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Both the Zigbee and Z-Wave versions of SmartWings are supported with a dedicated driver, our device list seems a bit out of date currently.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)
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).