My ultimate goal is to write a custom app on my Hubitat that can control the Kichler fan I just installed. The thing that worries me is that when I do a search for FCC IDs issued to Kichler, they’re spread all up and down the RF spectrum: some in the 300 MHz range (good), some in the 900 MHz range (maybe) and the rest at 2.4 GHz (bad).
However, doing a deep dive on the various grants seems to indicate that everything they do in the 2.4 GHz range is either a portable lantern or a WiFi device, and the two grants in the 900 MHz range are both Z-Wave devices.
So, being guardedly optimistic, does this mean that in general Kichler fan remotes are all in the 300 MHz range, and therefore will work with a Bond Bridge?
Getting to specifics now, the fan we have is a Zeus 60 inch, which uses either the 371045MUL wall mount or the 371085 family of hand held remotes. 65K full function as described by Kichler. Can anyone provide insight into whether I can control this fan, both fan speed and direction, from a Bond Bridge. I’d really like to get this working, but I want to be sure I’m on the right track before getting the Bond Bridge.
Since Kichler were about as much help as a broken leg, I just popped the box open, and got the FCC ID from the remote itself.
Bad news and good. The bad news is that the ID is KUJCE10325 which currently isn’t in your database. The good news is that it’s listed at 304.0 MHz on the FCC’s web page, which means the Bond Bridge should be able to “learn” it.
That said, I saw another thread that talked about “stateful” remotes, mentioning combination light, fan speed and direction controls, and how the remote remembers the current light and direction settings when you push a fan speed button, and sends all three every time.
If this is the case, does that mean I’d have to learn every possible combination of speed, direction and lighting that I might care about? Not a problem in the least, I’m assuming that the local API on a Bond Bridge will allow me to send any of these codes, once they’re learned. This actually suits me fine, since it allows me to make the Hubitat the single point of authority for what the fan is doing, which is ideal, since it’s already completely controlling the thermostat via a custom app.
It depends on the remote; I will say that most which I encounter are NOT stateful.
Many (though not all) stateful remotes have a screen indicating their state.
Looking at the remote you provided with the FCC ID, I’d assume it was a regular remote, and you’d only have to teach it the 3 speeds, and light on / light off (assuming pressing those buttons instead of holding corresponds to on / off), fan off, and direction switch.
I have found that sometimes manually recorded (database search off) devices don’t love to have dimmer functions replicated - so keep your optimism guarded as regards light level controls.
You may succeed where I’ve had challenges, but unknown until you try.
Bond Support (or those staff members that are able to drop by the forums from time to time) do sometimes have certain FCC IDs on the roadmap, or can be encouraged to add new devices to the database while working with you, often after a manual recording of the RF signals exist on your Bridge.
I’d say it was worth pulling the trigger and buying a Bridge from your retailer of choice, noting their return policies if for some reason there is zero success once you unbox.
I’ve pulled the trigger, and ordered a Bond Bridge from Amazon. They have a really good return policy, although I’m fairly optimistic since the current remote is within the range that the Bridge should be able to learn.
Surprisingly, I hope it is a stateful remote, because it’ll make the direction control easier to handle. I won’t need to worry about which way it’s currently turning, I’ll just be able to issue a single command to say “Turn on middle speed clockwise”, and I’m done.
If it isn’t, then we’ll have to be certain to never touch the wall remote, otherwise the fan’s idea of which direction it’s turning and the Hubitat’s idea could wind up differing, which obviously won’t have the desired result. Mind you, once this is all set up, we shouldn’t ever need to touch the wall remote, since the fan can be placed completely under the control of the Hubitat, using the Bond Bridge’s local API.
Things are looking good. I received the Bond Bridge today, and after a brief struggle setting it up and getting it connected to my WiFi, it’s now controlling the fan just fine. It found a remote when I taught it the code to toggle the lights, however that specific remote didn’t have the all-important reverse function built in, so I had to build the device manually.
Regretfully, it’s not stateful, which means the reverse button on the wall remote must be considered as off-limits. I can live with that - if I find that the Fan and the Hubitat have a difference of opinion as to which direction it’s actually rotating, a quick hit on the wall reverse button should fix it.
Next quest: see if I can use the local API to control the fan, initially with well-crafted curl.exe commands in a console window, but eventually under control of the Hubitat.
– Edit a few hours later –
Things are moving along nicely. I used the tutorial / documentation for the local API, and can perform basic fan control using curl.exe. So that part works. I’m not on the home stretch yet, but I now have a route to get to a final solution. I’ll start into the custom app for the Hubitat tomorrow, that’ll mean crafting the necessary code to send various commands to the fan in response to what the thermostat is reporting.
Working on the basis of what I did with curl.exe, I was able to get my custom app working on the Hubitat, to control the fan. So whenever the Thermostat app I wrote polls the thermostat for current temperature, every ten minutes or so, it passes the value along to the Fan Control app, along with the heat point and cool point temperatures that are currently set.
Fan Control then takes these values, and figures what to do. Most of the time it’s what I call “COMMAND_DO_NOTHING” for when the temp is holding at the cool point, as it is now. That said, I can manually tweak the values reported, forcing in whatever values I want. By doing that, I’ve been able to cycle it off and on, and also make it change direction by faking a temperature below the heat point.
Hi @dgnuff
It’s an old thread but you are the only one I found to make work a Kichler remote.
Do you have by chance the codes for the remote, the ones you learned?
My remote is broken and now I cannot learn them and I don’t want to spend 100+ on a new one to just ditch it and replace by a smart controler.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I ever “extracted” the codes sent by the remote. For most of what I cared about: that being fan speed, once it had “recognized” the remote via the lights on/off command, all four commands for fan speed were built into the Bond Bridge. Setting the speed to slow, medium and fast, or turning the fan off.
I then had it “learn” the toggle direction command simply by putting the Bond Bridge in “learn” mode, and issuing the reverse command on the remote. After a few attempts at that, the Bond Bridge has been able to repeat that command, thus I have everything I need.
So this means I don’t think I ever saw the exact commands that are being sent to the fan.
However, if there’s some way that it’s possible to use the http:// API to extract the codes of the various commands I’m sending, then I can do that and post them here. We just need to find a real expert on the Bond Bridge (I’m not an expert by any means. ) who might be able to help doing this.
Even assuming it’s possible.
The other thing to note is that this can only work if you’re using a Kichler Fan that works with the remote I mentioned further up the thread. That’s the one I have in use here, and it’s the only remote I’d have codes for. Copying from an earlier post of mine:
“371045MUL wall mount or the 371085 family of hand held remotes. 65K full function as described by Kichler.”
That said, this thread seems to indicate there may be a backup and restore capability that might be used to copy what I have to your bond bridge. Assuming your fan uses the same remote.
You could backup, share the file with another user, and then they restore. They may need to delete devices if you have more than just the one Kitchler fan.
The trick is then, since this sounds like a “learning” fan, you need to be able to press the PAIR button or hold the OFF button to get the new fan to pair. This is not available on the app interface. Would require mucking with reps or even creating a new signal on the API if a different command is needed.
Here it sounds like it’s the long hold on OFF that is required, so copying the OFF command and increasing reps could work.
This reminds me – awhile back, @endy was considering some of the community suggestions to make some enhancements to how backups work on iOS and Android, since it can be difficult to extract/send the actual files, especially if not rooted/jailbroken.
I know there is a lot on the team’s plate, but just checking in on this since it’s occasionally a recurring item that could assist the community in building out some repository (even with some of these needing a Pair or more difficult import/setup steps).
) who might be able to help doing this.