Ceiling fan controller replacement

[Terrence Vergauwen]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and am a "left-handed" computer geek  I've very basic electrical knowledge, enough to wire up stuff.

I have an older house which has a ceiling fan and an old switch on the wall to control it's speed and switch it on/off.

It has a speed setting of 1 (very fast) up to 5 (very slow) and 0 means off.

Here's a picture of the ugly thing on the wall
https://ibb.co/gUBL7G

I will call the switch on the wall the "control-box" from now on.

Not only is this control-box really old and yellowed / ugly, it does'nt register certain settings propperly until you've switched it back and forth a few times.
I guess it has had it's days.

I would like to replace the control-box with a modern one. Since I have wireless lighting (philips hue) and google home (with the google voice assistant),
I would like to replace this control-box with a new one that supports wifi and integration wiht google-home or thru IFTTT.

Unfortunately I don't have a clue how these things work.

Does the controller-box simply work like a light dimmer switch ? eg does it supply %100 power when on the highest setting, and lesser power when on lower settings, eg just like a traditional dimmer switch for lightbulbs ?

Could I replace it with a lighting dimmer switch for example ?

Or am I wrong and it's a special controller box for ceiling fans.

It would be cool if some of you knowledeable people could elaborate on this, and explain how the controller-box works, and maybe what kind of product I should buy...

I would like to buy a product that:

- replaces the current yucky old controller-box on the wall with a modern one, using the same cabling coming out of the wall the current box uses.
- allows manual on/off and speed control of the ceiling fan just like the previous box, , with similar functionality (either analog/dimmable speed or a number of preset speeds)
- allows WIFI or zigbee or any other wireless control so i can hook it up to google-home directly or via IFTTT.

Imagine there are no WIFI ceiling fan controllers, could I use a WIFI lightbulb dimmer instead ?

Thanks a lot for your time to read my ramblings
Looking forward to reading some of your pro advice

Thanks,
Terrence
 

 

[Geoff1946]

I suspect that your fan and controller will be a matched pair with a unique, probably multi wire, interface. The fan motor winding will most likely have multiple taps and there may be capacitors involved. It will be difficult to adapt it to any other means of control.

Cheap solution, a bit of contact cleaner may fix the dodgy switch, or look for loose connections.

Expensive solution, replace the fan. I don't know off hand what's available  but I'm sure there will be such things on the market.

 

[Evans Electric]

Never seen one of those before .....I'd cut my losses and buy all new ,   as Geoff says  above  a bit of contact cleaner MIGHT help  but you can spend forever prattling about with stuff like that . 

 

[Terrence Vergauwen]

Ok guys,

Seems like i'm out of luck

I opened up the box and it has a transformer inside...

Guess I'll have to get a new fan

Thanks for your time anyways, I really appreciate it

Terrence

 

[Geoff1946]

How many wires to the fan itself?  Do your electrical skills run to tracing the wiring in the control box to see how it works?  It may be just a multi tapped auto transformer.

IF there are only two motor leads, (apart from earth), and IF at full power the controller puts the full mains voltage to the motor then you just MIGHT get away with a light dimmer type control.

Do remember you are tinkering with mains voltage here!  If you aren't confident then don't.

 

[Terrence Vergauwen]

Hi Geoff,

Thanks for your reply

It's quite late here now, but I will open up the controller box and fan tomorrow and take some photos of the insides,

then post them here, maybe someone here can figure out with what i could replace it...

I'll also try to figure out what/how many leads go from the controller to the fan thru the wall/ceiling.

So, check back tomorrow for the photos if you'd like to help 

Thanks again to everyone who responded to my post, it's much appreciated

Greetz,

Terrence/Radiance

 

[Geoff1946]

"It's late" ?? Where are you?  I wrote my message over breakfast.

 

[Terrence Vergauwen]

Hey Geoff,

I'm originally from belgium but i moved to new zealand about 11 years ago...

It's 2am here now and a great time to hit the sheets

Night!,

Terrence

 

[Terrence Vergauwen]

Hey,

Here's some pictures of the opened controller box.

Maybe someone can figure out if it works and if it can be replaced by something else...

The wiring into the wall is just one cable...

Any ideas ? 

Thanks again

Terrence

 

[Terrence Vergauwen]

Oops, forgot: Here's the images: 

https://ibb.co/j9QDgm

https://ibb.co/hxxenR

https://ibb.co/g35Au6

https://ibb.co/hOUEMm

Greetz,

Terrence

 

[Geoff1946]

Sorry Terrence, but it isn't possible to deduce anything about the circuitry from your pictures except to confirm that a multi tap transformer or choke is used.

Have you tried googling the fan model number?  You just might come up with a wiring installation manual.

Regards