Zigbee Fan Canopy Module | Project Cheryl

[johnconstantelo]

@Bry

The three most popular hubs for users here, SmartThings, Hubitat and Home Assistant all communicate locally.

I can personally speak for SmartThings and local processing. My Internet was down for most of the day today, and while controlling devices via Alexa or the SmartThings app were impacted - all my automations that were capable of running locally on my ST hub and all my buttons and remotes still worked to control my switches (all Blue series). And as @Bry mentioned, the switches always still worked without the Internet.

The Internet being down for me was more impactful to me working from home than it was for any of my smart devices because attending Zoom meetings via a hotspot is not a good experience!

[Xero]

hi all, new here, not to inovelli though, been using this stuff for a while now…I’d wanted the LZW36 and have been following it’s replacement project(s) for a brief moment now…

I was looking at the pictures of Walt and the old LZW36, and, as opposed to combining two buttons horizontally, I was thinking why not instead, combine two buttons vertically? Maybe even combining the light-pipe into the two LEDs beneath, even if not a true light bar…you could easily fake the effect by dimming/brightening the LEDs from top to bottom.

I’ve had 4 of the old maestro Fan/Light w/IR-remote controllers in my house for a while now, they look kinda similar to this, and the lzw36, but they’ve been discontinued since 2019. I have since realized after reading through this thread, they’re almost an oddity, like, insanely feature packed for what they were, 7 fan speeds, fully dimmable w/trim adjustments, 2-wire w/canopy module, its like, every box was checked, except smart control, the two-way status aspect.

It’s been tempting to just IR control them with esphome or the like, but I have a new fan on the way for one of my rooms, and the whole AC vs DC fan debate was had, and I even debated just RF controlling a DC fan, but, that’s almost no different than the existing maestro IR setup I have now, and I really don’t want to be stuck permanently into yet another “dumb” solution, rather go with an AC fan and have the option to make it properly smart with a 3rd party module.

I dug into some of the “hack” solutions - almost all of them involve a product that isn’t UL/ETL certified. I have a pair of DS03’s sitting on my desk I just flashed with openbk, mostly as a “to see if i can”, until the canopy module/walt/etc is here, I still have the maestro IR as well, of course.

My new fan has a dimmable LED module that doesn’t have a bulb option (unfortunately), so my plan is for this canopy module to find it’s way there eventually. My fan downstairs actually has separate wires for light/fan, and removable bulbs, so it might end up with a zephyr instead, but we’ll see.

i will say, local control is a huge aspect of this for me, and not all platforms are equal when it comes to how hard they push for it, and for what devices/automations they fully support it for. I’ve moved to HA from one of the more proprietary platforms, and never looked back, for that very reason.

[CodeMaster]

Man, you nailed it. I love the design.

[Almulder]

Man I am so excited for this option. This has been a long time needed and if the switch posted above become available with it and they can pair together without the need of being wired to each other let alone on the same circuit this will solve so many issues friends and family have. Cant wait to see what happens. Keep up the great work team.

[grooves12]

That’s a great idea. It makes a lot of sense and fits in better with the overall Inovelli aesthetic IMO. Hopefully, this is something that is possible.

It would even make sense to use your idea for the 2-button configuration. So you have two “light bars” for notifications.

[ocgsupport]

I know it’s late, but many newer fans have dual lights (upper and lower). Would be great if there were two switchable light outputs

[smwoodward]

I will also agree with what Xero said, as when I was told about Cheryl and Walt, my first thought was that I will keep my current LZW36’s and get the new canopy module and do some automations in the background to get the LZW36 to control the canopy.

[Eric_Inovelli]

@Xero

I was looking at the pictures of Walt and the old LZW36, and, as opposed to combining two buttons horizontally, I was thinking why not instead, combine two buttons vertically? Maybe even combining the light-pipe into the two LEDs beneath, even if not a true light bar…you could easily fake the effect by dimming/brightening the LEDs from top to bottom.

I freaking love this design. I’ve been struggling to come up with something that mimics the old switch while staying within the hardware design (where the paddles touch the PCB) as I wanted a way to add the rockers, but I think this works great.

I just sent this onto the manufacturer, but I don’t see how we wouldn’t be able to do this.

Nice work!

[rohan]

@Eric_Inovelli

@Xero

I was looking at the pictures of Walt and the old LZW36, and, as opposed to combining two buttons horizontally, I was thinking why not instead, combine two buttons vertically? Maybe even combining the light-pipe into the two LEDs beneath, even if not a true light bar…you could easily fake the effect by dimming/brightening the LEDs from top to bottom.

I freaking love this design. I’ve been struggling to come up with something that mimics the old switch while staying within the hardware design (where the paddles touch the PCB) as I wanted a way to add the rockers, but I think this works great.

I just sent this onto the manufacturer, but I don’t see how we wouldn’t be able to do this.

Nice work!

Oh man - this would work great for my curtain / blind control idea as well! Especially if the left buttons can still be independent of the right ones

[ibrewster]

@Eric_Inovelli

I freaking love this design. I’ve been struggling to come up with something that mimics the old switch while staying within the hardware design (where the paddles touch the PCB) as I wanted a way to add the rockers, but I think this works great.

Sign me up for that configuration - left button turns fan/light on/off, with the up/down arrows controlling speed/brightness - yes please!

[Eric_Inovelli]

Project Update:

The manufacturer is shipping the beta samples in one week!

That being said, there are some slots open for beta testing.

Here are the requirements for this project:

• You need to have a ceiling fan with a separate light attached to it
• Smart hub that supports Zigbee
• Sign an NDA

There are a couple of scenarios that we’d like to test for:

1. Putting either a 2-1 or a Fan Switch in Smart Bulb/Fan Mode and use Zigbee Bindings from the switch to canopy (either have the paddle bind directly to the light or the fan and use the config button to change speed/dim)
2. Using the canopy module on its own without a switch

If you’re interested in beta testing, please like this post and I will reach out to you to ask some follow up questions!

–

Side note, I think I will be opening this up for pre-orders sooner rather than later as this seems to be moving along rapidly.

[tfberg]

This design is great and would provide similar functionality to the existing Fan/Light switch. One suggestion - move the up/down buttons to the left side with the LED bars on the right so that it more closely matches other Inovelli switches.

[Eric_Inovelli]

Yeah for sure - I think based on the design of the button switch you could choose either since the switch is a modular design with LED’s on both sides

[bobzer]

would it be possible to install the button upside down to have the led bar on the right of the button ?

[Eric_Inovelli]

Yeah definitely - I think what we’d do is sell it without the etching on it so you could install it how you’d like.

[grooves12]

I think this is a great design, but I think it would work better flipped to have the LEDs on the right side to match the design language of the other Inovelli switches.

[CodeMaster]

So… two versions? With and without it I think there is so much value in the pre engraved switches., even if for a premium price.

[Eric_Inovelli]

Yeah I like this one better and it’s how I would do it honestly. I more was wanting to give credit to @Xero for coming up with the initial design

The beauty of this product is that it is modular so you can choose either or!

[ehfortin]

I don’t know but it seems to me that the power buttons should be on the left, the arrow on the right and the power leds on the extreme right as other Inovelli switch. To me, it is counter-intuitive to adjust fan speed or light intensity on the left. As I don’t have great photo editing skill, I won’t even try to show what I mean but maybe grooves12 could do a mockup?

Just my 2 cents.

ehfortin

[ehfortin]

I have a few questions regarding this:

@Eric_Inovelli

There are a couple of scenarios that we’d like to test for:

1. Putting either a 2-1 or a Fan Switch in Smart Bulb/Fan Mode and use Zigbee Bindings from the switch to canopy (either have the paddle bind directly to the light or the fan and use the config button to change speed/dim)
2. Using the canopy module on its own without a switch

When used with the 2-1 in Zigbee binding, does it imply you don’t need a hub?

Just to make sure I understand the basis of the 2-1 switch in combination with the canopy module, is it correct to understand that the same up/down switch will be used to dim the light and change the fan speed and that, to change from one to the other, you have to press on the config button? If not, how does it work?

Using a hub that support both zigbee and Zwave, is it possible to mix a 2-1 ZWave switch with the zigbee canopy module?

And at the electrical level, even if using a 2-1 switch, I assume the wiring diagram will involve having permanent power to the canopy module in the fan/light combo and same thing for the 2-1 switch, is that correct? Any wiring diagram available that would show this specific setup in a 3 way setup?

Thank you.

ehfortin