New shades lines now supported by Bond Bridge / AK Bond

[Michel]

Hi All,

I know that the ideal shade solution is most likely the ones having Z-Wave capabilities. However the price tag is a bit higher, and in my case, that would have meant scrapping (2) large existing roller shades. So earlier this year I went with the same things as what I had already and added (6) more roller shades, leaving aside integration with HS. There was a Neo Smart controller able to control these blinds but the unit was expensive with no HS Plugin.

I knew the Bond Bridge was able to control Somfy shades and that AK Bond was existing. I also knew that some Bond Users had requested integration with the same kind of motors that I had. These motors are China manufactured under the name of BOFU and are OEM parts for many many types of shades sold online with no real brand name. Ex.: Select Blinds, Blinds Depot, Elite Blinds, Neo Smart, Many local shade vendors branding their own products etc...

Lately working with Bond incredible developers, Merck and Chris, things moved faster and they finally came-up with a solution. Testing went well and at time of writing this post, firmware (v2.20.14-beta) is still privately available only but should be available Monday on the public Bond Beta channel.

Since the BOFU brand never really appears on the end product they are not easy to identify but here are a few give-away that your shades are possibly BOFU motorized.

1. The remote frequency will be 433.92 mhz
2. The remote model number will look like BF-305, BY-305 and others.
3. There will be a "C" and "L" pin switch on or inside the remote for programming.
4. See attached picture of a 5 channels BY-305

Just installed the trial version of AK Bond and things seems to go smoothly.

As a bonus I now have HS integration with my (2) ceiling fans and electric fireplace.

Thanks Alex for this great plug-in and can't thank enough the Bond team.

Michel.

[Eman]

Looks like you could also control them with RFXCom : http://www.rfxcom.com/WebRoot/StoreN...User_Guide.pdf



Eman.

[alexbk66]

Thank you Michel,

I was expecting an issue and was carefully readinh your post. Just to realise there's no problem

I said many times that Bond team is a pleasure to work with. BTW, "Merck and Chris" are the same guy - Chris Merck

[Michel]

BTW, "Merck and Chris" are the same guy - Chris Merck

Thanks for the precision. In a video chat there was a second person so from there I assumed one was Merck and the other was Chris 🤔

[alexbk66]

Thanks for the precision. In a video chat there was a second person so from there I assumed one was Merck and the other was Chris 🤔

The other one must be Matt Burke aka residualimages

[Michel]

Looks like you could also control them with RFXCom : http://www.rfxcom.com/WebRoot/StoreN...User_Guide.pdf

Eman.

Looks like it but when I looked at this product in the past it did dot seem easily available in North America so back then, I got afraid of getting stuck with a product that would not work for me. Also, I found that BOFU role in many shades only while Bond was working on their solution to control shades that were labelled as Select Blinds. Having seen that BOFU compatibility before the fact would not have triggered any reaction on my end. This is partially why I made this post, for future users searches.

Buying the Bond Bridge thru Amazon.ca was easy, less expensive, while keeping the option to return it. The RFXCom seems to cover more ground with more devices if you need them but on the other end the Bond Bridge gave me easy "Assistant" integration in parallel including Siri.

Thanks for sharing.

[alexbk66]

Buying the Bond Bridge thru Amazon.ca was easy, less expensive, while keeping the option to return it. The RFXCom seems to cover more ground with more devices if you need them but on the other end the Bond Bridge gave me easy "Assistant" integration in parallel including Siri.

Advantage of Bond is sweeping RF frequency, not fixed like other devices.

[Sheriff]

I’m not clever enough to understand all of the discussion above. However, I will soon have a proprietary Blinds Galore top-down/bottom-up motorized cellular shade. It will have a Neo controller that I understand communicates with Alexa and Google, as well as uses a 14 channel remote (not like the five channel remote described above). Given the little information I am able to provide at the moment, would you imagine that there might be a way to control this shade via Homeseer?

[Michel]

Don't take this as a 100% confirmation but from what I found during my search there is no plug-in in HS for the Neo Controller, although Neo has an API. Also not 100% positive, but looking at their web site, chances are that the Neo controlled blind could be controlled by a Bond Bridge , also compatible with all major voice assistants and the Bond Bridge has a plug-in. If it was me, I would wait before buying the Neo, try the Bond. If Bond does not work it will always be time to return it and buy the Neo.

[alexbk66]

This one https://www.blindsgalore.com/product...ation-systems?

It says "Compatible with previously installed Simplicity remote control shades" which is this one https://comfortex.com/motorized-shades/?

I suspect Neo is similar to Bond, except there may be possibility of two-way communication. I might look at Neo API to see if I can add to Bond plugin.

[Michel]

Just in case you need this info Neo Smart Controller. They are based in Montreal.

[alexbk66]

Just in case you need this info Neo Smart Controller. They are based in Montreal.

Thank you, I'll have a look

[alexbk66]

https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...72#post1536572

[alexbk66]

Don't take this as a 100% confirmation but from what I found during my search there is no plug-in in HS for the Neo Controller, although Neo has an API. Also not 100% positive, but looking at their web site, chances are that the Neo controlled blind could be controlled by a Bond Bridge , also compatible with all major voice assistants and the Bond Bridge has a plug-in. If it was me, I would wait before buying the Neo, try the Bond. If Bond does not work it will always be time to return it and buy the Neo.

NeoSmart sent me the hub, remote and a couple of motors, so I'm working in the plugin.

[alexbk66]

AKNeosmartBlinds is in the updater and forum created - need to start documenting

https://shop.homeseer.com/search?typ...uct&q=alexbk66

https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/hs...-configuration