I put together a native BLE integration for QuietCool attic fans that works directly over Bluetooth with the stock manufacturer firmware, no ESPHome, no cloud, no hardware modification required. Utilizing previous efforts listed in the README.md (Thank you!)
Just in time! I just got one of these and planning on installing over the weekend. I will test it out before its mounted and let you kow if I come across anything, or have a newer firmware installed. Thanks!
Excellent yeah lemme know. I spoke with one of the other repo guys and he sent me some newer firmware findings so I might also upgrade my fan to make sure things still work. But definitely lemme know how it goes.
Currently waiting in line to be approved to be on HACS directly
@kentoe Do you have any issues with the bluetooth losing connection? Mine lasts about 3 days before i have to restart HA or my esp32 relay. Possibly an issue with my BLE relay, but I've followed all the recommendations I have found to try and resolve
Did anyone explore the fully custom firmware replacement option for this controller?
I spent an evening reverse engineering the stock firmware, and it seems pretty easy to replicate it with a custom ESPHOME firmware that will work via Wi-Fi and will seamlessly integrate into Home Assistant.
It appears to be possible to instruct the device to update from your custom OTA URL via BLE. I didn't test it yet. However, if it works, then anyone can switch to the open source ESPHOME firmware (and back) even without physical access to the device (one first initial pair with your phone would be still needed, but most already have it).
BTW, the controller is using ESP32-WROOM-32D module and has UART + BOOT pads on the PCB, so manual flashing/recovery is also an option with FTDI.
I just got mine recently, didn't plug it to a fan yet and exploring / testing it on the bench. I checked the BLE HA integration project and ESP32/ESPHOME relay project, but it looks like native ESPHOME firmware would be a nice option too. It can also support both BLE + Wi-Fi modes and be compatible with the stock app in theory (but since I don't plan to use the stock app anyway, I'm not focusing on this task).
At this point I did 90% of the stock 4.1 firmware reverse engineering, got the pinout for buttons, LEDs, dip switch, relays and temperature+humidity sensor. The next step would be creating ESPHOME config and testing it on the bench. Then I'll try to prepare an OTA update website for easy switching from the stock firmware.
I had ran into this issue a week or so ago, but then released a new version that should have fixed it:
Mine has been running completely fine since this new release. But, if you are on 0.2.4 and still encountering errors. Send them my way and I'll take a look
ESPHome replacement for the Quietcool systems that someone had done in the past. My main goal was to have it stock, working via BLE which everyone was close to doing but not quite there.
V2 Protocol Support — firmware 3.9+ / V4.x devices now fully working
This release unlocks full functionality for anyone on newer QuietCool firmware (3.9+, including V4.x). Previously these devices had no sensor data and broken fan control. All entities now work.
What's new
Full V2 protocol support (@DillonBrown)
@DillonBrown reverse-engineered the full V2 numeric API code table from the QuietCool Smart Control Android app 2.0.28 and verified it on hardware running firmware V4.1. All commands are now mapped for V2 devices:
App-based pairing (no ladder required)
@sircambridge discovered that the QuietCool Smart Control app has a Pair Mode button that puts the device into pairing mode remotely — no need to physically reach the controller on the fan housing. The Setup docs now list this as the recommended option for attic-mounted units.
Thanks for doing this Integration! Been looking for this for over a year. I'm using it on the QuietCool Attic Fan Controller IT-AF-SMT, Firmware v4.1. Using it to control my Air Vent RV26 (Single Speed) Attic Fan. Just got it setup today but will let you know of any issues.
Thanks for doing this. It seems that now we have several good and very different solutions
(1) Using the existing BT interface seems the simplest way to go. I’ll try it as soon as Home Depot delivers the fan.
(2) Replacing the firmware with ESPHome seems like a good idea if I wanted to add features to the fan and have them run directly on the fan controller. But it is hard to know what I would want to add.
(3) The other solution I was going to do was way simpler. Chuck the stock fan controller in the trash and replace it with a Shelly PM2 and a SPDT relay for speed control. I’d lose the heat and humidity sensors and would need to add sensors. The advantage is that I could choose the location for the sensor. The Shelly PM2 is a power meter so I could track the power used.
So now I need to study up on HA’s BT integration. I like this as it opens up a whole new world of BT devices I’ve wanted.
EDIT: I had a range issue with Bluetooth. Obviously, attic fans are in attics, and the distance to the HA server was out of BT range. Flashing an ESP32-C6 dev board with ESPHome BT Proxy worked well to solve this. If you need to buy an ESP32-C6, this works, and the price is right.
I thought I could use a Shelly Gen3 device as a BT proxy. It appears to have that feature, but it does not work. Shelly will only work with common sensors, not fans.
