Are native z-wave blinds worth a $450 premium vs soma?

Yes, $1500, give or take. I got them when they were having combo sales and I got the solar panels.
They are z-wave so you don't need any other hub or radio modules. I control them with the Simple Automation app, Alexa, and pico remotes.

One kit per blind. The installation is fairly straight forward, 15 minutes or so per blind. They only control tilt and you lose manual tilt.

This was my most expensive project. It also had the highest WAF result. I have had no problems since installation.

@troywehrle - Do you have the blinds connected directly to power, or do you recharge the battery at intervals?

@kevin1 - seems you got the solar panels for all of yours. Those still working out well?

Can you tell iBlinds to set the blinds to a certain angle via Google Home voice commands?

Do you know if they support any "dimming" commands via Lutron Picos, to set the blind angle?

iBlinds appears as a switch in the ABC app...do "On" and "Off" correspond to Open and Closed, or ?

I got the solar panels for all of mine. They had been working great for the last 10 months, however since my posting above, I did have an issue with all of them. All 5 ran out of power and died, on the same day. I had to charge them all manually for 24 hours. They still would not work though. I found I had to force exclude them and re-include back into Hubitat. After discussions with iBlinds support, they discovered a bug where if they drop below 5% power, the zwave stops working and you must exclude/include them again. However, they have not been able to answer yet, why they dropped so low, with solar panels attached.

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Thanks for that info. So they never offered any fix or suggestions for the failure of the solar panels? The site currently shows the solar panels as "New!" for some reason - maybe they have made some changes?

Maybe you could ask them to send you some of the new solar panels to see if they work better for you...

For the one I'm going to initially test with in the family room, thinking I'll use a white 90 degree USB cord that can run from the charging plug, run it down the window frame behind the blinds, and since the lower sill of the window is just below the top of our couch I can then run it out under the blinds and down the wall to a 5v/2a USB wall plug behind the couch! Tah-dah. :wink: Full time power w/out having to deal w/the solar panel's potential issues.

For the ones going in the new construction area I'm going to investigate wiring the motors up to full-time 5v/2a power. Not the solar option, but wire them in place. If I can't do that I'd have to use the solar panels for the new windows, as the wife would probably not approve wires running to wall plugs in the new area, as they'd be very difficult to hide.

I just followed the link to the iblinds and I'm intrigued. I want one! (for now)

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Sorry, which ones are you talking about here?
The Soma or the mysmartblinds?

I can't really find on the interwebs that either of those work with or are made by Lutron. But I'm probably missing something.

I have not had any problems with my solar panels, although a couple of mine are shaded and do not charge to 100%. I have never had any drop below 70% or so.
I do not use Google Home, but I do use Alexa. They show up as dimmers, so you can set a level 0-99 for the angle. You can also set which direction is closed. I use the five button picos, with 0, 25, 50, 75, and 99. Works great. Also, the calibration is very good between each blind. Level 50 looks almost identical on each blind. You can also set the angle for what "open" corresponds to.

They have a new model coming out with the 700 series Zwave radio. It shows a few new features. They might be worth the wait.

It's out! :slight_smile: At least avaiable for pre-order, says will ship in November. Just ordered one for testing, and if it works out will get more later for our remodel.

Good idea @danabw . I may have to do just that and ask them to replace the solar panels if they are not charging. I also just saw an email that went out to all, to warn of the potential bug I discovered.

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