I installed a Minka Aire Skyhawk and programmed my Bond Bridge Pro. The fan only responds intermittently to commands from the app, even though it always responds to commands from the Minka Aire remote. What could be causing the intermittent response to Bond commands? How can I improve reliability of responses?
Bond Pro ID ZPGH77144
What Fan are you trying to control?
Minka Aire Skyhawk 60" with RC1000 remote and learning receiver.
Where is the Bond Bridge in relation to the ceiling fan (same room or different room, floor or shelf)?
Same room, direct line of sight, about 8ft off the ground with the fan at 12ft.
How are you powering the Bond Bridge Pro - a USB cable to a built in USB port to your wall or a power strip? Or is the USB cable plugged into a “brick” that plugs into an outlet or power strip with the normal two prongs?
Using the provided outlet plugged into standard 120V 15Amp receptacle.
I would describe the behavior as sporadic. In 10 consecutive on/offs of either the light or the fan, the fan will properly toggle maybe 6-7 times, which is not ideal for state tracking. I am also on latest firmware V4.4.7.1
All good details, @aquafish .
Not that I have a strong suspicion or solution in mind yet, but maybe it will come into play if Bond staff come through, so I’ll ask: what Template was assigned to this device when you set it up?
(Or say if you raw-recorded each command.)
No template was assigned. I raw recorded each button. I’m not even sure where in the Bond Bridge setup process I would have seen the option for a template, but can try to repair via bond bridge if you think that might force a template or improve recognition.
The fan was sold with vague “Bond compatible” label and there is no SBB labeling. I don’t see the fan showing in wifi. Tried holding various buttons (stop, and light toggle) for 10 seconds to see if those would somehow make a wifi setting appear, but it looks like the fan just is not Smart by Bond eligible.
… meaning the RF signal will be checked against the Bond team’s database and if one or more ‘matches’ / Templates are found, they presented for you to test and confirm:
The Record Manually at the bottom still shows up for devices with potential matching Template(s), but if no matches are found, it would require the raw recording you indicated you did do.
Thanks! Didn’t even realize it was doing that check. I confirmed that the check is defaulted on. Unfortunately, I don’t receive the “these are the remotes that match” message throughout the programming process and am required to program each button manually.
Bond staff members have mentioned that the Raw Record signal is basically just a recorded and played back slice of time (0.6 seconds) within a specific RF (or IR) frequency, including any ‘noise’ it wasn’t able to confidently filter out.
Things that have been helpful to other folks historically with “intermittent” issues on raw recorded devices:
a) re-recording as new devices with various distances between OEM remote to Bridge ( sometimes as close as 2-3 inches away, sometimes 6+ feet )
b) re-recording as new device with Advanced → Frequency set to specific FCC ID identified transmitter/remote frequency instead of Auto
c) using the API to get the stored raw recorded signal and seeing if you can find a pattern to it, and going through the semi-arduous effort of modifying the Signal for a Command, or making a new Command via API POST’ing and then PUT’ing the cleaned up Signal payload.
Similar to this, but maybe you could directly PATCH the existing non-clean Signal with what you want to try as a cleaned-up version.
d) to help with (c), you can take a look at this cool tool and see if it helps
I think the SkyHawk uses the RC-1000 remote. (Ah, yes OP said so in the OP). We just released a beta firmware that adds proper support for the RC-1000.
As of fw v4.7.13+ you should have no problems with this fan.
Just wanted to provide some feedback as the issue is only partially resolved.
First of all, I use the SkyHawk with the wall control unit, the WC1000. The WC1000 and the remote control RC-1000 cannot be used together. It is either or. I use the WC1000 and ignore the RC1000.
I have purchased a new Bond Bridge and updated firmware to 4.7.16-beta.
When programming the bond with the WC1000 it recognizes the system and recommends the RC1000 controller pre-sets. There are two options, 1 with a light and 1 without a light. Neither of them work (any command) when using the WC1000.
I then manually programmed the Bond and it worked fine with one exception. When I try and configure the light, it will only come on and never turn off. However what is even more strange is that when I program anything with the light it throws off all the other controls for the fan (speed settings and power off). If I remove any programing to do with the light then the manually programed Bond works perfectly. This is what I have done, it continues to work perfectly as long as I don’t program the light.
So my request is as follows:
Can you take a look and see if you can get the system pre programmed with the WC1000 (Wall control).
Can you take a look and see if you can find what the problem is that prevents me from programming the light? (I would like to use the light and dimmer functionality with bond if possible)
Can you advise what version of stable firmware version will incorporate the fixes that are currently only in beta. I would prefer to revert back to stable at some point.
Hope this makes sense and looking forward to your response.
I’ve reached out to Minka to request samples of the hardware in question. Note that we do not manufacture the receivers or the wall control WC1000, so we need to get it in hand first to investigate.
as above
If it is fixed in v4.6.16-beta than any greater version number will include those changes. So v4.7.x or higher. I’ll note that there is really not any intrinsic difference between beta and stable firmware. We release betas with some frequency, but only release to stable ~4–6x per year. And then we release stable only after more testing and often a beta period. But if the beta is working OK for you, there’s no ongoing risk if that makes sense.
