Bali Z-Wave blinds?

Home Depot got me on the phone with Bali blinds who says they can do an ‘out of spec’ blind for me with z-wave. The have some Somfy z-wave to RF bridge. I have about 15 blinds I want motorized. Anyone have any experience with these Bali blinds?

I have 4 of them and I got them from Lows since they had better offer than Home depot.
Lows they have rotation discount among the makers that they have, so you might want wait when they offer 20%discount.

Basically it use somfy rf motors and work with ZRTSI and built quality looks good and working more than an year without any problem.

Sorry for piggy backing off your post but I have some additional questions and figured you would want to know them too.
After some research I found out that basically(Home depot) sells you the same exact shade with the same motor only Bali sells a unit (ZRTSI) that home depot dose not so they call it an “out of spec” But it’s just an extra box that translate the RTS to zwave.

Now knowing that I think they install the RTS motors for about $145 each shade. Are there specific motors just for zwave (buy the same blinds and install motors myself). If so If there pricing much higher (I am buying roman shades). If so are there huge benefits of doing it that way vs just using the Somfy Translator. I know it won’t talk back to the controller but not sure if that an issue.

As long as you buy RTS (radio technology Somfy) shades you can buy your own ZRTSI off of the internet and possibly save a few bucks. If you only have a few shades that are controlled together you could get a single channel RTS interface and connect it to relays off of Vera, or solder your own wires to a remote control to do the same thing.

Sorry to necro-post here . . . but i’m becoming more interested in blind control.

Is this Lowe’s/Bali Blinds business a good consumer level product? I mean, I probably only have half a dozen (or less) blinds that I’d want to control.

Seems to me that is uses the Somfy Z-Wave bridge? Is it as simple as placing the ZRTSI somewhere in my house to control all blinds? Is there probably an effective range?

If I could get into one window for $350, and add others for significantly less, I could see getting into this . . .

The ZRTSI II Modules I have seen around the internet are in the $300+ range. But if you order with your bali blinds from Lowes, Homedepot, Costco, etc… they only cost around $90-$110… Go figure… ;D

[quote=“NickTheGreat, post:5, topic:176609”]Sorry to necro-post here . . . but i’m becoming more interested in blind control.

Is this Lowe’s/Bali Blinds business a good consumer level product? I mean, I probably only have half a dozen (or less) blinds that I’d want to control.

Seems to me that is uses the Somfy Z-Wave bridge? Is it as simple as placing the ZRTSI somewhere in my house to control all blinds? Is there probably an effective range?

If I could get into one window for $350, and add others for significantly less, I could see getting into this . . .[/quote]

The ZRTSI Module is the bridge between RTS and Zwave. In my limited testing the ZRTSI module I have doesn’t have that great of range. Seems to want Line of Sight, but I have only tested it in a few places in my house. ( the hand held control has far more range).

I recently (3 weeks ago) paid $110 for RTS Tilt motors, $28 for the battery adapters for each blind, then I only bought 1 ZRTSI (It has 16 channels) for $100 from Lowes…

[quote=“coronabill, post:7, topic:176609”][quote=“NickTheGreat, post:5, topic:176609”]Sorry to necro-post here . . . but i’m becoming more interested in blind control.

Is this Lowe’s/Bali Blinds business a good consumer level product? I mean, I probably only have half a dozen (or less) blinds that I’d want to control.

Seems to me that is uses the Somfy Z-Wave bridge? Is it as simple as placing the ZRTSI somewhere in my house to control all blinds? Is there probably an effective range?

If I could get into one window for $350, and add others for significantly less, I could see getting into this . . .[/quote]

The ZRTSI Module is the bridge between RTS and Zwave. In my limited testing the ZRTSI module I have doesn’t have that great of range. Seems to want Line of Sight, but I have only tested it in a few places in my house. ( the hand held control has far more range).

I recently (3 weeks ago) paid $110 for RTS Tilt motors, $28 for the battery adapters for each blind, then I only bought 1 ZRTSI (It has 16 channels) for $100 from Lowes…[/quote]

Thanks . . . I was hoping it was something easy like the Hue, where I could kinda use one bridge for multiple instances.

I don’t need blinds, but my interest is piqued now. :slight_smile:

[quote=“NickTheGreat, post:8, topic:176609”][quote=“coronabill, post:7, topic:176609”][quote=“NickTheGreat, post:5, topic:176609”]Sorry to necro-post here . . . but i’m becoming more interested in blind control.

Is this Lowe’s/Bali Blinds business a good consumer level product? I mean, I probably only have half a dozen (or less) blinds that I’d want to control.

Seems to me that is uses the Somfy Z-Wave bridge? Is it as simple as placing the ZRTSI somewhere in my house to control all blinds? Is there probably an effective range?

If I could get into one window for $350, and add others for significantly less, I could see getting into this . . .[/quote]

The ZRTSI Module is the bridge between RTS and Zwave. In my limited testing the ZRTSI module I have doesn’t have that great of range. Seems to want Line of Sight, but I have only tested it in a few places in my house. ( the hand held control has far more range).

I recently (3 weeks ago) paid $110 for RTS Tilt motors, $28 for the battery adapters for each blind, then I only bought 1 ZRTSI (It has 16 channels) for $100 from Lowes…[/quote]

Thanks . . . I was hoping it was something easy like the Hue, where I could kinda use one bridge for multiple instances.

I don’t need blinds, but my interest is piqued now. :)[/quote]

Sometimes you can call Lowes or Homedepot and get the ZRTSI module for the same $100, it doesn’t let you order it without blinds on the site. Otherwise finding a ZRTSI module cheap is a bit of a challenge…

The motors and battery you can buy from different places I bought one from [url=http://www.automatedshadestore.com/shop/product-info.php?Somfy_WireFree_Tilt_Motor__RTS__for_2__Blinds-pid120.html]Automated Shade Store Online - Somfy / Lutron / Hunter Douglas - Automated Shade Online Store

And best of all, It was easy to connect to my Vera Edge!!! :slight_smile:

[quote=“coronabill, post:9, topic:176609”]The motors and battery you can buy from different places I bought one from [url=http://www.automatedshadestore.com/shop/product-info.php?Somfy_WireFree_Tilt_Motor__RTS__for_2__Blinds-pid120.html]Automated Shade Store Online - Somfy / Lutron / Hunter Douglas - Automated Shade Online Store

And best of all, It was easy to connect to my Vera Edge!!! :)[/quote]

Are you saying that I can use this motor from your link and embed this into my existing blinds and use the Somfy plugin?

Assuming the answer is yes, this will allow me to
A) Tilt
B) Raise/Lower
C) Tilt, Raise/Lower

Is it A, B or C using this motorized solution? Upgrading existing blinds for $110 per blinds would be awesome.

This solution is tilt only

what zwavemotors said… ;D