So I’m having trouble narrowing down options for ceiling fans that I can connect to Home Assistant. I’m wanting to put one in each of my two bedrooms to replace the ceiling light and have a quieter way to keep them cool in Summer, since the Split System points it’s vents away from the bedroom doors so it takes a long time for cool air to circle around effectively.
I’m hoping to find a way to integrate them that is straightforward, or at least only has complex steps at the time of fan installation so that if I move out, whoever moves in can still make use of them. I plan to leave the Raspberry Pi that runs HA for me here so that anything “smart” that I have built into the apartment, like the light switches and energy monitoring, stays working “smart”, and just remove my personal configs from it as I leave).
So my “requirements”, so to speak, are:
can be operated by one of Home Assistant’s native integrations
doesn’t rely on internet access for the fan (or it’s hardware controller) in any way. If it is wifi, it should be able to work fine on a wifi network that has no access to the internet
any hardware modification I need to do while installing need to be compliant with Australian electrical requirements
prefer to skip AC motor fans, not a “fan” of the noise they tend to make. If there is a genuinely silent one though, I’m listening
want to be able to manually control it without needing the smarts to work, so if the Pi dies, I can still control on/off, speed and light at the wall
My “environment” is:
Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB) running HomeAssistant OS
broadcasts a small “internet of things” wifi network that built in devices such as my Air Conditioner and Power Monitor connect to to talk to Home Assistant. Does not pass through to the internet. Has the Chrony, DHCP and DNS supervisor addons installed for this
Has a Aeotec Z-Wave Gen 5+ stick using the Z-Wave JS integration (relays in my light switches so far)
Has a powered USB hub (for the Wifi and Z-Wave) with some extra ports, so I’m not particularly against adding another radio like Zigbee if that is genuinely the best option
50hz, 240 volts, although typically I’m sitting between 245 and 250
Dual tower apartment complex, so the 2.4Ghz range is very saturated by bluetooth and wifi signals. My main wifi is on 5Ghz and I wired my game consoles, streaming box and computers via a 5Ghz bridge and it made a HUGE difference to everything. The Pi’s “IoT” wifi network is 2.4Ghz and generally ok, but the things operating on it tend to be very infrequent connections. It’s why I bothered with Z-Wave at all, I didn’t like the lag on the test wifi light switch I bought way back when.
Ideally, a solution that allows it to report state changes back to Home Assistant is best, so Home Assistant doesn’t have to poll for its state to account for changes made at the switch on the wall.
So I’m hoping that some of you who have been at this longer than me might be able to share what you came up with, and what I can look for when shopping the actual fans to work out which are options for me. Even asking the manufacturers directly, they often can’t tell me what sort of radio signal or anything like that is used by the controllers, simply because it isn’t documented anywhere
Have you read through the Aus Certified Equipment thread? Plenty of info in there.
In short, you are running out of options unless you are happy to chip-swap something. The Brilliant fan controller is great (for AC fans) but recent ones will need to be chip-swapped in order to have full local control, or you try with Local Tuya.
Some people in the before mentioned thread have used the DC smart fans. Have a search
I like that their tuya module is actually a user accessible removable module, just from a design point that is great since in theory that should open up the possibility of smart modules being available for other standard too over time. If Tuya collapses, they can release a Thread or bluetooth or z-wave or whatever replacement module. It leaves open the possibility of someone working out the pinout for the modules and making their own too…
I’ll look a little more into whether it can tuya-local, cause that would be solid
It would be pretty cool to figure out the pinout for one of those plug-in modules and create an ESP replacement. Seems like an easy way to get full local control.
Hey if you have the knowhow even just to document it for someone with a firsthand need to start from, I’d shout you one of those modules if they aren’t a ridiculous price.
Just on the principal of it, ending up with a template for making mods of that would be pretty awesome.
It reminds me of the Sockitz Brickz. Back at the start of USB-C being standardised, Sockitz was gonna make GPOs and Light Switches which had a little slot behind the back plate that you could install a “Brickz” module, which could be a wifi controller, z-wave controller or zigbee controller (as the ones they were offering) and they planned to release the spec for the Brickz so other companies could use them and make it a standard. Would have been a great way to get smart homes going. Didn’t work out though, I think they just couldn’t get anyone else on board, since it would bust people out of lock in instead of the opposite…
It shouldn’t be too difficult to open up the fan controller to see what the pins are and then it’s just a case of flashing an ESP12F or similar with ESPhome or Tasmota and testing various settings until it works. Tasmota is actually really handy for this type of investigating and the Tasmota docs have a pretty good tutorial for figuring out the config for an unknown device. For starters since it’s a ‘Tuya’ module, you would need to configure the ESP for Tuya comms, then its a case of listening to the comms in the command line gui
I have a few Brilliant Smart Smart WiFi AC Fan Wall Controllers, I believe they are Tuya rebadged. I tried the Tuya IoT Integration and get stuck when scanning QR code in Brilliant Smart app, the QR Code Expires as soon as scanned. I then tried to set up my devices in Tuya iOS app but they are not discovered. Anyone know how i might get these controllers to be seen in HA?
I can’t say if the brilliant fans are tuya or not…
What I can say is it’s possible for seemingly tuya apps to not be found by tuya. I have a ultenic-t10 vacuum that seemingly runs on tuya backed but doesn’t join my iot.tuya account nor the tuya app.
Thanks for alerting me to other post, the Brilliant Smart and Tuya apps look so similar I’m guessing my smart wall controllers are Tuya. I only have two brands to add to HA and I was done. This roadblock has broken the dream of having everything controlled by HA
Thanks for alerting me to this thread. I might get one of the Brilliant Fan controllers and see if its accessible or has a Tuya Local option. Worse comes to worse I’ll just train the kids to push the buttons!
I use the Arlec brand models from Bunnings, and they work through the Tuya app and local Tuya. You might just try adding the Brilliant controller to the Tuya app, that type of things has worked for me before.
Thanks Michael. I revisited the Tuya Smart and Smart Life apps and found that I had to allow Bluetooth for the apps then they discovered my wall controllers. I was then able to complete the Tuya integration and can now control my ceiling fans in HA, less speed control. No idea why speed control is not exposed to HA.
Just saw this post, Jimmy James has a YT video where he designed a new plug-in module for the Ventair DC fans with an ESP and he provides all the ESPHome configs if that helps.
Only problem I have found with these Deta wall fan controllers is that some fans in my house have capacitor issues.
My bedroom one for instance, only works for low and medium, When switching to high, it stays at medium speed, even though you can hear (and see) the ‘high’ relay switch on.
