Use the build-in ethernet port to control your MaxxFan

It should work with both the Maxxfan Plus and Maxxfan Deluxe series. If your fan has an 8-pin Ethernet (RJ45) port you should be good to go! Do note that many fans also come with a similar phone plug (RJ11) which does not work with our product.

Known supported model numbers are 4500K, 4700K, 4800K, 4900K, 5100K, 7000K, 7500K, 8500K, 8700K, and 8900K. Many more models probably support it but have not been verified yet.

Only if it’s in automatic temperature hold mode, because the LED light can be detected. The chip on board the fan does not have any way of outputting its current state, so it’s not possible to easily detect the state or speed of the fan.

If detecting fan speed or on/off state is important to you, please shoot us an email as we’re designing a solution for that!

We emulate a 3650K 6 button wall control panel, but instead of buttons you have to press yourself we use optocouplers to trigger the signals to the fan electronically. The way this works inside the fan is exactly the same as when you press a button on the control panel, so all inputs you can do there can be done by the Vanturtle controller.

We recommend using a quality cable that is rated for Power Over Ethernet. This makes sure that the wire you use actually has 8 strands inside it, as some cheaper cables only have 4 strands total. It’s best to keep the length of the fable under 10 meters (32 feet) to keep the voltage drop within acceptable ranges.

Note however that the Ethernet port is located in a part of the fan that gets almost entirely cut off when you lower the fan onto the ceiling. Using a compact or “short body” Ethernet plug is a necessity.

The MaxxFan Deluxe doesn’t use any digital communication protocol like UART, IIC, or CAN. Instead, it relies on simple electrical connections that directly mimic the physical button presses on its control panel. Each button corresponds to a specific pair of wires that, when connected, trigger the same action as pressing the button manually. For example, shorting pins 6 and 8 activates the “Faster” command, while pins 5 and 8 correspond to “Slower”. This makes the fan much easier to control  as no decoding or signal generation is required.

You can read a whole lot more about it in this blog post.

Not even a little bit. Maxxair, Maxxfan and Airxcel are all trademarks by AirX Intermediate Inc. and used on this page as an example of products that are compatible with this controller. We have nothing to do with them. We’re just fans.

While the fan limits inputs to an on/off toggle, there is a workaround for this: If you enable auto mode on the fan it will always enter the auto state, no matter if it was on or off before. If you then send an on/off signal it will always turn off. So if you want the fan to turn on regardless of it it was on or off before, you can set your auto mode manually to be very cold and then simply send the auto signal to the fan and it will always turn on.

The board can also read the auto state, so an alternative option is to keep the auto temperature untouched, and turn on auto mode if it is not on already, then turn the fan off and on again. The fan is then guaranteed to be on.

If you’re okay with running a second wire, using the RJ11 port on the fan as well you can guarantee the fan is off or on.

Just like with the on/off command, it can’t be done directly but there is a reliable workaround. There are 7 speed levels and if you try to go lower than level 1 it will just beep at you but stay at level 1. So if you send 6 slower signals and 3 faster the fan will always be in a known speed mode of 4. This can be combined with the auto mode trick to “reset” the fan to a known state. Signals can be sent so fast that the fan does not have the time to spin down all the way, so besides the beeping it’s pretty smooth.

Probably, check your fan for an RJ45 port first before ordering. If the fan has the port or is listed to be compatible with genuine wall mounted control panel then you should be all good to go.

No modifications are required. Just plug the included Ethernet cable from the fan’s RJ45 port into the controller. We see no reason this should void warranty, as the inputs are the same as pressing the buttons on the fan itself, but we can obviously never guarantee that.

There are DIP switches on the board to set a unique address. This allows up to 18 fans on the same I²C bus, use the table below to set the correct address: