Smart Bathroom Fan with Nordtronic Zigbee Dimmer - 935

I have been looking for a Smart Fan for my bathroom, that would work with Philips Hue and Home Assistant,, have not been able to find anything. Instead I am building one out of a Nordtronic Box Dimmer Zigbee, and a cheap bathroom Fan from ALDI :-)
Do check out My PlayHouse shop : www.myplayhouse.dk/shop
Twitter: / mortenhjorth
[Affiliate Links]
Link UK - Somewhat similar dimmer : amzn.to/39guvtX
Link US - Same dimmer, but different brand on the box : amzn.to/2PEMd2r
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/ myplayhouse
For 3$ a month, you get an extra weekly "What's UP" update video. Just for my Patrons. The Support I resave on patreon is all used on stuff to make interesting videos on KZbin.
My PlayHouse is a channel where i will show, what i am working on. I have this house, it is 168 Square Meters / 1808.3ft² and it is full, of half-finished projects.
I love working with heating, insulation, Servers, computers, Datacenter, green power, alternative energy, solar, wind and more. It all costs, but I'm trying to get the most out of my money, and my time.

[@sirgoodenough65]

Don't try to use the dimmer to change the motor speed. It will break the dimmer or the motor or overheat and burn. The switch is fine, don't dimm it. (I would actually get a different switch that will never dimm for safety.)

[@MyPlayHouse]

It's a low power motor,, 10W,, and cheap to, I am not sure if I am ever going to be using the dimm,, but I thought it was cool that it could do it.

[@sirgoodenough65]

I suggest then make the low speed limit more like 25% instead of nearly stall. At stall there will eventually be smoke.

[@dainazinas]

@@MyPlayHouseNice experiment but afaik dimmers are not meant to be used as speed controllers for inductive loads.

[@EsotericArctos]

This type of fan can be slowed down, as per Sir GoodEnough's message, but I would only run it 65% to 100% if using a light dimmer so the fan doesn't go below about 30% of it's normal speed. Being shaded pole, although it can be reduced in speed, it needs a minimum airflow to keep the coil cool. A very slow moving or stalled shaded pole motor will overheat very quickly and burn up the coil

[@digitalsparky]

That's really cool and certainly something I'd love to integrate into my house.

[@MyPlayHouse]

Thank you very much,, it is rather wired that no one has made one you can buy :-?

[@MVVblog]

Great work Morten, so it works! Glad to have seen this on Patreon some days ago. I have tons of computer and i dont have even a single smart lamp... shame on me!

[@MyPlayHouse]

Hi MVVblog Yes and thank you for your support on patreon :-) the fan did not behave as nicely in the patreon video. I am quit sure you would enjoy some of the film shouting I am doing right now,,, gear and crazy ways of doing stuff :-)

[@LucioAncora]

Hi Morten, I’ve read the manual. It says that if you keep hold the push button (in your case, leaving on the humidity switch), it will change the intensity of the output. It’s the 6th point on the manual. I’ll quote it to you 6. Controlled by a push switch Once connected with a push switch, click the push switch to switch ON/OFF, press and hold down it to increase/decrease light intensity Maybe you should consider to pick up a smart dimmer that work with the on/off switch and not with a push button. Maybe the Shelly dimmer can be good you for you, but is not zigbee (but you already have another Shelly device so not a big problem I guess) Another thing, can you try to use home assistant too. Is a very powerful domotic local server (it can runner in a docker container inside a synology box) and let you integrate wifi, Mqtt, zigbee and other protocols in only one interface. It can also work with Siri, google home, Alexa, Samsung and other virtual assistant.

[@MyPlayHouse]

Hi Lucio Ancora Thank You very much! Yeah that was not exactly what I wanted :-/ Thank you for watching! :-)

[@theophilusthistler5885]

If you want extra ba g for your euro then you could place a repackaged breathable container of cat litter (replace fairly regularly) to eat up extra moisture... toss the used up litter in a bucket and ovee time you have a great base when dehydrated to make cement or mortar filller.

[@MyPlayHouse]

Thank you very much,, I really do not want to have to mess around with cat litter all the time.

[@theophilusthistler5885]

@@MyPlayHouse For an easy solution you couldalways create a a sqauarish bracket filter between the ventulation duct, basically aluminium c channel, rivers and flyscreen and fill it with silica dessicant. Pull tab and pull it down from ceiling every couple months. 20mm thick mildly packed ought to do it. Treat it like an easy swap worstation/gamer PC dust filter. If you like hot showers or long baths I doubt that fan will nake too much of a difference. Please forgive my Australian bias.

[@zx8401ztv]

That's what i like about your channel, you have many interests :-D

[@MyPlayHouse]

Thank you very much,, I like doing different stuff as well 🧐

[@jlegen]

Next project: Boomelung and bingeling sensors... 😙

[@MyPlayHouse]

That has already been suggested :-)

[@Kristjan10a]

I made something similar, using a timer and a motion sensor, that triggers fan if someone enters the bathroom and runs like 10 minutes and then turns off. My cats actually trigger the sensor all the time caust the litter box is in the bathroom. Actually i put the fan for cats to suck up all the smell. :) Works great. Love your idea as well. Cheers from estonia. :) The motor doesn't like getting dimmed. It may actually overheat cause the air flow cools the motor. It will work fine with older lights and dimmable LED but it isn't suited for motor control but it will work in some extent.

[@MyPlayHouse]

I think it depends on how the dimmer works,, but I am not going to use the dimming,, just thought it was cool.

[@EsotericArctos]

If you are using Home Assistant, I would use a Zigbee Humidity sensor to report the humidity to Home Assistant. I actually do that now and just have Home Assistant turn the fan on and off. You can do some calculations to work out humidity rises or to compare humidity to other parts of the house to get an even smarter fan. Combined with a motion sensor you could have the fan turn on at different humidity levels, or different speeds, depending on if the room was occupied or not. I would definitely by getting rid of the highly inaccurate mechanical humidity switch in the fan itself. That said, you may have already done all that by now :)

[@MyPlayHouse]

No I am not that advanced,, but that sayed,, this works just fine. Turns when you go in,,and if the humidity is "high"

[@EsotericArctos]

@@MyPlayHouse I can agree it works fine. I ended up not being advanced either, but found a blue print recently so I could cheat and pretend to be advanced lol :).

[@Seegalgalguntijak]

I wonder if the strong inductive load of the motor won't harm the dimmer circuit over time, if it's run at lower than 100% speed for a longer time. Maybe a capacitor could help with that? Also, what do you think about bypassing the humidity switch and putting the smarty device in parallel to it? So that it turns on from the internal switch as well as from the smarty device, something like that?

[@MyPlayHouse]

I did think about just bypassing it,, but then I found out that I could use the input in the dimmer together with the switch. If it breaks we make it better :-)

[@Seegalgalguntijak]

@@MyPlayHouse My understanding was, that the switch input to the dimmer module needs to be a push-button, so it will only react after the contact has been closed and then opened again, which the humidity sensor doesn't do. But maybe you can change that in the settings?

[@LauwersFreddy]

Hi Morten, have a look at the Aqara zigbee sensors/switches from Xiaomi. They integrate nicely with Home Assistant (I use a Conbee II stick as a hub and deConz addin).

[@MyPlayHouse]

Thank You,, for video it is easier to show it with Philips Hue,, I already has this in Home Assistant to.

[@larssrensen2342]

Hello - is this thing still working here 3 years after? and have you been using the "dimming/speed control" to slow down the fan or just running it at a 100%? Trying to speed control a 230v 33 watt inline fan via wifi/mqtt

[@MyPlayHouse]

Yes it is still working just fine,, but I don’t use the dimming,, at all 🤔

[@mrfrenzy.]

Interesting project but it would probably be best to put the zigbee dimmer outside your bathroom. From the manual it says "DO NOT expose the device to moisture."

[@MyPlayHouse]

There is a difference between moisture and humidity :-) one is way more wet.

[@Seegalgalguntijak]

Yay, you actually adopted my idea, I feel a little bit of pride now :-) (although I don't know if I wrote the only comment with that idea)

[@MyPlayHouse]

Make you a deal :-) if it catches fire, and burns the house to the ground,, IT WAS YOUR IDEA :-)

[@Seegalgalguntijak]

@@MyPlayHouse ROFL, alright then! And if it doesn't, I still mentioned it in this comment: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqG5dYidZ61qpc0&lc=Ugy1lanIP7aaq4wZBlJ4AaABAg :-)

[@andrewsweet43]

the switch on the fan seems to be a temperature bimetalic switch not a humidity switch... Also the switch input on the module probably waits a momentary switch input. It is probably a toggle input so the fan is gonna turn on every 2 actuations of the "humidity switch" on the fan. You sould probably connect the smart module and the built in fan switch in parallel so either one of those can switch on the fan

[@MyPlayHouse]

No it is a humidity switch in there. I did a breath test on it 🧐

[@qpox]

As Beavis would say, fire fire fire...

[@MyPlayHouse]

Well it’s not as if it will catch fire, just for the fun of it.

[@Finns-Projects]

You could also get a smart humidity sensor that would control it. cant recal the name off it atm but do know there are a few out there. sadly haven't seen a boomelom sensor yet. :P

[@MyPlayHouse]

There is a humidity sensor in my radiator thermostat,, I hope to get data from that.

[@alexandrkovalenko4254]

Здравствуйте, подскажите пожалуйста. Можно ли на стоить сценарий с различными уровнями димирования? Например ночью включать свет на 50%, а днём на 100%

[@MyPlayHouse]

HI @alexandrkovalenko4254 My channel is English, and to make sure as many as possible, can also enjoy the comments, they are also English. Please keep to English. Thank you for watching! :-)

[@HansKoch]

You should get a humidity&temp controller to control the power (on/off) of your exhaust fan, so it turns on automatically when humidity or temp gets to a certain level, then turns off.......done, smart/automatic without more WiFi devices in your home...but still can have override with your wall switch for using restroom....

[@MyPlayHouse]

That sounds exactly like what I just did... ??

[@OstenTV_DK]

You should have a look at IFTTT. It's great for making different systems talk to each other. E.g. make Smart Life talk to Philips Hue.

[@MyPlayHouse]

Time is a factor here,, I am having trouble doing everything from the ground. And often has to prioritise time over money. :-/

[@Eo_Tunun]

The Make magazine once published an article about a smart device that could sense carbohydrate fumes in the room air. Such a device would come *really* handy for the bathroom as additional trigger for the fan. They accordingly called it the Fart Detector. You'd probably need an ESP8266 for that and an Arduino-softwarecontrol for such a thingy. in order to make it yourself and be able to control it via your smartlphone. ^^) (Actually, such a device could be made to tell you what sensor triggerd the fan, if a signal from the gas sensor or humidity sensor turned the fan on. Oh the fun you could have with visitors! :oD …Oh the misunderstandings this might trigger! That sensor probably can't tell the difference between methane and cologne.) Edit: Something like a seismic detector on the throne might be good as well?

[@MyPlayHouse]

Bomolum detector 😃

[@theophilusthistler5885]

Sorry for the double comment though can you give me some musings or inspirational advice for a lover of computing/electronics/DIY/carpentry (mostly self taught, some tech school) to maintain the love when working long hours in an unrelated field?

[@MyPlayHouse]

Uhh 😬 that is a different one,, I think 🤔 it would mostly be like planing what cool fun stuff to do when you do have time. And if there is any way to get IT in to work,, jump on it 😉

[@voiceoftruth1O1]

Why not try shelly dimmer. Thanks

[@MyPlayHouse]

Does that one work with Philips Hue ?

[@MrFusker10]

Ved sgu ikke hvor smart det er at sætte farten ned. Normalt på de 3 fasede motorer jeg arbejder med er motores hastighed der holder dem "kolde" men på den anden side er den jo heller ikke belastet. Bare en tanke ;-)

[@MyPlayHouse]

HI søren hansen My channel is English, and to make sure as many as possible, can also enjoy the comments, they are also English. Please keep to English. Thank you for watching! :-)

[@MrFusker10]

@@MyPlayHouse ok no problem 😊 I don't know how smart it is to slow down. usually on the 3 phased motors I work with everyday it is the turns that keep them cool. but on the other hand the engine is also not loaded. just a thought

[@user-jt5vm3mi1w]

Can it stop poop smell?

[@MyPlayHouse]

No! just move it outside :)

[@VioletDragonsProjects]

you may find that running that fan at a slower Speed will end up burning it out.

[@MyPlayHouse]

Hi VioletDragon Projects Thank You very much! we will see how it goes, glad you liked the video :-) Thank you for watching! :-)

[@BDscenes]

Yay! Morten!

[@MyPlayHouse]

Hi BDscenes Thank You very much! I do have it up and running :-) Thank you for watching! :-)