Is it me or is the subject of Z-wave motorized blinds incredibly hard to figure out? I’ve read oodles of blogs and posts and can’t seem to find definitive information about how to do this. I plan to fix this through my own project that I’ve been mulling for a while, and I’m looking for help from the community.
Situation:
[ul][li]I have a VeraLite controller[/li]
[li]There are 11 windows that need to be covered hopefully without breaking the bank[/li]
[li]My home is NOT pre-wired for blinds[/li]
[li]My wife would like cellular blinds, not roller[/li]
[li]We want 0-100% graduated control, not just up/down[/li][/ul]
Options:
Battery-powered Z-Wave compatible motors.
Do these even exist? Ideas welcome!
Does anyone have a guide to install these for cellular blinds? Again, I can’t find a ‘how-to’ online.
Conclusion: probably not feasible.
Somfy Battery-powered motors:
Would need to use a ZRTSI to interface from Z-Wave to Somfy RTS. That doesn’t give me 0-100% control, just up/down.
Conclusion: doesn’t meet the requirements
Wired Z-Wave compatible motors:
Can’t find these anywhere, except for zwavemotors.com. They seem legit but not very helpful (I have an email out to them for help, so we’ll see), and probably cost about $425 per motor?
Same problem as above - I can’t find a guide for how to fit a motor for cellular blinds.
Retro-fitting power to the blinds will be a pain, but not insurmountable.
Conclusion: probably not going to get anywhere with zwavemotors.com for a reasonable price, and I don’t know of any other supplier.
Will definitely work, but again I need to know how to fit the motor to cellular blinds.
Conclusion: could work if I can find out how to installer the motor.
Blinds manufactured with motors pre-installed:
www.shadeshuttersblinds.com seems like a good bet, nice product and good prices. They inform me that they use Somfy ST-50 motors in their cellular blinds, so wired, but I don’t know if these are RTS or ILT2 types. Trying to find out. They’re quoting about $500/window, which is not bad.
If RTS motors, I want to know if I can wire these to an AC1-ZW motor controller (adds $120 to each window). If ILT2 then I can use a Z-wave to ILT interface module
Conclusion: definitely an option, if ST-50s work with AC1-ZWs, or the motors are ILT2s.
Just get a pro shop to do the whole frickin’ thing. Not an option really if I want to spend less than $10K.
Conclusion: I’m not made of money!
Likely Solution:
I’m thinking that ST-50 RTS powered cellular blinds from www.shadeshuttersblinds.com, with an AC1-ZW controller might work. Does anyone have experience with this set up?
Other considerations:
As a final twist, I’d like there to be a wall switch (dimmer style) that can also lower/raise the blinds in each room in addition to Z-Wave control. Again, does anyone have experience or guides for how to wire the wall switch in so it works with the AC1-ZW? If the blind is raised using the dimmer switch, will the AC1-ZW report the true position of the blind? What type of switch do I need?
I plan to write up a fairly definite guide to how I get this done, so all help appreciated!
You can get battery powered cellular blinds from blinds.com for a little more than $100 per blind after coupon. Then, with ~$50 in additional parts (total, not per blind) you can automate them. The steps are quite simple and it works very well.
Only thing really to note would be your request for 0-100% control. This setup would be 1 way communication so your Vera wouldn’t know what height your blinds are at BUT the motor has a stop function so you could stop the blinds at any height you’d like. So, you’d have your regular all the way up and all the way down buttons, and then you could either manually hit “stop” when the blinds are at the desired height or you could set up scenes that would be something like 10%, 20%, 30%, etc… that would put your blinds at that height with one push of a button.
Just throwing another option out there for you. I’ve got this set up in my house and the wife and I love it.
As far as setting up a dimmer type switch in each room…I haven’t put much though into this but you could use a scene controller (like this - http://www.amazon.com/GE-45631-Z-Wave-Wireless-Controller/dp/B003OUWABU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384279569&sr=8-1&keywords=z-wave+scene) and link it to like a 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% scene. Note that I just did a quick search for “z-wave scene controller” and grabbed the link for the first one that came up. I don’t know anything about the compatibility between that particular scene controller and Vera.
It isn’t just Z-Wave motorized blinds, given all of the different styles of window coverings, all of the motor and control options, power options, etc. there are many different ways I can get a window treatment to move for me. To make a motorized shade Z-Wave controlled there are actually very few ways, so that is the easy part.
You have decided that you want Z-Wave shades/motors, so unless you want to wait for a battery powered motorized Z-Wave blind to hit the market (which could happen in the coming years), you will be working with the options available now. With Somfy tilt-only and lift motors (not tubular) for blinds and cellulars respectively you basically just stick the motor in the headrail and attach it to the rod so it can turn. Somfy only employs RTS radio with these motors, so if you want Z-Wave you will need a way for a tubular motor to fit in the headrail and be able to lift/tilt the cords…this is where a CTS (cord take up system) is needed.
Even for the professional shops motorization isn’t easy. On paper anything done with window coverings doesn’t seem all that hard, until you try to do it with out any experience and/or reference. It depends on how willing you are to buy things you may not be able to use, persist until you find answers, and make some mistakes. The concept is simple enough, you just need a dumb motor with internal limits connected to a Z-Wave motor controller to spin something around. You might find an online retailer who is willing to sell you all of the parts and/or headrail. They might be able to answer your questions too. You may have luck on YouTube finding answers as well.
An ST-50 is typically overkill for slat blinds and cellulars. It would mean a rather large headrail, most likely considerably larger than what came on your blinds. 50 is 50 mm, which is about 2", so 2.75" x 2.75" would be about as small a headrail as you could get. You might ask about the CTS40 system that uses 40mm motors or ST-30 motors and a smaller headrail (I am not sure if the CTS25 system could work with the Z-Wave motor controller, maybe with an LT28 motor but they are noisey).
I hope this helps, but there is no short-cut to “cheap” motorized shades. You will spend a good amount of money either way, so just be sure you end up with something that looks and performs relative to what you paid.
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