I have some roman blinds with cords, I dont want to replace them but would like to automate them, all the other stuff I have seen works with some kind of rolling mechanism.
How can I do this with cords (looked all over the place)
Either let the cords roll up on a tubular motor (Tubular) at the top or try to use one of the aftermarket blinds motor for adjusting regular blinds (Aftermarket)
The aftermarket motor might require you to change part of your cords or you might need to find another gear, like a wheel with a good rubber to get a grip on the cords.
You issue will probably be the torch required on the motor.
What is the weight of your blinds?
*** The links are just for showing an example and not a recommendation of the products. I have not tried them or looked into their capabilities.
I dont think I can use a tubular motor, since there is no room for it, or do I need to replace the entire mechanism? I have 4 of them in a non standard format 
That question will be hard to answer here, since it requires a overview of what is the confinements, what is available at store, what do you have laying around and what are your skills. 
yeah, figures, I just wanted to know if anyone solved this before, been looking to automate this for a couple of years now
The issue with blinds are always the torque.
You can use gears, but this complicate things a bit,
It is a fight between it being either too slow or too underpowered to work actually work.
If you actually find motor that can fit and have the required power and speed, then you also have to accept that you will need power connected to it. Batteries will rarely be enough for this.
The things that can normally be motorized are tilts, since the weight is not on the motors, and roller shades, because as the fabric is rolled around the tube it will be removed from the weight on the motor…
Most of the other things are too heavy, because you need to lift AND hold the entire weight of the blind and handle the extra friction of the mechanism.
There are 2 ways to figure out the weight your motors need to pull.
- weight the entire blind and add a bit for friction.
2, tie a big water bottle to your cords then fill up the water bottle with water until it starts to move. Now weight the bottle.
thx, I think I will just replace them