I’m interested in automating some curtains/shades in my house, and have a few Monoprice z-wave devices already, but these two devices don’t really explain how I’d go about using them to open/close window shades/curtains.
Curtain Module
Curtain Module Relay
Anyone know how they’d work? The manual mentions relays and motors – any pointers on where I’d start?
These devices assume your window coverings already have motorized closing, now you just want to retrofit zwave control to that installed motor.
Control a curtain or projection screen motor
So think of the monoprice devices like adding a new zwave remote to existing motorized curtains.
If your window coverings aren’t already motorized, you’d probably solve things a different way.
Quite a few forum topics on window covering projects, just search on roller (for shades) or curtains (for horizontal draw) for various discussions.
I’m starting from scratch, and was looking for an affordable DIY alternative to the multi-hundred-dollar solutions I’ve seen discussed in other threads.
What it seems to boil down to is me getting up and manually closing shades, given the cost of what I’ve seen so far.
Yeah, you can’t get around the cost of the individual actuators. At one motor per window (sometimes two), it adds up fast.
I’m quadriparetic, so motorized window coverings would be really nice, but they’re dead last on my projects list strictly because of the ROI factor.
At one point I considered getting one giant roller screen – similar to what you’d use for a projection TV – and hiding it behind curtains. This approach eliminated the cost of all of the actuators, but it’d have to be a really, really sturdy mounting system. Not impossible, but far from elegant.
The next alternative was going to be an Arduino fitted with the Arduino Shield that SmartThings sells, but that’s already in the $100 range.
Home automation must be a huge boon to you!