Light switch & fan speed appear connected

Devices Fans
#1

I’ve been using the Bond hub for just over a year now, and it works great. Well, except for this one little issue.

I have a remote (RCF98v2 per the Bond info settings) for a bedroom fan. If I turn on or off the light (using the light toggle button), then not only does the light function (correctly), but the fan speed changes.

I’ve now done some testing to confirm this. If I set the fan using the bond (say to high), and then turn the fan down using the original remote (not through the Bond), everything works just fine.

However. if fan was set to high / turn fan down using original remote / then toggle the light. Well, the light turns on/off as appropriate, but the fan returns to high (what the Bond app thinks was / is the speed).

Any ideas as to why?

#2

Nobody has any thoughts or ideas?

#3

Yeah, I can explain what’s happening here. RCF98v2 is a partial state remote. Each signal contains the speed and direction of rotation, and also contains an action to be performed on the light. The light actions are “Do Nothing”, “Toggle”, and “Increase/Decrease Brightness a Bit” (this one is typically spammed continuously for continuous dimming)

The key point being that any attempt to change the light state necessarily updates the fan speed and direction to the Bond/remote’s last remembered speed. But in reverse: updating the fan speed or direction does not force an update of the light state.

It’s this mixed stateful/non-stateful control that results in this odd, asymmetric behavior.

You should also see the following: turn the fan to a speed using the Bond, then toggle the light with the original remote. It should update the fan to its last-remembered speed, just as the Bond does.

1 Like
#4

Jacob,

Thank you very much for the explanation.

Is there anything I can do?

You mention the light “toggle”. What if I simply command “ON” in the Bond (and not toggle)? Would that fix the issue?

#5

While I’m definitely happy to see @jacob respond, I wanted to ask you, @Deano what other smart home “stuff” you have, particularly hubs / controllers such as SmartThings, Hubitat, etc.

Not that it is possible for everyone, but in some ways using exclusively one way of control (BOND, and its supplied integrations) seems like the safest way to handle partial state remotes. As in, don’t mix the original remote and BOND, as they each have their own states they track.
Now, that being said, I’m 100% aware that physical buttons and remotes are super useful, as dragging out an app or using a voice assistant is not always convenient. (Still wanting to be able to buy just a BOND remote that pairs directly with BOND bridges and is assigned to a certain fan / device, @merck :wink:)
To that end, I’ve sort of hacked together various remote and in-wall smart switches to integrate BOND Bridge API controls (via Harmony + Pi { and sometimes + Insteon}), but I’m really mostly able to do that because of the hackery I’m willing to go through to minimize original remotes screwing up states for the BOND Bridge. :nerd_face:

#6

Thank you for the reply.

I’m using SmartThings for lots of control, as well as Google hubs / home / etc. While I’m not a programmer, I would consider myself as a tinkerer. I feel pretty comfortable with (minor) DTH mods, and various automations with SmartThings / WebCoRE / other.

I’ve found that the remote that the Bond defines as the fan controller is missing some fan speeds, and because of that, use of the original remote gets used in combination with Bond (through Google mostly).