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.
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.
wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
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.
elmicha@feddit.org 2 months ago
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.
0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
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.
elmicha@feddit.org 2 months ago
a.aliexpress.com/_EJFWc3j a.aliexpress.com/_EuI9CU9 a.aliexpress.com/_EIRt45f a.aliexpress.com/_EH8CbrR a.aliexpress.com/_EujBuGl
0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
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.