Wifi / Zigbee motor for general application

Hi all,

I am looking for a motor, that can move between predefined start and end positions and has direct zigbee / wifi integration.

I know there exist different solutions based on esp, but I would prefer something simpler, that doesnt require soldering or low level programming.

The closest thing I have found so far are the xiaomi / aqara / tuya curtain motors:

However they seem to have a non standardized shaft / mounting points, so I dont know how easy it will be to repurpose them for a more general application.

Do you have any further ideas / suggestions?

Thanks and best regards

I don’t think that you’ll find what you’re looking for. I would just get a 24VDC motor that fits your requirements and then hook it up to a shelly 2.5 and a power supply. That’s incredibly easy and you’ll don’t have to make too many compromises.

That does sound like a reasonable idea. Would it be possible to detect that the motor reached its start / position, assuming that in this case some obstacle is reached and further movement is blocked?

If my memory on electric motors is right, the current should drop to 0 once the obstacle is reached? So by using a switch, that provides current measurements I should be to detect that? Or are there more reliable ways?

That is a very good question, but I do not know the answer to that. In my scenario it is a motor that opens and closes a skylight-type window and the motor that the window company recommended has a feature that automatically stops, once the maximum angle is reached or the window is fully closed. Maybe you’ll be able to find a motor for your situation that does that too?

The Shelly does monitor power and is very fast in reporting it back to HA, but I would assume that it does take a few seconds. If that delay doesn’t hurt the motor or the obstacle, it might work.

ok, actually I want to use the motor to automate some crank operated shutters and in this case I think a delay of 2-3 seconds should not lead to any issues.

Do you know how the motor stops in your use case? Does it have an internal resistance detection or is it based on a preconfigured position?

Can’t you put a door sensor on the shutters?

Might also be an option, I would have to check how I can fit the sensors in but I guess it would work. Just thought it would be simpler if I can detect the end positions just by the motor feedback.

The data sheet only says this:

Limit stop
(Open): Built in limit switch
(Closed) Integrated electronic power cut-off

This is the link to the motor:

ok, thank you for posting the data. From the information it is also not clear to me what method is used to detect limits.

Regarding the end position detection based on current, according to this thread, the current acutally goes up.

So I guess it would not be so good for the circuit in the long term, especially if there is a delay of some seconds.

In the end maybe I will have to go down the route of using a stepper motor with built in encoder. I did some reading and looks like with ESPhome it has become much easier to control them.

Hello,

I’m also looking at such solution to open/close (in my case a swing door) and detect when the motor has reached its limit. I can’t use a limit switch as it could be stopped by something/someone before reaching its end and would prefer avoid extra wiring.
I have a spare shelly 2.5 and was wondering if I could use the power consumption to stop the motor. I see on the doc, it has built in obstacle detection so might be just what I need. Anyone tried that ?

If I may what did you end up using ?

Thanks