I have Levolor motorized blinds currently installed throughout my house. They have a remote that’s sole purpose is to raise/lower/open the blinds. I would love for me to be able to automate these blinds in some way. I’m new to the Smart community in general. I do not even necessarily need them to do any IFTTT, but I would love to be able to just tell my Alexa to open or close them rather than get up, find the remote (that serves no other purpose), walk around the house and raise/lower blinds. What I find myself doing is just letting the blinds stay closed all the time which I’d like to change. Any help would be appreciated. Relevant information is that the remote’s FCC ID is UXULEV. FCC website is located at https://fccid.io/UXULEV Frequency range is [2.402-2.48 GHz] for the remote. Thanks for any help that can be provided. I hope my question is not too redundant or specific to my needs.
It looks like Bluetooth is between 2.402 GHz and 2.480 GHz. Are your blinds compatible with their mobile app? If you can get the app to control your blinds, that might be a step in the right direction. It looks like the app will support scheduling, but I’m not sure if you need specific blinds, or the 6 channel remote.
UPDATE: Looks like you can use the mobile app if you get the 6-channel remote.
I had no idea they had a mobile app. I have spent hours searching for support on this today and information is severely lacking (or at least with my search ability). That IS a step in the right direction! I do not have the 6 channel remote though. I have plenty of the 3 channel remotes floating around though.
I wonder if there are some alternatives then aside from their own mobile app.
Edit: For what it’s worth, from my searching just now, it appears as if the ‘premium’ 6 channel remote operates on the same frequency. https://fccid.io/UXULEV6 [2.402-2.48 GHz]. So my take is that Levolor is intentionally restricting the app to work with the premium 6 channel remote. Which, I guess, is their choice but definitely frustrating from a consumer standpoint when blinds are already so pricey and the motorization of the blinds is also pricey.
Yeah, I had a hard time navigating their site to find what I did. I also had no luck finding a DIY solution or hack to control the blinds anywhere on the internet. I think the 6 channel remote may have some additional functionality to store the scheduling, communicate with the phone to relay the commands, etc. I suspect the 3 channel remotes don’t have what’s needed to pull it off. Am I correct that you can control 6 blinds with one remote? That may mitigate the cost a bit.
It’s a bit of a longshot, but you MIGHT be able to use a phone app called Tasker and a plugin called SharpTools that MIGHT allow some control between Smartthings and the Levolor app. There are other members of the community that might have more insight if Tasker could fit the bill. But you would need an android device always in range of the remotes…assuming Tasker can do it.
For what it’s worth, I agree about the expense of smart blinds. I probably spent $1500+ retrofitting 10 of my dumb blinds with mysmartblinds.com. But I can’t put a price on how it feels to no longer worry about opening and closing all those blinds every morning and evening. 1st world problem solved.
Based on my experience with the 3 channel remote, you’re probably right about the 6 channel remote. The 3 channel remote can control up to 3 blinds or ‘combinations’ of blinds. So I can group all of my living room blinds to one channel and control all of them simultaneously. There are some limitations but that’s essentially how the 3 channel remote can work. I assume the 6 channel would operate similarly but with a higher number of combinations available. So I might be able to get away with just 1 or 2 remotes in order to make the groupings, app, and automations work. My spouse will probably complain about the need for more remotes (when I’ve been telling her how this whole process of automation/ST will reduce the number of remotes). But it should just be the need to purchase the remotes and not necessarily a need to /use/ the remotes.
I do not currently have any Android devices. I’m mostly an iOS ecosystem but their Homekit tech has not kept up with competition so I’ve been branching out. But there’s a less than 0% chance of me switching to Android phones. And my knowledge of Android is significantly less than other technology.
As an aside that may be dipping outside of the realm of this community forum… I do not currently have a Harmony Elite remote/hub, but have been considering it. Based on what you know thus far, do you think that it could work with the blinds since the blinds are just Bluetooth?
First world problems sounds about right! Thanks for your help thus far!
I don’t think Harmony will help with this. I have one and I don’t think you can teach it the bluetooth commands between your phone and the 6 channel remote. Nor do I think you can teach it to communicate directly with the blinds. (This was actually where I first started to investigate your integration options.) It looks like you might can use Harmony on Hunter Douglas’s blind bridge device…but nothing for Levolor.
I don’t know if there is an iOS equivalent of the Tasker app or if there’s some possibilities using Homekit. My experience is mostly with the Samsung Smartthings hub solution, and zero experience with any Apple products.
This definitely looks to be a big DIY challenge no matter what solutions you involve. Maybe Levolor will jump on the Alexa bandwagon in the near future. But I’m guessing they need to come out with a wifi bridge of some sort so that you can control your remotes from the cloud, not just a phone within bluetooth range.
I am kicking myself! I had researched it but somehow got it mixed up about brands/features at the store and spent $$,000 on 9 blinds for my house only to find that I can’t automate them other than with an app on my phone which won’t close the blinds in the middle of the daytime sun unless my phone is at home? How is that automation? Nobody can imagine how frustrated (angry?) I am at Levolor. NEVER again. Levolor calls it motorization - and it is true (when it works) but it isn’t the automation I was hoping for. If anyone has ideas, I am all ears.
Someone told me to look into a Cassia Hub Bluetooth Router. Anyone have experience with that and Leveolor?
Interesting solution for BT control. It looks like they have an API that could be used to build a custom DTH that uses cloud to cloud integration. (And possibly hub to hub via LAN). The $64k question is whether the hub works with the blinds. If that’s the case, then you need someone to put together the DTH.
Update: It looks like they discontinued their consumer product and only have enterprise solution products available.
No news on this?? I’m on the same problem as the rest of you guys! I just ordered the “premium” remote and see how that works out. Also trying to see if there’s a way to get an Arduino or Raspberry Pi to work, on either RF blasting or BT control through the remote…
Have been doing some research, and have some observations and questions.
Anyone know if HD Powerview remotes work with Levolor blinds? Perhaps that could be workaround to get Levolor blinds connected to a wifi based smart system.
See below my thinking around this:
Hunter Douglas acquired Levolor a couple years back.
It appears that Kirsch and HD share similar Powerview Hub (HD) / HUB (Kirsch) solutions, but with different marketing names. https://apps.fcc.gov/eas/GetApplicationAttachment.html?id=4000687
I wouldn’t be surprised that they are intentionally NOT investing (or advertising) Levolor connectivity to make it the more “economic” brand. Or not allowing connectivity to certain HD connectivity for Levolor vs. Kirsch.
The Premium Levolor Remote only came out this year. See registration w/ FCC, as submitted by HD. https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=Y&application_id=vv%2F1BDjLJBF3OfvPRP8uvg%3D%3D&fcc_id=UXULEV6
Note the PowerView remote has similar controls / labels as the Levolor Premium remote
- 6 - Groups
- “Favorite” with a “heart”;
- “All” button
- Up, Down, Stop, Tilt out, tilt in Buttons;
Images of each:
https://cdn2.hunterdouglas.com/static/documents/PowerView-Remote-Guide.pdf
https://www.levolor.com/premium-6-channel-remote.html
Does anyone have a PowerView remote and Levolor blinds that can test this theory?
The 6 channel remote and the app are awesome, it eliminates any need for a hub and from the app you can select and deselect any and all shades, which eliminates the need to specify all shades to a channel, and I believe on the app you can pair multiple remotes, the only downside is smart home compatibility but essentially smart home compatibility in my opinion is being able to control things from your phone, regardless of having Alexa do it. Also the app allows you to set schedules for the shades to open and close at certain times. I think there ahead of the curve with the 6 channel and there not even advertising the functionality of it. And who knows the smart home fix could be just a simple firmware update on the future
You can use an esp32 to connect Alexa (emulate a WeMo) to the 6 channel report (BLE). Works very well. “Alexa, open the blinds”
Anyone wanting to connect Amazon Echo to their Levolor blinds (must have the 6-channel remote), and willing to test my solution? I’d be happy to send you if you’d be willing to test it for me.
Trying to understand your solution. Is it already working on your setup? I have 2020 Levolor roller shades with 6 channel remote and would like to make them smarter. I know I can control them though iPhone/iPad app, but so far there are no Siri voice options available for the app and my phone/I have to be close to remote. The other option is to have them pre-preprogrammed for certain time, which is nice, but I really just want to speak commands to my iWatch When I want them to go up/down. I don’t want to use Alexa (but would be happy to test it for you) but instead I prefer using Apple shortcuts I activate through my iWatch. I am assuming that likely there would be ways to communicate with ESP32 somehow. Is your ESP32 solution communicating directly with blinds or through 6-channel remote?
ESP32 solution is intended to look to Echo/Alexa like a WeMo switch - so basically allows on and off through Echo events such as speaking to Alexa or sun-up/sun-down etc. It connects to the 6-channed remote through Bluetooth (BLE - Bluetooth Low Energy). So right now the only scenario supported is Alexa and 6-channel remote. Since I only have one 6-channel remote I’ve not been able to check my logic works on all remotes or just my specific one.
I found a few articles on using an esp8266/esp32 to handle Siri/Apple shortcuts, so what you are looking for does seem doable. Example: https://www.instructables.com/id/Siri-HomeKit-Controlled-ESP8266-Lock/
I would be thrilled to test your solution if you send me instructions. I do have the 6 channel remote.
And you have Amazon Echo as your home automation correct? If so, it’s actually a small device I need to send you. If you are interested then we’ll have to find a way to share info so i can sent it to you. Obviously don’t want to put names and address details here, and I don’t think there’s a private messaging option here.
Did anybody try this yet? I have new Levolor blinds, the 6 channel remote and use Alexa.