I know this is an old thread, but can I ask how you wired up your fan control to the mimolite? Did you wire the fan control to the mimo in parallel on the dry contacts, and the signal switch input to the Ecobee fan control? It seems like that be problematic as the specs on the mimolite say the signal input is up to 16v DC, and most HVAC systems use 24v AC for signaling. Did you step it down somehow?
I just put a Shelly 1PM on my air blower and just use it to monitor the current draw. It draws around 500 watts when running so I set it to turn things on and off when the current draw is above or below 300 watts and it works perfectly. Now my bedroom ceiling fan shuts off within seconds of my air conditioning turning on and when it A/C shuts back off the ceiling fan turns back on. I guess I could also use it to shut the blower off if a fire is triggered as well.
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Sorry for the ancient reply… I fed the 24AC into a bridge rectifier with a 50uf cap to get me about 12V DC when on. It is enough to latch the input on the mimolite. It still also goes to the fan control input in the HCAC unit to control the actual fan.
Been working for 2 years without problems. I also used another mimolite to do exactly the same on the humidifier control from the Ecobee.
I am attempting build an automation to do a similar thing, turn on a desk fan when the HVAC (EcoBee3) fan turns off. I am new to Hassio and would like to know any info you would share about creating a sensor that monitors the Ecobee fan state that I could use in the automation.
Thank you.
The actual trigger from ecobee is verrrrry slow to update in the ecobee app and therefore in home assistant so you have to find a different way to monitor the blower because by the time home assistant knows that the blower is on the blower turns off because it has been on for 10 mins already. Monitoring the current draw of the actual blower or the contactor controlling the blower is the best way.
Late to the party here, but found this thread while trying to automate some things as well the moment my HVAC turned on or off (in my case TV volume; as mines very loud).
I was extremely disappointed to learn that even years later, there no update to this problem with Ecobee’s 3+ minute polling minimum. But, I’ve been in the HA game for a while now, and know all too well there’s a solution for everything, sometimes you just have to get creative.
These Door/Window magnetic senors definitely dont get enough credit in the home automation world… I don’t think any of the 5 i have at the moment are actually used for doors or windows…
But when i was trying to make my “dumb” dryer into a” smart” dryer for HA, I used one of these on the timer dial, and when that dial reaches 0, it closes the sensor, aka Dryer is done.
Using that same idea… Heres a proof of concept video… haha yeah, it looks ridiculous, but its just a proof of concept remember… but it works flawlessly to detect the moment my HVAC is on, and when it turns off… It took a bit of tweaking to get the perfect spot though — It’s a magnet afterall… So it couldn’t be too close, or it wouldn’t release with the airflow, and too far wouldn’t trip the sensor… also had to be below the vent itself, as it’s made of metal and the little sensor sticks to it.
But… this is a solution (for vertical vents), and it cost around $30 or so. No electrical experience needed haha.
If you have a floor vent, it could still work, it would just need more paper surface area (to catch more airflow) and just the perfect distance from the main sensor to allow it to lift up just enough to trigger the sensor. Also, a vent really close to your furnace helps too. Thats the one with the strongest airflow.
Thinking outside the box, thats home automation.
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Got some of those useless Chinese vibration sensors just collecting dust? Yeah they’ll work too.
The best fix I’ve come up with is to link ecobee with Homekit Controller in HomeAssistant, rather than the ecobee configuration directly in HA.
If you use the Homekit Controller to link your ecobee, all of the states update instantly!
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This one is very outside of the box.
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Spotted! Haha
The only problem is that I don’t get the preset info (home/away/sleep)
You can still use the tradition ecobee confifguration - just use the HomeKit Controller for your states for faster response. (So in other words, you could use both ways at the same time)
It only supports being setup one of the two methods, not both at the same time.
I have mine set up both ways at the same time. Works fine.
Interesting, can you show your config?
In my configuration.yaml file, for the Ecobee integration, I have
ecobee:
api_key: !secret ecobee_api_key
The Homekit Controller integration was found with discovery, and I configured it from Configuration -> Integrations. I had to enter a code shown on my thermostat.
So in Integrations, I see both the Ecobee integration, and the Homekit Controller integration, as two separate integrations. The entities created are climate.main_floor and climate.main_floor_homekit.
Hope that helps 
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I finally found this thread while trying to make a more responsive ecobee automation involving the fan state attribute (power on my HEPA filter in the return vent).
I setup the homekit controller integration (on 114.4) and got the homekit counterpart of my ecobee in my HA devices (using the UI wizard), but it exposes very little state - notably it does not expose the ‘fan’ state attribute (or anything that may contain similar state like ‘equipment_running’). supported_features is 5 for the homekit version, and 91 for the ecobee integration.
Am I overlooking anything obvious?
Again, you can use both integrations (Homekit Controller and the traditional ecobee integration) at the same time. You are not limited. I just use both because the Homekit Controller’s state of the system (idle vs not) is instant.
You want to use the hvac_action attribute from the HomeKit Controller integration to monitor the fan.
I set up a sensor:
sensor:
- platform: template
sensors:
hvac_fan:
friendly_name: "HVAC Fan"
value_template: "{{ state_attr('climate.HVAC', 'hvac_action') }}"
Then when the state is not “idle”, the system (fan) is running.
I was able to set up both the Ecobee integration as well as the Homekit Controller. I can confirm that the Homekit Controller does switch the state immediately for Heating/Cooling in the HVAC_Action state attribute, but it does not appear there is a fan attribute like there is in the Ecobee integration (as @matt7664 mentions above with 5 vs 91 supported features). This would be fine if you don’t have the fan run automatically… But alas.
Has anyone been able to get the Homekit Controller to work to detect the fan attribute. I want to detect when my fan is on or off, not when the hvac is heating or cooling. When the fan is on without either heating or cooling, hvac_action is idle.