Looking SmartThings capable and integrated blinds or shades or any type of window treatment basically. I’ve seen multiple posts on the topic but nothing that is “official.”
One of the key things i’d like is to have the option to battery power the blinds (or even better solar panel option. I’ve seen something like this while doing research but now i don’t recall where.
Has anyone had real success with automating blinds simply?
I’m looking to use for one window in a small, soon to be baby, bedroom. Thank you.
I haven’t tried blinds or shades yet but am keenly interested in possible solutions. One that I’m watching closely is Axis Gear:
They’re trying to offer a more affordable solution than other options that allows you to retrofit current hardware. I think they focus on shades, but it may be worth checking them out.
I have a bunch of Bali blinds, motorized with Somfy, with the z-wave module. Overall works well with Smartthings using a custom device type. I would do it again and yes it was expensive. I had a new house and was getting new blinds anyways, probably added 30-35% to the cost, but man they are cool.
I love my motorized blinds and I wish I could have done it for most of my downstaris and master bedroom, but it is too expensive.
I have four in my living room, and they are pretty tall, each cost $600. They work perfectly with Smarthings (you have to buy the Somfy Zwave Interface for $99).
My only two complains (besides money) is this (since you mentioned the baby):
Noise. I don’t know if all blinds are the same, but when you have four blinds working at the same time, can be a bit noisy. Not a huge problem, but not library quiet either.
You cannot tell the state of the blinds (open or closed) if you use your RF remote control. In other words, if you open the blinds with ST app, and close them with RF remote control, the ST will not show them as closed.
I also ordered two of these for my rollers in my home office. They say they will be adding integration to ST or IFTTT.
Get this: http://www.amazon.com/Somfy-Channel-Z-Wave-Interface-Module/dp/B00HSOMH0M
You can get it at Lowe’s (call them and order one) I believe is around $100. They might give you some BS that you didn’t buy the blinds from them or that it can only be sold with their blinds. They sold it to me and shipped it home.
The Somfy interface has 16 channels, which means you can control 16 blinds. All at the same time or individually.
If you are buying the blinds from Bali you can usually get the zwave module for much cheaper. So if you are buying blinds be sure to get the module!
I got mine from costco, took like 4 weeks to get. I would add a little to the blind size if mounting inside the frame, I have a small gap that’s not too bad, but still an extra 1/8"-1/4" would be nicer. Be sure to read all the measuring instructions and the amount the remove for inside mounting.
mysmartblinds.com is now selling retail. The automation kits can retrofit venetian type blinds with scheduled or manual tilt. Open in morning, close at night has been working perfectly since I installed on old wood blinds a few weeks ago. Several new Android app updates already shows this company is moving fast.
Not yet integrated with other services but they said they are looking at IFTTT. These use BLE so ST hub v2 is not out of the question one fine day. The blinds pair with multiple devices and some C2C sign-in and saved in app config/groupings. If you have a SmartTiles dashboard tablet with bluetooth on the wall it could theoretically control blinds when you are not home via IFTTT. The schedule itself is set on the blind motor devices so the scheduled open close works even when no bluetooth devices are present. Nifty so far.
I have both Somfy blinds (with the Somfy ZRTSI controller which costs a fortune at $300 on amazon) and Rollertrol blinds (bought online). Both work great although they are very different. The Somfy motors have everything but z wave integrated in them. The Rollertrol are more of a DIY project because they have separate Z wave, radio and motor controllers that get wired in. The instructions are reasonable and if you’re willing to invest the extra time I saved about 50% compared with the Somfy motors which was great because my roller shades were enormous (for 12’ sliding glass doors). Both require custom device types and both install and work in ST similarly.
One piece of advice - I bought my Somfy ZRTSI from ebay and it is flaking out after a few months - Somfy won’t cover any device not bought from them or an authorized retailer (Amazon lists this as sold by Somfy so I would think that would be OK).
@Tolik What kind of pull mechanism do your treatments use? A straight cord, looped cord, beaded chain?
The Bali blinds would require you to purchase and install new window treatments altogether. If that’s not a problem, they use Somfy motors which means you could purchase a dongle with Z-Wave (I’m pretty sure it’s Z-Wave) and upgrade the power supply to have a solar panel. Each add-on is at least $100 or $150, last time I checked.
Alternatively, solutions like ours can be retrofitted and don’t require add-ons. However, the shipping date is farther out and solutions like ours are untested in the market. We can speak confidently about the performance of our product but regardless, 2016 will be a very interesting year for the industry!
If you have any questions about what we’re developing let me know. Also, congrats on the baby!!
The room has nothing right now just a window. So i’m open to anything… I’d prefer something that can get inside mounted since I had a custom built window frame.
Just installed the fifth mysmartlinds blind retrofit kit to complete the back windows. They are reliable and open and close perfectly on schedule every day for almost a month. Batteries arrive fully charged and so far look to be staying near 100% charge. They did a good job with the core features on this kickstarter.
However they did remove the sun tracking (adjust set times daily to follow sunrise/sunset) feature from the Android app temporarily I assume while the work out some bugs. Turning on sun tracking resulted in blinds open/close early or late. I can live with static scheduled times while they work out the bugs. I see one or two Android app updates each week so they seem to be working hard.
