Neo Smart Controller for blinds

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For anybody encountering this same issue, I has success by removing the blinds from the scenes (as dimmers), and added them to the RM rule that activates that scene instead, as shades, not dimmers - as shades aren't an option on the scene builder.

The issue could be something to do with the 0-100 value, rather than the open/close option that is inconsistent. The open/close buttons on my dashboard worked, while the dimmer automations did sometimes only.

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I'm having some trouble with intermittent responsiveness of the blinds. I have some schedules set up that open/ close the blinds on a schedule.
Occasionally one of the blinds doesnt respond to this command and stays open/closed while the others in the room obey the trigger.
Im in the process of moving these scheduling rules to hubitat (from the app) after finding this driver, but am wondering if this driver has the ability to report closed/open state of the device?

I.e. if hubitat transmits the trigger and the blind doesnt recieve it will it still say that the open command happened?

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I occasionally also suffer from a blind not opening... and have to dig out the remote to open them (not a big deal). I wonder if it’s related to commands being sent in quick succession to the Neo hub that it struggles and one gets missed.

In RM, I use the “Raise Shades” command and issue it the name of each shade (comma separated). I guess I could issue each “Raise Shades” command and add a small delay in between each one which should fix it.

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I recently had some blinds installed that use the Neo Smart Controller. Inside the Neo app on the phone I have two favorite positions. How easy would it be to add that to this driver?

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I'm receiving an error when I try to set this up. The blinds are not responding. Can anyone help me track this issue down?

dev:2022022-05-15 01:21:29.373 pm warnCall to http://192.168.100.246:8838/neo/v1/transmit?command=167.125-15-md&id=b_GTuM4CWASIOmKYzXqp0A&hash=8885277 failed: Connect to 192.168.100.246:8838 [/192.168.100.246] failed: connect timed out

dev:2022022-05-15 01:21:24.358 pm debugCall to http://192.168.100.246:8838/neo/v1/transmit?command=167.125-15-md&id=b_GTuM4CWASIOmKYzXqp0A&hash=8885277; setting partially open

dev:2022022-05-15 01:21:24.354 pm debugSending startLevel Change down GET request to http://192.168.100.246:8838/neo/v1/transmit?command=167.125-15-md&id=b_GTuM4CWASIOmKYzXqp0A&hash=8885277

dev:2022022-05-15 01:21:24.350 pm debugUsing 8885277

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The Comfortex Blinds I'm getting apparently use this controller. I'm trying to decide if I should use the NeoController or the Bond Bridge.

If you have your blinds connected to HE and set on an automation (ie close at x time) and someone uses the remote to close them at x-1 hour, what happens at x time? Based on @brianwilson's post abvoe, specifically:

Another assumption is that you can only use the Hubitat driver to open/close your blinds. If you use the Neo App or remote control, then Hubitat won't know where your blinds are since you can't query the blinds and ask them "are you up or down". The fix is to call open/close/favorite (I'd say favorite because chances are this is in the middle), wait however long it takes to get to favorite, THEN call your specific level/position.

  1. Does this mean the Neocontroller also does not know/cannot keep track of where the blinds are if you controlled them via the remote (or the app)? ie commands from the app or the remote don't get shared with the Neocontroller?

  2. Is the solution that whenever you want to either open or close the blinds, you first send a command for them to go to favorite (or 50%), then to go to open or close? What happens if they already are at favorite when the command is sent?

  3. a. If the NeoController does not facilitate two way communication, is there than any advantage to using the Neocontroller over using the Bond?
    b. Could I implement your same suggestion about sending blinds to favorite first in the Bond app?

  4. Does this Integration for HE work for TDBU cellular shades?

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I don't think Bond or this integration would know where the blind is, but I don't know this for sure.

  1. I don't believe the Neocontroller knows where they are. I have a remote that doesn't use Neo controller and just uses RF. The blinds are "dumb" so if you use the RF remote, to raise them, then the HE integration doesn't know where they are.

  2. I only control them via HE (which is connected to Alexa, Lutron buttons, Hugo Wifi button remote).

  3. I don't think there would be any difference. Never used the Bond app or have a Bond.

  4. Assume so?

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Coming back to update this post. I got the Comfortex blinds and they work well with the Bond Integration. See more details at:Advice on automated blinds - #38 by calinatl
To answer my own questions:

  1. Don't know about the NeoSmart because I went with the Bond. The commands from the remote don't get shared with HE, but it does not matter. See link above.
  2. This complicated solution is unnecessary. I just set the blinds to open or close at the times I want. If someone grabbed the remote and put the blinds to desired different setting prior to the HE automation, the HE sends the command, but nothing happens because the blinds are already where they are supposed to be. If someone halfway closed a blind, the HE would fully close the blind. While the solution proposed seems like it would theoretically work, as of this writing, the HE / Bond Integration does not yet transfer either the Bond Preset/Favorite or the Stop commands to the HE, so you can't yet write automations involving those.
  3. a. Cannot completely answer this as I did not try the NeoController, but so far I don't think there is any advantage.
    b. As of this writing the official HE Bond integration does not yet support favorites, so no. I understand this may be possible with the community written Bond Integration, but I'm waiting for the official one to support favorites.
  4. YES to the HE integration for Bond, with some caveats:
    a. I have to set up the top and bottom rails as separate blinds. There is no native support in Bond for TDBU, thus there is nothing in HE. The only impact this has is you can't program the top and bottom rail simultaneous movement as a single action - you have to program it as two separate actions, which you can program to occur simultaneously.
    b. The naming in Bond and HE for the blinds is "Open" and "Closed" where open corresponds with the rail up, and closed corresponds with the rail down. With TDBU it is not that simple. Bottom rail down, top rail up = "Closed", and Open can either be Top rail up, bottom rail up, or top rail down, bottom rail down. You need to keep this in mind when programming and make the appropriate translation in your head to get each rail in the position you want at the time you want.

Other: The Comfortex RF remote will micro move the rail if you just press and release the button. If you want the rail to continue, you have to press and hold the button. Bond supposedly has a pairing for this type of remote, so I selected that option. But even then, the shade is only about 60% responsive for automations launched from the Bond app (ie anything using the preset/favorite since HE does not yet support that). HOWEVER, for an automations launched from HE (ie anything that fully raises or lowers either the rails), I found that sending the same command three times, each 1/4 second after the previous, executes the automation flawlessly.

Hope the above helps someone else. I spent hours seeking affordable TDBU small profile blackout cellular shades wider than 90" that I could automate using HE. I bought from Blinds Express and it was a great experience (don't work for them, just a happy customer). The top rail is only 1.5" tall, and with the addition of the Bond, I'm connected to HE.

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I just got a Bond hub to mess with. Can you tell me which device type you selected under shades to get it working?

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Will have to look it up.
I remember it was VERY difficult. It will not "Learn" the comfortex remote. But there is some device in there with a frequency the same as printed on the back of the Comfortex, and that works. The key is to select one that Bond has programmed to do long presses.

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I found this which looks like it may work: Select Blinds - Classic Roman Shades [Bofu BF-305] - #49 by merck - Shades & Blinds - Bond Home Forum

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I just wanted to reply confirming compatibility between @brianwilson's driver at https://github.com/bdwilson/hubitat/tree/master/NeoSmart and Neosmart's C-BR300 since my earlier searched turned out empty. I got the controller from Amazon at GoSmartBlinds.

One thing to make sure is to copy/paste controller id from the app since it uses a mix of upper/lower case letters with an hard to distinguish font. Also in this case, the controller id is only 22 digits but it still works.

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