@chacho_morales I’m not sure I fully understand your questions. What is the device code you’re looking for? The part number of the ZRTSI II is 1811265. Each of the available 16 channels can control a motor (but with grouping, I believe you can have more). There is no distance between the ZRTSI II and the Somfy controller - once programmed, the ZRTSI II IS the controller.
I think you want these steps:
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I believe the device that Tyler is describing is the older ZRTSI, not the ZRTSI II as the newer model does not have a rotary switch at all. Instead it has an LCD screen for setup and navigation. The inclusion process is still basically the same, but is quite easy and reasonably well-described in the included manual.
@Tyler - Have you had any success setting the shades to a partially open state from the SmartThings app or only fully open or closed? Thanks!
Each motor seems to cost about $50 for a simple rotating blind arrangement. If the cost of the Z-wave bridge is about $300, your first blind will cost $350. Getting an Arduino shield + components might be around $60 for a window, so if you have less than 6 windows you want to countrol and the ability to program an Arduino, it should be cheaper to go that route.
If two windows are close to one another, you could probably power both with one Arduino shield, too.
@thom Where my discounted price on the ZRTSI is $229 for this community, the cost to automate the first window is really $279 and the break-even point vs. going the Arduino route is really under 5 windows assuming your expected costs are accurate. That said, Somfy requires no technical expertise or tinkering. Plug it in, program it, it works. Simple. I’d say it took me all of 5 minutes to have it completely running.
@mbial that’s definitely fair, and honestly I haven’t done much tinkering nor pricing for the Arduino solution. All of that aside, once I get some free time, I’ll look deeper into both solutions before I proceed. This is for my personal use, so there’s no sense of urgency; I can always walk to the windows and close them like I’m some sort of animal, or something 
@alexking Might have some input on how to adjust the device type to work with partially opening the shades - I know he already created the SmartThings Mini Blinds for Arduino device type a few months back (see GitHub repo here).
Thanks for any help!
That’s what led me to consider Arduino, heh.
Is there any guides available that say exactly what needs to be purchased from Somfy to get up and running? What about a wiring guide? I’m in the middle of building my house, and I want to try and decide if I want to have some automated shades/blinds control. It’s really hard to figure out what is needed to get up and running by reading their website.
@flashburn Any Lowe’s Hardware can help quote you the equipment as I believe Somfy is distributed by Bali Window Blinds (who provide Lowe’s their blinds/curtains). You may not choose to go with Lowe’s, but at least you’ll know exactly what equipment you’ll need. The key is to get motors that support RTS, the Somfy wireless protocol.
hey matt,
how can i get in touch with you about the zrtsi ?
@doggy I just sent you a private message. If anyone else is interested in getting one of these Z-Wave bridges at a huge discount, please just PM me.
Best,
Matt
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Hi everyone.
I’ve successfully configured SmartThings to control my Somfy blind motors.
- I’ve attached a video that shows 7 blinds working across 4 groups (left, front, right and all).
- I’ve attached the code for two custom device types, the Somfy Controller (ZRTSI) and Somfy Blinds.
- I can close the blinds or set the Somfy ‘my’ preset value (I"ve set my blinds ‘my’ value to a level/ open/ see through state)
- I’m using one ZRTSI ($68 from Bali blinds) to interface between SmartThings Z-Wave and Somfy RTS.
Current limitations:
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I’ve configured two states, ‘closed’ and the Somfy ‘my’ preset value. ‘Closed’ will move horizontal blinds to the down position, or will extend roller/ roman blinds to the full down position. An ‘open’ state exists in the code; however I’m not utilizing it at this point.
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The app doesn’t poll the status of the blinds. If I change the blinds using the Somfy remote itself then SmartThings will not receive the updated state. The problem: ZRTSI will return ‘on’ (or 0xFF) when the motor is fully retracted – with horizontal blinds this means the slats are closed and pointing up. ZRTSI returns ‘off’ (or 0x00) when the motor is fully open – with horizontal blinds this means the slats are again closed and pointing down. ZRTSI doesn’t seem to return a state for any intermediary values, and doesn’t allow us to set one either (ie. 50% open). However Somfy will respond to a ‘dimmerStop()’ command which it interprets as the ‘my’ preset value.
I hope this helps! And I’d appreciate any input in improving the code to overcome the limitations.
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Would love to find out more - email me eclipxe [at] gmail.com
How did you get it for $59? Did you get it with your blinds in some sort of package?
I am really struggling with my choice of blinds right now. I have a Lutron system for the lights (RAdiora2) so I have considered that (knowing that Lutron support may be forced into SmartThings soon becuase Alex, David Eun, and I all have them But it seems very costly.
We also have done some Somfy intetration (but it isn’t as good as what folks like @chriswood1001 have done here.
My biggest issues is that my wife really wants both bottom up and top down functions and that just seems much harder to find. I see Hunter Douglas with something. I have even seen ZigBee motor controls which are appealing.
Anyway I am mostly just ranting. Hoping to try out some of this in any case. Thanks!
I bought Somfy motorized blinds from Bali blinds, through a Costco deal and was able to add the ZRTSI for $68. I also price compared with Home Depot and saw the same price: http://homedepot.baliblinds.com/
If you go into Home Depot you may be able to order just the ZRTSI without a blinds order; however you can’t seem to do it yourself through their website.
Hope that helps.
Hi Chris,
First off–thanks for your awesome work! I just installed motorized roller shades in my condo and am trying to set everything up. You mention that there is an “open” state in the code, but you aren’t utilizing it. I’m not a programmer, so can you give some insight into how I can activate that? Ideally, I would like to be able to set the shades to “open,” “closed,” and the “my” setting if possible. Thanks in advance for any guidance!
Maybe I should clarify my question. Should I be seeing a “refresh” icon when I look at the shade settings? I only see the option to turn it on (which goes to the My setting) and to turn it off (which puts the shade all the way down).
Another data point for this topic… I’m currently using the dimmer function to control my shades (which only supports “on”/“up” and “off”/“down”) along with the ZRTSI device. I have 13 shades to control and have set them to all go down (off) at 10:30 pm. The first night, all but one shade fired. Last night, 3 shades didn’t fire. I’m not sure if this is related to all of the signals being sent at one time or what. I’d be interested in any advice/suggestions. I think I may stagger the times by a few minutes and see if it makes a difference. (Also, fwiw, everything fired a little late anyway but I understand that’s been a bit of an issue as of late).