By the way, are Somfy rechargeable battery motors compatible with HR? This is another possibility in Spain, although expensive… Many thanks!
Bali brand uses Somfy motors. And yes the Zwave ones are compatible with a hub. I use ISY and Home Assistant and I know they are both compatible with HR. I use the website Costco Bali to buy my shades because they are the most affordable. For a basic fabric zwave rollershade 30" x 40" it’s probably around $200-250.
Greg, are you referring to Z-Wave PLUS Module - Universal Devices ?
Or this Universal Devices ISY-994iZw Home Automati ISY-994IZW B&H Photo (bhphotovideo.com)
They all seem to be out of stock… ;-))
How do you connect the ISY bridge to HR? I do not see any device source with this name in HR?
I had a look into costco, do you think it is possible to buy the motors and build the blinds with your fabric (by the way the blinds will be placed outside the windows)?
If the Bali blinds use Somfy motors, this means that they should be also compatible with HR, right, or not necessarily? Do you think whether the Somfy motors might be compatible with any z-wave bridge that will be compatible with HR, like ISY?
By the way, I contacted Lutron and they told me that they will not produce any roller motor with rechargeable batteries in the future, that is too bad…
Many thanks Greg!
Not sure what other devices you are using for automation but the Bond bridge with Hubitat to HR with Somfy RTS motors works nicely.
Dan, many thanks for your reply! That’s very good news! I’d like to use the battery roller motors with a bridge directly compatible with HR, and if possible a wired bridge… Is it possible to connect the Bond bridge to HR or you need to do it through Hubitat? Many thanks!
Greg, are you referring to Z-Wave PLUS Module - Universal Devices ?
Or this Universal Devices ISY-994iZw Home Automati ISY-994IZW B&H Photo (bhphotovideo.com)
They all seem to be out of stock… ;-))
The first link is just a z-wave board that you add on to their hub, so not that. The second link is to their old hub which they don’t make anymore. You can buy one on eBay or buy their new model called Polisy
https://www.universal-devices.com/store/
But unless you use Insteon, I would not use ISY. Instead, I would use Home Assistant. You can use an old Raspberry Pi and add a Z-wave dongle. It will be a learning curve but I think you will have fun with it.
How do you connect the ISY bridge to HR? I do not see any device source with this name in HR?
https://community.thehomeremote.com/t/isy994i-plugin-ver-8-0/999
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I had a look into costco, do you think it is possible to buy the motors and build the blinds with your fabric (by the way the blinds will be placed outside the windows)?
My experience is not building your own motors with your own fabric. My experience is buying the blinds already together with the Somfy motor. So unfortunately I cannot answer your question.
If the Bali blinds use Somfy motors, this means that they should be also compatible with HR, right, or not necessarily? Do you think whether the Somfy motors might be compatible with any z-wave bridge that will be compatible with HR, like ISY?
To my knowledge, Somfy motors are not directly compatible with HR. You will need a bridge, or a hub. The Somfy Z-wave motors are compatible with any z-wave bridge.
https://linkdhome.com/articles/best-zwave-hub
By the way, I contacted Lutron and they told me that they will not produce any roller motor with rechargeable batteries in the future, that is too bad…
Lutron are nice but they are very expensive. When I got my blinds from Costco Bali they were about half the price of the Lutron ones.
I also have a set of shades that I got for $95 each! A great bargain. I don’t know if you have access to them. They are Allen + Roth brand from the store Lowes. I used the Bond bridge and integrated them into Home Assistant which is how I can communicate with them in HR.
Greg, thanks a lot for all the information, it’s really helpful!
I’m working with a roller and shades technician who uses motors form different brands and fabrics from different manufacturers, and he designs and installs the most appropriate custom roller shade for your project.
I didn’t know that the Somfy motors were compatible with any z-wave bridge. That’s good news because in Spain you can find them easily, although they are quite expensive, especially the battery motors. Therefore, he was proposing A-OK battery motors which work with a Tuya Smart bridge, but unfortunately, although I was able to add the bridge to HR, the synchronization process doesn’t work (I tested it with a roller that they lent me). I asked the representative if he could find another Tuya bridge which I could try with HR.
My technician also told me that the Lutron blinds are quite expensive in Spain, and they only work with the RA2 Select bridge that works at 868 MHz, but I don’t know if it is compatible with HR, I guess yes?
I’m going to ask for a Somfy battery motor to test it with HR. So, from the list of z-wave bridges, which one would you recommend me? I checked the list against HR and found out that the only one which appears in the HR devices list is the Hubitat Elevation, but I’m not sure whether it’s compatible? Would you recommend me any?
I can recommend Home Assistant. It’s freeware that can be loaded on most OS’s, including a Raspberry Pi or Windows. It has a community of developers who create plugins and it has the most comprehensive list of compatibility I have seen. Home Assistant is compatible with HR. You can buy a Z-wave dongle which is compatible with Home Assistant. Look - it even has Spain electricity hourly pricing
Hahaha, yes, the prices of energy are quite high these days in Europe and we try to use energy when these are low, which could vary even every hour depending on your type of contract…
What is the advantage of having Home Assistant with Home Remote? Connecting a bridge to HA and then connecting HA to HR won’t it add more latency? I would try to avoid as much middle software as possible, right? Wouldn’t it be better to have a bridge directly compatible with HR? What’s your opinion?
By the way, do you know whether HR is compatible with Lutron’s RA2 Select at 868 MHz? Bill didn’t ask my question yet. If it is, I will try to borrow a bridge from the distributor to test it with Somfy battery motors…
Many thanks Greg for all your insights! I really appreciate them!
Home Assistant is the bridge. So it’s HA to HR. No middle software, no latency. And I don’t know about Lutron.
Greg, I have been reading about how and where to install HA and it can be installed on a Synology NAS which I use as file server! So that might be a nice solution, what do you think? I have seen a list of z-wave compatible dongles with HA, and one of them is the Aeotec Z-Stick 7 USB stick (ZWA010). Do you have any experience with it or some others?
Yes, I also use my Synology NAS for various other things. Please let me know how it performs. I don’t know a lot about different brands of Z-wave dongles. I use other Aeotec Z-wave devices and I am happy with them. My dongle is https://www.amazon.com/Z-Wave-Stick-Assistant-HomeSeer-Software/dp/B07GNZ56BK/ref=sr_1_2
Apparently the Raspberry Pi is the least efficient platform, I have no idea whether Synology NAS is good enough? At least if you have the NAS you only need to buy the z-wawe stick. I have seen the ODROID option ODROID-N2+ — ameriDroid which is probably the most efficient platform other than a dedicated PC?, but I do not know if it’s worth the investment and effort?
I have HA on a RPi 3 and it has never had a problem.
I have an HA VM on Synology (920+) with a Z-wave/Zigbee combo stick (HUSBZB-1). Works flawlessly.
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I have a DS220+, do you think it will be powerful enough?
I see that your dongle is a 500 series and now there are the 700 series which have been quite problematic, but I do not know whether the problems have been soved ( Beware of Z-Wave 700 series controllers | IP Cam Talk)?
Many thanks!
I have not had any problems with my 700 series zwave dongle.
I’ve compared the specs of the Synology units. The biggest issue I see is the memory. I upgraded my unit from 4GB to 8GB with this: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B082MSJ5YY
The memory made a big difference for me. It looks like your unit can use this same module also, and I expect you might have issues running a vm with anything else using the default 2GB RAM.
I’m not using the M2 slot for boost so you not having that isn’t an issue for you.
I can’t speak to the different USB stick versions.
I actually have 6GB which is the maximum memory the DS220+ can hold, do you think it might be enough?