Hi there, you don't need to start a new post to get updates on previously raised issue. Replying to the same post is just as effective.
1 Like
To address your question (which has been merged into this existing thread now, as you see) again, the answer is still that what you want already exists: the "Set Position" command will set the blinds to any postion, 0-99 (or sometimes 100, though this is technically outside the "raw" range Z-Wave uses for these values). This is usable by a variety of apps on Hubitat.
A different question is whether Hubitat's built-in Google Home integration supports a way to effectively call "Set Position" by voice. That I don't know, though your experience suggests not. The Google Home integration would have to be updated to support that if it doesn't. The driver is unlikely to change (and it's not really the best way to approach this issue long-term), though perhaps someone has one somewhere you could use to "trick" Google Home into thinking it's a dimmer (do be aware that this may have unintended consequences if you tell it to do things like turn off all the lights). I do not know of any specifically for this device or Z-Wave devices in general though perhaps someone else does. If nothing else, you could create a virtual dimmer on Hubitat and "sync" that to the blind positions, though that's a bit of work...
I think you are correct. In the research I've done, the dimmer driver "functions" exactly like expected except for the Google Home integration seeing it like a light (which is what you said).
It just seems like the shade driver should be written similar to the light driver but where Google Home would recognize it as an actual shade with positions from 0-100% in positions. I'm assuming that the other Hubitat Google Home Intergation tool has this handled.
I'm not as experienced as most in this group but I do love the Hubitat Hub and overall works really well and fast!
Do you want the shade position to be infinitely variable or would you be OK with a few pre-set positions?
A few Presets would be great! 25%, 50% 75% maybe?
I haven't tried what you ask (yet).
I have 5-Button Picos setup for my shades (or groups of shades) that open/close the shades to pre-set positions corresponding to the Pico button pressed.
Top Button ("On") = Full Open
Next Button ("Dim Up") = 75% Open
Middle Button ("Favorite") = 50% Open
Next Button ("Dim Down") = 25% Open
Bottom Button ("Off") = Full Closed
I find this so convenient that I never tried to add any shade capability to Google Home.
What I am thinking is whether you could set up virtual buttons in Hubitat that you could then add to Google Home . . .
I will try and play with this later this week - I'm jammed for time today.
1 Like
Just for giggles I tried to see if I could add the Pico to Goggle Home - no dice, it rejects it as an incompatible device.
I really appreciate your efforts. I see many people have been down this path. The Shades are Bali using the Somfy motors. I'm not suffering too bad but would be nice if it just worked as expected.
The shade driver is correct and complete, written using shade capabilities. It is the role of the Google Home integration to expose shades (and commands to manipulate them) to Google Home, which it sounds like it does not at the moment. (There are some older drivers that used the dimmer-esque capabilities; Hubitat is seems to be moving away from this direction, so I wouldn't expect that to change. The Alexa integration was recently updated to support shades as-is. Google Home seems like an unfortunate omission at the moment.)
But...
I do believe this is correct (though not officially supported, of course). I haven't used it so can't comment for sure--just what I see with a quick search. So, that's another option if the other workarounds don't seem appealing.
Yeah, buttons don't normally accept commands, just generate events, so telling Google to "push button 1" or whatever is a bit odd (though technically Hubitat's button capabilities do require these commands now, which on most devices would just simulate a "digital"/virtual event).
But you could still do something like this--maybe a few virtual switches. Enable the auto-off option to turn them off shortly after turning on, making them effectively momentary. Create an automation on Hubitat that sets the blinds to a specific percentage when the switch is turned on, then turn on the switch from Google Home when you want to do that action.
I haven't done this with Google, nor with shades, but my hot tub temperature was a lot easier to do with virtual switches exposed to Alexa. The theory behind what I did should be the same for Google though.
I created a virtual switch named "Hot Tub 101", and made a rule that if this switch was active, it triggered a rule to turn the thermostat to 101 degrees. For your blinds, you would just command them to a certain opening instead. You can name it whatever you want, it could be by percent (25%), closed/less open/medium/more open/full open, or whatever is easy to remember.
The virtual switch has an option to automatically turn off after a time, I used 1 second. I don't trigger the rule for VS OFF, just ON. The auto-reset to OFF makes it so you can run the command again, the switches don't get stuck in one state, and the rule doesn't have to reset them, so no weird logic to turn off other switches.
I just learned that Google Home will not accept a virtual button as a device it will control through Hubitat. So much for my experiment.
[app:1795] 2022-07-14 06:24:19.651 pm [warn] The following devices are not supported by Google Home and will be removed from your device list:[Office Shade to Fifty Percent]
That is why I used virtual switch in Alexa (see my post above).
Aha! I see the method of your madness!
Thanks!
This is me on a good day.
3 Likes
I wrote a driver that does exactly that 
after I had the same issue as you.
Take a look let me know!
I have a similar situation... Bali (Somfy) Shades integrated with Google Home.
I tried the new driver and it does work really well (Thank you) but if I give Google home a command like "Turn On 1st Floor Lights", All the shades open as well so I had to revert back to the Generic Z-Wave Shade driver. I'm losing the battery level and ability to "Open at 25%" etc...
Has there been any updates on a shade driver that simply integrates better with Google Home?
Its not the driver that is the problem, it is the built in Google Home inetrgation.
If you use this integration you should be able to set it up to handle the shade properly, as an adjustable shade, so they do not turn on with the lights.
I agree with jtp10181 - The problem is in the stock GoogleHome app, and you can switch to the community version to get the capablities you need - That said, if you don't want to go that route, I can suggest one other (some messy) alternative.
Setup a vritual dimmer (VD), for each seperate physical shade, and a seperate VD for any "grouping" of shades - Then use the stock GoogleHome app, along with google routines to basically map "Open XYZ shade, or "Set xyz to 50%", map that speech (verbs) of open/close/position to On/Off/Dimmer Level of the Virtual Dimmer via routines - Get all that working as expected with the VDs. You can use whatever driver you like on the physical shade devices (to keep access to battery levels, etc), but don't expose the physical devices to the GH app, only the logical corresponding virtual dimmers
Then your going to have to use RM to pick changes on the various VDs and map that to the physical shades, mapping on/off to Open/Close for shades, and some intermediate level between 0 and 100 to "Set Position", I can share a similar rule if needed.
Finally, I added a virtual seperate switch (VS) (On/Off) named, Shade-Estop, and mapped that to a "Stop XYZ" routine in GoogleHome, which then turns, the VS-Shade-Estop on - Again, more RM where the VS is triggered which fires off a "StopShade" command. - So it's ugly, but can be done, and the GH community app is likely easier (and its definitely cleaner)
If you have alot of indivual shades to control, this can get to be a mess with alot of VDs, VSs, and RM rules - But VS and VDs are natively supported by the out-of-box GH app. - and your can effective change the "wording" to trigger these in GH with routines that fit better for shades/blinds versus dimmers/switches - You'll likely want to put these VS/VDs in a seperate "room" to avoid them being triggered with other lights
But bottom line, the Generic Z-Wave shade driver, isn't the problem and doesn't need to change, now it would be nice, if the Hubitat GoogleHome app was updated to support shades natively - Hopefull that makes a modicum of sense -gfa
1 Like
I went down the rabbit hole and integrated the Hubitat Google Home Integration for my shades and although they "work", they don't allow me to open at variable settings (such as 20%). It just shows up as a switch in the Google Home App without allowing partial settings. I've set the Preferences For Open/Close Trait "Off" for discrete only and have Open/Close Attribute to: 1-100. I feel I'm close. Any help is appreciated.
