ControlThink Forums

I'm going to order a switch for a ceiling fan soon.  Am I stuck with a regular on/off switch, or are there Z-Wave step-switches yet?

Hmm... is this what I want? http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000ZKO9GQ/ref=ord_cart_shr?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance

The Vizia line doesn't include Z-Wave. Only the Vizia RF line is Z-Wave.

The remote they mention is a wired remote (aka 3 way switch).

I called Leviton several months ago and asked if they were going to come out with an RF version of their fan switch.  The gentelman I spoke with was not interested in hearing any of my suggestions.  I'd take 6 if they ever decided to manufacture them.  I imagine that if they got enough requests they'd develop the product.

"early summer"

That's a good question.  Actually, I had to spend several hours in the attic running a second set of wires for each fan since I added a second circuit to control the lamp on each fan.  Originally each had a single conventional toggle switch to control both the fan and light.  But since my attic reaches temperatures of 130 to 140 degrees in the summer, it's much easier to do all my wiring in the winter.

Couldnt you use the home settings in wall dimmer switch to control fan speed. granted this will not help the problem of having to run a seperate circuit for the light but it would give you ultimate control right?

Matt:

Couldnt you use the home settings in wall dimmer switch to control fan speed. granted this will not help the problem of having to run a seperate circuit for the light but it would give you ultimate control right?

My understanding is that that would damage the motor, because the motor is only designed to handle specific power inputs.

And in my experience they cause most ceiling fans I have tried to Hummmm.

The Hum isn't bad, but was a WAF killer in my house.

I still use the Lightolier ccwhipsplc to control my fans, Which is an excellent switch for ceiling fans still using the x10 protocol though.

I am still waiting for someone to make a Z-wave Version.

StevenE

The Vizia RF + Fan Speed Controls are now available in our accessories store.

http://www.controlthink.com/accessories

We also have the non-RF (matching) Vizia + fan speed control in stock--but PM me if you'd like that one as it's not on our website as of yet.

Chris

 I quick question on how the fan switch operates with the remote (say the Handy Remote).  How do you switch speeds?  Do you pretend it is a dimmer and hold the ON button and it will cycle though the speeds?  Or is it every press on the ON button cycles a speed setting?

 Thanks

Dave 

See the Instruction Sheet for VFR01 at http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibcGetAttachment.jsp?cItemId=5OugAQMOCvi33RCltx7Dbw&label=IBE&appName=IBE

I think this is what ships in the box.

fornold:

Do you pretend it is a dimmer and hold the ON button and it will cycle though the speeds?

 

Yep.  I just installed one and assigned it to a channel on the remote controller my wife uses.  Hold the remote's ON or OFF button just like you would a dimmer.

I like the wider paddles on the Vizia RF-Plus devices.  They are now the same width as the standard Decora paddles.

I'm using the speed control on a cheap, wobbly Hampton Bay fan that came with the house.  Hope to upgrade to a Hunter fan eventually.

I just installed mine today and it works pretty well on a Hunter fan.  I'm running a Visual Studio 2008 VB application on 32 bit Vista and I believe that I found something that doesn't work correctly.  I hope someone can tell me if it's a problem with the SDK or a coding problem on my side. It's extremely repeatable.  From playing around with it I've determined that the system sees it as a MultilevelSceneSwitch (Dimmer). 

It looks like if the Level = 0, the fan is OFF,

if the level is between 1 and 32 the fan is set to LOW.

if the level is between 33 and 66 the fan is set to MEDIUM.

if the level is between 67 and 99 the fan is set to HIGH.

Using the RZCPG master controller, pressing the ON button turns the fan on to the the last speed before it was turned OFF.  Holding the PLUS button causes the fan speed to increase.  Holding the MINUS button decreases the speed.  Pressing OFF button turns the fan off.

When changing the speed manually by pressing the buttons on the switch, a LevelChangedEvent fires and the new Level is returned correctly.  When changing the Level property using the ControlThink SDK and a ThinkStick, the Level returned in the LevelChangedEvent is actually the Level before the change was made instead of after the change was made.  The only setting change that works correctly is when the Level is set to 0.

The fan was on and I changed the Level to 0 and about 83 ms later I got a LevelChangeEvent and the Level was 0.

07/26/2008 23:55.07.776  zwDevice.Level = 0
07/26/2008 23:55.07.859  Level Change Event e.Level = 0

Then I changed the Level to 27 and the fan speed changed to LOW, but about 125 ms later I got a LevelChangeEvent and the Level was still 0. 

07/26/2008 23:55.23.309  zwDevice.Level = 27
07/26/2008 23:55.23.434  Level Change Event e.Level = 0

Then I changed the Level from 27 to 59 and about 80 ms later I got a LevelChangeEvent and the Level was 27 instead of 59.  But the fan speed did change to MEDIUM.

07/26/2008 23:55.45.389  zwDevice.Level = 59
07/26/2008 23:55.45.468  Level Change Event e.Level = 27

Then I changed the Level from 59 to 73 and about 96 ms later I got a LevelChangeEvent and the Level was 59 instead of 73.  The fan speed did change to HIGH.

07/26/2008 23:56.03.243  zwDevice.Level = 73
07/26/2008 23:56.03.339  Level Change Event e.Level = 59

Then I changed the Level from 73 to 0 and about 83 ms later I got a LevelChangeEvent and the Level was 0 which is what I would hope that it would be.  The fan did turn off.

07/26/2008 23:56.19.682  zwDevice.Level = 0
07/26/2008 23:56.19.765  Level Change Event e.Level = 0

So I think that there's a difference between the Level value when the switch is changed from pressing the buttons on the switch and from changing the Level programmatically.  I had the same problem when I was increasing or decreasing the speed...it didn't matter.

The only thing I don't like about the VRF01 is that if someone is not familiar with the switch and they press the push pad above the fan speed bar, it engages the air gap, popping the bottom of the push pad out, which turns the switch off, and then that person thinks that they broke your $100+ switch.  But all you have to do is to push the botton of the push pad back in and everything is fine.

alfie,

What version of the SDK (including build #) are you using?

Chris