Smarthome has a stick item that is a poll on which insteon device folks will use to control an insteon fanlinc, and they mention there that this device will be released "soon".

Anyone not under an NDA that knows anything about this?

Insteon Fan Control?

The White Whale!

Please be true! I'm good for 5 on day 1 (or whatever day they are officially supported in Indigo).

So would I - but since I have Casablanca fans with various fancy types of proprietary controls, I suspect I will be SOL. I hope not though!

I replaced one of my fans with another that had a weird proprietary control, with a remote, but I had all of that weird control is just an included fan controller (for my fan at least - Fanimation). I was still able to have it wired conventionally to the light switch and the fan controller.

That being said, it looks like Smarthome wants to build a fan controller/light controller in one unit. I guess that's cool, but my house is wired with each fan/light combo going to a 2-gang box (with seperate light and fan controls).

Not sure what to do with this... Do I wire the fan controls up and ignore the light control (or use it for something else...?) or do I use the light/fan combo they provide and ditch my existing switch?

Did you get more information somewhere other than the poll item at smarthome? I'd be interested in reading more about their proposed device.

Nope. Just in that single post on their forum.

Swancoat wrote:That being said, it looks like Smarthome wants to build a fan controller/light controller in one unit. I guess that's cool, but my house is wired with each fan/light combo going to a 2-gang box (with seperate light and fan controls).

Not sure what to do with this... Do I wire the fan controls up and ignore the light control (or use it for something else...?) or do I use the light/fan combo they provide and ditch my existing switch?

I suspect that they would be targeting houses like mine; Only the Master bedroom and Den were wired for Light+fan when I bought the house 30 years ago, so when I decided to put ceiling fans in the othre two bedrooms and Living room, I put in a double plug set in the attic next to each fixture and wired the fan and integral light to plugs. Plugged one into an X10 TM whatever housecode reciever/switch and the other into an appliance module and replaced the switch with a keypad and had full (less speed and reversal) fan and light control not only from the wall, but from a palmpad in each room as well. It worked out so well, that I replaced the double switches in the den and master with a keypad and plug (just to fill the empty slot)... till the wiring aged and the computer stopped being able to track and control the X10s on the longer runs. So now, I'm slowly replacing everything with Insteon appliancelincs and dual band keypadlincs. Though I hate the thought of giving up the palmpads; the remotelinc2s just aren't as good, which is why the old X10 recievers are still up there and the appliancelincs have both insteon and X10 addresses.

In case you guys haven't been following the thread at the smarthome forums, you can view the manual for the FanLinc sumitted to the FCC.

Basically the fanlinc is not a switch, its a control box that fits inside the fan itself. Like all the remote control units you can get for ceiling fans.

I guess that's a handy device for a lot of people, but what I REALLY want is to replace my current manual slider control, with one that I can control via Insteon. Basically a SwitchLinc Dimmer that can be used on an inductive load.

I can MAKE this thing work for me, but it's a lot of hassle. I have 5 fans, and undoing them all and putting this in the base is an uneviable task. Even after that, then what? Another unloaded dimmer in the 2-gang box to control the fan? Or maybe install the fanlinc in the junction box, along with a 6 button keypad for the fan speeds and light?

I wish I could just have the inductive dimmer.

Swancoat wrote:I guess that's a handy device for a lot of people, but what I REALLY want is to replace my current manual slider control, with one that I can control via Insteon. Basically a SwitchLinc Dimmer that can be used on an inductive load.

I can MAKE this thing work for me, but it's a lot of hassle. I have 5 fans, and undoing them all and putting this in the base is an uneviable task. Even after that, then what? Another unloaded dimmer in the 2-gang box to control the fan? Or maybe install the fanlinc in the junction box, along with a 6 button keypad for the fan speeds and light?

I wish I could just have the inductive dimmer.

I'm in the same situation. Plus all my fans don't have lights. Not sure how I will want to use this especially if it's expensive.

Smarthome has a page for it now:

http://www.smarthome.com/fanlinc.html


Have the Perceptive Automation team received the information they need yet to include support for it in their next release?

It won't be in the next release. The FanLinc is quite a bit different in many respects from existing devices so it's going to take more time to support it correctly. We will eventually support it but the timing is still undetermined.

jay wrote:It won't be in the next release. The FanLinc is quite a bit different in many respects from existing devices so it's going to take more time to support it correctly. We will eventually support it but the timing is still undetermined.

Good luck with this, I am really looking forward to FanLinc and Indigo integration. The opportunities for automation are quite interesting. If just to turn off all the fans when you leave the house. Tying them in with the thermostat (or the non-existent Insteon Remote Temperature Sensor) would be quite the coup.

Just ordered a FanLinc...they're on back order until 30 Jan 12

I just ordered two - they didn't say anything about a delay - I'll be interested to see if they work with my casablanca intellitouch fans.