New Shade Driver? (Somfy ZRTSI Bridge)

alex.argo · October 31, 2019, 6:37am

I've got some z-wave shades(Specifically they are Somfy shades using a Somfy ZRTSI Bridge) that respond to the following Z-wave commands:
1)Up
2)Down
3)Stop (When not moving, this will cause the shade to go to a "Favorite" position, so this is kind of dual function)

Right now I can use the "Generic Z-Wave Shade" Device driver and it exposes "Up" and "Down" functionality. I can also expose the shade to HomeKit and Alexa via MakerAPI and Alexa built in apps.

I really want to be able to also use the "Stop" command to automate going to a "Favorite" position. If I change the driver to use "Generic Z-Wave Dimmer", clicking on "stopLevelChange" in the Hubitat interface, my shade will go the the "Favorite" position. I've tried messing around and have not found a way to expose this to Alexa/Homebridge. Right now, I'm thinking the best way to accomplish this would be to create a driver that does the following:
1)If the dimmer/shade switch is turned off, issue the "Up" command. (Accomplished now just using a generic z-wave switch or shade)
2)If the dimmer/shade switch is turned on, issue the "Down" command. (Accomplished now just using a generic z-wave switch or shade)
3)Dimmer/shade position is set to between 30% open and 60%, don't issue an "Up" or "Down" command, send a "stopLevelChange" message.

Is a new driver the way to go about this? I can't find a way in RuleMachine to issue the "stopLevelChange" command, otherwise I'd try and go that route. Is it possible someone has a Z-wave dimmer or z-wave shade source that I could start with and modify?

kharrison · January 15, 2020, 2:51am

I was trying to get the favorite position to work as well, and found a solution.

I used this device handler that was developed for SmartThings and replaced "physicalgraph" with "hubitat" and it works. Dim to 50% and it moves your shades to the my/favorite position.

github.com

imnotbob/somfy-shades/blob/master/devicetypes/imnotbob/somfy-shades.src/somfy-shades.groovy

/**
 * 
 * https://community.smartthings.com/t/my-somfy-smartthings-integration/13492
 * Modified ERS 12/29/2016
 *
 * Version 1.0.7
 *
 * Version History
 *
 * 1.0.7    26 Mar 2017		Few updates  (be sure to go into each device, select settings (gear), and hit done
 * 1.0.6    29 Dec 2016		Health Check
 * 1.0.5    01 May 2016		bug fixes
 * 1.0.4    01 May 2016		Sync commands for cases where blinds respond to multiple channels (all vs. single)
 * 1.0.3    17 Apr 2016		Expanded runIn timer for movement and  completed states
 * 1.0.2    04 Apr 2016		Added runIn timer for movement vs. completed states
 * 1.0.1    07 Mar 2016		Add Blinds support by edit device to set to blinds type
 * 1.0.0    24 Feb 2016		Multi-tile, Window Shade Capability, Device Handler attempts to maintain state
 *
 * Notes:
 *

This file has been truncated. show original

Eric.C.Miller · January 15, 2020, 1:41pm

Can you not do a Set Position to put the shade in your favorite position?

nkyspike · January 15, 2020, 2:14pm

@Eric.C.Miller

No, at least not for me.

I had three of the Home Depot 2" tilt blinds retrofitted with Somfy tilt motors, using the Somfy ZRTSI Bridge. When I had everything connected to SmartThings, I was able to tilt the blinds in any position I wanted using the device dimmer setting in the ST app.

But once I set everything up in Hubitat using the Somfy ZRTSI Bridge, I was only able to turn the blinds 180 degrees to the right or to the left. I was never able to have the blinds stop at 50%, which would have been considered open for viewing.

I made a video about it 6 months ago asking for help with a driver for the Somfy ZRTSI Bridge, but no one had an answer.

Eric.C.Miller · January 15, 2020, 3:43pm

I understand. I have the cellular shades so Set Position refers to vertical travel. I don't have any blinds (automated or otherwise).

kharrison · January 16, 2020, 2:23am

The ZRTSI that I have only supports three positions: fully open, closed or a single preset, I never could find a way in the generic z-wave shade driver to make it go to the preset. But with this driver, dimming to 50% (e.g. "Alexa set dining room shades 50%") moves them to the preset.

kharrison · January 16, 2020, 3:23pm

@nkyspike Have you tried setting the upper limit of your blinds so that they will only open to 50%? I have 3 of those Somfy retrofit motors on 2" blinds, they are setup this way. So when "fully open" they are actually at 50%. I never had a need for the preset on blinds, but I do use it on shades.

nkyspike · January 17, 2020, 12:35pm

@kharrison

No. That never crossed my mind. I was so use to how it was setup and working fine in ST. I was expecting just to add it to Hubitat and have it working. That would have save me a lot of headaches, and money.

About two months after my post back in July, someone mention about using the Somfy MyLink to control my ZRTSI Bridge with Hubitat via IFTTT.
It worked about half the time, other times it would take 20 to 40 minutes before IFTTT would send the command to close the blinds.

About 2 months ago I gave up on using the Somfy tilt motors and ZRTSI Bridge, plus the Somfy MyLink, have all of it sitting in a box in my basement.

I replaced all three with the iBlinds Z-Wave tilt motor kit, with Solar panel. So far everything has been working great.

I've been wanting to move away from the ZRTSI Bridge for a long while anyway. When I was first started looking for the ZRTSI Bridge about 4 yrs ago, everybody wanted around $250 for them. I was lucky enough to find an online site had it for sale for a total or $89. I always worried about it failing on me and having to replace it.

lsochia · May 11, 2020, 6:31pm

Really would like some help with troubleshooting.

I have the same shades as mentioned in this thread. I have 7 total windows that I am utilizing this driver on. All of the shades seem to have random problems, they sometimes move just a little bit when I send the open or close command, not all the shades, sometimes only one shade has this problem and sometimes a few more.

I have been playing with the script a bit trying to track down this error and figure out how I could solve this problem. I have run into a bit of a snag and I think it is the root cause of the problem.

Here is my log file, any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. The error is the last line in the file (bolded). I have purchased a Smart Things Hub, since I know these work on that Hub, but I really would like to solve this problem with Hubitat and not have to use another hub just for my blinds.

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:45.016 am debugzwaveEvent( SwitchMultilevelReport(value:13) ) returned []

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:45.007 am debugReported state is neither open or closed; device is on 100

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:44.746 am debugin on loop

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:44.659 am traceSwitchMultilevelReport cmd.value: 13

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:43.110 am debuglevel.inspect 100

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:43.095 am tracesetLevel(level) {100}

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:43.090 am traceon() treated as open()

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:40.159 am tracerefresh()

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:35.044 am debugzwaveEvent( BasicReport(value:13) ) returned []

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:30.077 am debuglevel.inspect 0

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:30.073 am tracesetLevel(level) {0}

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:30.068 am traceoff() treated as close()

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:29.018 am tracerefresh()

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:28.865 am debugzwaveEvent( BasicReport(value:13) ) returned []

dev:10582020-05-11 11:23:25.168 am errorgroovy.lang.MissingMethodException: No signature of method: user_driver_E_Sch_Somfy_Z_Wave_Shades_and_Blinds_Multi_tile_321.parse() is applicable for argument types: (hubitat.zwave.commands.batteryv1.BatteryReport) values: [BatteryReport(batteryLevel:0)]

augoisms · May 12, 2020, 1:09am

Do you have your blinds directly paired with Hubitat? The driver above is for a ZRTSI hub, not Somfy Z-Wave shades (there may be overlap in commands however). Specifically, the error says that a parse method for a battery report does not exist. A ZRTSI wouldn’t send this as it’s not a battery powered device.

lsochia · May 12, 2020, 1:38am

Yes I do have it paired directly to the shade. I have tried all the drivers even the generic shade driver and they all seem to have this problem. Not exactly the same error though. I was hoping to modify this script to suit my devices.

At the top of the script I am currently able to catch the shade in the middle of the fault. But it will not accept any commands from the script because it keeps throwing the same error. I was hoping to send a command that could clear the error and have it try again.

The modification I made catches the script at the point that it reports "Reported state is neither open or closed; device is on 100" at this point I am able to send the device another command, however, the commands are just ignored and instead the error just keeps being reported. unfortunately, the script just gets stuck in this endless loop.

Is there a way to clear this error and continue forward? If so I think I can get this driver to work with no issues.

This has been a problem since the day I purchased Hubitat. I previously had all my blinds on Wink, and was waiting to see if Hubitat would put out a update to correct this, so I did have one shade on Hubitat and would always try after each update to see if it was corrected. Wink made a bad business move and this weekend I moved all my devices over to Hubitat and having been struggling to try and come up with a solution. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I just need to be pointed in the right direction. Like I said I did purchase SmartThings but I really don't want to put that to use if I don't have to.

Thanks for any help or suggestions,

lsochia · May 12, 2020, 1:48am

Forgot to let you know that I have tried a generic dimmer and also other options within the device list, all with no success. They all sporadically have this problem with stopping just a little before opening or closing, and they all seem to throw a very similar error.

augoisms · May 12, 2020, 1:50pm

You might try porting this ST driver. It was written for Somfy Z-Wave shades and has a battery report parse method.

ST-Z-Wave-Shade/zwave-shade.groovy at master · ericvitale/ST-Z-Wave-Shade · GitHub

lsochia · May 12, 2020, 4:08pm

Thank you. I will give this a try.

672southmain · June 13, 2020, 1:16am

If the problem is only with one shade, you may need a Somfy repeater (#1810791) because the Somfy transmitters only seem to have a range of about 35 feet or so. We’ve got 7 Somfy Glydea drapes with RTS motors, and I had to get a bunch of Somfy RTS repeaters & sprinkle them around the house to make the drapes operate reliably. You can usually find them on eBay for between $100 and $200 (USD).

jchurch · June 13, 2020, 2:50am

Interesting. I have 11 Somfy RTS blinds and I just use a single Bondhome.io hub to control the lot no repeaters at all. Is it possible the Somfy Bridge is just weak?

augoisms · June 13, 2020, 2:51am

There was a review on Amazon where someone mentioned drilling a hole in the ZRTSI and pulling the antennas through. They said it solved all their range woes.

yashvind · June 23, 2020, 12:31am

I have the same issue. See this thread if you want to use the driver that I am using. Doesn't fully resolve the issue, but better than the out of the box shade driver - Moving from Wink - Shade Woes in Hubitat. Help!

dennypage · June 24, 2020, 3:03pm

FWIW, I have a ZRTSII driver I released which tracks position. It can be found here.

supergolfstick · October 29, 2020, 6:38pm

this driver works really well with the ZRTSII. I have homeseer as my current platform and the only thing that I found that would make the "MY" set position trigger was when a value command of "1255" was sent via ZWAVE command that triggered that event. Is there anyway this driver could be modified to support the "MY" position? I know the ST DH's could not do this, but I do have this working on Homeseer as a command. Example. Send "0" for closed, "255" for open" and then 1255 for "MY" position.

Thanks again for the great work, but your thoughts and feedback are greatly appreciated