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    Well this hasn't been visited for a while

    Anyone ever come up with a way to control mini (horizontal) blinds via HS. I have envisioned using a batery powered screw driver or somthing like that.

    -Rupp
    ...One Nation Under GOD, Indivisible, With Liberty And Justice For All.
    💁‍♂️ Support & Customer Service 🙋‍♂️ Sales Questions 🛒 Shop HomeSeer Products

    #2
    Probably a lot of posts using electric screwdrivers on the HA boards. Just this morining, I was wondering of one of those new cheap-o electric toothbrushes could be used [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

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      #3
      Here are a couple of inexpensive ones:

      http://www.smarthome.com/3142.html

      http://www.smarthome.com/3140S.html

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        #4
        You call $70 per mini blind inexpensive? I need a new job!

        -Rupp
        ...One Nation Under GOD, Indivisible, With Liberty And Justice For All.
        💁‍♂️ Support & Customer Service 🙋‍♂️ Sales Questions 🛒 Shop HomeSeer Products

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          #5
          Rupp

          No dissrespect intended, but I have been to your web site, your home makes mine look like an outhouse !

          Khizer

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            #6
            Homeseerlover

            Like the toothbrush idea. Those little plastic gears probably would hit the crapper after a few weeks but look how inexpensive they are to replace! I don't know though, people would start complaining about landfills filling up with blown electric tooth brushes and all hell would break loose. Nice idea though...
            HS3 Prod - Win10 - DSC - HVAC-GC-TBZ48 x3 - CurrentCost - BLRadar - RFXCOM/FRXTRX433 -ADIO - HSTOUCH - BLUPS - AB8SS - SONOS - Alexa - 1 wire - BlueIris -MyQ

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              #7
              If I were looking for a motor, I'd use something from a radio-controlled car/plane. You can get them from cheap (less than a toothbrush, even) to expensive, from weak to pull-the-mini-blinds-off-the-wall powerful. They also come in different turn ratios and it's easy to get various gears to attach to them.

              Controlling them accurately would be another mess, though I'm sure it could be done with an ADI/Relay8XA pretty well; I suspect a X10 contact wouldn't be reliable enough time-wise unless there were a release clutch.

              IMHO, this is a difficult thing to do without it looking like the hack that it is. I'd put some addled-brain at it for a while and - while I could think of ways to do it - I couldn't think of an elegant way to do it. I refuse to adjust a fancy blind which cost hundreds of dollars (for some of the windows) with a cheesy device - including the ones Smarthome carries.

              Any one got an "elegant" idea for it - even if it costs a bit?

              (see profile for environment)

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                #8
                You might be able to make workable devices using stepper motors. They seem to be pretty cheap on the surplus market. They can also be found in old printers and floppy drives. Lots of info on the web on how to use them. Popular in the robotics groups.
                Why I like my 2005 rio yellow Honda S2000 with the top down, and more!

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                  #9
                  Here was my idea for a product a few years ago. It was only for adjusting the pitch of mini-blinds.

                  A maxon miniature gear-motor and a hall sensor encoder, mounted in the mini-blind housing, coupled directly to the metal rod that tilts the blinds. The motor runs open loop to one of 64 positions, determined by the hall-encoder. A light sensor would allow for programming the blinds to shut in direct sunlight or at night. It could also be controlled with an IR universal remote.

                  Technically easy, but many ergonomic issues needed to be resolved. - mark

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                    #10
                    Rupp,

                    There was an article in Circuit Cellar Magazine (April, 1995)to do this. You can search their website (http://www.circuitcellar.com/library/search.htm) to find it. I found it using the word "miniblind".


                    Mike

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                      #11
                      Great lead!

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                        #12
                        Without reading the whole article can you buy this device or do you have to make it?

                        -Rupp
                        ...One Nation Under GOD, Indivisible, With Liberty And Justice For All.
                        💁‍♂️ Support & Customer Service 🙋‍♂️ Sales Questions 🛒 Shop HomeSeer Products

                        Comment


                          #13
                          It looks a little complicated but doable. On another note, I have purchased several gearhead motors from www.hvwtech.com I just checked and they have a new gearhead motor that looks to be the perfect size for your mini-blind project. Look here http://www.hvwtech.com/gearsets.htm The price is $4 US (this is a canadian company)The Tamiya gearhead motors that I purchased are of fantastic quality. Delivery and service from this company were great. You would have to develop your own controls etc, but at that price, it would be worth messing around with.

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                            #14
                            I was just thinking about $70, not $70 for EACH window. If you have a bunch of windows you want to automate, that would get expensive. Probably the only windows I would want to automate in my house are the two windows in my theater room so that wouldn't be too bad.

                            I was also thinking a cordless screwdriver would be in that price range or more. A good one that I would buy to use as a screwdriver would cost more than that, but I guess you can buy a cheap Black and Decker, or similar, for $19.95 ... but wait...... order now and we'll include ...

                            But I personally would definitely not use something battery powered. I wouldn't want to have to remember to change (or charge) the batteries.

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                              #15
                              These would be perfect for this! Because they have a clutch to protect from over-cranking, there wouldn't really be a lot of logic that would have to go into it. A script from HS could send a series of on/off - get the timing right and you would be done.

                              I'm going to order a couple and give it a shot.

                              Also, I saw this little guy on their website: a USB RF ID unit for $59! Of course this would be a completely different project, but thought I would get some feedback as to the feasability to implement as a door-lock authenticator. .

                              USB RF ID Unit

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