Greetings, I've been looking to automate the tilting of several of my horizontal blinds in our house and wanted a roll your own solution. The Home Depot Custom Window Covering people want more than C$370 for each Somfy RTS tilt motor in addition to the price of the blinds. Add a Somfy remote $200 and more than $500 for the ZRTSI-II Somfy's ZWave interface and this becomes very expensive option.
So I went ahead and purchased the blinds without the motors and will attempt to automate them myself. My search comes down to two motors, Somfy or iBlinds if they are successfully funded, or a home rolled solution. The Somfy motors are 1/3 the price if bought from a US supplier and self installed.
I started this thread to compile ideas and options for Horizontal blind control. As such I wanted to share what I've learned so far and hear what your thoughts are.
iBlinds is a fully ZWave Plus certified blind tilt motor for horizontal blinds that will soon be offered on an upcoming Indegogo campaign. These guys have had a few failed campaigns in the past but this time they have an advantage. Their product is fully Z-Wave certified and the product design looks mature. It looks like it will be offered with some options like Solar charging, wall wart or a battery tube.
The motors can be mounted anywhere on the tilt rod and should not require cutting of the rods. Positioning is variable anywhere between full open to full closed but may not be able to simultaneous tilt multiple blinds in sync.
The Somfy Wirefree TILT 50 RTS Tilt motors mount on the end of the tilt rod and require the rod be cut a few inches. Very narrow windows may not be possible. Bali who also use the Somfy RTS tilt motors could not make my blinds as a couple of my windows are 15" wide. The downside to Somfy is that they are proprietary and ZWave or RS485 interfaces are quite expensive. The RFXComm and HS plug-in look to be the best alternative to Z-Wave. I hope a Somfy owner can chime in here and tell me if fill you are able to sync tilt multiple blinds to any position with the RFXComm. My understanding was that you have 3 positions, Closed UP, My Position, and Closed Down.
Another option might be some cheap micro gear motors from Ali.. coupled with a Fibaro Zwave motor controller but I do not think it will be able to simultaneously sync tilt. The Fibaro's are not inexpensive and as I recall need a minimum of 24VDC or 120VAC.
Your thoughts and experiences appreciated.
So I went ahead and purchased the blinds without the motors and will attempt to automate them myself. My search comes down to two motors, Somfy or iBlinds if they are successfully funded, or a home rolled solution. The Somfy motors are 1/3 the price if bought from a US supplier and self installed.
I started this thread to compile ideas and options for Horizontal blind control. As such I wanted to share what I've learned so far and hear what your thoughts are.
iBlinds is a fully ZWave Plus certified blind tilt motor for horizontal blinds that will soon be offered on an upcoming Indegogo campaign. These guys have had a few failed campaigns in the past but this time they have an advantage. Their product is fully Z-Wave certified and the product design looks mature. It looks like it will be offered with some options like Solar charging, wall wart or a battery tube.
The motors can be mounted anywhere on the tilt rod and should not require cutting of the rods. Positioning is variable anywhere between full open to full closed but may not be able to simultaneous tilt multiple blinds in sync.
The Somfy Wirefree TILT 50 RTS Tilt motors mount on the end of the tilt rod and require the rod be cut a few inches. Very narrow windows may not be possible. Bali who also use the Somfy RTS tilt motors could not make my blinds as a couple of my windows are 15" wide. The downside to Somfy is that they are proprietary and ZWave or RS485 interfaces are quite expensive. The RFXComm and HS plug-in look to be the best alternative to Z-Wave. I hope a Somfy owner can chime in here and tell me if fill you are able to sync tilt multiple blinds to any position with the RFXComm. My understanding was that you have 3 positions, Closed UP, My Position, and Closed Down.
Another option might be some cheap micro gear motors from Ali.. coupled with a Fibaro Zwave motor controller but I do not think it will be able to simultaneously sync tilt. The Fibaro's are not inexpensive and as I recall need a minimum of 24VDC or 120VAC.
Your thoughts and experiences appreciated.
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