Blinds - Vera Edge, RFXtrx433E, Somfy Rollup 28 RTS

Other Devices & Integrations Garage & Window Covering Control
1

I have purchased my Vera Edge, the RFXtrx433E Dongle and a simple plug switch. I’m waiting on my first sensor to be delivered.

I had been looking into wifi automated blinds last year for a 3-bay window I wanted to have done, the price then was around ?3,000 - which was too much. I’ve always wanted battery or solar powered blinds - there’s no place for wires in the room that I’m going to have done.

This year, however, I learned about how Somfy motors could be controlled by the Vera Edge and RFXtrx433E Dongle combo. I’ve been in touch with the helpful guys at Vesternet and they have an article on how to do this… their experience is with the Sonesse 40 RTS but they say all Somfy RTS should work.

I’ve been dealing with 2 blinds companies - one of them is giving me lots of confidence in the area of integrating with Vera, but they are 200 miles away so would want me to measure-up myself and then come out and install them - because of the distance their price is slightly higher… another company is local but they don’t know anything about the automation aspect (they admitted that fair enough) and said they’d need to check what I’d bought (Vera Edge) would work.

Both companies have said they’d use the Somfy Rollup 28 RTS motor. The first company has assured me it will work; the second company has assured me it will not work (having gone back to Somfy direct)!

The second company is visiting today to do a measure-up and quote me properly.

I think it will work.

Prices for these blinds now appear to be around the ?1,400 mark (second company)… the components themselves seem to be around ?900 (the first company wants ?400 for driving all that way, using up all that time and installing them for me), so ?1,300. I will make my decision which company to go with after today.

Has anyone on here set up roller blinds using the Somfy Rollup 28 RTS and Vera Edge with RFXtrx433E Dongle?

If so, do they work flawlessly or are there teething troubles? How quiet are the motors that run from 8 x AA batteries?

Has anyone used a company that they would be willing to recommend to me, via private message if necessary? I do like to tinker with things and I’m sure I could do this myself - however, my other half will kill me if it’s not done optimally so I am thinking it might be best if I could find that one-stop-shop that can sort me out.

2

Well,

I’ve ordered blinds for 2 rooms (6 blinds in total) so I’m guessing that I’ll be the one reporting back to the forum on whether I can get them working… or not. :wink:

Installation date is 29 July.

3

Looking forward to your findings…

4

Installation date is now 23 July, if all goes according to plan.

5

Blinds eventually came in at ~?1,100 and ?1,000 too. So a big difference to the prices I got last year.

6

I now have control of 1 out of 6 blinds. I’ve only tried 1 so that’s a 100% success rate. Others are being installed now. The setup was quite simple.

I haven’t tried a blind that’s further away yet. The one I have control of is on the same floor as the Vera Edge and RFXtrx433E.

During setup, I’m asked for an ID and Unit Code and the recommendation is that ID is unique.

So, it’s OK giving it a unique ID - I started with 10003 as the blind I have control of is Top Bedroom Right - but the Unit Code drop-down only has 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 as options. What is Unit Code? This doesn’t mean that I can only have 5 blind devices, does it? I am sure it doesn’t, but when do I choose a different Unit Code and when do I retain the one I chose first time around, e.g. 1?

7

Does anyone know if it’s possible, and simple, to be able to set the blinds to be - say - 75% of the way down?

Obviously code like this:

[font=courier]luup.call_action (“urn:upnp-org:serviceId:WindowCovering1”,“Down”,{},67)[/font]

Will set them fully down / closed… but I wondered if it was simple enough to set an integer / percentage position? I don’t even know if the blinds would have a clue what that even is… I’m kinda suspecting not but there is something in there that remembers a “My” position… that must know where the blind is, I suppose?

The problem being that the blinds are different sizes (widths) and it seems they can move at different speeds, so you don’t want to just set them all going down for, say, 10 seconds… they’ll very likely end up at different positions, therefore I want say “each blind should go to 75% of its drop”.

Possible?

Apparently there is a “Target” variable… with an on / off light you can do “SetTarget” and it’s either 1 or 0… is it the same with the blinds?

This code can be sent successfully via Vera’s admin. console, but it does nothing (it was a shot in the dark anyway):

[font=courier]luup.call_action (“urn:upnp-org:serviceId:WindowCovering1”,“SetTarget”,{newTargetValue=“75”},67)[/font]

8

I’ve got 1 somfy roller blind and 1 Venetian blind.

The roller blind works really well and has been very reliable. I understand the battery wand will last around a year between charges and certainly mine has been going a few months without issue.

The Venetian is new and I still have a few issues but hopefully they will get resolved.

The roller blind is not too bad noise wise, the Venetian is really noisey in fact I’m wondering if there are motors out there that work with somfy protocols but are not somfy as I can’t believe a premium motor should make this much noise.

9

[quote=“Hippogriff, post:7, topic:187759”]Does anyone know if it’s possible, and simple, to be able to set the blinds to be - say - 75% of the way down?

Obviously code like this:

[font=courier]luup.call_action (“urn:upnp-org:serviceId:WindowCovering1”,“Down”,{},67)[/font]

Will set them fully down / closed… but I wondered if it was simple enough to set an integer / percentage position? I don’t even know if the blinds would have a clue what that even is… I’m kinda suspecting not but there is something in there that remembers a “My” position… that must know where the blind is, I suppose[/quote]

I have the same question. Did you manage to find a solution to the issue? I installed the RFXtrx yesterday with my Vera lite and managed to operate the horizontal Venetian blinds. However, I can’t set them to say half open or the Venetian blinds to a certain angle, but only full open or fully closed.

10

Did you manage to solve your issue?

For what I have discovered, first you have to set on your remote, the favorite position using the “my” button. Then, with your somfy appliance stopped, you just press stop on Vera that it will go to the favorite position…

11

If anyone is still looking for how to position Somfy RTS blinds/shutters, the answer is in this thread:
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,33259.msg244190.html