11 replies to this topic

[lupinglade]

Hi,

I have 4 roman blinds that I would like to integrate with my HAI controller via Somfy motors. Can anyone assist in picking the right motor for the job? Somfy's documentation is rather confusing/lacking. The blinds look like this: http://s7v1.scene7.c...Lewis/000004496 and at the top there is a piece of the fabric hanging over that would probably work to cover the motor itself. What do I need to make this work? I've looked everywhere and haven't had much luck figuring it out. Can't find an installer around here either.

[Chassmain]

Hi,

I have 4 roman blinds that I would like to integrate with my HAI controller via Somfy motors. Can anyone assist in picking the right motor for the job? Somfy's documentation is rather confusing/lacking. The blinds look like this: http://s7v1.scene7.c...Lewis/000004496 and at the top there is a piece of the fabric hanging over that would probably work to cover the motor itself. What do I need to make this work? I've looked everywhere and haven't had much luck figuring it out. Can't find an installer around here either.

Lots of different ways you can integrate the Somfy roller shades into an HAI system depending on what you'd like to do and how much you'd like spend. You can take a few outputs off the HAI to fire relays which will then send 24 V DC or 110 V AC to the motors to open/close them or for a more refined approach you can use one of these serial ports communicating RS 485 to control the ILT motors. How about more information about what hardware you've got and what you'd like to accomplish and I'll see what I can do about sending you in the right direction.

I just battled this whole thing myself with a new home I'm building and was extremely unimpressed with Somfy's technical documents and knowledge base, but now that I've got a handle on their products think they're probably one of the cheapest/slickest way to integrate a roller shade system.

[lupinglade]

Hey, thanks for the quick reply!

I have an OmniPro II. I'd like to integrate using some sort of wireless if possible to reduce the number of wires needed to the blinds (power only preferably?).

My main question though is how to pick out the right motor to pull these blinds and what parts I need?

Like crown/tube/motor/something else -- I am not quite sure what some of these terms are

Somfy's docs are really lacking!

[Rupp]

It's as though Somfy doesn't want to sell these. I contacted them a few years back and they were no help at all. They must not want to work with the DIYers. I ended up getting these horizontal blind controllers and absolutely love them. The company quit making them unfortunately. Here's a pic. I have 15 sets and they have worked perfectly for the last 6 years.
http://board.homesee...=1&d=1099783778

Edited by Rupp, 15 February 2011 - 08:43 PM.

[AnthonyZ]

I don't have time to Google part numbers for you but, I can confidently state that you will want to look for info on Somfy's RTS wireless. It provides a serial interface with super easy ASCII commands that the HAI system can send. Those commands are then relayed to specific motors wirelessly in order to handle up, down and stop. I have used these in the past for clients with great results (and really easy). With that said, the 5 channel RTS interface was hard to find the last time I looked (about six months ago).

[Chassmain]

No prob… Muddled through this myself for way longer than itshould have taken (several months) and definitely feel your pain and hope I canbe of some help.

My integration was a little different/possibly easier (I hadwide-open walls so I could run whatever wire wherever), but we at least sharethe same controller, HAI OP2, so things should carry over on some level.

Start off by reading through their Motor_Catalog. It's definitely a bundle of information that will be somewhat hard to wade through/figure out what you need, but at least it'll give you the basics and show you what's possible, and what different wireless and wired technologies are out there. For my system I decided to go with their 506S2 ILT motors which allowed me to operate their motors with 110 V AC and control them with a CAT5e/CAT3 line I ran around the house to to each motor to carry the RS-485 signal from the HAI's serial port. Probably for your situation you might want to look into using their RS-232 to RTS module to convert the signal from your HAI to something that's wireless so that you don't have to run a control signal to each motor. There is also a Z-wave interface to look at that might be useful although I have no experience with that.
As far as hardware… Start at page 37 of the Motor Catalog. Basically, what you'll need is a roller motor (sizde depending on the square footage/weight of material you want to lift), a bracket on the motor side to attach this shade to the wall/ceiling/window header, a couple crown derives, 1.5/2/2.5 inch roller tube to attach to the motor then shade, and an idler end to attach to the other wall.
Looks like a lot? Yes! Scary? Yes!
We can figure it out, not a lot more time to write tonight, so dig through that catalog and come up with a few questions and we'll muddle forward.

[az1324]

depending on your headrail, you might want to use a cord lift motor instead of a tubular motor. Once you've figured that out, the following stores should have what you need:

http://www.automated...pg1-cid121.html

http://shop.floridau...y-Motors_c2.htm

http://www.av-outlet...s/dept_491.html

Edited by az1324, 16 February 2011 - 08:04 AM.

[lupinglade]

depending on your headrail, you might want to use a cord lift motor instead of a tubular motor. Once you've figured that out, the following stores should have what you need:

What is the difference in those two motor types? I still don't follow The head rail is basically a wooden board mounted perpendicular to the window with pulleys under it. I think the only one that I can use is the cord lift isnt it? I can't roll up the actual blind. They are roman blinds.

Edited by lupinglade, 16 February 2011 - 03:56 PM.

[lupinglade]

I did find a section in the product guide that covered roman blinds. Now I'm trying to figure out what motor capacity I need (torque), have to weigh my blinds somehow lol.

[Deane Johnson]

BTX makes the type lifting system you need for Romans.

http://www.btxinc.co...lift-tilt/roman

It has coils that the cords roll up to lift the shade, and has stops for up and down built into the motor.

[az1324]

Yeah basically you just need spools for the cord to roll up on. The kits on the first link I posted have those included. The cord lift motor is if you have a metal headrail I believe. So look at the kits plus the automation interface. Then supplying power becomes your final challenge.

[Deane Johnson]

The Somfy AC motors (110v.) use the following wiring. Ground, Nuetral (white), Red and Black (Hot, one for each direction). So to control it, you need a switcher that sends the hot side to either the red or black, depending on which direction you want the shade to go.

One of the better switchers is made by ESI. Something like this:

http://www.elec-solu...s/rp60abmh.html

If you have multiple shades, probably something like this:

http://www.elec-solu.../rp60abmh2.html

ESI will also mount as many of these as you need without the cover box, just the electronics in an electrical box.

There are probably other ways to make a switcher up to interface with home automation, but the ESI stuff is pretty easy to work with.