The fan gets an IP address

OK this project took a long time. You might remember my previous post, the fan that made noise and had no ability to be controlled other than via an old-school X10-style interface.

I had replaced the run capacitor in it, but it never really addressed the issue, the buzz that started after a while.

Well, here’s the (near final) product, an XLP-2000 fan motor with an iFan03 attached. The iFan is smaller than the old controller, and thus fits in the bracket with some double sided tape.

One minor challenge, this fan has a run-capacitor. So the old wiring looks like below. Originally it had a set of MOSFET driving dropper resitors, the output feeding to one winding directly, and the other windoing through a 10uF capacitor. 3-ish phase. Well, the iFan03 doesn’t have a run capacity. So i wired it in externally, that big yellow blob.
One minor downside (talked about elswhere online) about the iFan03, the dropper capacitors it uses are sized for 240V. Theoretically I should go find a pair of 2.5uF caps and replace the 5uF ones in it. Ostensibly it supports 4-speeds (2 caps, so 11 == no drop, 10 = some drop, 01 – some more drop, 00 == max drop). So dropping from the original 6 speed to 4 speed is a loss, but really its more like 2 speed now (turbo and non-turbo).
O well, it works, its on the MQTT bus and talkng to home assistant.

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3 Responses to “The fan gets an IP address”

  1. David

    Hi Don, I came across this while searching for information to do this with my own fan. Mine has a different controller (https://imgur.com/ewOMQyK) but it seems to be the same wiring for the motor, and likely the same motor too (XLP-2000).

    It’s strange though – there seem to be 5 capacitors which act as run capacitors: 3.5, 5, 5.5, 9, and 10 µF. I don’t know much about these things, so how this one is controlled is beyond me.

    Still, if it’s the same motor, I figure it will work just fine with the iFan03. Could you share more about how yours is wired? It looks like the white motor lead goes to the white one on the controller, the brown motor lead goes to the black one on the controller with the 10 µF capacitor in between. Can’t really see what’s going on with the red motor lead though – seems like it might be going directly to the black lead of the controller, bypassing the capacitor?

    That would fit with the little I do understand about these motors, but the 5 capacitors in my controller are throwing me off.

    Besides that, how’s it held up over the last year? Anything you’d do different?

    Thanks for any info!

    -David

    Reply
    1. db

      both fans have worked well.

      the capacitor acts like a ‘resistor’ for AC. E.g. voltage drops across it, and thus slows the fan down.
      i think there are 2 bits of speed control, and they do:
      0 0 -> no caps, full speed
      0 1 -> 1 cap, 2/3 speed
      1 0 -> 1 cap, 1/3 speed
      1 1 -> off

      effectively, the more capacitance in series in the ‘run’ cap, the slower it goes.
      the ‘start’ cap is just to put some voltage out of phase to get it going to fake out a 3-phase effect.

      i never got around to the 2.5uf caps, so mine runs fine, but the slowest speed is pretty slow. but medium is just fine so i don’t care.

      very happy w/ the purchase and install on both motors.

      Reply
      1. David LaPierre

        Ahh okay, I understand now. I saw there was an iFan04 released with dual 5 µF caps, so I ordered that. Still on it’s way from China.

        I also mapped out the control circuits a bit: https://imgur.com/rmRSH9C
        Mine uses 3.5 µF for speed 1, 5 for 2, 9 for 3, 14.5 for 4, 23 for 5, and no caps for speed 6.

        It seems like the iFan uses just 1 cap for low speed, both for medium speed, and none for high speed. So with the iFan04, my low speed will be what was formerly speed 2, mid speed will be a bit faster than what was speed 3, and top speed should be unchanged. I think that will work out well.

        Kinda strange that they don’t have 4 speeds. Using a 4 µF and a 6 µF cap seems like it would work even better.

        I ended up just getting an air conditioner run capacitor – not sure how it will compare with the kind normally used: https://www.supplyhouse.com/Titan-HD-PRCF10A-10-MFD-Round-Motor-Run-Capacitor-440-370V

        I also added a Shelly Dimmer 2 for the lights: https://imgur.com/yeM31HA

        I’d like to get it so it’s switched by both the pull chain switch and the iFan04 (so I can use the remote with it). Unfortunately I only see an option for single toggle switch, even though both switch connections are able to be used with a toggle switch. So for now it’s just connected to the pull chain switch. I just use voice at least 90% of the time anyway though, so it’s not a major issue.

        Put in new bearings on the motor while I was at it. Old ones weren’t *that* bad, but they were a little noisy and had leaked quite a bit of lubricant.

        Oh! And I added a toggle switch for direction control: https://imgur.com/vHzOBON

        Reply

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