For quite a few years I’ve wanted to voice control my motorized blinds. When I discovered ZRTSI ll for $85, I thought I’d give it a try. The install went much easier than expected, thankfully there was a YT video.
The only issue I have is on Alexa’s end. At first I could say “open, or “close” the blinds, and it would do it. Then it quit responding. I have to say “turn on”, or turn off” and that works every time. I have two blinds on the front of the house, and four on the back. I put the ZRTSI ll right in the middle by my Chronis timer, and have never had a failure, if I use the turn on and turn off commands. I just think it’s weird to say that for the blinds.
It would be great if Amazon comes up with something to correct it.
Finally voice controlling my Somfy blinds
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A lot of people have mentioned the “close” issue – – it comes up with garage doors, also.
The best thing is to put in a feature request to Amazon (you can do that through the official Amazon app) because it seems to be their issue.
I use the IFTTT trigger method, because then I can use any phrasing that I want. So you could say “Alexa, trigger close blinds” and that should always work. But it does require using the “trigger” phrase format.
Yes, I considered IFTTT. I’m holding out for an Amazon update. I also had issues with my ceiling fans. To turn them all on I had to put them in a group named “ceiling”. If I use the word fans, it seems to confuse Alexa.
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