I recently swapped out an Aqara E1 Roller Shade Driver (Zigbee) for the Zemismart “Smart Matter Thread Roller Shade Driver”. I’m providing a quick review and comparisons in case anyone else is looking for a good Home Assistant compatible retrofit driver for their blinds. I can certainly highly recommend this one and found it to be a better option than the Aqara on most counts.
The physical install was easy - the kit comes with options for wall mount stickers and screws, as well as multiple wheels to accommodate different sized blind cords. The wall mount itself is neat, ratcheting to allow just the right tension for the cord. There is a small but convenient and very responsive remote control included too. The motor has plenty of torque, three speed options and is a little quieter and faster than the Aqara E1. Setting the blind limits was straightforward and more intuitive than the Aqara - flip a switch, move the blind to the top, click the button, repeat for the bottom position. The device then immediately goes into Matter pairing, setting off prompts on nearby devices.
I have merged Google and HA Thread networks and was able to add the roller shade easily via the Matter QR code and it could then be managed in either Google Home or HA interchangeably.
The driver appears as a Matter device in HA, exposing a standard blind control with buttons for up, down, stop and the ability to set a target open %. The latter works well in automations. Seeing the battery % remaining is also helpful. The only area where the Aqara wins out is the ability to invert the controls and set the movement speed via ZHA. While the Zemismart can do both of these too, they aren’t presented in the HA device settings currently. I note that the driver arrived on firmware 1.0.0 so perhaps Zemismart will add this capability later.
In summary, this is a well built product that does its core job very well and integrates easily into HA (and other ecosystems). I plan to swap out the rest of the Aqara drivers over time. Let me know if you have any questions about the driver itself or its integration into HA.
