How to setup a group of roller blinds / shades

[Locutus]

I have been trying to setup a group of 3 blinds in a bay window configuration and I am stuck. Reading other threads it seems that some have figured this out, but I have been unable to get anything to work. My 3 blinds are using the ZemiSmart Driver and each work fine independently, but as soon as I add them to a group they are simply non responsive either in the device or on a dashboard. I know blinds / shades are not supported "natively" and uses the group dimmer but I am confused as to how anyone has got this to work.

Should the Group Device use the "group Dimmer" Driver?
Should the group use the ZemiSmart driver?
Do I need to create Virtual Shades vs. using the actual shades?
Are there any Group settings that are needed to make them actually respond?

Any help would be much appreciated!

[sburke781]

What app / approach have you been trying to use so far! I would have thought Room Lighting would handle this now? But I could be wrong ..

[kkossev]

I need to finish some tasks already planned/promised and then will dive into the Zigbee Group Messaging .

[Locutus]

My approach has been:

• to create a group called "Office Blinds"
• add my 3 blinds (under "dimmers")
• Add the Group device to a dashboard and try to control it

The blinds are simply unresponsive to any group command.

Apologies for the Newbie question, is Room Lighting an app?

[sburke781]

Yes, are you perhaps using the older groups and scenes app?

[Locutus]

Ok, I tried it using the Room Lighting app...same result. Maybe @kkossev is onto something not working with Zigbee group messaging in the ZemiSmart driver.

[sburke781]

I expect that may be part of it. Let's see what he comes up with. An alternative would be to setup a virtual device of some kind and create a rule to operate each blind at the same time. E.g. You could setup a virtual button device and create a button controller rule to respond to different numbered buttons.

[kkossev]

My understanding for the moment is that controlling a group of Zigbee devices does not depend on the driver.

It is Hubitat platform that sends AddGroup Zigbee command directly to the device - at the time, when the Group is created. The device driver doesn’t matter, but the Zigbee device must support the Zigbee groups commands.

[kkossev]

@Locutus

My approach has been:

• to create a group called "Office Blinds"
• add my 3 blinds (under "dimmers")
• Add the Group device to a dashboard and try to control it

The blinds are simply unresponsive to any group command.

This approach will not work with Zemismart devices, as these are using Tuya specific cluster (0xEF00) for open/close and setPosition control.

Hubitat Groups seems to support only On/Off commands (Cluster 0x0006) and the standard ZCL Level control cluster 0x0008.

So for the Zemismart blinds to work in a group, there must be a dedicated Virtual driver which must be assigned the same Zigbee Group number and this driver should broadcast On/Off SetLevel, etc... commands in Tuya specific format to the same Zigbee group.

At least this is my understanding for the moment.

[Locutus]

Another weird bit of data is that I can control them as a group in my Google Home app (and sometimes voice when GH understands "Office Blinds" not as a store near me for which I am looking Opening Hours ).

[kkossev]

It may work, but this is not a true group, where HE sends broadcast(s) and all the devices in the same ZIgbee Group receive the command at the same time and act at the same time... not controlled simultaneously one by one.

[kkossev]

My successful test was here :

MOES Tuya Smart Knob detection and driver?

I can now use Tuya TS004F rotary knob in a 'dimmer' mode to control a Philips Hue white Zigbee bulb brightness (level control) and switch it on/off, even when my C-7 hub is powered offf ! [image] Unfortunately, when the level is changed directly from the dimmer (using the Zigbee Group broadcast), the HE hub does not receive the changed level and the Group DImmer virtual device does not update the level.. Is it possible to also use the Group Messaging for Color Control (0x030…

[anon47916022]

Would using RL and disabling the ZigBee Group Commands option resolve this? My understanding is that the hub would just send the commands to the individual devices vice trying to use the ZG commands.

EDIT: I had it backwards. You would just want to NOT have this option enabled.

[Locutus]

That suggestion gave me some progress! I disabled Zigbee Group Messaging in the Group and I can now execute a SetLevel on the Device page. Not yet working on the dashboard, but I am getting closer.

[Locutus]

A little more tinkering and I think I am all set...I noticed the following in my logs:

app:52023-04-13 14:31:15.082errorjava.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Command 'setPosition' is not supported by device 34. on line 597 (method dashboardCmd)

app:52023-04-13 14:31:06.323errorjava.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Command 'setPosition' is not supported by device 34. on line 597 (method dashboardCmd)

Then I remembered a post that I saw that one needs to use the Dimmer template on the dashboard and not the Shade template.

Thanks all for the help today, the key was to remove Zigbee Group Messaging and the rest I found from other posters! Awesome community!