A simple thing like this, but premanufactured. I scoured the internet trying to find one (at a reasonable price) and there is nothing. I would make one myself, but I just don’t have the time currently to do that.
I need it for a mains fan control. Doesn’t have to be fancy (all of the ones I encoutered were very fancy, with touch sliders and whatnot), 5 steps is enough, on/off control as well as speed control through the remote. Nothing fancy, as I said, 5 steps is more than enough. So, basically, just 3 buttons on the remote: on/off, + and - is all I need.
Also, I don’t need smart/phone/app solutions, I would like it to just have a remote, that’s it.
This is meant for a ceiling fan, but maybe it could be retrofitted for your needs? It is internet enabled, but it comes down ith a remote, and the internet enabled controller can be flashed with Tasmota open source firmware for local only control. It does however only has three levels, high/med/low.
https://sonoff.tech/product/diy-smart-switches/ifan04-l/
Yeah, saw these on AliExpress as well. They’re not cheap, they’re like $20. I was looking for something fairly simple, like $3 to $5, nothing fancy. I would even be OK with just 3 levels if it was fairly cheap.
Oh well, I guess I’m gonna have to make one myself… simple things are off the table on online shops from what I can see.
You can’t use a normal dimmer to control a fan. I searched for “fan controller 110v” on AliExpress and found some for <10€, but I don’t know which of them are good.
You can, I have, it works… good enough. It’s not supposed to work in that mode, with chopped up sine waves, but it’s not such a big deal if you keep the motor cool, and it will stay cool because it’s a fan, a table fan… just mounted on a wall… and the motor is practically exposed, so it will be directly cooled.
Could you share the links of those cheap ones? Are those IR/RF controlled? Cuz I know about these, but they don’t have remotes.
EDIT: This is what I had in mind, but this is for LED lighting…
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EJFWc3j https://a.aliexpress.com/_EuI9CU9 https://a.aliexpress.com/_EIRt45f https://a.aliexpress.com/_EH8CbrR https://a.aliexpress.com/_EujBuGl
Yeah, I ran into those as well, but those are for fans with separate windings for different speeds, 1, 2, 3 or low, mid, high. You can’t use them for controlling a fan with one winding.
20$ is pretty reasonable for what it is, including the remote and everything. And sonoff, while not UL listed, is reputable enough that I would trust it not to catch on fire, which would probably not be the case for a 5$ controller.
Might be cheap for western salaries, I make about 10K euros a year 🤷.
I can mod the controller to not catch fire… I just need a PCB anyway, I don’t need the case.