Z-Wave + integrated blinds/shades: Custom Graber Virtual Cord Shades

UPDATE:

All solar and roller shade orders will experience delays. We have requested status updates on current orders and will email customers as we are updated. Cause of delay is a major change in the fabrics and colors starting June 1st.

An update on the products:
Graber’s Solar Shade fabric line has been completely revamped with new fabrics as well as pricing differences here and there (mainly lower prices on roller/solar). This also seems to be the cause of delay/backorders on old orders.
All back order notices should have been sent out by now, if you have any questions just PM me here.

Discounts: Have been updated on the discount thread with manufacturer rebate info.

UPDATE:

All roller/solar shades currently have an extended lead time. Manufacturing time has increased from 5 - 10, to 8 - 15 business days.

Exterior Solar Shades are seeing some massive delays (one or two orders have been pushed back by 2 - 3 weeks). Will update as I know more.

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Hi All,

I have the Bali cellular shades connected using a battery pack. Mine came with two battery packs.
I’m looking to hook up a plug-in transformer.

Looking at the battery pack, it seems to put out 12v (per pack).
I have a bunch of 12v adapters lying around.
I was wondering if I can just snip off the end and hook it to a micro-usb male connector.

A few posts above in this thread @Ashutosh1982 posted a picture that shows the output of the transformer to be 15v and 1.5A!
I’m not able to understand how the motor works on the battery pack at 12v, but the transformer puts out 15v.

Ultimately I’m trying to re-use/recycle a powersupply that I have instead of having to buy one more.

Has anyone done this? If so could you please guide/advice?

Thank you,
Ashwin.

Usually for the motor to initially start moving it will require a burst of 15v at 1.5A and it drops down to 12v. I would highly suggest using the official Dc Transformer since from our attempts, the motor starts behaving weirdly and forgetting its settings; also you will loose warranty if you end needing to use their warranty.

Hi Neal, Thanks so much for that information.

Do you sell the power supply on your website? If so could you please provide a link?
I checked the accessories section and didn’t find any power supplies.

I have only one powered shade (about 72" wide and 60" in height), so I presume the power requirement is fairly minimal.

Thank you.
Ashwin.

We do sell it by itself although there are a few conditions imposed on us, I’ll PM the details.

Update, Update, UPDATE!!! :grin:

Newer roller/solar orders are shipping out in normal times, some old orders with older fabric are experiencing slight delays still.

Also, dual roller/solar shades are directly available on our US site (no custom quote needed). You can find the dual roller/solars here, for Canada due to some changes coming up in the backend it will only be online in a weeks time (so you need to request a custom quote for now):
US: https://www.zebrablinds.com/smart-homes/smart-motorized-electric-shades?categoryfiltsmart=Dual+Shades

Finally, discounts etc will be updated in a few mins.

Neal - On regards the issue with the shades going up and down 3 inches only and watching the video of how to solve it, would that require to repair the shades with one of the controls, right? I pair all my blinds to the smartthings hub and the remotes lost the control over the shades so, if I need to recalibrate the motor, I would need to repair. Is that correct?

You would have to pair the remote one by one. The easiest way to do this would be:

  1. Pair the remote to ST
  2. Pair the remote to a shade
  3. Set the limits
  4. Reset the remote by pressing the pinhole button and holding it until all the lights stop flashing
  5. Rinse and repeat. The remote should just pair back up as the same device it was previously (that’s how it went for me anyway)

how do you pair the remote to Smartthings? I’ve been trying clicking the pinhole button twice fast without being able to get discovered.

Ok, to pair the remote to ST if the shades are already paired to ST. Put ST in to inclusion mode (add a new thing), and then press and hold the pinhole button until the lights start flashing (let go when it starts flashing). The remote should show up in 10 - 30 seconds.

A couple questions about the Overture Sheer shades:

  1. My understanding is that the shades must be completely down before the vanes start to rotate open. How does this correspond to 0 to 100% on a dimmer? Is 0% fully up, 80% fully down with vanes closed, and 100% fully down with vanes open, or something like that?

  2. Does virtual cord work with the Wink Hub 2? I assume it will, if it works with ST and is using standard Z-Wave. If you’ve never tested it, do you have any reason to suspect it would not work?

  3. Is the light gap larger than usual due to the motor, or is that standard for sheer shades? It looks like the non-motorized Overture Sheed shades on your site actually have an even larger gap on one side (1 1/16"). However, other sites (admittedly with other brand sheer shades) indicate there will only be about 1/2" on each side. For examples: https://www.blindschalet.com/lightfiltersoftsheershades.html and https://www.blindsgalore.com/product/401009/comfortex-shangrila-soft-horizontal-shades-eternity-linen-light-filtering

Thank you!

@woztheproblem

  1. So currently the way it ships out of the box, 0% is fully lowered and open, around 1 - 5% is closed and 100% is fully raised. You can reverse the motor direction to be 100% fully lowered and open and 0% to be fully raised. The percentage for the fully lowered and closed varies depending on the length of the shade. Basically it requires trying different numbers once you receive them.
  2. Yes and no. It connects up and works but wink limits it to fully open/close. It shows a slider and everything… the slider doesn’t work though. This was from us testing 2 months ago, I will have to plug it back in and check if they fixed it.
  3. The Graber Overture has pretty much the same light gap in motorized and non motorized versions. Not really much we can do about it. The product you linked to from blindsgalore for Comfortex is the same as the Crown Premium Sheer Shades on our site. Same manufacturer and same product, just our own branding. It’s also very limited in terms of connecting to any system properly since it uses comfortex’s own simplicity motors.

Hi Neal, can any of your shades be mounted on the inside of the window frame secured to the sides, rather than the top of the frame?

I have one window with an a/c installed at the top. My goal would be to mount the shade below the a/c. There’s a top-down cellular shade in there now.

I installed two graber z-wave roller shades in my bedroom a couple months ago and they’ve been great. I’m now looking to upgrade the shades in my living room as well, but I think this one could be tricky. I know I can’t get a top-down motorized shade.

@marktheknife
Only the roller/solar shades with no valance can be side mounted. Everything else is pretty much to the top or to the back/wall.

Thanks for the info!

Thanks, Neal. Just placed my order. (5 overtures in 3" Portico)

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On all Roller/Solar shades, expect a lead time of 3 weeks (based on today’s update).

Just purchased a new somfy motor to try and automated one set of blinds. Motor didn’t come witj antenna or power connector or power supply. It’s a 12v system. Any one know where I can purchase the power wires and antenna? Thanks in advance