Motorized Roller Shades? IKEA Fyrtur vs Zemismart Solar/Battery vs DIY!

Automated motorized roller shades, is it better to DIY or Buy?

Top Pick (RF Solar + Battery):

DIY Software:

DIY Parts:

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[JAnn]

Would you update roller shades for 2024?

[paulhibbert]

I came here to say one thing... the zigbee!!!!" Haha, amazing video mate, really informative!! :)

[mytoolsyourhome]

The fact that you lowered the volume when you said Alexa made me subscribe.

Always love the videos Rob. Keep them up. It's helped me no end in all things smart home and home assistant. 👌

[qstorm]

I got the ikea. Thanks for the review. I just went with the ikea hub and did t have any issues and it now works with Apple HomeKit. Had them for a week and they work like a charm. However for the price I paid I could’ve done all my windows in my house.

[ohaizack]

Thanks Rob! I've been deliberating on a roller blind solution for a couple of months now. This video was very informative and covered a good range of options. Also, I got a good giggle with "oh, the ZigBee"!

Edit: typo

[einein]

Great video Rob. While watching it gave me an idea for my holiday lights. I used the shower curtain solution on a window to project a loop, but during the day I have that "frosted" look. With a DiY shade I could automate it like a projector screen that hides away when not in use... I'll add it to the list, not tape for me this year lol

[StillInLuck]

This is amazing thankyou for being so thorough !

[jameswarnock]

Hey Rob, after seeing your video I was inspired to put together something similar. I probably have the same (or very similar) shades as you ($10 vinyl roller shades from a home improvement store) so I think it is comparable. I was using a different stepper driver library and found that it had excessive delays in the code between step pulses. I eventually gave up on that one and wrote my own with much more reasonable delays. I guessed your window is about 4', with my new library, my shades lift that far in under 1:30. Still not great, but almost twice as fast as your current version.

I looked at the library you used and it doesn't seem to be as bad as the first library I used but the delays could still be lowered. I found that a pulse width of 5us and pulse period of 1505us worked pretty well. Your library doesn't allow for non 50% duty cycle so it may not be easy to modify that code. I think the limiting factor on the width is the driver (the datasheet says the minimum is 1.9us, i went with 5 to give some margin) and the limiting factor on the frequency is the motor.

So, if you want to try speeding up your DIY solution you could consider tinkering with the delays in the motor driver code.

EDIT: With a width of 3 and period of 1203, the time is down to under 1:10 and it still seems to be working correctly.

[abefouhy]

Way to go man, what a great no bs video!

[illgazillion]

Thank you very much for this video. It’s extremely thorough.

[jonathanochs]

A dimmer switch like the TGWF500D would be perfect for controlling shades because it is momentary. A video on how to hardware hack a dimmer switch into Home Assistant to control all the blinds in a room would be very cool.

[addwithdiy]

You should do an update on this with the new blind motors that are out there.

[jonathanochs]

Great video and exactly what I was looking for! Keep doing shades videos as other home automations are simple in comparison.
Would love to see you throw Rollerhouse motors in the review mix. Also, maybe something with the Shelly 2.5 and dumb shades? I can't do solar because the wife doesn't like the look but I was thinking it would be cool to re-wire the Zemismart Solars and just have the battery as a backup. Basically, Motorized UPS Shades. I have like 20 windows that need to be automated so loving this content!

[philindeblanc]

A lot of great info in this video! Well done!

[lee]

Fantastic video Rob!

While in lockdown I purchased two Ikea blinds to connect to my existing 76 Deconz device Home Assistant setup. After a few days, one of them dropped from the Zigbee mesh and became non-responsive... After days of repeated button pressing, I gave up and brought an Ikea bridge.... OMG the pain of getting that paired (tip - buy lots of spare CR2032 batteries!). Once finally paired I've just decided to leave the Ikea bridge also connected as a separate Zigbee mesh just for blinds, it integrates to HA and firmware updates are a lot easier.

Keep up the good work.

[maxnet]

Really cool, video!
Here in Sweden there is a company that sell a semi DYI kit for that. It works great with a Qubino Z-wave flush shutter.

[alarmguy]

All working now cheers so easy in the end just need to work on my Mqtt integration thanks

[lucaswybrandt]

Thank you! I’ve been waiting for this video over a year now😂

[rogersmj]

I’m building a new house and prewired every window for 12v low voltage roller motors, like the Rollerhouse branded ones on Amazon. Much easier to conceal low voltage wires.