Motorized Smart Curtains - DIY or Buy?

**DIY Solution**

**Zemismart Curtains**
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[TheHookUp]

Let me know what you think about the Buy or DIY format.

I know I didn't spend as much time explaining how to make the curtains, but I tried to do a little better job on the github page readme so you could put it together without too much trouble. If there is sufficient interest I can make a step by step video for converting your completely dumb grommet and rail style curtains into smart curtains.

[craigmonteforte]

cool Channel and video ! One note I’m American and 57 years old when I was in 7thgrade We were taught the Metric System and my teacher then in th 1970s was insisting by the year 2000 the entire World will be using the one system LMAO ironically I chose Woodworking as my Career and Strangely as it seemed most of our big Machinery is built in Germany and in the 1990s I had to get very good using the Metric system luckily there are Tape Measures with Imperial and Metric on them so for certain repetitive sizes I memorized the closest Imperial Conversion to make it easier on myself plus. I made a Cheat Sheet for my Toolbox to reference if needed it’s funny because one time I was injured in the Hospital and my son had a project he was working on using my tools he would visit me at the Hospital to share his progress and the plans he was using was inMetric so he told me the problems he was having with converting everything in his head and on paper and he asked Dad how do you remember all those measurements ? I admitted to him I don’t open up this drawer onmy toolbox and Look at the back of the peice of wood in it when I’m working I just turn that block of Wood over in the drawer so I can pull the drawer open and read the Imperial measurement

[KeyFur_NYC]

Thank you for all of your content.. You inspired me to dive into the wonderful world of Individually addressable LED light strips and now my apartment is better lit than most music venues and I get complements on my lights constantly.
I am going to try your DIY solution with this because I too have grommet style curtains and I have been waiting for the SwitchBot smart curtain to be available ... kind of forgot about it honestly. But I already have a few extra ESP32 boards I never got around to using for other projects and I had already designed the physical piece to move the curtains.
So with your github code and handy tips I'm gonna give this a go.
Thanks again for all the cool stuff you do and the great clean code and very detailed comments. I look forward to other projects you come up with.

[nathansmith]

Don't give up on your anti-cloud philosophy, you aren't alone.

[aspenmallery]

I'm working on a design that moves curtains up and down vertically instead, since I almost never have these large sliding glass doors in my apartments that I rent from. My idea was to emulate something you would see similar to a projector-screen, except perform much faster and the installation would be more modular and user-friendly.

I've been using a 12v worm-geared motor with a built in hall-encoder, attached directly to 2" diameter PVC pipe using a custom 3D-printed bracket. The built-in encoder can provide me with the motors position up to 0.1 degree of accuracy, and with this I can determine how many revolutions are needed in order to reach the bottom of the window frame. These motor's have a lot of torque to hold weight for big windows and also self-brake, which should stop any leftover momentum after the motor is signaled off. The motor is also fairly fast and can open and close 6ft high windows in about 6-7 seconds. This can be slowed using the motor controller included in my circuit design.

Everything will run off a 12v 2800mah battery and I will code the arduino to sleep whenever possible to improve efficiency. The total cost of the project depends on the size of each window, but should typically be around the $50-70 USD ball park. This could of course be modified to save more money by sourcing parts off of eBay and not on Amazon. I prefer having quick deliveries and free/easy returns. You can also use an Arduino Nano instead of an Uno which are like $0.50 cents instead of $5.00. Pipe material, fabric etc etc all can be priced differently depending on where you go.

I will try and get a video of it up and running when I've finished prototyping. Right now I'm working on an box-enclosure to house all the electronics and mount it the wall in a visually appealing way. I really like your design concept for the horizontal curtains-- I wasn't too sure how I would do it that myself. I'm curious to how loud your stepper motor is or if you've experienced any torque, belt-issues, fraying or anything else after consecutive uses. If you are not using sensors to determine the start/end points, it would be wise to implement a way to calibrate the motor if it happens to lose power mid-motion or if someone forces the motor out of position.

There are many issues to solve in projects like these. It's fun to see what other people are doing too. Thanks for the video!

[Binthen]

One of the most advantage of our curtains is that we are selling patented curtain in kit with spliced track, your end customers can DIY the length of track from 2.2 meters to 8.2 meters, it is very convenient for distributor and store/online seller to sell it, and also standard package make shipping and stock more easier.

[N-hunter]

The DIY or Buy format is very similar to what Great Scott uses in some of his videos

[backyardelmer]

If the click is truly due to a pause, I would suggest not pausing. Just check mqtt while the motor keeps moving. You'll get a small delay in response, but I'd bet it isnt much, and you'll adapt to it pretty qucikly.

[DaveWard-xcvd]

Run a drive belt inside your tube and use a magnet on the belt to pull the curtain back and forth.

[GlennPierce]

On my personal blind opener I use to pull a string cord I found the best solution was a 3d printed pulley with an elastic band glued around the pulley. This provides good friction for the string.

[AnalystKrishna]

Presentation is good, clear and understandable. Gave genuine opinion. I liked this video. I am just starting to learn IoT for home automation and would prefer to DIY for my home window curtains. Thanks For the video. Much appreciated.

[adityakushsolan]

I think this is a great video..should do like these more often..cuz at the end of the day we need u and other such creative people to come up with new ideas and teach us too..
Please make the step by step video too if you can..It would not harm anybody

[MatSmithLondon]

Completely OT: as a fellow MQTT nut, I'd be interested in hearing a video about how you approach MQTT topic design. I guess most of us, when we got into MQTT, just made up a bunch of topics to get things working, then after a while things got complicated and so we re-hashed the design of our topics, but then started to think more deeply about how they are arranged and how topics represent the real world. It could be a REALLY boring video (which is why I'm not a very good youtuber myself!) but it could be made interesting. There's a lot of potential areas to explore: do your topics mimic locations within the home, device types, automation categories (e.g. audio / light / etc.) or a hybrid; how do you separate device traffic such as commands to actuators and reports from sensors; how do you document all the topics in use in your home (for me, I have SO many topics!); how do you represent devices that belong to open-plan areas in the home which might belong to more than one room... These are just my musings - such a video could be like watching paint dry :P

[spacecowboy]

This is exactly what I was looking for. I've been contemplating to make them myself or just buy it.

[micheleroncalli]

Great video man. There are a lot of points where buy wins over diy, but sometimes is just a matte of philosophy. Sometimes you prefer to use something you designed and implemented, that's all.

[MaryLiiLyraM]

Props for this video. Very thorough comparison of solutions and extremely helpful!! Thank youl

[joonasfi]

Also, I really appreciate the tin foil aspect of yours.. I'm the same - local control or no deal. Amazon Echo is the only HA device I'll allow to use the cloud - local voice recognition is not there.. yet

[angelas]

I'm late to the party, but just to put in my dime: I turned the grommet curtains (m2m and specific color I can't get anymore) upside down when I went curtainrail style XD gives a fun effect!

[joonasfi]

I've been thinking about DIY on this subject as well.. appreciate your thought leadership here, and it looks so complicated that as a lazy S-O-B I think I'll take the buy route.. Great video!

[BostonLoyalT]

Appreciate this video more than you know. Props!🤜🤛 fan of a lot of your videos. Keep up great work