I installed two Rollertrol roller shades as an experiment in saving money - I have 3 Somfy shades but the size shades I need (12 feet wide) are incredibly expensive from the place I got them before.
I installed the two shades and they work by remote without a problem. The hub can find the devices but they are listed as “dimmer switch” and I can go into the IDE and change the devices. Some of the Z wave choices actually activate the relay so I know the hub is talking to them. I’m missing the correct device type - any suggestions? It would be really nice to have a somfy alternative as these are much less expensive.
As an aside they are a bit of a minor DIY project with connecting wires between the motor and a relay and a motor controller but their instructions are pretty good.
Thanks!
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
2
Dimmer Switch is actually the default Z-Wave standard used by a lot of window covering controllers. There are more specific Z-Wave Clusters, but they may not actually add any functionality.
The Commands “on/off” likely correspond to fully up and fully down; and the dimmer level might be implemented as a percentage open or close (or the angle of a venetian blind).
If this functions reasonably, then you can just make a copy of Z-Wave Dimmer Device Type and alter the icons and wording, perhaps; instead of actually building a “window covering” Device Type.
Of course, a Device Type can have multiple claimed Capabilities, which means you could layer “up/down” or “open/closed”, or similar commands on top of the convenient “on/off”.
NB: Type Switch (on/off) is particularly convenient because the device is then controllable by Amazon Alexa Echo and IFTTT, etc…
Thanks very much for the reply. My issue was the “dimmer switch” wasn’t actually triggering the z wave relay device at all while other device types (such as the generic “Z wave relay” and a custom “Aeon motor controller” do trigger the relay but don’t seem to move the motor). I think I’m about 75% of the way to sorting this out though. I was surprised that the device the hub discovered it as doesn’t function though.
I did get this working using the Aeon Motor Controller Device type that can be found elsewhere in the community (my apologies to its author who deserves more credit than this). I would recommend rollertrol motors to those looking for an economical alternative to Somfy - I own both and there are some differences between them but the most important thing is that they both work in ST and have very similar functionality.
Can you please explain how you got your smartthings hub to speak with the rollertrol shades? I have 4 of these shades now and love them, but really want to get them hooked up to the hub. I thought these shades didnt have built in zwave support. How is your hub able to see them?
Good question - there were several hardware components that were required in addition to the basic shade and motor (unlike the somfy shades that have all the electronics internal to the motor/shade). There was a module for powering the shade and a module that interfaced with the remote (which you may have if you have a remote) and there was a module that handled the Z wave commands and integration with the ST hub. I found the rollertrol forum http://rollertrol.com/forum/ to be excellent because it was monitored by tech support for rollertrol. The forum also contains links to all the relevant instruction documents that are a bit daunting at first but if you follow them step by step you’ll get them working.
If so, I guess I dont get why you need that separate transmitter when the ST hub is already a transmitter. Do you think its possible to hookup the z-wave receiver to the motor directly?
Yes, those two modules (in addition to the small module that it sounds like you have from the motor itself to the power supply or maybe you don’t have this if yours are battery operated?)
I don’t think I can answer your question about whether this is a duplication of transmitter functionality but I can almost guarantee you that you need both of those modules.
Robert, can you indicate where you got the aeon driver and how to install it so I can access via Smartthings? Like you, I have Rollertrol motors controlling shades (although my motors are R-series rather than your G-series). I am able to control them with Alexa by enrolling them as Dimmers, but as you know that does not let me stop them between full up and full down. So I would very much like to take the next step and install the aeon driver. Thanks for any help you can give.
Actually the dimmer function should be fine – mine act similarly in that the “50%” dimmer level is actually a “stop” command.
I’ll copy the aeon device code in a minute for you but you might be able to leave things as they are if your 50% works like mine. I control mine via Alexa as well with the open/close, haven’t tried setting the dimmer level with alexa but I know it’s possible – in fact I think the command is to “turn [the light] on 50”
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Thanks for your reply.
It’s been a while since I set this up and mis-remembered what I had used. I think I went thru the pairing process in which smartthings selects a device driver. (Unless I don’t remember this correctly either!) Anyway, I just checked and found that I am using a generic z-wave switch, not a dimmer so there is no “50% on” possibility.
I installed the “Aeon Motor Controller” file in my ST Home Hub. When I put my ST mobile in auto-discovery mode, ST found TWO new devices: the new controller and “Z-wave switch.” The latter is what I had been using beforehand and lets me raise and lower the shades with ST and with Alexa, but with no STOP function. The new “Aeon Motor Controller” shows up on the mobile app with buttons for UP, DOWN and STOP, but they are greyed out and do nothing. I seem to be where you were at one point with the exception that ST discovered a “Dimmer Switch” in your case and a “Z-wave (non-dimming) switch” in mine. So I have two issues that you might be able to help with:
1 - When you said (in the Rollertrol forum), “With the custom device type [Aeon Motor Controller, right?] saved and published in the ST IDE, the type can be assigned to the “dimmer switch” that ST detects and then all will function well,” how do you assign to the dimmer switch?
2 - I know it’s been almost two years, but do you recall what you did so that ST discovered and paired with a dimmer switch device rather than, like me, a non-dimmer switch?
I do remember it was initially very challenging to get mine to pair and be discovered at all and the rest wasn’t bad.
I’m certain there is nothing else you need to do in terms of paring. I do believe you should try from within the ST IDE interface to change your particular shade as ST discovered it to the custom device type of your choice – I sent you the device code for the one that works for me but you might find others. It is not a matter of having ST re-discover as a different device, it’s just you changing that particular device type from code within the IDE.
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For some reason the code you sent did not come thru, but you had referred to it as “Aeon Motor Controller” and I did a search and found one with the same name, created by Bruce Ravenel in 2015. It seemed to be exactly what you described. That is what I imported to my hub and it paired with my wall shade controller (as did the generic z-wave switch device handler). So assuming I’m using the same file, how do I go about “changing that particular device type from code within the IDE”? Do you mean actually changing the Groovy code…or merely changing some of the external descriptions of the code file? Thanks so much for your help.
Larry
Pair the device with smart things. It will see the device as something, in your case maybe a switch or dimmer switch.
Go into your personal smart things device handler website
If you haven’t already, goto “my device handlers” and create the new one using the aeon motor code, save/publish it
Then click on “my devices” find the shade that ST created when it paired, click on “edit” and on the “Type*” field scroll down to the new device type you created for the aeon controller. While you are here you may wish to change the “Name” of the device to your roller shade and location
Click update
Open the ST mobile app and refresh it and see if it works
Robert, you are wonderful!!
The key was that I could edit TYPE on the page for the device.
The EDIT button was off the bottom of the page and I never saw it despite being on the page several times looking for some way some how to change TYPE.
The best,
Larry
Well, it was critical help. I could have been a long time finding that EDIT button!
Out of curiosity, were you able to control the shades with Alexa using UP, DOWN and STOP?
