(Resolved) Moving from Wink - Bali/Somfy Shade Woes in Hubitat. Help!

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Updated @ 17-Aug-2020

This snippet is to describe how I achieved the resolution for my Bali blinds issue. For a detailed explanation of various issues that I was facing with these blinds, please read the OP further below in this post.

First things first - I must thank @ZebraBlinds, who is the one that ultimately helped me to get to the final resolution.

Root Cause: The root cause of the issue the firmware version. You need to be on f/w version 11.3 or higher to resolve all the issues. (See this for additional explanation). If you call 'Spring Fashions', the owner/parent company of Bali/Graber - depending on who you get on the support line, you may get jargon such as 'there is no firmware upgrade', or 'what firmware,' or 'there is no firmware for these blinds at all' or 'we do not support anything else but our own Graber wave hub, buy that'....... So please don't waste time with them. I think I wasted enough on of mine on everyone's behalf!

How to check f/w version: You will need to download a custom 'Z-Wave-Firmware-Updater' driver. Here is the link to the repo & instructions. This driver will help you to check both your firmware version and also update the firmware version. You will need to install this as a custom driver. Once the driver is loaded for your shade in its device page (Hubitat -> Devices -> Your Shade page), you can use 'Get Version Report' to get the Firmware version. It may take some time, so be patient.

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Unfortunately, I cannot go into too much detail on how I obtained the updated firmware except to tell you to reach out to @ZebraBlinds. My issue was fixed with their help.

After my own Update: I have been using default Generic Z-Wave Shade Driver since the upgrade. Outside of 2-3 misfires on 11 blinds that I have updated, it has been stable.

How to update the f/w: Once you have acquired the updated firmware, host that file somewhere (I hosted it on my GitHub), and then provide that location as a URL path in the 'Z-Wave-Firmware-Updater'.

Important: Remember to append "?raw=true" at the end of the file path, if hosting it on the GitHub, to provide the raw path to make firmware file readable by the 'Z-Wave-Firmware-Updater' driver

Original Post

Hello all,

First of all my apologies of a rather lengthy message but I needed to provide the full picture because some things are working and others are not.

Also, thanks in advance for all your help!

I am transitioning off of Wink. So far, I have been loving the move. The level of control that the Rule Machine provides is currently unparalleled, and support in this community is second to none.

First, I moved 40+ Lights (all Lutron) and Ecobees. No issues! The next big planned move was Shades, which besides lights, is the primary use case that we have for automation. Things started becoming rough, when it came to shades. I moved first half of my shades w/o any big issue (at least exclusion from Wink and inclusion in HE was easy).

Shade Type: Bali Autoview (Somfy motor)
Driver Used: Generic Z-Wave Shade

The following are mainly our objectives for Shades (a point to note is that all of these use cases were working in Wink).

Use Case 1: Open Shades 50% in the morning (Implemented using Rule engine)
Use Case 2: Close Shades entirely at night time (Implemented using Rule engine)
Use Case 3: Use Alexa voice commands to Open ALL Shades to 50% on an ad-hoc basis. (Yet to figure it out)
Use Case 4: Use Alexa voice command to Close ALL shades on an ad-hoc basis. (Yet to figure it out)
Use Case 5: Close Shades when we are away (Yet to write the Rule)

Issues with UC1:

  • Shades open but erratically, some open at 50% and some stop at other random position (see the picture)
  • With Wink they all opened in almost unison w/o much delay between the shades, but with HE, they almost open at different times and sometimes 10-15 seconds apart

Issues with UC2:

  • Same issues as with UC 1, but the delay b/w these shades moving is more prolonged. Essentially no unison at all.
  • but additionally several shades don't close at all
  • If now I try to close them manually, they seem to have a mind of their own, and it's a struggle to close them by using the corresponding shade tile (see the linkified video) or even if I try to go to the device & set the position manually. Note: apologies for a lengthy video, but once you have seen at least 2 mins of it, you will get an of the issue. I can also share logs if needed.

Issue with UC3: Haven't really figured a way how to group shades together because groups don't allow shade devices. Looking for tips/suggestions on how work group of shades with Alexa.

Issue with UC4: Same issue as UC3

Additional relevant points.

  • My Wink hub was about 20 feet from these blinds, but HE is in my office (since that is where my router & switch are), which adds another 15 feet. But as suggested by many in several posts on this forum, as part of my migration off of Wink plan, the first thing I had done right after setting up HE hub was to install a repeater in between the location of the HE hub and most of these blinds. Only then I started adding lights and then eventually got to shades. So, I am not assuming it is not a Z-wave distance issue.
  • I have tried to repair my Z-wave at least once thinking that may at least help with whole delay thing. But no change
  • My Wink hub is still up & running 'cos I have few other things yet to migrate. Not sure if there is any z-wave network conflict issue.
3 Likes
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I think you could be getting the popcorn effect in your blinds. Look up @Cobra 's apps. He might have one to help with this issue. BUT ...
Get that wink hub turned off. Then repair your network. They run on the same frequency for zwave because zwave has it's own frequency. No channels. So .. yah .. move the rest of your stuff. Then get that hub turned off just to eliminate the possibility of that possibly being the possible issue. :grin:
Then you can assess your mesh correctly. Repeaters are good if you don't have a lot of zwave devices. The HE mesh likes a robust network, so .. yah ... that wink hub. OFF

2 Likes
3

You didn't show us the rules that are running the blinds. Or logs of what happens while you are operating the blinds. Are you using a button or just time of day to determine when the blinds should do something?

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@yashvind
Is there a status on this?

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I am going to give everything a try tomorrow. Essentially, now the plan is to move everything off of Wink & decommission that Hub. Still have 25+ Devices on there, so I will need some dedicated time tomorrow. Will report back once done.

2 Likes
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I’ll share rules and logs both tomorrow once I have shut down the wink completely

2 Likes
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@april.brandt @neonturbo
I moved everything from Wink to HE yesterday and unplugged Wink. And then repaired the network. At the night time, when one rule for Use case 2 ran (taking shades from 50 % to 'closed' position), the issue continued i.e. that shades didn't close. A point to note though is that, the network was still repairing. I had then manually struggle to get the blinds to closed position.

This morning rule for UC1 ran (see at 7:30am in the attached logs), and it seem to have worked as intended i.e. from closed position, it had opened the blinds to 52% position as intended. It was joyous moment indeed when I came down & saw it. I then tried to test to see if I tried to trigger rule tied to UC3 manually, if the blinds will close down (see logs around 8:24am), alas it didn't. The blinds came down a few position notches haphazardly and then stalled w/o closing it what the UC2 rule should have done. I then ran the rule for UC1, that did take the blinds back to position 52% as intended. It did dance a few times and shades didn't again work in unison but were randomly operating and took about 2-3 mins to fully go thru the monition to finally getting to position 52%. In comparison, none of this happened in Wink.

Here is link to the rules in play here.

Logs attached here

I appreciate all your help here. In addition to above issues, can you also please suggest best way to group these shades to fulfill UC 3 & UC4.

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I'm not sure why this is happening now. Definitely an issue for sure. Maybe something with the driver? If you trigger them individually do they do as they are told? If you set only one blind.
Tagging @bcopeland for some insight.

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I duplicated both rules and then limited to just one shade. The rule 1 to open the blind to 52% worked, but when triggered the rule 2 (to close the shade from partially open position of 52% to close, it moved like 10 points and then stopped). Then triggered the rule 2 to open it to 52%, which again worked ok. So it seems it's having a problem in closing from partially open position to fully closed.

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What driver are you using? Native or community driver?

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Native, I suppose.

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I must add though that I have another shade in my office - same brand, same motor, same driver, same everything. This was the the very first shade I configured. This office shade too is configured in a similar way (see the rule screenshot below), i.e. it closes the shade from 52% open position to fully closed and works just fine. The only difference I can think of is that, for that shade I manually turn on the power supply just before triggering the shade itself. Not sure if that somehow forces commands to process thru completely than stalling in the case of that shade.

Morning rule that moves the office shade to 52%

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Night rule that completely closes the office shade

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You telling me that makes me suspect some interference in your mesh? Do you have many z-wave devices? I can't remember what you said. I'm particularly interested in the powered devices. Are these blinds z-wave or z-wave plus? Turning on the power source would trigger the blind to communicate with your hub. What is the brand name of the shades?

1 Like
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All the shades are powered. These blinds are almost 3+ years, so I think these would be z-wave (and not plus).

Shade Type: Bali Autoview (Somfy motor). This is the link to their support site. And this is the link to the Shade Manual.

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Do these use zwave to radio hub?

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No, it has direct integration with Z-Wave hub. Here are the instructions from the manual. This is what I had to used to integrate with Wink Hub 2 and now also with HE.

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An interesting bit I just found on Bali/Gerber shade support site.

It say's 'No intermediate positioning' (at least for Wink), but it worked flawlessly for 3+ years with me on Wink. And also, in HE2, my office blind works just fine with intermediate.

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I suspect this might be a FLiRS device, but I can't find anything on the protocol. Wink supports beaming within the hub natively. HE needs repeaters to do this. I find in Z-Wave Alliance These results, which I'm not finding what I'm looking for. I'm unsure if ST and Wink programmed specifically for these blinds? Which wold explain why the worked, but seems unlikely.
Here is what I suggest because you have what you need to do it. I know that wink supports beaming natively, so I would find the instructions to change your wink hub into a repeater. If that works, then it would just be poor communication to the blinds and you can find something else to repeat with beaming down the road when wink cuts off the hubs. The cost is your time. But, would help to determine if it's a mesh issue. I suspect it is because I can't imagine that these blinds wouldn't be FLiRS protocol.
I think this is the link to the instructions.

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I am actually going to give away my Wink to someone. Also, they will start charging monthly subscription soon, so I might as well spend money on something else than them.

So if I understand it correctly, if this is a distance issue, how about I move my hub with in 15-20 feet of these blinds?

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Try it. Don't forget to run a repair after you move it.
Can't hurt to try.