I would like to know if anyone can confirm or give me their experience(s) with SmartWings Motorized Blackout 'Levitate' Cellular Shades Nowa with my Hubitat C8-Pro Hub, with and without Smartwings' newest matter thread motor option. I really like Smartwings 'Levitate' brand for the 'top/bottom' 'up/down' dual functionality of their Levitate blackout cellular shades, but that might not be my only option to consider for blackout cellular top/bottom movable shades. The Hubitat 'List of Compatible Devices' specifies HE compatible with 'SmartWings Matter Shade' but does not specifically note the 'Levitate' brand that has the dual top/bottom up/down functionality.
Smartwings 'Levitate' brand' options for remote automation motor control are:
Smartwing's standard motor which can only be controlled via their remote. To achieve smart control, one needs to purchase Smartwings Smart Link Pro pictured below for integration/automation. Smartwings lists SmartThings, Alexa and IFTTT on their graphic so I am guessing that there is a HE supported/user developed compatible driver to connect and control, but the HE driver would have to allow the dual top/bottom up/down controls I desire, not just bottom shade control. The SmartLinkPro is $149 which I wonder why I need this device since I have a Hubitat Hub with Zigbee/Z-Wave/Matter? Is the Smart Link Pro which is ethernet connected SmartLinkPro like a 'bond' IR bridge or bluetooth controller? If you have one of these Smart Link Pro devices, please comment below.
Smartwing's Levitate brand latest 'matter over thread' motor option. As I understand it, from talking with Smartwings technical support, the current 1st generation Levitate 'matter' motor is only ready for integration with:
Apple: (Compatible devices include the HomePod (2nd generation), HomePod mini, and Apple TV 4K (2nd generation/3rd generation 128 GB). HomePod (1st generation) and Apple TV (1st generation) do not support these matter motors.)
Amazon: A 2024 Echo Hub, Echo Plus 2nd Gen, Echo Show 2nd Gen, Echo Studio, Echo Show 10, Echo 4th Gen (the spec of the Echo has to have a built-in Zigbee module). as a primary controller. I inquired about why Hubitat with matter compatibility would not be an option for direct connection, but it seemed like Levitate's 1st gen matter motor might not have the full compatibility for Hubitat to act as a primary controller and/or have the ability to have the dual top/bottom control. Smartwings said they had not tested on Hubitat.
I have read through many of the Hubitat Community threads on Smartwings and HE matter and I still get different opinions from whether or not Hubitat could control the dual top/bottom Levitate shades using their matter motor.
If there are other purchasing options for controlling dual control cellular blackout shades from Hubitat, please let me know.
It appears that Smartwings matter is HE compatible according to the 'List of Compatible Devices' with 'SmartWings Matter Shade' but the 'List of Compatible Devices' does not specifically note the 'Levitate' brand that has the dual top/bottom up/down functionality. Smartwings has several brands and I don't know if all their models are "HE Matter Compatible".
Thank you for helping and appreciate all you create and support for home automation!
I have one of the smartwings cellular shades that you speak of. At present Hubitat does not have a standard driver that supports two motors, but there is a workaround. More importantly for me, I am having connection problems between Hubitat and my thread border router, the Alexa echo 4th edition. It may be fine with a different thread border router.
I was beginning to think I was the only Smartwings "potential' user of the matter motors.
I saw your other Hubitat Community thread where you are getting help from others about connecting your matter shades using a workaround driver with separate child devices for dual control. I read that you are currently only using Alexa for routines since the Alexa → Hubitat seems to be missing currently.
A Few Questions:
Can you re-confirm that you purchased the SmartWings Motorized Blackout Levitate Cellular Shades Nowa which has two motors? Reason why I ask is that Smartwings support stated that not all their brands have the same matter motors with different firmware. This 'Levitate' brand of dual motor cellular shades with their matter motor is very new (1-2 weeks) according to Smartwings technical support staff . They recommended that I wait a few more months till another matter firmware version is released for better integration with Hubitat.
After my Smartwings purchase, which I am waiting a month or so to see what feedback I get from you, others or Hubitat Support, I guess I will have to either:
Use my Apple iPhone 13 with matter support in iOS 16 or later to scan the Smartwings matter setup code on each motor and iOS will return a pairing code and provision the accessory onto Wi-Fi or Thread. I can then proceed to set up its administrator fabric on the accessory via IP using the pairing code.
Yes, I have the Nowa Levitate shade with 2 motors. For now I only have a single shade, but it is working well enough that I will be buying 5 more very soon. I only bought the one to try it out. I find the matter/thread information online to be incomplete, confusing and contradictory.
You need a thread border router to connect with your shade. I am using an Amazon Alexa Echo 4th Edition. Other devices are also possible, but I have no experience with those. You use your phone to guide the connection process, but you cannot connect without a thread border router.
I bought a brand new Alexa. The connection process was very frustrating. It appears to be straight forward, but the smartwings would not connect for about 18 hours. Then, voila, it worked. There is no way to see what is going on or why it isn’t connecting, and no detailed error information. Others online have complained of the same thing, and others have suspected that the problem is some sort of software update issue with the new Alexa. I cannot confirm that.
I was able to connect Hubitat with the shades. But several hours later Hubitat disconnected. I fought with this problem for a few hours, trying various device reboots, driver changes, device reinstalls, etc and nothing has worked for me to restore the connection. I moved my control routines into Alexa, and it is working fine. I will not get back to this for awhile. I think Hubitat and/or Alexa need some time to clean up some software things before I’m willing to put more time into this.
So, in summary, I think the shades are fine, and they work with Alexa, but for now Alexa and Hubitat are not playing nice with each other.
I wish you the best of luck that the Smartwings → HE connection comes back. Certainly one can do some basic home automation and scheduling of the shades with Alex, but not having the HE integration is a deal breaker for me now.
You are on the bleeding edge. I had a gut feeling that 'matter using thread' would not be a as much of a smooth integration as the multiple announcements we read from the various providers of the architecture into their devices/routers. It will get better after a few generations of updates.
I do like the idea that at some point in the future, matter over thread will eventually replace the clunkiness of Z-Wave and Zigbee protocols, device drivers, etc. But for now, those are 'true & tested' household protocols that are working seemlessly in my 100+ device large household.
I would have elected for Zigbee or Z-Wave shades, but I like the dual motors of the 'Levitate' brand blinds and matter over thread is the only option that allows some option of home automation with that manufacturer. I will need a separate thread border router as you pointed out, which I'am not convinced that Amazon Echo or Apple Home is the way for me to go. Amazon's Echos are a closed device for troubleshooting/debugging and Amazon Technical support is less than minimal for matter over thread.
I am going to delay this window shade endeaver for the bedroom 3 windows until a clear winner emerges in the matter powered cellular dual motor shades and the 'thread border router' areas. I think that HE matter will be robust enough to integrate with matter, especially as more of their customer base starts purchasing matter enabled devices.
Again, thanks for your willingness to share your experiences and go before so many of us that are watching through your trials.
I just picked up one of these shades, with a zwave motor, which I think might be a new option. Probably yelling into the void, but would love a zwave driver to handle the two motors. From my little understanding of zwave, looks like it’s been implemented as a multichannel device
I have a little experience, I have some of the SmartWing Roller Shades and just installed the first Levitate we ordered for the rest of the house. both are Z-Wave. The Roller Shades integrated and worked great directly with Hubitat. I didnt put too much thought, but right out of the gate, the Levitate are not working as cleanly. They integrate directly, but open opens it completely (both the lower and higher bars). This is not going to work, hoping a fix will come to work with the multichannel. Overall love the shades, reasonable price, solid quality. Happy with them, just hoping they all integrate and operate as planned.
Anyone have any experience with the Smartwings Smart Link Pro? Very happy with the shades (Levitate) overall (significant other very happy as well), but currently having to "manually" make all adjustments besides open. And manually meaning with the remote. Close just sets both the upper and lower limits to their lowest set position, basically open....
FYI, the standard Smartwings Roller Shades work well, open, close, set postion, etc.
Was curious if the Smart Link Pro would allow me to setup automations that Hubitat could communicate to the Smart Link Pro to set the blinds at certain levels based automations.
I anticipate a driver that would be able to automate the dual motor blinds at some point, but I get impatient with the new toy.
I am still waiting for the Hubitat integration that will seamlessly automate the dual motor blinds to a set bottom position that is hard set for my bedroom windows.
I broke down and got the Smart Link Pro. It is so so, but I am able to create Scenes that then can be controlled with IFTTT. I am able to keep my applets under 2 since Habitat is able to open all the shades natively, just have to control when I want to close them. With being able to group them as a scene, can get the shades closed all into one applet. Will have one more to be able to setup some trigger to set the 'favorite' scene where they are closed but open at the top for privacy. So far very happy with the Smartwings. Sounds like they are working on getting a driver to natively control them in Hubitat, but couldn't give a date.
In the Connector (Smart Link Pro app) you can also just create timers, so they can close, open to adjust based upon timer if you do not need to direct connection to Hubitat.
Thanks for the update @artshaneadrian . Sounds like this is working as you desire. I'm still holding out to their commitment to create/support a Hubitat driver natively as I expect you are as well!
As far as I can tell, there are no Hubitat drivers, for any SmartWings motor/protocol, which can control the Levitate/Nowa's two independent motors. Like artshaneadrian experienced, a driver meant for a single motor isn't going to know what to do with the dual motors.
I think where the Smart Link Pro or the less-expensive Smart Link come in for us is that it does speak dual-motor-ese, so we can use it as a stopgap that provides scheduling and voice control until the applicable Hubitat driver supports dual motors.
I have decoded many WiFi protocols in the past to integrate into Hubitat (eg. Balboa Spa, Tuya Smart Life, Ambient Weather Stations, etc) and it's no picnic when they use private device encryption keys. I'm confident that I can sniff the control protocol that the Smart Link Pro send/receives from the phone, but I really want to wait for the blind manufacturer to provide a Hubitat driver, since they supposedly support SmartThings and Alexa.
As a note, I dislike using Alexa for control from Hubitat, since I bet that their Alexa skill can only Open/Close the dual motor shades and does not offer separate dual motor commands. Their mobile app does have this dual motor capability from what I read on their website. But that only allows one to use their app's sunrise/sunset automations or maybe Apple Shortcuts for fine motor control.
I'm in the same boat hoping SmartWings (or a bored developer lol) creates a SmartWings dual-motor z-wave driver. Until then, I ordered the Smart Link (oh yay, another hub ).
If anyone has the double shades paired to HE via Matter, assign the inbuilt ‘Device’ driver, click on the ‘Get Info’ button and then post a screenshot of the fingerprints that should show in the live logs.
I was wrong... I tried it, and it can't control the dual motors either. It just uses the stupid "Smart Life" app with a generic shade integration. So... What--there just isn't actually any smart home integration for the Levitate (or possibly other dual-motor) shades?
I'm starting to feel like I got sold a product that doesn't actually exist.
I have mine integrated into Home Assistant with zwave-js. But it does require a separate zwave dongle and network.
It mostly works, but there are some oddities in how reports position updates (position updates go to the multi-level switch command class instead of window covering command class). Open/close is also a tad wonky, but open and close is kind of arbitrary in a TDBU shade.
I'm not familiar with "zwave-js," but its generic name makes it sound like a library you use to write your own code. And that's definitely not how SmartWings marketed the product to me, LOL.
SmartWings Support pointed me at this SmartWings Day/Night Shades driver, but after installing it, I'm not seeing any new device types. There's no instructions in the github repo and I can't find anything Googling either, so I'm waiting on SmartWings Support for advice on how to use it. (I'm really new to both Hubitat and Z-Wave.)
Honestly kinda miffed at SmartWings--when I spend a few hundred dollars per window on "smart" blinds, it doesn't mean "blinds that only get smart after a lot of fiddling with third-party beta code on your end." It means there is at least one out-of-the-box smart solution, which the manufacturer provides, that most people can use without having to contact Support or go down a forum rabbit-hole. Or am I crazy?
It’s the service you run alongside HA to bring in zwave devices to that platform. It’s got its own web ui to join devices.
To be fair, their website does state that these shades only support home assistant right now with testing underway on other platforms (hubitat included). It’s on the image when toy pick the zwave motor. So personally I knew what I was getting into.
I’ve been overall pretty happy with their support and response times, so really no complaints from me.
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