Here is my current understanding how motorized blinds work:
You need a motor which goes inside the tube or box of the blinds
You need a motor controller that controls 1 or more controllers
You need a home automation system (Vera) to tell the controller what to do. In addition, you can also have manual controls on the wall that feed into the motor controller.
For 3) I think motor controllers typically just use z-wave (or other protocols) and then have inputs for the manual controls. If you don’t want manual control on a wall plate then you just leave these inputs empty. Is this correct?
I believe the motor controllers are typically in some central area and not right next to the window. It would be hard to hide them there. Further, if they are at a central place one can hook up multiple motors to one controller. We are planning to do a big remodel and have a central ‘room’ where all Ethernet cables, security camera, etc run to. Would it make sense to run cables from the windows all the way to that room and have the motor controllers there where also the Vera box is located? Any drawback with this approach (cost of long cable runs? voltage drop for DC (two ? etc)?
If we run all cables to that central area then do we even need a z-wave enabled motor controller? Or is it possible to somehow direct wire them to the Vera box through the USB port and by doing so establish a more reliable and faster connection?
For the motors there seem to be two options, AC and DC. It seems the AC requires a 4 wire run carrying 110V. DC would only require 2 wire run with higher AWG numbers. It seems that this would make the DC solution considerable more cost-effective. Besides more limited cable run length, are there any other concerns using DC motors?
Additional possibility is Z-Wave (or ZigBee) native motors.
Connect to the nearest 120 or 240VAC power source (3 wires) -can be hard wiring to a junction box or plugging into an outlet-, include in network and you have full control with positioning and reporting to 1% for tubular motors and 10% for drapery motors.
No exterior modules to wire and hide, truly plug and play and full functionality info@zwavemotors.com
zwavemotors, thanks. I checked out your website but did not find any pricing. Do you have a price list somewhere? Also are there competitors? I am asking because if there is only one brand than it would be really bad news if that vendor quits the market.
You mentioned 1%/10% positioning and reporting accuracy. Is this unique to the z-wave motors? Do AC + motor controller and DC + motor controller not have the same accuracy? That actually brings up another question. If you pull up and drop the shades a few dozen times are they suddenly ending up in a not fully open/closed position because of accumulated errors?
I bought all my curtain track with motor from Alibaba express. Some vendor make tubular motor and curtain track with motor with custom mesures. And very cheap too! Then to control it from Vera, I added a Fibaro Roller Shutter 2 and that it. Can control from Vera. Total cost for each window is around 200$ for Windows around 5 meters width (18feets). So around 160$ for small windows.
[quote=“peterluc8080, post:5, topic:183122”]I bought all my curtain track with motor from Alibaba express. Some vendor make tubular motor and curtain track with motor with custom mesures. And very cheap too! Then to control it from Vera, I added a Fibaro Roller Shutter 2 and that it. Can control from Vera. Total cost for each window is around 200$ for Windows around 5 meters width (18feets). So around 160$ for small windows.
Envoy? de mon Z30 en utilisant Tapatalk[/quote]
I like the prices you posted can you give more info on the vendor and install pictures.
Yes, search for : The friend Group on AliExpress. The guy name is Scott and he is very Nice. Just send him an email with your custom width and they will make a special order just for you. Then, you can buy Fibaro Roller Shutter 2 from various website. For US, they will be soon available here directly, but if you dont want to wait, just buy it on Eurox10 website. Again, send them an email with your requests and they will make a special price for each item.
So, just dont buy directly, send an email and they will give you a special price
[quote=“peterluc8080, post:5, topic:183122”]I bought all my curtain track with motor from Alibaba express. Some vendor make tubular motor and curtain track with motor with custom mesures. And very cheap too! Then to control it from Vera, I added a Fibaro Roller Shutter 2 and that it. Can control from Vera. Total cost for each window is around 200$ for Windows around 5 meters width (18feets). So around 160$ for small windows.
Envoy? de mon Z30 en utilisant Tapatalk[/quote]
OP asked about blinds…not curtains. Will that setup work for blinds too?
Oh sorry, but the vendor can make tubular motor and curtain track, both work with the Fibaro to control them. For blinds, they make custom one too, but it’s not as cheap as for tubular motor and curtain track. Just search for him on Alibaba and send him an email
Envoy? de mon Z30 en utilisant Tapatalk
Best Home Automation shopping experience. Shop at Ezlo!
