Bond Bridge Positioning Issue?

Devices Fans
1

Hey all, I picked up one of the original Bond Bridge devices at Lowe’s because they were on clearance. It seemed like it would fix the issue I have of a DC motor ceiling fan with no smart controls except for a RF remote (and a receiver/wiring setup that wouldn’t let me throw in some other smart receiver).

However I keep running into consistency issues even though the bridge is like 8ft away from the fan in the same room. I thought maybe the remote was doing weird things when I paired it, but I’ve tried pairing several times and with several extra test fans in the app.

It seems like the Bond Bridge only works when the little hole on the bottom half is pointed pretty much directly in the direction of the fan. If I turn it away, the same commands from the app never work. Is this common? Or is this something up with my ceiling fan receiver? I can point the remote pretty much anywhere and be in other rooms and that works fine.

Having to have the bridge in the same room and pointed upward at the fan in one direction feels like it would make this device pretty much worthless.

2

Honestly I have seen this in my own home, but only with one fan where the OEM remote had a similar limitation. We’d have to hold the remote really close to the fan. — Solution was to replace the receiver.

Does your remote work from a reasonable distance? The Bridge has usually similar range to the remote as they both have the same FCC limits. (Or other limits if you are outside USA.)

3

I’ve noticed the same thing, RF commands to my patio fan have become intermittent, I rotated the BD 1000 where the reset hole faces the fan and all good again. Odd behavior suggests that perhaps the internal antenna/ transmitter is directional somehow? Not sure, original remote does not encounter this behavior.

4

Yeah the remote works way better than the Bond bridge… it isn’t perfect but I don’t have to have it pointed directly at the fixture. I’m even able to use it from the adjacent bathroom most of the time.

I wonder if I got a lemon?