Proflame 2 Fireplace Remote

Devices
1

Hello,

I just received my Bond Bridge yesterday and had no trouble at all connecting my 2 ceiling fans. The bridge found the appropriate remote immediately and it works flawlessly.

I also have a gas fireplace with a Proflame 2 remote (FCC ID: T99058402300) which is supported according to the Bond Supported Devices website, but I am not able to get it to work correctly. It will turn on the fireplace . . . occasionally, but will not turn it off. I was surprised when programming that it didn’t find the remote in the database since it is a supported remote, so any assistance would be greatly appreciated. This was one of the main reasons I purchased the Bond Bridge so it would be a huge disappointment if it didn’t work.

Please let me know if any additional information is needed to provide assistance.

2

I do not have any fireplaces with remotes.
However, I’ve seen a few recurring themes with them.
Often, removing the batteries out of the original remote helps, once you’ve got Bond set up (apparently original remotes sometimes send state packets on some recurring interval).

You can also record each button press without using the Bond’s remote database (I am a little unclear if that’s what you did already or not) if the remote matches from the database are not working.

Finally, this forum is great and extremely helpful, but don’t forget Bond has official Support options on their website to get more real-time assistance. Most of us are just enthusiasts, and the Bond staff that get a chance to wander in here from time to time are not always able to respond to each forum post in a timely fashion.

1 Like
3

Thanks for the reply!

I did try programming without using the database and was able to get it to turn on. I also removed the batteries as well and unfortunately no luck!

I appreciate the feedback and will try to get in touch with someone under the support section as well.

Thanks again!

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4

Any luck with this? I have a client with a couple of these and I was hoping to be able to use Bond to integrate them.

5

I ended up contacting Bond Support and was able to get it work. Below is what support sent me and these instructions worked, with a few caveats:

Can you try the steps below?

Please turn the fireplace ON before programming

It is important that you or the remote is next to the Bond when programming

  • In the BOND application select the + (plus) sign.
  • Select Remote Control then choose your bond
  • Select Fireplace and set the location and device name and click Continue.
  • Select power OFF
  • Select Advanced Settings
  • Select Signal type and click Radio Frequency (RF)
  • Enter 315 into the frequency rectangle and select done. If there is existing data, please delete it first.
  • Turn OFF “Search Remote Database” and click save
  • Select “Start” and continue with the pairing process
  • When the system displays the test with just the button, test if it works. If so, click yes or this is my remote.
  • Click Done.

If it doesn’t record, please try steps again but this time repeatedly press and release the button.

I was able to get the remote to program using this and I did not have to remove the batteries from the remote to keep it working. I’m integrating mine with SmartThings and what I ended up doing was creating a virtual switch in SmartThings. I created an automation that turns the fireplace on when the virtual switch is switched on and then an automation that uses an Ecobee Sensor in the room to act as a “thermostat” for the fireplace. If the temperature of the sensor goes above the set point, the fireplace turns off, but the virtual switch stays on. When the temperature drops below a different set point, the fireplace turns back on.

I’m sure there are many different ways to do this, but by using the virtual switch my temperature automations that turn the fireplace on and off only worked when the virtual switch is on so that the fireplace wasn’t turning on and off all hours of the day. The other advantage of this method was that I could keep the batteries in the Proflame 2 Remote and use that instead if I wanted. That way, if I have guests over or someone who isn’t aware of the automation, the fireplace status and Bond didn’t get out of sync. When I first got the Bond working with the remote, I had the most problems when the Bond and the Proflame 2 Remote were out of sync. If I turned the fireplace on through the Bond app, but the Proflame 2 Remote was off, after a short period of time, the remote would turn off the fireplace. The opposite was true as well, if the Proflame 2 Remote was on, and I turned off the fireplace through the Bond app, after a short period of time, the remote would turn the fireplace back on. Since implementing this virtual switch, I have had no such issues.

Also, with Alexa, my voice commands turn off and on the virtual switch instead of the device Bond creates within Alexa. If the voice command turns the Bond create fireplace device on, I had the same issue I was describing above. Haven’t had a single issue it since changing the voice commands to turn on and off the virtual switch.

Hope this helps! Let me know if there are any questions.

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6

@eboline Thank you very much for the steps. We are looking to do something similar and I see that the remote will eventually sync up and turn on/off the fireplace. Could you clarify the below

“I created an automation that turns the fireplace on when the virtual switch is switched on and then an automation that uses an Ecobee Sensor in the room to act as a “thermostat” for the fireplace. If the temperature of the sensor goes above the set point, the fireplace turns off, but the virtual switch stays on. When the temperature drops below a different set point, the fireplace turns back on.”

So…
You Created virtual switch. When it turned on it sent the On command to the Bond.
An Ecobee Sensor monitors the temperature in the room.
If Temp goes above set Temp in the room, the fireplace turns off.

Wouldn’t that still be an issue if the proflame 2 remote control would be in the On State?

7

That’s an excellent point, and I think you are correct. I haven’t tested it, but my assumption is it would be a problem if the Proflame 2 remote was in the On State.

However, I use the virtual switch to because otherwise the automation would run whether I was in the room or not. I suppose I could write an automation that had a bunch of conditions and if I had any motion sensors (which I don’t at the moment), those could be used to say, “Hey, no one is in the room so don’t turn the fire place on and off.” The Ecobee sensors do act as “occupancy” sensors so I could use that as a condition so that it only operated during set times and if there was occupancy in the room, but the Ecobee sensors do take some time to switch from showing occupancy to no occupancy so this was a simple way to solve that.

I think there is a much more elegant way the automation could be written as to not require the virtual switch, I just haven’t spent much time coming up with a better solution yet. I’d love to hear how you ultimately implemented this for your customer.

10

Great post @eboline

I have just purchased a new fireplace with a Proflame II remote. It seems like the Bond can control the fireplace but there is some API work needed to make it work properly.

I am deciding between buying the WiFi dongle for the Proflame II which I know will work perfectly or buying the Bond which may work just as well (and maybe control my Somfy blinds).

Any help you can give would much appreciated.

11

I checked the Proflame remote a few days ago, and thought it was supported, now it is not… People do have it working right?

12

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but, I also noticed this isn’t listed as supported. Interesting that it used to be. Anyone know why support was pulled?

Does it (mostly) work but Bond Home doesn’t officially support it? Or has Bond Home made changes which break compatibility?

13

Kicking this up. I too have this remote, I’m curious why support was dropped or maybe incomplete? Is there plans on supporting this in the future?

14

Old thread but updating for those who land here like I did after searching for Proflame 2 support.

The reason I believe Bond says Proflame 2 is unsupported is because of the way the remote manages state. There’s no such thing as flame up, flame down, or fan 1, fan 3, etc. Every single time a command is sent from the remote it signifies the intended end state of the fireplace.

Let’s say you currently have flame 2, fan 3 and light 1. Then you press up for flame 3. Instead of sending a flame 3 signal, the remote sends a signal which tells the fireplace you want the end state to be flame 3, fan 3, light 1. This means there are over 200 distinct signals (6 flame x 6 fan x 6 light levels). And we haven’t even talked about ‘Smart’ mode yet, which I think has yet another 6x6x6 signals.

The Bond app simply isn’t built for this type of state management and complexity. I went down this road trying to integrate with Control4. I’m pretty sure I can make it work but I will have to manage this state within a Control4 driver. And users will need to completely stop using the remote. There’s absolutely no way to integrate this fireplace and continue using the remote.

15

I had independently come to the same conclusion.

Remotes can send “stateful” commands like “toggle”, “up”, and “down” where the future state depends on the present state, or they can send “stateless” commands like “on”, “off”, “high”, “medium”, or “low” where the future state is independent of the present state.

The Proflame remote is not just stateless, but also has an 11 bit state and sends all 11 bits every time.

It works fine with Bond if you can wrap your brain around that.

Big Picture

The fireplace has 3 octal states (i.e., flame height, fan speed and light intensity–each with 7 settings from off to max) and 2 binary ones (i.e., front burner and aux–which works the ember lights on my fireplace). That’s 11 bits, or 2048 states.

The remote does two things:

  1. It presents those 2048 states to the user graphically in order to make a straightforward choice; and then

  2. Sends all 11 bits to the fireplace as a stateless command. It does this both when it thinks the user is done (i.e., during a pause in button pressing), and periodically.

Working with Bond

  1. Do not try to configure stateful buttons like “toggle”, “up”, and “down”.

  2. Nobody needs 2048 fireplace states. You get 3 + “off” that correlate with the stateless Bond buttons “Low Flame”, “Med Flame”, “High Flame” and off. You should also pick one of those 3 as a default that will be “On”. I went with Medium.

  3. Set the remote and fireplace ONE BUTTON PRESS AWAY FROM the desired state.

  4. Put the Bond into learning mode for the Bond “button” that will correlates with the desired state (“preset”) you’re about to enter.

  5. Press the final button on the remote to enter the desired state. The remote will then send–and the Bond will intercept and learn–the11 bits corresponding with that state. After that, pressing the Bond “button” will transmit those 11 bits again and…voila! You’re right where you want to be.

Important Safety Tip:

As others have mentioned, the remote sends commands periodically. This can certainly be a problem–as an unintentional fireplace restart is certainly not good.

On the other hand, the remote doesn’t seem to send commands when turned off. This is probably to save battery life.

So “Don’t cross the streams”. It’s fine to use Bond when the remote is off. And it’s fine to use the remote when Bond is off. But don’t use Bond when the remote is on.

Working Beyond Bond

And then things get annoying as hell. Home Assistant finds the fireplace as a stateful entity represented by a dimmable light that is either on or off, at 1% or 50% or 100% intensity. It also finds “Increase Flame” and “Decrease Flame” buttons.

  1. When the fireplace “light” entity is turned off in Home assistant, Bond sends the “Off” preset. So that’s good.

  2. When the fireplace “light” entity is turned on in Home assistant, Bond sends the “On” preset. So that’s good.

Choosing the 3 flame height presets gets wonky because Bond and the fireplace are not necessarily in sync with each other. Good luck with that. I may come back later and edit this post after I figure this one out.

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16

Thanks a million for this post rtvanhook. Just got a bond and it has been amazing to add fans to Home Assistant (and then HomeKit). Your very clear instructions allowed me to get some basic functionality with my ProFlame 2 fireplace. If you figure out the Home Assistant side please post here. Thanks again.

17

TL; DR:

To reliably command Proflame flame height through Bond (e.g., an automation), force a state change, i.e.:

  1. To send “Med Flame”, set brightness to 1%, wait 5-10 seconds, and then set brightness to 50%,
  2. To send “High Flame”, set brightness to 1%, wait 5-10 seconds, and then set brightness to 100%,
  3. To send “Low Flame”, set brightness to 50%, wait 5-10 seconds, and then set brightness to 1%.

To unreliably command flame height (e.g., a person who can see the fireplace):

  1. Give the direct command (e.g., tell Alexa to “Set fireplace to 1%”).
  2. I that doesn’t work…give a different command…wait until it executes…and then give the direct command.
  3. You can try the “Increase Flame” and “Decrease Flame” buttons if you want.

Background

HA and voice control are wonky. As I mentioned, the hard part is making peace with the stateless Proflame when most remotes are stateful. It looks easy enough to do this with Bond (i.e., don’t learn stateful buttons like up, down, and toggle), and it’s easy to send the stateless “On” and “Off” commands with HA (and Alexa and Assist, to whom I’ve got the entity exposed), but…

But vestiges of statefulness linger, and they cause problems. To understand those problems…

  1. Understand that Bond thinks it knows the state of flame height (“Low Flame”, “Med Flame”, “High Flame”), represented by 1%, 50%, or 100% brightness in HA.
  2. Understand that Bond is frequently wrong about the state of flame height. First, there’s the inevitable issue with one-way control and no handshaking. Second, Bond gets lost because it thinks “on” is a stateful “Turn on with the most recent flame height” but Proflame thinks “on” is a stateless “Turn on with the default flame height.”
  3. Understand that Bond won’t send a command unless it thinks flame height is changing.

Put together: either tolerate–and react to–wonkiness, or force the Bond and Proflame to sync. And the only reliable way to ensure the Bond sees a state change (so it will pull the fireplace into sync with itself) is to give it two different commands.

1 Like
18

Thanks again for the information, I appreciate you sharing it.