I’ve been using a Bond (BD-1000) to control the ceiling fan in my bedroom for about a year. I communicate with the bond via the Rest API from my automation system, and trigger these behaviors from my universal remote control.
The bond was about 20 feet from the fan and working 100% of the time for a year and suddenly became very unreliable. Maybe 10% of the commands made it to the fan. There was no difference when operated via the phone app either, so it wasn’t API related. I moved it to a new location about 8 feet from the fan, and it’s back to working 100%.
Is there any reason that the RF range would degrade over time? I don’t have any new RF devices in the house, no new WiFi access points, etc.
It turned out that the firmware update I saw was for the pro, not my device. I’m on v3.8.4, which it reports as the latest.
I haven’t experimented any more with positioning, but I will. The bond was on a high shelf fairly close to the height of the fan body. Maybe the height or direction was problematic - but it’s odd that it worked for a year in that location with no issues then became completely unreliable.
When you say it’s unreliable, do you know if it’s the WiFi connection to the Bridge, or the RF connection to the fan? (In the former case, you’ll get an annoying red error message in the app when you go to control the fan; in the latter case, you’ll just not see the fan change in real life.)
RF range could degrade if there’s a physical change to the fan’s receiver or antenna or immediate vicinity (which will also degrade rf range for the OEM remote), or if there’s interference nearby (like, within half a mile, though usually it’s something in the house like a proximity detector or other device that is spamming the 434 MHz band), or physical damage or change to the Bridge (though I’ve never seen this).
It appears to be an issue with the RF connection to the fan. When my system sends commands, I see the LED ring on the top of the Bond blink, so it is getting the command and sending the RF, but the fan does not respond.
It used to work reliably from a location the neighboring room, but I’ve had to move it to a nightstand that is right below the fan to have reliable operation, and even then, there are times when it doesn’t work from just 8 feet away.
When the Bond doesn’t work, the original remote that came with the fan always works perfectly, so I would tend to think the issue is in the Bond device itself and not 400MHz interference.
If it’s < 1 yr from purchase, you could open a warrantee claim with our CS team, then do a side-by-side comparison after restoring from a backup. (You should keep the old unit until you have a chance to do that side-by-side test…). If the RF transmit really did become weak from the Bridge, that’s something I’d like to teardown on this side to determine root cause. Never seen it before. (But, anything is possible).