I have been following @petewill's posts with great interest (although a total noob!).
I have a few roller blind motors purchased in China (well, 21 grouped into 10 zones)
I retro-fitted the motors into my existing roller blinds and programmed them with a 15-channel remote I received from the motor manufacturer. As far as I could determine, a "standard" Dooya DC2702 remote works perfectly with these motors.
I would like to integrate these blinds with my home automation (Vera), but am confused about what I need to do. If it turns out that integrating with Vera is not possible, but a standalone web app can be created to do this, that would be fine with me.
Principally, the instructions I have seen online suggest I need to have access to both the transmitter and receiver components. The receiver bit is not possible to get to since it's in the motor assembly.
It seems to me (in my uneducated way) that any RF 433MHz transmitter/receiver pair should be fine to integrate, as long as the transmitter is able to send the correct codes to the receivers. Since there are potentially other RF devices floating around, I assume the transmitter must send a specific code that a receiver can identify (I guess like pairing Bluetooth). I hope my analogy is accurate.
Being a total noob, I would really like it if an expert could lay out the steps I need to follow. I can do any additional research, but am confused by the large number of potential options available, and am clearly not in a position to figure out which of these options makes sense for my situation.
Basically the steps I am hoping to clarify in my head are:
- Identify the components I need to use, i.e., an RF trans/receiver pair
- Arduino (possibly 2?)
- Any other components like resistors/capacitors etc.
- A typical circuit schematic that I can breadboard (initially before I create a more permanent thing)
- Any software libraries I need to have
- Sample code (I have programming background in C/Java/Python)
I read in one of Pete's threads that he used a sound card with a LINE connector and Audacity. I have an old computer lying around that probably has a sound card in it already (probably with a LINE-IN) that I could use - assuming that Audacity will work on an ancient computer circa 1998! -- Are there alternatives to this?
Any suggestions and guidance that I could use would be greatly appreciated.
I apologize for the rather long list of items I am confused about, and hope you folks have some patience with me as I learn more about this. On the plus side, I think I am a quick study.
Regards.