Very good to hear. Yes, definitely want an update. I cannot reach those windows, and intend to buy some nice roller blinds that are semi-transparent. I look to be able to integrate (any way) into SmartThings, and have it trigger based on Sun position, temperature outside, or even if we are home/away. Zigbee or ZWave, either is fine with me.
Haha could imagine it is more than a bit difficult to reach those. Automation based on light or temperature will definitely one of the possibilities with Gear. Are you looking at this kind of automation mostly for energy savings?
Energy savings, temperature control, brightness control. So, everything really. 
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Any luck with the answers? I still canât find a simple solution to either buy a darkening blind that raises/closes or buy a motorized blind from blinds.com and connect a zwave controller to it.
@tgauchat I know youâve been trying this for a while, any thoughts?
The simplest solution would probably be to get the Lutron Serena blinds and tie them to SmartThings through IFTTT. (Or Harmony.) Reliable and widely available. You will need the Smart Bridge for either of the integration options. The second generation Smart Bridge is also HomeKit-enabled.
Not the least expensive, but they usually go on sale once or twice a year. They are currently on sale through December 2nd, for example.
Note that you wonât get status back from the shades into SmartThings, so you canât look at SmartThings and know whether theyâre open or closed. And you canât use the manufacturerâs button remote that works with the shades to do anything in SmartThings. But you can issue commands from SmartThings to open or close the shades through the indirect integration, so you can easily combine them with other SmartThings activities. so itâs a limited integration, but good for many use cases.
This is good but wow these start at almost 500 bucks per window. 60 windows - I donât think so. More like 100 bucks - any thoughts?
Not for ones with meaningful safety features.
Itâs the safety features that make motorized blinds expensive. The problem of being sure that youâre not going to literally kill a child or a pet is not an inexpensive one to solve.
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I have Bali blinds (powered by Somfy) all over my house. Ran about $350 a blind, most where 48"x48", added like $150 or so per blind to make them motorized. Works great with Smarthings with a custom device. Purchased through the Costco website with a 10% promo.
The Bali blinds are good quality, better than the Hunter-Douglas ones that came with the house (dumb blinds).
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There are several (!) new âsmart blindsâ solutions in the works ⊠well, more accurately âblind smartenersâ.
Various crowdfunding projects obviously (and wisely!) believe that people do not want to replace their existing window coverings and thus need some way to attach motors and make them connected (and, perhaps, âsmartâ).
There is some overlap and some distinction. Some focus only on tilting of ventians, others are for raising and lowering roller shades, some are solar powered, others have long life batteries or just power cables, âŠ
Really, the challenge is the mechanics ⊠not the connectivity hardware and software. Itâs much easier to build a Z-Wave/ZigBee/Bluetooth/WiFi receiver and even a few smarts like reacting to heat or LUX, then figuring out the mechanics, torque and battery sufficient to deal with the weight, manual override, and safety issues.
As usual, itâs hard to know when and which of these products will actually make it to market and what level of functionality and quality they will have, so I hesitate to list any particular brands or project names lest I include the ones that fail and leave out the ones that succeed.
My opinion is that if you already have motorized blinds or have a motorized brand that you trust, then adding connectivity is worthwhile. Itâs not even that difficult to hack. Then you can âsmartenâ them with the use of SmartApps that include data from temperature sensors, lux readings, sunrise / sunset, routines, etcâŠ
Otherwise ⊠like many things in the smarthome category, waiting through 2016 will give us a lot more options and I hope a few will be reliable and affordable.
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Any opinions about SOMA Smart Shades? http://www.vesternet.com/soma-smart-home-smart-shades-with-usb-charger
The soma smart shades look interesting and the price seems great. I canât seem to find any reviews of these available and they appear to be bluetooth controlled, so Iâm not sure they would integrate with smartthings. But according to the product information page they can be scheduled, so schedules must be stored locally.
They also appear to be sold in the US @ http://www.somasmarthome.com/.
Agreed. These are the best option I have seen in a while, for the price. Just needs integration to SmartThings!
There as well flipflic but cofunding stage. Retrofits blinders to change angle.
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Has there been any improvements in this front? I recently purchased a house and I am attempting to retrofit the blinds (which use 2 cords to tilt the horizontal blinds) and have come up empty as to how to automate these.
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Maybe @ZebraBlinds can throw in a few thoughts here.
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Right now I honestly havenât found something that I can actively recommend for a retrofit. If you are up to get your hands a bit dirty (and fine with a slightly more complicated setup) remove one of your blinds and check if its using a metal rod based tilting mechanism (massive rod going across) or if its another type. Based on that if you can get your hands on a compatible somfy motor itâs just a matter of plugging the motor in properly, plugging in a power source and then using a ZRTSII.
There are currently a few other retrofit solutions out there offered by companies like axis gear, imov etc however they havenât been out long enough to say how durable they will be in the long run and how warranties etc will end up being handled.
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I recently bought the Soma Smart Shades and am VERY disappointed. I had really high hopes for this, but unfortunately, this product is not close to being ready for the public. Hereâs my review of the product:
The good: the package was small, convenient, and simple. Setup was pretty easy. The bad: 1) After installing my item, the unit would no raise and lower the blinds to the stored heights. After removal and reinstalling it on the app, the same issue. The blinds would move to the proper top/down location 1 out of 5 times. The rest of the time, it would pull up too high (and get stuck and stress out the chain), or lower way too much 2) After a week, the blinds would no longer raise as the motor was too weak, even at full 100% charge. The blinds were within spec of Somaâs recommendation 3) The sprocket would fall off the motor after a few runs 4) After contacting customer service, they said I would be responsible for return shipping. It was about $40 to ship it back because they are located in Estonia, Europe.
I really wanted this to work, but was extremely disappointed at the product.
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So much for Soma, they sound bad!
Hereâs another similar one, Brunt Blind Engine, from Korea, looks like they are shipping already.
I am frankly amazed that blinds are so expensive to begin with, let alone automated blinds.
I can get a smartphone with no contract and the latest Android OS for $20 at BestBuy or Walmart. How can some slats of plastic attached to strings and a zwave motor be so much more expensive than that?
I feel the same about greetings cards. I always feel like Iâm getting abused when buying a birthday card.
The price issue is what is stopping me upgrading my aging blinds in the house.