ZigBee Fan Switch | Project Zephyr (Blue Series)

Yeah it does, sorry I haven’t updated the listing :frowning:

I wasn’t in the last meeting so I was holding off on putting it in the listing until I am able to fully confirm. However, I was anticipating it would be delayed a bit bc we haven’t gotten beta units yet and I’m assuming it will take at least a month to fully test and debug any issues.

I should know more next Thursday.

Project Update: Updated production timeline. We’re still expecting a Q1 2022 release and aiming to have samples for beta testers towards the end of January/early February but TBD :slight_smile:

3 Likes

there’s at least one of those (maybe 2) with my name on it :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes

Hi, Does that mean bookings/pre-purchases will be offered in January?

is it possible to sign up as a Beta tester for this as well as the dimmer/on-off switch?

Hey @pankuj, we’re hoping to have preorders opened up later on in the production schedule and possibly once we have them in the hands of beta testers. I don’t feel confident saying it’ll go live in January but it really is to be determined. We’ll share more information about beta testing after the holidays so keep an eye out around then.

1 Like

Thank you! I am looking forward to getting my hands on these switches.

I just went into a new house and postponed replacing all the switches considering the zigbee/chip push.
(bought a couple of Iottys to try out, they are pretty but I am not convinced enough to replace everything in my house).
In my last house I had a bunch of z-wave Inovellis, no issues with those but these new zigbee ones seem exciting and worth the wait (if its Q1 2022 :crossed_fingers: ).

1 Like

Project update: I’ll be taking over this project as Donovan has moved on from the company. We wish him the best of luck!

Give me a couple days to get familiarized, but I’ve definitely been excited about this and have been following it semi-closely!

EDIT: Giving this project to @Courtney_Inovelli bc she’s a rockstar. I’m still here from an innovation ideas standpoint, but you’re in good hands with Courtney from a project management standpoint.

6 Likes

I’m trying to understand how this switch would work. Is it compatible with any standard ceiling fan? Would you just leave the fan turned on High constantly and the inovelli switch varies the power going to the fan to control the speed?

I assume this should not be used for a fan w/ lights controlled by a single switch. Is there a blue series version of the fan and light switch coming?

1 Like

@Courtney_Inovelli Are you able to provide any updates on the status of this project? Since the zwave chips are going to be impossible to procure in 2022, this zigbee fan switch will be the way I go.

1 Like

Watch out for the bus @Courtney_Inovelli :slight_smile:

joey-virginia

1 Like

Did you mean zigbee?

1 Like

I meant exactly what I said.

1 Like

I’ll update since Courtney has been buried with taxes and customer service. Free pass from me this time @Courtney_Inovelli!

Status of this is that we are receiving beta units next week!

Honestly, we told the manufacturer to put their time/effort into the 2-1 switch so we could get the firmware in a good spot and so they put this one on the back burner until just before Chinese New Year.

We will be reaching out to beta testers shortly :slight_smile:

If this one is anything like the 2-1, they’re going to knock it out of the park.

Super excited and apologies for the delay in updating this thread. Good news though!

8 Likes

This is really good news. Should we assume late Q1 for orders? or Q2?

Likely Q2 – Unfortunately UL is really backed up so their normal times of 8ish weeks has turned into 12-16 :frowning:

This is just what they’re telling us, likely to cover themselves, but to prepare for the worst, we’re going to say likely April/May to be safe.

4 Likes

As long as it comes out, doesn’t matter how long it takes for me! I’m excited for the whole suite of Blue Series.

2 Likes

With these switches, would it be possible to wire a non-smart but motorized blind or a non-smart ceiling fan to the same switch as a set of can lights and have the paddles control the cans (including dimming), and the auxiliary button toggle the on/off (or up/down) state of the blinds (but without ‘dimming’)? Or, would all of the non-smart devices attached to the switch only function as a group regardless which input trigger is used?

Posting this to the Fan switch page because these are both motorized applications. Apologies if this is the wrong place.

Anything connected to the LOAD of the device will be controlled by the paddle (on or off, speed modes). If you had a smart motor that connected to your hub, then you could program the config button to trigger the blinds to open or close using a ruleset to control it, but there isn’t a way to separate the two from the LOAD and control them independently.

1 Like

Thank you! This is very helpful.

I’m going to do some research myself too, but would you know of a different device type that takes a motorized LOAD and makes it smart with no human interface component? Thinking here of something like a Zigbee switch but without any paddle or buttons. (Ideally, I’d like to avoid using a jury-rigged bridge like a Broadlink IR device.)

The thing I’m trying to solve for is KISS-principal human UX. I really like the notion of the paddles from 2 Inovelli Blue light switches controlling 2 sets of lights and then the 1st aux button a ceiling fan (on/off), and the 2nd aux button a set of blinds. That just sounds so natural from an UX perspective - esp. since fan speed and direction are typically controlled at the fan and the blinds will be automated to open and close with sunrise/set anyways and seldom need to be over-ridden.

I know there are smart blinds from Lutron and Ikea but the options are still quite limited and I’m not aware of any non-Wifi smart ceiling fans. (I’m avoiding Wifi for cyber security reasons.)

I’m not up-to-date on the blinds, but I know they’re not cheap. You may be able to tie in a Aeotec module (depending where your blind power supply is located). Maybe someone hear has more experience with motorized blinds.

I know a few people prefer Bond (https://bondhome.io/) for controlling fans. I’m looking forward to this fan switch (I have the LZW36 as well); with that being said, I’m not worried about the WiFi aspect as my IoT devices are on their own VLAN and have limited access to the data VLAN. Obviously, you have to be comfortable with the setup, but you may be limited.

2 Likes