I have existing wood blinds that can tilt to show/block light by very lightly pulling a string. Is there a ready-to-buy motor+controller that is RF and/or z-wave based?
It takes only the tiniest amount of effort to open/close these (tilt) by pulling the string (you can do it with your thumb+pinky), so hoping there is something small/easy to use that exists.
I saw some threads on this, but they all seem to mention vertical blinds, or pulling the blinds open, or curtains.
Mine is very simple, just horizontal blinds that I want to control the little motion of pulling the string to make them tilt.
But z-wave compatible (want to put it on an automated schedule to close at night, open during the day). This system looks small, battery operated, easy to install, perfect. Only problem is that it’s IR operated, which is useless to me.
The way I understand it, the converter is just the middleman and can be plugged into any wall outlet. It doesn’t connect to the motors in your blinds physically in any way.
Check the first link that Primetime posted again. You’ll notice that “WireFree” is right there in the name of the product You have to order all that stuff just under the price too, though.
Sadly, this is a pricey area to get into. You’re going to be dropping quite a bit of cash down to do this, and you have to be confident that you can do the retrofit yourself. They have pretty great instructions that you can check out, though. Seems doable if you have the right tools.
For myself, I have a large main living area full of windows. It’s a family room and eat-in kitchen all as one huge open space. If I wanted to do this, I’d really have to do it all at once. That means that if I wanted to adapt each one of my 14 blinds, I’d be dropping about $3150, and that doesn’t even include the converter.
Basically, you are looking at around $300 for the RTS to Z-Wave converter that needs to be plugged into an outlet within 50-60 ft. of the blinds.
Plus
Around $200-220 per wireless RTS blind motor that you want to automate…not cheap.
However, if you want to automate tilting of an existing wood blind, do it wirelessly, and integrate with Vera…options are limited. It would be great if Somfy made a Z-Wave version of the RTS blind motor, but I haven’t seen anything yet.
if you want to automate tilting of an existing wood blind, do it wirelessly, and integrate with Vera.........options are limited.
If you don’t mind, what would you recommend for a brand new blinds install? Is there a preferred solution? I haven’t been able to grok from this forum what that solution might be. I prefer wood slat horizontal blinds, and ideally I’d like a solution that could be raised and lowered. I’m assuming this would mean a solution that involves wiring and not batteries, which is fine if I were to completely replace all my blinds.
Yeah, don’t hold your breath for a Somfy Z-Wave motor as RTS (Radio Technology Somfy) is their standard for radio used worldwide. A relatively inexpensive way to interface RTS motors with Vera is to use an RS232 relay board from ebay for about $20 connected to Vera via a USB to RS232 cable $10. Use a standard Somfy Telis single channel remote $70 and open it up to solder wires to the button contacts and connect the wires to the relays. Or Somfy sells a single channel RTS interface which is basically the same thing. There is a plug-in for the relay board already and it was geared toward window coverings already.
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You have to order all that stuff just under the price too, though.