Jakelay Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 8 minutes ago, Pounce said: Nice. Do you know the actual model and make of the fans? Curious if these are actually DC fans. That I did check based on what I had read on this forum. They are all AC fans so no issue with the fan speed controller if I need to got that direction. I still have all of the manuals and model numbers from when we originally built the house 13 years ago. Had to call a few of the manufacturers. This stuff should really be easier to find in the manuals but oh well. Thanks again for your input on all of this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pounce Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 1 minute ago, Jakelay said: That I did check based on what I had read on this forum. They are all AC fans so no issue with the fan speed controller if I need to got that direction. I still have all of the manuals and model numbers from when we originally built the house 13 years ago. Had to call a few of the manufacturers. This stuff should really be easier to find in the manuals but oh well. Thanks again for your input on all of this! Good. I've only ever seen reverse on a remote when the motor is DC... but I'm from the North and maybe only ever wired up about 40 or so fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakelay Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 5 minutes ago, Pounce said: This Treatlife fan and light switch can be flashed with Tasmota for control with MQTT. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B086PPRWL7 https://www.treatlife.tech/products/smart-ceiling-fan-control-and-light-dimmer-switch-neutral-wire-needed-treatlife-single-pole-wi-fi-light-switch-fan-speed-control-works-with-alexa-google-assistant-schedule-remote-control Interesting! I'm already cautious about using the Bond bridge - having another system for C4 to interface with. But I don't see much of a choice at this point if I can get it to work. Not sure I want to get into another 3rd party integration - flashing, MQTT - don't want to mess with that if I don't need to right now. I could learn but I'm trying to go for easy install and easy use. Hoping the Bond bridge works for that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pounce Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 I mostly just posted it for the topic and not directed at you. Jakelay 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakelay Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 17 hours ago, Pounce said: I mostly just posted it for the topic and not directed at you. Just wanted to thank you again for your help and input. Wanted to share some notes for anyone looking at the Bond bridge and also C4 wiring options that I was unable to find in my searches: I got my Bond bridge a day early so I was able to work on getting the fans set up today. Since my C4 installation is planned for Monday I wanted to make sure I at least got the fans and Bond talking to make the programming easier for the guys. None of our remotes were in the Bond database (I did an online chat with customer service and they confirmed that was the case after I did a search using their website tool). However, on 2 of the remotes, I only had to select one button and send that to the bridge and it popped up a number of similar remotes with fan/light configurations and I was able to choose through a few of those to find a template that worked. The third fan was a lot more tricky since the RF remote is more complex with an LCD screen and some toggle and selection buttons and other buttons that change their 'signal' after multiple button presses. I was able to 'trick' the buttons into sending a fan speed signal since I figured integration with the Chowmain driver and C4 would be easier with 3 fan speeds instead of separate speed up/down buttons. That one took about 15 minutes to figure out but still not bad. I set the bridge up in a room where we have an IR remote fan out of necessity and the signal reaches through a wall and across a hall and into another room with no problems. There is a slight delay on the signal being sent but nothing unbearable. The IR fan works great! I wasn't sure what to expect with the IR emitter in the bridge but it looks like the signal shoots out from 5-6 emitters around the sides of the bridge and up at about a 45 degree angle. I have the bridge sitting on a shelf under our TV about 4-5 feet high and the IR signal is picked up really well from the fan on a 12 foot ceiling. I was able to set up direction reversing on all three fans so no ladders (especially great for our 20'+ family room ceiling fan!) So there's the Bond info. For C4 switch/keypad installation - we currently have 2 switches at each fan. One powers the remote receiver module in the fan and that powers both the lights and fan. The other existing switch is really for a setup where there are no remotes. This 'old fashioned' setup would normally have one switch operate the lights and the other switch would only power the fan load. With the remote receiver wiring, we really only needed to have the one switch so the other switch is a capped off 'dummy' line that currently does nothing. I wanted to keep the reverse direction control because 2 of the fans have no reverse switch - it is only able to be set on the remote so if we had to remove the receiver module to wire into the two switch setup I would have no way of reversing the fan direction (main reason for the Bond bridge). Now, thanks to the Bond setup, we are going to put in a C4 switch for the fan and a configurable keypad (not a keypad dimmer) on the line going to capped off 'dummy' switch. More options with programming and we can use the reverse function with the Bond app or the existing remotes if needed for any fan functions or if something gets wonky with the Bond bridge. Anyway, it took me a LOT of research and figuring out to get here and I thank all who offered suggestions and ideas. Hoping this helps some folks who may need to search for a similar situation at some point in the future. Now we just have to make sure all goes smoothly on the C4 end . . . hoping next week goes well. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERDrPC Posted July 5, 2020 Share Posted July 5, 2020 On 5/6/2020 at 7:54 PM, alanchow said: If you are going to invest in a Minka fan get one of the Minka-Aire Smart Fans. This has Bond technology built in. Just install the fan and the driver and you're ready to rock and roll. https://www.minkagroup.net/smart-fan/ I'm looking at the F868L-ORB would this have bidirectional communication? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted July 6, 2020 Author Share Posted July 6, 2020 15 hours ago, ERDrPC said: I'm looking at the F868L-ORB would this have bidirectional communication? Yes that fan has Bond built in. See instruction details for more information. https://images.homedepot-static.com/catalog/pdfImages/54/54985d76-1899-44a0-b61b-79c1b1b6cd98.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakelay Posted July 10, 2020 Share Posted July 10, 2020 Since I hijacked this thread with some detailed questions, I thought it was only fair to come back and share my experience since most of our system finally went in this week. This driver worked great with the Bond bridge! First time the programmer used it and they were super impressed. Everything works as needed although I do wish C4 had the default ability to have the reverse direction in the fan/lighting screen. I’m sure this could be added with an experience button but it’s usually a once/ year need so not a huge deal - we’ll probably just use the existing fan remotes for that. I took screen shots of each fan’s control buttons we wanted integrated from the Bond app, gave the programmer the account and pin info from the bridge and he was able to get everything working in minutes. We really wanted to stick with the remote modules installed on our fans since the they don’t have any manual way to reverse the fan direction and the Bond bridge coupled with this driver seem to be working great. Thanks Alan and thanks to everyone that offered assistance on this thread! Pounce 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted March 15, 2021 Author Share Posted March 15, 2021 On 6/29/2020 at 1:40 AM, Pounce said: Anyone know how to source a Bond Bridge Pro? https://bondhome.io/products/bond-pro/ Bond is releasing the pro in the next couple of weeks. I was asked to join their CEO for a CE Pro podcast which came out over the weekend. You can read / listen / watch it via the link below. https://www.cepro.com/podcast/ce-pro-podcast-47-olibra-bond-bridge-pro/ dcovach 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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