Controlling blinds from Domoticz

[espenf]

Are you using your own sketch? Would be interesting to see how you made it work because I'm having some trouble getting up/down/percentage to work properly..

[tbowmo]

@espenf

I'm only using the UP / DOWN functions (not percentage). As it doesn't make sense in a garageport (it should either be open, or closed :))

[AWI]

@tbowmo sure?

[tbowmo]

@AWI

I have no way to figure out the percentage of the opening of the port.. So that is why I only have two functions. Either open, or closed..

Btw. Mine is a "sliding" port, with two half's that move at the same time (either towards each other when closing, or away from each other when opening.)

[AWI]

@tbowmo I was not really serious, but I have a similar thing with my "roller shutters" sometimes I want to open these partly. I am using a timer from which I can determine the " percentage open/closed". This works well 90% of the time. Only when something get stuck (e.g. with frost or a cat :) ) I need to recalibrate. The V_LEVEL works well from Domoticz.

[tbowmo]

@AWI
Hmmm.. I could a LIDAR range finder, and measure the distance between the two parts of the port, and calculate the percentage from that :)

On the other hand, LIDAR's aren't cheap.. (They are about 80$ and up)

[Johnny B Good]

@tbowmo

Hi, I did it on 4 windows now, with shutters and rolling blinds, did you figure it out yet ?
Or tell me what you want to know (i used S_COVER because I can use the "stop" button too.

Greetings

[tbowmo]

Weirdest times when one gets a bright idea :)

This morning I came to think that the original controller is using an encoder on the motor to keep track on position. I haven't bothered checking this out. But I suspect that it's just a pulse output that the controller is counting, to know when to stop the port.

If this is right, I could tap into the same encoder and then know the position of the ports from that. Will investigate this path when I get a new motor unit next year (I destroyed one of my units a couple of months ago, with a loose GND wire so the onboard electronics where fed with 25v instead of 5v)

[Johnny B Good]

@tbowmo

I tried so many way's to learn (again) that in most situations is the simplest/easiest the best.
I used so many motors and in time they all let me down and have cost me lot of construction time (if there is interest I place a few pictures of my different projects).

Finally I decide to use a MG995/MG996 with hack as motor (very robust and strong) and (I tried few different methods like a few types of IR trackers and with HALL sensors and magnets) now finally use a cny70 IR Sensor for positioning and a very simple sketch with a 'learning' possibility for start and stop position, and a little switch on it for manual usage, and it's still working very well.
If your bright idea is working please share for learning and let me know if you want to use something of my project (in time I'll make a little small how-to project of it)

[Johnny B Good]

Final result :

[tbowmo]

@Johnny-B-Good

Thanks :)

Right now I have a standard garageport opener, that I've hacked into and added an arduino + nrf24 radio to the control logic. Also, changed power supply circuit, so instead of using 7-10W in standby, it now only uses 0.2W.

I can still use the original remote (so the wife won't notice my hack), and I can use mysensors to open / close port, turn on / off lights in the garage, and I can even lock the port (block the remote) as an added feature.

it's an extensive hack, where I've replaced the powersupply to the original control board in the motor unit, and added extra solidstate relays to turn on motor power, and lights.

[Johnny B Good]

The cny70 position ... euhm ... counter :

[Johnny B Good]

@tbowmo

With positioning too ? How ? Or is it standard in your garageport opener ?

[tbowmo]

@Johnny-B-Good

No positioning yet, only open / close functionality. But as I just wrote in an earlier post today, there is an encoder available, that the original controller is using to determine positioning, I could probably use the same encoder in my arduino addon hack. However, I need to get a new motor unit, as I have destroyed one by accident.. (I have two ports with separate openers attached. One is working at the moment with mysensors integration, while the other is completely dead due to over voltage on the 5V logic)