Roller Blind

1

Hi All,

Any roller blind motor recommendations for the UK Market?

Thanks

Zigbee or WiFi for communication options.

2

I went for Somfy RTS WIRED and their control panel. In turn I used a flashed Sonoff Pro 4 channel relay flashed to ESPHome to control the up and down channels. Works well and voice commands through Google hub etc etc

1 Like
3

Thanks.

I was thinking more of an aquara as I don’t want to get into esp home etc

I was hoping for plug and play

4

There are quite a few long discussions already on systems. Have a further search as I spent quite an bit of time following them. My experience has been that you can go super cheap and cheerful or professional installer route. I found installers were quite difficult when it came to home automation.

5

@liamb , what did you go for in the end? TBH, I haven’t found that many discussions here so far.

I am looking for a roller blind (shade), although I specifically wanted a made-to-measure with a cassette/facia cover and a ZigBee motor (or at least local control). Unfortunately, there seem to be zero UK blind manufacturers that use ZigBee motors. Indeed, the only manufacturers I have found are based in the US (Graywind or Smartwings) and for the blind size I want (to cover a set of double doors), the cost will be more than £400.

I looked at Somify, which many UK blind manufacturers use, but by the time you have factored in the Somify TaHome Swich for local control (£180 ish), the cost is about the same.

Perhaps I will need to go for another control mechanism, but I didn’t want to faff around too much with RF or ESP Home.

6

Sorry for the late reply.

I never went with anything in the end. I’ve got other HA issues to resolve before I invest in blinds. As you say, it’s a very mixed back for the U.K

7

Update:

Went for a Aqara E1.

Works great but doesn’t report battery level. :sob:

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Hi @liamb, how did you Aqara work out? Any update or quick long term review would be great, thanks!

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Not great I’m afraid. I got them both working and responding in HA. However I’ve lost them since. One motor burned out, which I haven’t replaced, the other doesn’t respond in HA.

I think that might be down to a wider issue I’m having with my zigbee controller though, I’m dropping devices all the time, ones that have been fine for quite some time too.

I will at some point but another one and set them back up.

Still probably the best option in the UK.

Battery lasts quite a while and if you have the building makeup you can feed them permanently via USB C.

Setup was quite easy.

Any other questions let me know.