Recommendation for motorized roller blinds solution (actual motor, like somfy, rollertrol, ebay...)
-
@jacikaas said in Recommendation for motorized roller blinds solution (actual motor, like somfy, rollertrol, ebay...):
@Yveaux
Yes, that outdoor blinds need a lot more power :)Some indoor blinds too, I will try the solution in your link but I don't think it will work for me as I have a lot of height (> 2m) and up to 1,8m width, it gets pretty heavy.
@nca78
Yes, thats quite heavy. Need to check it practically. I started to test the motor (now only on the desk), but my 28BYJ-48 motor is shaking with AccelStepper library. With some simple code without included any library - working fine, so I will look why thats happening. -
Hi,
I would like to have motorized blinds that can report current state and can be controlled from several sources (manually via button, remotely via mqtt etc) and also be "percentage" controllable, meaning shut only 30% or so.
I can fix pretty much all with mysensors, but motor itself is a tricky part, I would like it to be robust and "properly" done (easiest is with commercial products).I leave in Norway, Europe and I have not yet ordered any motor, still checking out options. I saw recommendations about Somfy motors (I also like that they can run on batteries). But from what I have understood the motor needs to have 3 wires (neutral and up and down) for arduino to determine current percentage? or is it?
They are also natively 433mhz, and I have rfLink for 433 comunication but again there is issue of keep state synchronized with multiple inputs (physical remote, mqtt, etc...)I was considering something from ebay as well, but again, two vs three wires for mysensors, can that work somehow?
Open to suggestions about any solution, if it helps I have rflink for 433 communication, I do have z-wave, xiaomi controllers if some of these can do it easier.
Would like hear what people would recommend for blinds?
@dakipro I do have somfy motors wired to the control panels everywhere. The motors itself are very good. There are also newer ones I think which can be controlled wireless in case you do not have the wires yet or would need to wire it. then it only needs power at the window.
For controlling, I used to have mysensors, but never had very reliable results. Potentially my bad electronic skills and switched to comercial solution lately (Homematic).
for controlling, you might need to look into this:
https://github.com/marvinroger/arduino-shutters -
At the end I purchased and installed z-wave roller blinds from Swedish company m.nu .
So far so good, and if all is great, I will order three more motors (and two knobs/switches) for living room and terrace doors (which should also automatically keep the shades open if doors er open, to prevent damage).
Made a basic node-red flow that uses xiaomi lux sensor to get them down, but ultimate goal is to have them understand when the light is very bright and when it is "cozy", perhaps even knowing to get the blinds just low enough. Found one good explanation on the internet, will check it out (perhaps use multiple lux sensors strategically placed around the room to determine sun position and strength). Any tips and tricks?
(gif of the action, cannot upload gif to the forum https://media.giphy.com/media/5aY6vSwVn1hsdYC6nd/giphy.gif gif is twice the speed)
C: OpenHAB2 with node-red on linux laptop
GW: Arduino Nano - W5100 Ethernet, Nrf24l01+ 2,4Ghz mqtt
GW: Arduino Mega, RFLink 433Mhz -
This post is deleted!
-
At the end I purchased and installed z-wave roller blinds from Swedish company m.nu .
So far so good, and if all is great, I will order three more motors (and two knobs/switches) for living room and terrace doors (which should also automatically keep the shades open if doors er open, to prevent damage).
Made a basic node-red flow that uses xiaomi lux sensor to get them down, but ultimate goal is to have them understand when the light is very bright and when it is "cozy", perhaps even knowing to get the blinds just low enough. Found one good explanation on the internet, will check it out (perhaps use multiple lux sensors strategically placed around the room to determine sun position and strength). Any tips and tricks?
(gif of the action, cannot upload gif to the forum https://media.giphy.com/media/5aY6vSwVn1hsdYC6nd/giphy.gif gif is twice the speed)
-
It is a Smart Color Button - Philio, got it as a package with the motor itself, from m.nu
https://www.m.nu/rullgardin/motorisera-rullgardin-1-motor-z-wave-24v?nosto=productcategory-nosto-3
It is wireless, gyroscope based "button" that works directly with motor itself. They say battery lasts for 6months, but it is usb rechargeable, so not a biggie. It reports battery level to the controller so that is a plus.
As far as WAF goes, it is wireless and looks nice so that is a plus, but to use it it is a bit, well.. different to operate as it is just held by magnet on the holder/wall and has no rotation limitats, so it is not 100% intuitive for first time use as you just turn it and then nothing happens, then you have to wait almost 2s for it to settle and send new position to the shades, and one cannot change direction (at least I didn't find how) so "left" might be counter intuitive as if shades are open or closed, so it is a bit fiddly to operate. Also it has a tolerance rotation, meaning that fine adjustments for the shades are a bit hit and miss, so...
But I am hoping that blinds will mostly work automatically so that would not matter that much. And I didn't find some much better remote dimmer-like controllers for the blinds, so.. it will work for now. Easy to replace I think -
At the end I purchased and installed z-wave roller blinds from Swedish company m.nu .
So far so good, and if all is great, I will order three more motors (and two knobs/switches) for living room and terrace doors (which should also automatically keep the shades open if doors er open, to prevent damage).
Made a basic node-red flow that uses xiaomi lux sensor to get them down, but ultimate goal is to have them understand when the light is very bright and when it is "cozy", perhaps even knowing to get the blinds just low enough. Found one good explanation on the internet, will check it out (perhaps use multiple lux sensors strategically placed around the room to determine sun position and strength). Any tips and tricks?
(gif of the action, cannot upload gif to the forum https://media.giphy.com/media/5aY6vSwVn1hsdYC6nd/giphy.gif gif is twice the speed)
@dakipro why bother with individual sensors at the windows? You can calculate the sun position (azimuth and elevation) any time during the day and check if it would be possible for the sun to shine into the room. And in second step you only need to know if sun is shining or it is cloudy. Simplest way is using an online weather service. However I noted that this is not very reliable. My solution is based on MySensors:
It is a weather station with some sensors (rain, temp, pressure). I've started with a light sensor but found it very unreliable also protection from environment is difficult.So at the end my sun senors is quite simple. One dallas sensor exposed to the sun and a second one in the shade. If the difference is high enough, sun is shining. Depending on your geographical location and preferences values might vary but for me (Zurich, CH) 10 degree celsius seems to be a good value.
-
@dakipro why bother with individual sensors at the windows? You can calculate the sun position (azimuth and elevation) any time during the day and check if it would be possible for the sun to shine into the room. And in second step you only need to know if sun is shining or it is cloudy. Simplest way is using an online weather service. However I noted that this is not very reliable. My solution is based on MySensors:
It is a weather station with some sensors (rain, temp, pressure). I've started with a light sensor but found it very unreliable also protection from environment is difficult.So at the end my sun senors is quite simple. One dallas sensor exposed to the sun and a second one in the shade. If the difference is high enough, sun is shining. Depending on your geographical location and preferences values might vary but for me (Zurich, CH) 10 degree celsius seems to be a good value.
@parachutesj said in Recommendation for motorized roller blinds solution (actual motor, like somfy, rollertrol, ebay...):
You can calculate the sun position (azimuth and elevation) any time during the day and check if it would be possible for the sun to shine into the room.
Clever! Which library or algorithm do you recommend for that?
-
@parachutesj said in Recommendation for motorized roller blinds solution (actual motor, like somfy, rollertrol, ebay...):
You can calculate the sun position (azimuth and elevation) any time during the day and check if it would be possible for the sun to shine into the room.
Clever! Which library or algorithm do you recommend for that?
@neverdie I am not that smart, just using the library from my controller: the astro binding for openHAB. It returns any time of the day the sun position based on your location. So what I do is basically check for any window* in the house if azimuth is between two values and if true checking in addition if sun is shining and when both are true, the rollershutter will go down. When sun stops shining or the sun has moved away, it will go up again.
Elevation is no big deal in my case, only on the western side in late afternoon during winter months but for a start, I would recommend working with azimuth only.
Also the inputs for down and up should have different values (e.g. going down > 10 degree; going up < 8 degree) otherwise they might constantly go down/up when reaching the peaks.
And to make it more complicated, I also added conditions if someone is present, if it is raining, wind is too strong etc.Elevation is mainly used to trigger sunrise and sunset events (open in the morning, close in the evening)
*for practical reasons I have groups based on the side of the house, but then doing different things.
-
thanks @parachutesj , I was thinking of something similar as well, sounds much simpler then my initial thought to have several sensors in a line to determine position of the shade in the room... I also like your temperature sensor solution, as that is actually what we would mostly like to react to, especially on the winter.
I have quickly found one solution on the internet, using luminosity sensor http://www.instructables.com/id/A-solar-tracking-automatic-motorized-window-blind-/I must also deal with "manual override" but I have seen some design patterns for it already, using the "dead switches" / proxy items. And a door that should prevent blinds to go down if doors are open. Should be possible to program in node-red.
And according to my wife, I must fix it all very soon :)
Thanks again, will look more into it.
C: OpenHAB2 with node-red on linux laptop
GW: Arduino Nano - W5100 Ethernet, Nrf24l01+ 2,4Ghz mqtt
GW: Arduino Mega, RFLink 433Mhz -
thanks @parachutesj , I was thinking of something similar as well, sounds much simpler then my initial thought to have several sensors in a line to determine position of the shade in the room... I also like your temperature sensor solution, as that is actually what we would mostly like to react to, especially on the winter.
I have quickly found one solution on the internet, using luminosity sensor http://www.instructables.com/id/A-solar-tracking-automatic-motorized-window-blind-/I must also deal with "manual override" but I have seen some design patterns for it already, using the "dead switches" / proxy items. And a door that should prevent blinds to go down if doors are open. Should be possible to program in node-red.
And according to my wife, I must fix it all very soon :)
Thanks again, will look more into it.
@dakipro well WAF is important. Mine complained a lot when things didn't work but as it is quite stable she enjoys it but would never state that ;-)
A perfect solution is always very difficult to achieve. However when looking at my office where all blinds are triggered at the same time on any side of the building, it never works well and just annoyes anyone.
Here at home, it works in most cases but you could always tune a bit. That is what I meant with "starting with azimuth and forget about elevation". There are cases in early morning during bright winter days when sun rises there is sun shining and blinding us at the dining room table. temperature difference is too low and it would not react. Two possibilities:
a) manually trigger or
b) build an even more complex rule (which I did).But these are cosmetics. And one could not predict all cases over 365 days in all possible weather situations.
Regarding dead switch:
I do not have any logic in my actuators. Fullstop!
All comes from openHAB.
First of all I do have one master switch, this kills everything. No actuator can be triggered automatically (sometimes important for WAF).
Second there are certain conditions which cannot be overruled: e.g. if it starts raining, the roof windows close also when the wind speed is above trigger, rollershutters go up. These are mainly in order to prevent damage (except when master switch - rule 1 - is off).And then the rest could be easily achieved. If done with MySensors, just send an additional fake state back to the controller when you manually trigger something and then check in your rules:
//light goes on send( myLightSwitch.set(1) ); send( myManualStatus.set(1) );Then check in your rules if that value for myManualStatus is 1 or 0.
I work for example with my rollershutters like this: when it goes down automatically, it goes to 85%. If it shall go up, I also check if it is at 85% - if not, then someone set it manually and I do not move it. Chances are pretty high, that if it is triggered manually it is not at 85% and rather at 84 or 86 or even something completely different.
But then when sun sets, it overrides again and automatic kicks in again. -
@dakipro well WAF is important. Mine complained a lot when things didn't work but as it is quite stable she enjoys it but would never state that ;-)
A perfect solution is always very difficult to achieve. However when looking at my office where all blinds are triggered at the same time on any side of the building, it never works well and just annoyes anyone.
Here at home, it works in most cases but you could always tune a bit. That is what I meant with "starting with azimuth and forget about elevation". There are cases in early morning during bright winter days when sun rises there is sun shining and blinding us at the dining room table. temperature difference is too low and it would not react. Two possibilities:
a) manually trigger or
b) build an even more complex rule (which I did).But these are cosmetics. And one could not predict all cases over 365 days in all possible weather situations.
Regarding dead switch:
I do not have any logic in my actuators. Fullstop!
All comes from openHAB.
First of all I do have one master switch, this kills everything. No actuator can be triggered automatically (sometimes important for WAF).
Second there are certain conditions which cannot be overruled: e.g. if it starts raining, the roof windows close also when the wind speed is above trigger, rollershutters go up. These are mainly in order to prevent damage (except when master switch - rule 1 - is off).And then the rest could be easily achieved. If done with MySensors, just send an additional fake state back to the controller when you manually trigger something and then check in your rules:
//light goes on send( myLightSwitch.set(1) ); send( myManualStatus.set(1) );Then check in your rules if that value for myManualStatus is 1 or 0.
I work for example with my rollershutters like this: when it goes down automatically, it goes to 85%. If it shall go up, I also check if it is at 85% - if not, then someone set it manually and I do not move it. Chances are pretty high, that if it is triggered manually it is not at 85% and rather at 84 or 86 or even something completely different.
But then when sun sets, it overrides again and automatic kicks in again.
