Arlec Grid Connect Ceiling Fans

mgladwin · October 8, 2021, 4:20am

Hi Hawker,
I was wondering if you could give a little more detail to the way you went about this method?
I have only just started with HA today and have 6 of the Arlec Fans/Lights to deal with and I think your post/method is my best option knowing where I am at with all this stuff. I have HACS installed as well as localtuya and will pair all the fans with Smart Life app tonight (currently paired with Grid Conenct app). I have an android emulator setup and i guess this is the part where I start to need a bit more help. Look forward to hearing from you! Cheers!

EDIT: After watching YouTube vids as you suggested in you basic steps, I think I have it figured out. Haven’t tried yet but will do over this weekend and see how I go. Thanks for posting your method either way!

tinglis1 · October 8, 2021, 8:07am

If you install the tuya local component via HACS and then replace the three files from the link in my previous post then you should get full speed local control of the fan.
Just make sure you get the right tuya local component.

mgladwin · October 8, 2021, 11:27am

Have done this just now. Thanks.

I’ve got the fan (with light) into HA and fan turns on/off. I have to figure out all the settings for it now. Haven’t got light working yet.

EDIT: Light is working. Can turn on & off and adjust brightness or intensity or whatever its called. Cant get fan to work since changing the three files.

EDIT 2: Seems to all be working now. Thanks

EDIT 3: What should the fan settings be now with the three files changed?

tinglis1 · October 8, 2021, 8:19pm

This is my config for the arlec ceiling fan I have.

Your config has the DPS in the oscillation field, that should be in the direction.
Also the max speed should also be 6.

mgladwin · October 9, 2021, 5:51am

Thanks mate. I’ve tried to remove the Fan Oscillating Control dps line but once I submit and go back in its there again. Not sure how to remove it and I cant find it in any config file to delete it manually??

EDIT: OK figured that bit out. Now just need to work out how to set the colour range properly. The config calls for a min and max kelvin but the light doesn’t have that set directly.

It has this when I view in developer tools > states

color_temp: 280
hs_color: 27.105, 43.253
rgb_color: 255, 194, 144
xy_color: 0.449, 0.373

They all change in relation to the colour of the light but I don’t know how to convert it to min and max kelvin apart from trial and error.

tinglis1 · October 9, 2021, 11:04am

Easiest way will likely be to remove the device from the integration and re add it.

mgladwin · October 9, 2021, 11:06am

Yep got that sorry. See my EDIT above.

tinglis1 · October 9, 2021, 11:31am

I haven’t managed to get the colour temp part working either. One day I will have a look at the light python code and make it more flexible but as I don’t ever change the colour I haven’t had it high on my list of things to do.

So based in the post above your fan is working with direction and all 6 speeds?
As I submitted the new fan integration for the I am always looking to hear from those who it worked for. Otherwise I only ever hear from those who it didn’t work for.

mgladwin · October 10, 2021, 10:49am

I managed to get the temp control working through trial and error of the Min and Max kelvin. Only thing is the slider image is backwards so when it’s cool light the slider shows warm and vise versa. Ended up with Min 2850k and Max 6500k. This got the slider end points correct with that I was seeing in smart things app.

Yep the fan integration seems to work perfectly! I haven’t written any automation or anything with it yet but it seems to work fine using the slider and incrementing the speed that way.

So thanks for that and also your help here getting my fans and lights to work.

Stenve · November 10, 2021, 7:16am

excellent work @mgladwin and @tinglis1

Just installed 4 of these fans and being new to HA the info above made my life a lot simpler getting these working on localtuya, thank you.

Any developments on fixing the incorrect (reversed) colour temp slider or incorporating the other fan modes?

tinglis1 · November 11, 2021, 6:25pm

The integration could do with some work on the light component as you pointed out it isn’t very good with colour handling.

The other modes such as presets are a work in progress and may not make it into the current pull request.

Chris_Hemmings · November 18, 2021, 9:13am

Hey all.

Found my way here after searching for Tuya fan dps lists.

I am actually using openhab with tuya-mqtt as the middleman. Now Tuya-mqtt is no longer maintained, so im stuck with the current setup.

I have an arlec grid connect fan same as noted, and everything is working, except for DPS 3. If i change values in the app DPS 3 returns 1-6. But if i set DPS 3 using payloads 1 to 6, it defaults directly to speed 6,
The weird thing is, i have an arlec tower fan, and DPS 3 with payload 1-4 works perfectly fine.

I think this is obviously a tuya-mqtt issue, although im quite interested in converting this fan over to tasmota as i have with many other devices.

Anyone have any idea on the best way i can get this working using openhab and tuya-mqtt.
I know this is a HA page, just thought i would ask.

otherwise ill go the route of converting the chip and flashing tasmota.

Chris_Hemmings · November 18, 2021, 9:20am

Hey Ryan

Literally just joined so i cannot send you a message.

Any boards left? can i get one posted to sydney?

darecki · November 21, 2021, 4:45am

I just made myself smaller one (35x19), expect them in Syd in a week and a week later to have something assembled and tested. If I didn’t screw it, I will have a few in surplus.

Gi11y · November 22, 2021, 10:47am

I’d be interested in 3 of the boards if you do end up with some surplus

darecki · December 1, 2021, 3:53am

Alright, PCB arrived. I must admit I screwed them but in usable way. Let’s get some photos.

darecki · December 1, 2021, 3:56am

Now assembled:

darecki · December 1, 2021, 4:00am

Here is the problem - my pins are 254 and are too big. I didn’t take this measure, so workaround applied.

And double sided tape to hold it a bit on capacitor. There is also sponge in box so it holds position:

Compared with original one:

I ordered 15, need 2, will keep 4-5, can share the rest.

Tested, one fan made ESPhome and works as expected.

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# TUYA SETUP FOR ARLEC CEILING FAN
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

substitutions:
  devicename: "office-fan"
  friendly_name: "Office Fan"
  ssid: !secret wifi-ssid
  ssidpass: !secret wifi-password

esphome:
  name: ${devicename}
  platform: ESP8266
  board: esp01_1m
  esp8266_restore_from_flash: true

wifi:
  ssid: $ssid
  password: $ssidpass
  ap:
    ssid: ${devicename}
    password: ap_password

captive_portal:
logger:
  baud_rate: 0
api:
  password: !secret api_password
ota:
  password: !secret ota_password
uart:
  rx_pin: GPIO03
  tx_pin: GPIO01
  baud_rate: 9600
tuya:

sensor:
  - platform: wifi_signal
    name: $devicename WiFi Signal
    update_interval: 60s

  - platform: uptime
    name: $devicename Uptime
fan:
  - platform: "tuya"
    name: ${friendly_name}
    switch_datapoint: 1
    speed_datapoint: 3
    direction_datapoint: 4
    speed_count: 6

rymo · January 9, 2022, 8:54am

More than a year after starting this project I’ve moved in and am finally using these fans for myself!

Everything works, but I’ve discovered an annoying quirk with the light. I’m using these fans as the main light in each bedroom and don’t want too much light before sleep. At a neutral colour temperature it’s possible to dim the light extremely low such that you can barely see the individual LEDs glowing with the cover off, but with full cool or warm white “1%” brightness results in light output and power consumption about the same as neutral white at 25%. They’re not doing any gamma correction so 25% power is something like 50% perceived brightness!

The trick to get dim warm white is to keep the brightness at 1% and instead adjust the colour temperature between 50 (practically off) and 100 (equivalent to 25% brightness at neutral colour temp). If you’re a masochist that wants cool white, the same works by adjusting colour temperature between 0 and 50.

I use GitHub - basnijholt/adaptive-lighting: Adaptive Lighting custom component for Home Assistant to to adjust the colour temperature of my lights throughout the day, so without modification one of these fans set to 1% brightness would actually go from 25% to 0% and back up to 25% as the sun sets. To hide this weirdness from Home Assistant I’ve hacked ESPHome to try and bidirectionally map brightness and colour temp to their actual values. See:
Commits · rmounce/esphome · GitHub

I’m interested if there are any other warm white aficionados who would like to try my hack, if so I may try and clean it up for submission to ESPHome.

-Ryan

joraff · May 10, 2022, 4:03am

Awesome project!! Would anyone mind sharing the underside of their controller boards where the resistors and capacitors for the tx, rx, and rst pins are, so I can see the R values? Each pin has an inline protection resistor and a pull-up resistor. I am guessing 1k and not sure on the pull-up value. I was going to guess over 30k but I don’t see any others that high anywhere else.

The Vcc pin has two capacitors, probably 1uF and 10uF.

I have a controller board from another brand with an identical layout and mcu, but without this header or related components populated. I want to hook up an esp and try and hope it shares the same firmware.