Tilt My Blinds/MySmartBlinds

Third party integrations
1

First off, thank you to the great information. I’m considering a project to include automation using HA for blinds control as part of one of the first stages in automating a new house.

MySmartBlinds looks like a viable option since it’s BT/BLE and claims to incorporate mesh capability. Since it is expected to update to integrate with Echo this year, I can’t imagine HA not being able to find it through BT/BLE through multiple locations (using that mesh capability through locations and relay through units closer to where the computer will be located).

I’m looking at cheaper and straight forward DIY project as well being inexperienced at doing this for comparison to see which one I will screw up the least. At the end of the day though, I get the sense that an ESP8266 and a servo in each blind will be better. I’m just trying to gauge and learn how to build a system that can do the same thing or in more detail to my family’s preferences.

Does anyone have experience with the MySmartBlinds product? Any recommendations would be appreciated.

2 Likes
2

I am looking at these as well. Very curious to see how they work out

3

Considering these as well. Any results so far?

4

Any experience with these? I hear they are coming out with a hub. Won’t buy anything that doesn’t integrate with HA.

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5

I don’t have the hub (yet) but I did purchase 1 kit for testing. Installation takes 5-10 minutes, works as advertised. Motors are a bit loud, nothing insane, but I’m sure in future revs they can get better (quieter) motors. I got the solar kit, so far so good, but it’s only been a few days. I’ll have to wait long-term to ensure the solar panel charges the 2 18650 batteries they use. The kit automatically calibrates to your blinds so they don’t over/under tilt which is nice. Right now I’m just using the very basic operation, opening in the morning and closing at night. If they can deliver a hub that integrates in some way with HASS, native, emulated hue, IFTTT, whatever, I’ll retrofit all of my blinds.

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6

I just ordered one to try out too since it was on sale at Amazon. Let’s hope the hub does have some support with HA after it comes out.

7

Any word on this working with HA?

8

I have yet to see the hub available other than their website. On top of that they haven’t released any plans for an open API so it may be awhile unfortunately.

9

Any update on this? It’s been a few months and the hub is now in stock and ready to ship for anyone that’s wanting to give this a try.

I’m on the fence about either buying the MySmartBlinds Automation kit(s) and a bridge, but only want to do so if it’s possible to integrate with HomeAssistant, and it doesn’t look like it is at the moment.

I’m decent enough at Python that I could write a client interface for them, shove it in a library and everything, but only if there’s a public API available. I guess I’m going to contact support and ask them.

So I’m volunteering to help implement it but at the same time I don’t want to drop the cash until I know that it’s at least possible to do.

10

@flyinglotus1983 I had inquired a few months back about an open API and they said it’s not in the works. I think the best option would be to reverse engineer it since they don’t seem to see the value of integrating their blinds. There is some github repositories for just Bluetooth but once again when I asked those authors if they’d be interested in updating a hub version they didn’t seem to keen on it.

11

Here’s the answer I got back:

Hello,

I’m afraid we don’t have a public API available, nor am I authorized to send it to any outside party. Sorry about that!

Cheers,

Matt
MySmartBlinds

Translation:

“Too bad, we don’t really care about supporting the applications that our customers need, nor do we care about being innovative. Basically we’re just trying to coast by on our laurels and a bit of good luck.”

Wow. I’m just dumbfounded by how little they seem to care about selling their own products.

Screw these guys, I can’t support a company that is purposely being that obtuse.

1 Like
12

@flyinglotus1983 yeah I agree with you. It’s not 2012 anymore. Why they think consumers would want to invest in a product that doesn’t play nice with anything else is beyond me. They haven’t even added a smart home skill for Alexa. You still have to say, Alexa ask MySmartBlinds to close in the room. My wife never remembers the magic sentence and so it rarely gets used. Its too bad because I’m sure they’d sell more units if they listened to their current customers

13

I took a brief look at reverse engineering it by proxying the iOS app. They are using https://auth0.com/ for the user account management and GraphQL for control. It ought to be quite trivial. Not sure if I will find time to make a component personally though.

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14

Well that sounds like good news. Hopefully someone with the knowhow and time will pick it up. It’s one of the only smart devices I don’t have in HA.

15

Reversing it ended up being extremely straightforward: https://github.com/ianlevesque/smartblinds-client

I haven’t written the Home Assistant component though (yet?).

2 Likes
16

Amazing!! If I knew how to write the component for HA I’d do it in a second. Maybe it’s time I learn. Thanks so much @yammering

17

@yammering Thanks, this is great. I have been hoping someone would integrate the MSB hub into HA. I am not sure if this helps, but in my search, I found this repository for control of MSB over BT with an example HA cover component: https://github.com/dnschneid/pysmartblinds/blob/master/examples/mysmartblinds.py I’m still very new to HA but I can test and report back with anything posted on my large installation. I have 10 blinds in 5 groups. I also have a copy of a SmartThings SmartApp/Device from another repository that has now been taken down. It works via a hub login connection for control of a single blind at a time, no groups. I can send it over if it might be of help. Does your bridge component allow control of blind groups made within the MSB app?

18

I noticed blind groups are visible in the responses but currently it’s ignoring the groupings. It is able to control several at once.

1 Like
19

I’ve been hacking on the home assistant component off and on. I am not quite happy with it but it seems to mostly work.

Download mysmartblinds_bridge.py to config/custom_components/cover/mysmartblinds_bridge.py

And then in your configuration.yaml:

cover:
  - platform: mysmartblinds_bridge
    username: [email protected]
    password: mysecretpassword

Awkwardly I had to expose “cover position” in addition to “cover tilt” because the HomeKit component doesn’t seem to have tilt support yet. Maybe the right thing to do is fix that then remove cover position here.

1 Like
20

Awesome! Will try this tonight when I get home and report back. Thanks so much