Get the position of a window covering

Developer's Corner General Dev Discussions
1

Hi,

can sameone help me and say how I get the state of a windows covering.

I would like to make a peace of loop code if the window covering is up or 100% ou down or 0%

best regards,

Rui Freire

2

Please

can someone help me with this single question?

RF

3

There is NO device that I know of that provides feedback for shades.
You could ADD TWO Z-wave door sensors and detect when 100% open and 100% closed … but it would not know about anything in-between … only that it is in-between.

You would have to be a tinkerer and interface some type of position measuring sensor to something like and Arduino to get a Position Sensor.

If others had a solution you would have heard about it already …

You can add a Camera … and look at your shades!

4

Sorry I didn’t explain very well…

I ’ ve got the Fibaro a roller shutter controller ZWfibFGR221

5

That controls (Actuates) the motor … it’ does not sense the position.
You can command it to FULL OPEN or FULL CLOSE and then assume it’s in that position.

6

Hi,

Sorry for interruption, but I happen to own a Fibaro FGR221, firmware V1.4.
I am using this device with Vera 2 and I am very happy with the device.

You have to take care your covering motor has real switches for fully open and fully closes.
So when the motor reaches opened or closed position, there is no current anymore.

You then can have the Fibaro calibrating by fully open and close the covering a few times.

After that you are able to set the covering to lets say 25% percent.
At least in my case the actual position of the covering matches the setting of 25%.

So I think the Fibaro would be the right choice, but mind the end switches of the covering motor.

(No real position feedback, but at least position based on duration, polling the device will give you the 25%)

Regards.

7

Hi,

what do you mean with " (No real position feedback, but at least position based on duration, polling the device will give you the 25%)"

I don?t realy need the right position, I just need if the last operation has “close” or “open”(like a variable of the state fo the last command)

I explain: I have a 30 minutes schedule to see the position of the sun and after that in my loop code I test the position and open or close some roller shutters (according to if it is winter or summer). The problem is that every 30 minutes the loop code sends the command to open or close (dependig of the sun position), and the controller will do the command (every 30 minutes), so I would like to test the position and only execute the command if the command is oposite to the last command, to prevent many commands to the relay of the roller shutter controller.

thanks

RF

8

Hi,

I will try to explain what I mean with “No real position feedback” etc.

I could be that after calibrating the Fibaro and the covering motor the time is 60 seconds to have the covering motor run from fully closed to fully open.

If you then set the Fibaro to have the covering to half open, which is 50% from fully closed, the Fibaro will switch ON for 30 seconds (which is 50% from full run time).

If, for some reason, the covering motor is held off (somebody holds the covering), then the Fibaro will still will be on for 30 seconds and then switch off.

The position of the covering would be 50 % for the Fibaro, but in reality the position would certainly not be 50%.

In practice, however, it is my experiece that the reported position from the Fibaro matches the real position.

So the Fibaro counts the seconds it was switched on and reports the position of the covering, based on the time it was switched on.

The fully open and fully closed position are always exact, as the covering motor has real switches, and therefore is no current, which is detected by the Fibaro.

If you want to do what you describe, I would go for the Fibaro.
You will always know whether the covering is opened or closed, but just mind the end switches.

Hope this helps.

9

Thanks for the explanation, I understand it clearly…

For the record, I ve already have 17 fibaros roller shutter.

Can someone help me to get the last command sent to the controller, like, “open/ fully open, or close/ fully close”, for me would be sufficient

best regards,

RF