Subject: From: Date:

Re: [ECS] Controlling a fan with X10 Dan Carrington Thu, 30 Nov 2000 07:21:33 -0800

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For this, you would look into the fan speed switch.  It should switch 120v AC to
3 different places (if you have a 3 speed fan).  One should be directly to the
fan.  The other two should go into some sort of electronics, possibly capacitor
circuits.  You would need to tap into those three lines, and with three separate
x-10 switch units, feed the 120v AC into those three circuits, taking the place
of the 3 position switch.  ECS would then switch the different boxes to make the
different speeds.  If two boxes are on at the same time, I don't know what would
exactly happen, but I would assume the faster speed would prevail, but possibly
the slower as the capacitor may be in the circuit and reducing the speed.  You
should try this on your particular fan while off the ceiling to check for
safety.  

I also noticed that someone has a web site posted for a home build controller
based on an incandescent dimmer x-10 module.  It is essentially, the dimmer
sends a variable control voltage, a control chip samples this voltage and fires
3 different relays, which in turn then run the fan as the 3 position switch. 
This should work fine also, but requires more build, but only 1 x-10 address and
will not have the problem of more than one switch position on at a time.

Take your pick of the options...

Dan

Carl Swanson wrote:
> 
> Excellent response, thank you for getting back to me.
> A few things if you don't mind.
> 
> My wife and I like to change the fan speed above our bed OFTEN,
> like 3-4 times a night. So it's really the speed I wish to change,
> the fan is almost NEVER off in the summer. I'd rather do without the hum, so
> that I think is an issue.
> 
> > The third option is more cumbersome but will not cause any extra hum.  You can
> > pop open the fan, and break out feeds for each switched speed to extra wires and
> > then use standard x-10 boxes and do the stock 3 speeds without induced hum.
> 
> Could you clarify this a bit more? I've never really looked in
> the fan before. Would each speed then be a different X10 code, one to each box?
> That might not be bad. What kind of hardware and basic steps
> would I need on this?
> 
> Is it possible to do this with the DIMMER capabilities
> of the X10 control, like with a light and then the dimmer controls?
> That would be the most useful. But if not, this way would work.
> 
> Thanks a lot Dan, I really appreciate the help.
> 
> Carl
> cswanson@tivoli.com

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