include a 2 wire lead to the media closet so that I could use the contact closure on the EA5 to switch the fireplace on and off.  Since most gas log sets are microvolt controllers all you need is the ability to control the contact closure on-off switch.

I'm looking for more than just on/off control... flame size, light, fan, etc. 

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Bond works on my fireplace pretty well - on, off and Hi flame buttons work; Low button does not.  But it varies by make and model.  Bond documentation and support is very responsive with compatibility answers if you send them a picture of your remote with FCC ID.  
 

This Bond link also provides good feedback on supported devices - it uses FCC ID as input:  https://bondhome.io/supported-devices/

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BTW - My experience with the Bond Bridge has been fantastic. I learned about it through this forum and did a lot of reading posts, Chowmain’s driver doc, Bond forum, etc.  The product has worked as advertised-easy to install and add devices. I got away with one bridge to control 6 fans, 3 hurricane shades, and 1 fireplace situated in 4 different rooms-your mileage may vary as it’s just like wifi AP’s - range is dependent on construction and other obstructions between the source and target.  Wife uses it daily. 
 

I haven’t integrated to C4 yet because I wanted to determine reliability and usefulness of 1-way integration. And I’m totally happy with the product and will be integrating to C4. There are ways to get at least the fans to 2-way integration, but I don’t plan to do those mods at this point.

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Sorry it didn’t work it controls on/off great through c4 still have to use bing to control fan speed. Bond doesn’t seem to offer fire height or timer functions either. Still really nice to have some integration and can set up timers through c4 and can set to turn off if left on when bedtime or leaving.

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On 11/27/2019 at 7:38 AM, Baubas Cat said:

Bond does't work with gas fireplaces.

We use Bond to control our gas fireplace. We have a button on a keypad with a triple tap for on and single tap for off. You can search the forums and find several threads on this. Makes and models included.

Pretty sure ours weren’t in the database, but we just “learned” them.

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2 minutes ago, jsimon77 said:

You can go to the Bond website and put in the FCC code of your remote and it will tell if if it's supported. 

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