Hi, I wired most of my house’s switches with GE/Jasco Zwave switches, but stuck on 2 ceiling fans and hope someone can offer me some ideas. This is what I have -
2 Craftmade ceiling fans - they are the wireless models which comes with a 1-gang wall switch to control the fan and the light, but basically that wall switch is just a remote control that sends RF signal to the RF receiver in the ceiling fan. I have the 2 fans running on 2 different channels (dip switch setting) so the 2 wall switches won’t interfere each other.
How can I z-wave enable these fans? (If controlling both loads are too much to ask, I’ll be happy if I can at least control either the light or the fan.)
I already tried soldering a z-wave dry contact to the wireless wall switch (I tried, but the circuit is too small for someone like me to handle).
Any suggestion is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
I already tried soldering a z-wave dry contact to the wireless wall switch (I tried, but the circuit is too small for someone like me to handle).
This really is likely to be the simplest option. If you are not equipped for soldering wires to small contacts, find a local electronics repair shop and have them do it for you. Add a drop of hot-melt glue to secure the wires to an unused part of the remote board for strain-relief.
Thanks @RexBeckett for the confirmation. I knew I had to “outsource” the micro-soldering, but I didn’t know where to go. So I really appreciate your guidance. I went to a local electronics repairs shop (which most of them are now "mobile device / tablet repair shops), and they did the job for me in 10 minutes.
After I connect it to my Linear dry contact, everything is working. So now I have a few questions just trying to enhance the current solution. Right now, I have a trigger set up so every time I click the “On” on my dry contact, it will auto-switch it back to “Off” state after a second. This works but of course it is not a “true switch” because I keep sending “On” command to turn lights on and off.
I’m trying to see if I can add an Aeon Lab 4-in-1 to check for light level. Do you have any suggestion on what type of “virtual swtich” I can add to have a true “On” and “Off” based on dry contact and light level logic?
You could use any virtual or Z-Wave two-state switch to indicate fan on/off status. Add triggers to your scene for both turns-on and turns-off events, and have the scene send an on followed by a delayed off. This can never be foolproof, though. If a command gets missed it will get out of step. This is unavoidable unless you can arrange some feedback of the fan’s actual state.