Hi I’m from mexico and a lot of things are not shipped to here, im Android developer, however i dont know nothing about Arduino,but i see there is an Arduino ST compatible, and im thinking maybe i can use linear actuator to open/close my horizontal slider windows, i want add a leak/water sensor so when rain automatically close the windows. I dont know nothing about HW so any suggestion what i can buy or where i can go to read? i asked a friend and he will try help me but any tip or suggestion will be awesome.
THANKS
There’s no technical limitation to what you want to do. It’s more a matter of how much of the mechanism do want to be visible. For example, does it need to fit in a wall? These types of questions.
You can start by looking at Linear Actuators, these are freely available on Amazon, however I would suspect that they are common enough to locate in non-US markets as well. If these are too expensive or not logistically possible for you to obtain you can always use automobile window or windshield wiper motors.
Once you have that figured out, automating what you want to do is very simple (Z-Wave switch and a moisture sensor or IFTTT recipe based on weather forecast)
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The biggest issue with automating door and window closures is safety. These can cause serious injury if you don’t include safety features like automatic stops. There’s also the issue of not breaking the glass. And how the equipment should behave after a power outage when the window stops halfway through an open or close cycle. These issues are even more significant for anything that will be operated on an automatic schedule, or remotely.
For this reason, these projects almost always turned out to be both more complex and more expensive than people expect when they first start out.
That said, it can definitely be done, and several community members have done it. The following thread should be of interest:
Eleven years ago our contractor installed the Truth Sentry II motors for three clerestory windows about 12 feet up the wall. They’ve worked pretty much without fail (one window was sticky this spring, needed a little coaxing to open the first time). The only real complaints are that there’s no home automation interface… and that each window needs its own controller – a 4x4" wall plate that can’t be ganged, and can’t be combined.
Even though it would require plastering the wall, I’d love to get that down to one controller that could open and close all three windows, and would interface with any home automation system – for instance, I’d like to trigger a close instruction when I switch the AC to heat or cool.
But it’s 11 years later… and Truth is selling, so far as I can tell, exactly the same electronics.
Any suggestions?
Some community members have successfully integrated the truth sentry devices. 
You can find the project reports by looking on the quick browse lists in the community – created wiki and looking on the list for motorized shades, window coverings and window actuators: