Hi everyone, I recently moved and am looking to install some automated cellular blinds. I've found Smart WIngs, iBlinds, Lutron and others. I found posts that say the Lutron units are the best but I don't want to spend that much money.
I have not seen any posts about SmartWings. They have both Zigbee and ZWave cordless motors. The ZWave motor calls out that it is Hubitat compatible but I don't see it on the list of drivers under shade controls. Does it use the generic driver? Does the generic driver allow for multiple positioning (for example, open halfway)?
Graber has a specific driver and I see that as a plus and dedicated to the ZWave platform. Any feedback on these?
I found a post that says Bali is made by the same company as Graber and they are at HomeDepot and other outlets. Are they as in fact the same? Can I get the ZWave motors at a big box store too or direct from Bali?
Anything else I should know about automated blinds?
I just installed ThirdReality blinds. I have had an issue where a blind sometimes looses it's closed position reference making any future commands to % open wrong. I have created a routine to auto reset the open closed reference but have not had to try it since creating it.
As for the blinds; easy to install, very quite, sold in one inch wide increments, fixed 72 inch length, 4AA batteries plus two for IR remote. Remote is not keyed to a particular blind but have only used it for manual operations so you can get close and have a single blind react.
EDIT 9/7/23: I have not had any further problems with the blinds loosing there closed position reference.
Both the Zigbee and Z-Wave versions of SmartWings are supported with a dedicated driver, our device list seems a bit out of date currently.
All the shade drivers we publish support positions of 0 (closed) to 100% (full open)
I've personally owned Caseté cellular (big bucks), Radio RA2 Sivoia (mega bucks) and SmartWings Zigbee (not big bucks)
SmartWings rollers are not as quiet as Sivoia rollers, but they're also one third the price...
All the Lutron products move uniformly, meaning controlling them as a group they travel at the same rate.
Zigbee and Zwave controlled shades don't offer this.
quick clarification: can they be set to points between closed (0) and open (100)? For example, can I set a rule to open them halfway in the morning, all the way open at 2 PM, and then close at sunset?
There are a couple Smartwings posts around. I have 8 zigbee shades I control with webCoRE. I use the community driver linked there, but there is a built-in driver now. I don't think the built-in driver allows the setLevel command (which would allow you to add them as lighting groups), so I use the community one. I think the Hubitat peeps are working on a way to group blinds, but I don't know for sure. It works for me like this, so no big deal either way.
I do have a couple that I don't open all the way. I think some look better at 15% rather than all the way open. I set them to go open/15% at 30 minutes before sunrise and closed 30 minutes after sunset (only if the corresponding window is closed).
