It’s a simple idea to control blinds and much more affordable then the other choices I have seen that include a whole new motor for the blinds.
I searched for blinds controllers, but didn’t see anything with something like this.
You can call my lazy, ha. I just think it would neat if some of my blinds automatically opened with the sunrise and closed with the sunset.
You could simply run a zwave relay like the LFM20 in line to power this device. According to the website it operates simply by on/off
"How the motor works
Apply power and it moves from the current position to one limit position. Remove and reapply power and it will reverse and move to the opposite limit. Remove power at any intermediate point and it will stop. "
@big517 is correct and this will also work using a Z-Wave appliance module. Getting it to show in Vera and function as a Blind/Shade device with up/stop/down buttons will take some code, but just automating it with scenes should be simple enough.
The Add-a-motor is a nice cheap solution, but be aware that it is using rubber roller wheels to drive the cord back and forth and over time or if you have a heavy curtain it may not be a good solution. I am not sure how quiet these things are either, but you could try eBay as they have some chinese motorzed drapery tracks for about $200 shipped for a 10’ track. They might be noisey too, but because the motor/track will use a belt or cable it may be a little stronger and it would have dry contact inputs for adding Z-Wave control when hooked up to an LFM20 or two. Add-a-motor seems like it would be fine for a lighter weight curtain, but I don’t have first hand experience with either other than limited experience with their orignal non-knock-off counterparts.
@shady,
Coincidentally I’m getting ready to tackle the window coverings myself and i’m glad you pointed that out. Do you know of any product that will pull curtains that hang to the sides of the window, or am I limited to up/down rollers? Any other advice / resources I should check out? thanks!
Hi, just a note to let you know we have developed a Universal Interface for our affordable blind and shade motors that works with any relay module that can be operated by Vera:
This works with any home automation system like ZWave, Insteon, etc
Hi Adrian, do you know any relay module with EU Z-wave in the market that works with your Univeral Interface?
[quote=“rollertrol, post:5, topic:170460”]Hi, just a note to let you know we have developed a Universal Interface for our affordable blind and shade motors that works with any relay module that can be operated by Vera:
This works with any home automation system like ZWave, Insteon, etc
Hi @alexlui, I have not been able to find any Z-Wave interfaces yet, but I think there is a low voltage relay out there somewhere. You would need 2 contact closures that can control our Universal Interface, see the article I wrote here:
We have an active project underway that will use JeeNodes to provide this kind of functionality, you can see the start of that topic in this forum:
I use a SQBlaster to send the IR to an Add-A-Motor 1000 which is working well for running scenes which open and close the drapes. Used SQDesigner to generate the required code to feed into @guessed conversion routine to generated the appropriate Vera modules. Pleased with the results which has been included in a mixture of z-wave, Hunter-Douglas and Add-a-motor blinds to open and close them all on a schedule or individually as needed.
Honestly I am not sure but the manufacture is http://www.metechs.com/ . Their online store gives you the option to purchase in Euro so I would think so.
seems to run on DC… so that makes it possible
after some investigation i found a lot of these window-cover products to be very dodgy and noisy, not to mention short lifespans…
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