I tend to say “hardware is hard”… But sometimes I’m not sure; I guess it’s just much harder when it’s not solid state (ie, has gears and motors and the power to turn them). This also explains why so many new affordable WiFi cameras have suddenly hit the market: They use wide angle (or even 360° lenses instead of pan and tilt motors…).
Rhetorical Question: Why does Kickstarter and IndieGogo continue to exist???
Rhetorical answer 
I’ve had some good experience with KS/Indi. Plum, Neeo and Eight come to mind, but there’s been others. But if I go to my funding history, there’s far more misses than hits. I’ve not invested in gadgets hardly at all this year, they either turn out to be rubbish, or just don’t reach production.
Hardware is for sure harder than marketing; there’s lots of good marketeers on KS/Indi, with great videos.
That never seems to stop people in all sorts of situations. Can be a good thing or a bad thing sometimes.
are there any updates to this thread? now thinking to implement some blinds and would like to tie it into ST for automation… some of these are quite bloody costly… just wow… thinking if it may actually be better/effective to diy…
thanks…
Interested to know as well
Any new developments with axis gear. Looking to preorder but i have not seen any good comments/reviews out yet
Anyone have them yet?
I per-ordered about 9 months ago and I think I received one email from them that they pushed the date back a little but haven’t heard anything since.
I recieved confirmation that mine shipped… and should have been here last week… oh the waiting game 
Let us know how it goes!
Can someone post the DTH? The axis link is 404.
Edit: Nevermind, they have a version 6.0 of the pdf
SO i just got mine in and connected to smartthings, While the customer DeviceType works fine, if you cont care about battery reporting you can also use the standard Zigbee Switch and Zigbee Dimmer DeviceTypes too, just w/o the battery reporting but with local execution.
Firmware updates look like they will be a pain as you have to factory reset the Axis Gear to make it bluetooth again to do the update from the app.
Recharging the Axis Gear is also special… it has a power connector much like Apple’s Magsafe connector that only connects to… A solar panel w/ 12 AA batteries.
Finally, don’t be fooled by the pictures this device is MUCH bigger in real life… the unit is thicker than a SmartThings Dimming Outlet and taller than an iPhone.
Thanks!
How long does the battery works for you?
Any delays or hiccups that you seen apart from that?
Hi! How did you get yours connected? The new Smartthings app doesn’t have it in its supported list and when I hit pair on my gear green light shows up as if it paired with something but that’s it. Any suggestion (sorry, new to all this)
Hey everyone! Apologies for being away from here for so long. A few updates and a question for you:
Gear has gone through several firmware and app updates in 2018. In our opinion, the overall experience is much more robust and has improved significantly.
The reason we shipped in batches historically was to be able to get feedback and quickly implement it into the next batch. We’re now at a point where we’re pretty confident with the product. The inventory we will have available in September is just over 3X more units than all of our last 3 batches combined.
All new orders are shipping with both the SolarBar and a complimentary wall adapter. Previous customers can DM us here if you’d like a complimentary adapter as well!
In regards to an actual SmartThings integration: we’ve sent off everything for certification quite a few months ago and haven’t heard much since. Are there any thoughts here on why this may be and how we can speed up the process? Or at the very least how we can improve our indirect ST integration process or guide?
@Team_AXIS, has the problem of having to send any command 3 times before the shade will actually move been addressed in a firmware update? This issue was brought up on the Axis support forums a couple of weeks ago.
I checked in with our developer for this one. Are using an Android for control? They are aware of a bug in the Android app where the app is still discovering services after connecting to the control page so will not process any control commands. They also mentioned they’re eager to discuss the problem further so DM me and I can help set up a call!
If anyone orders in the UK - beware of import tax. @Team_Axis completely messed up the shipping declaration. I received an email invoice from UPS looking for £75 of import charges.
The parcel had no separate shipping declaration so customs have to add a standard assumption of £85 shipping as well as a false value declaration of $251 from Axis.
After a bit of messing about with UPS the charges were reduced to £42 - not a great start before i have even received my controller 
AXIS support on FB and FB messenger have been pretty useless and it feels like buried their heads in the sand.
I can only hope that the recent FCC filling from IKEA to make a blind controller will offer us all a better avenue 
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/9/7/17832690/ikea-smart-home-blinds-tradfri-fcc-filing
When I first learned about the Gear, I was very excited. I liked the fact that unlike other integrated power blinds, there was physical control of the blind at the window. Not knowing how good the product would be, how well the integration would work, how long AXIS would be in business, coupled with the $250 price tag I only ordered one. I just received my Axis Gear on Monday. My order was placed several months ago. Install was a breeze. I shortened my roller blind chain, and using included template, marked, mounted unit and powered using wall wart. Pairing unit to my Android phone was very intuitive. In no more than a half an hour I had mounted, paired, and set up unit to use by phone. I then set up a few timers to see how well the unit would perform. Over the next few days, the unit functioned flawlessly. Today, using instructions provided by AXIS through their YOUTUBE page, I was able to integrate unit into Smartthings with their custom DTH. So far, I like what I see. If the GEAR continues to function as well as it has, I will be ordering several more come the first of the year. It seems AXIS may have been a little slow getting the ball rolling, but I believe they have one of the best, most fully featured blind automation’s on the market.
I agree with your experience. My first impression was that the units are very well built.
But unfortunately, after using the controllers (I have 3) for a few months, I find them extremely unreliable as far as the Smartthings integration is concerned. The connection between the (Smartthings) hub and the controller is often lost (once every 3 weeks if I have to guess) and the only way of getting things going again, is to go through the pairing process again. That in itself can often be a challenge as the pairing would not always work. The only way of getting things going again is to reset the controller, delete it from the Smartphone app and start with the Bluetooth pairing.
To do a firmware upgrade, the same process has to be followed.
Sometimes the (Android) app would not allow one to delete the controller in the app when the initial Bluetooth pairing is required. I have found that the only way of getting going when this happens, is to delete the app’s data (losing all controllers).
My overall experience is therefore that the hardware and general build-quality seem to be good, but the software part is beta quality at best. At least that could be fixed. Hopefully. Although, if the response time from support on this forum and on the Axis website is anything to go buy, we’re in for a long wait.