Controle venetian blinds by homemade DIY hardware, interested?
Posted: Friday 15 May 2020 8:26
I am looking to people wo are interested to help with DIY controle venetian blinds.
Interested could be helping with hard-/software. But also thinking together about the project, would be helping.
A little History:
A year ago i moved to the new house. This was the start of my domoticz.
I have 2 venetian blinds, controlled by somfy tilt 50 motors.
First connected with a RF-link. But that didn't work great.
Needed to send over 50 commandlines, to get from open to close. Because the RF-link sends only a small step.
Didn't searched for it why it did that. I could be that it is sending it command to long, than somfy tilt 50 thinks you would go to a not pre-fixed state.
So took the RF-link out and searched for an other option. The RFXCom could be an option, but this is not that cheap that i didn't wanted to try and maybe got the same working as RF-link. Therefor i went to a wemos D1 mini with ESPeasy and soldering the outputs to a somfy remote. This works for a year, but it still is not where i am looking for.
The somfy can do open, close, favorite. But no handcontrol, which my wife likes. But also found, that the somfy tilt 50 is not a drop in. Most venetian blind don't have the axel in the middle of there housing. But the somfy tilt 50 takes this as a start. In my case i modified the venetain blind, to get it fit. Not low level design
Start of the idea:
I thoughed about it and a few weeks back i made a start.
Wanted to control the blinds by http, so no extra hardware is necessary.
And want it DIY, because buying those motors is not that cheap. I have taken a wemos D1 mini and a servo from the RC hobby. And start trying.
I am not a code master, so little steps to get something working
Hardware:
- Wemos D1 mini
- Servo with feedback
- A 5Vdc power supply
How does it work:
You could send a http command from domoticz with a degree value in it. The venetian blind will move to that degree value and disables the pwm signal to the servo.
This last thing is needed, so you could move the venetian blind by hand. But when moving by hand, domoticz value is not correct with the real stand of the venetian blind.
Therefor is the feedback. This measures the potentiometer en sends it to domoticz, this way domoticz knows you moved the venetian blind.
Wishlist:
- Add MQTT
- Find a solution for a remote control device
- Make a 3D printed drawing for the housing. Which needs to be uniform to fit in multi venetian blinds
- Make DZvents code, which sends the HTTP code
- The powersupply needs to be smaller, it is now a big unit.
- Keep it low level design with standard products. That everybody can make it.
- Shoot on options! Maybe we can add them
Prices:
These prices i found online.
No rights to it
- Wemos D1 mini: 5,07 euro (in dutch shop)
- Feedback servo: 17,95 euro (in dutch shop)
- 5Vdc power supply: don't know yet. I have one, but it is to big. need to find something else, don't know the price yet
- 3D printed housing: i don't know, there is no drawing yet.
Some idea about the price comparion with somfy:
- Somfy tilt 50 motor; 99,95euro (at dutch shop)
- Somfy power supply: 44,95euro (at dutch shop)
- Somfy telis 1 remote: 32,95euro (at dutch shop)
Interested:
Are you people interested in this to make it a project together?
What do you think about it, please give some feedback
Like said, i am not a code master.
I know that sending HTTP commands from DZvents is not the best way, this could be better done by a .sh file.
But i would like to keep it low level, that everybody can make it work.
But the option to mqtt could solve this, for not sending http commands. So there is something for everybody to get it working
Interested could be helping with hard-/software. But also thinking together about the project, would be helping.
A little History:
A year ago i moved to the new house. This was the start of my domoticz.
I have 2 venetian blinds, controlled by somfy tilt 50 motors.
First connected with a RF-link. But that didn't work great.
Needed to send over 50 commandlines, to get from open to close. Because the RF-link sends only a small step.
Didn't searched for it why it did that. I could be that it is sending it command to long, than somfy tilt 50 thinks you would go to a not pre-fixed state.
So took the RF-link out and searched for an other option. The RFXCom could be an option, but this is not that cheap that i didn't wanted to try and maybe got the same working as RF-link. Therefor i went to a wemos D1 mini with ESPeasy and soldering the outputs to a somfy remote. This works for a year, but it still is not where i am looking for.
The somfy can do open, close, favorite. But no handcontrol, which my wife likes. But also found, that the somfy tilt 50 is not a drop in. Most venetian blind don't have the axel in the middle of there housing. But the somfy tilt 50 takes this as a start. In my case i modified the venetain blind, to get it fit. Not low level design
Start of the idea:
I thoughed about it and a few weeks back i made a start.
Wanted to control the blinds by http, so no extra hardware is necessary.
And want it DIY, because buying those motors is not that cheap. I have taken a wemos D1 mini and a servo from the RC hobby. And start trying.
I am not a code master, so little steps to get something working
Hardware:
- Wemos D1 mini
- Servo with feedback
- A 5Vdc power supply
How does it work:
You could send a http command from domoticz with a degree value in it. The venetian blind will move to that degree value and disables the pwm signal to the servo.
This last thing is needed, so you could move the venetian blind by hand. But when moving by hand, domoticz value is not correct with the real stand of the venetian blind.
Therefor is the feedback. This measures the potentiometer en sends it to domoticz, this way domoticz knows you moved the venetian blind.
Wishlist:
- Add MQTT
- Find a solution for a remote control device
- Make a 3D printed drawing for the housing. Which needs to be uniform to fit in multi venetian blinds
- Make DZvents code, which sends the HTTP code
- The powersupply needs to be smaller, it is now a big unit.
- Keep it low level design with standard products. That everybody can make it.
- Shoot on options! Maybe we can add them
Prices:
These prices i found online.
No rights to it
- Wemos D1 mini: 5,07 euro (in dutch shop)
- Feedback servo: 17,95 euro (in dutch shop)
- 5Vdc power supply: don't know yet. I have one, but it is to big. need to find something else, don't know the price yet
- 3D printed housing: i don't know, there is no drawing yet.
Some idea about the price comparion with somfy:
- Somfy tilt 50 motor; 99,95euro (at dutch shop)
- Somfy power supply: 44,95euro (at dutch shop)
- Somfy telis 1 remote: 32,95euro (at dutch shop)
Interested:
Are you people interested in this to make it a project together?
What do you think about it, please give some feedback
Like said, i am not a code master.
I know that sending HTTP commands from DZvents is not the best way, this could be better done by a .sh file.
But i would like to keep it low level, that everybody can make it work.
But the option to mqtt could solve this, for not sending http commands. So there is something for everybody to get it working