US - NEW! iblinds Kit v3

I just pre-ordered the iblinds Kit v3.

They are saying delivery in November.
I guess I'll be something of a Beta tester but there was a savings.

Any advice or suggestions appreciated.

I plan to use them with Venetian slat-type blinds rather than rolling shades.

I will report back!

Same - ordered earlier today. :slight_smile:

@bertabcd1234 has a bunch of the v2 iBlinds controllers and also wrote the community driver for the blinds, w/additional features beyond the iBlinds HE driver.

Did you get the panel? I skipped the solar panel as I'm going to keep mine powered via USB>wall 5v2a wall-wart plug.

Some other iBlinds threads w/good info:

I gave in and ordered one also :slight_smile:

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You're (also, like me) worthless and weak. :wink:

I showed it to my son and he rolled his eyes. I think the home automation gene is skipping a generation in my family.

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Iā€™d love to join in but I am shocked theyā€™re on v3 and still donā€™t allow manual control!!

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That is good becuase that is exactly what they support and not the latter. :slight_smile:

Can't say for sure until the product actually ships, I suppose, but with the v1 and v2 units (which I think are nearly identical), I have a few different blind styles around the house, and they fit better in some headrails than others. This is, I suppose, to be expected with a retrofit product, and there isn't much you can do about it before the fact. You do need 2-in. headrails, and I've found the regular-looking rectangular ones to fare better here than ones with curves or decorative elements built-in (attached valences fine). Other than that, they were pretty easy to install according to the instructions, and 99% of mine work well 99% of the time... (I wanted something like this so bad I don't mind the occasional need to reboot my living room blinds like a normal person)

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Yup, that was my blocker as well, been watching them for quite a while now and was really disappointed that v3 didn't offer something in that area. I finally decided to give it a try anyway, the price-point is just too good to ignore.

I'm going to have to have a Pico near each one to provide some local control, but if HE goes down, or Z-Wave goes off, etc., and wife wants to change the blinds, WAF will plummet like theirs no tomorrow. [eek!]

Yup. When I suggested it to my wife she said ā€œso explain to me how if your hub is down I need to throw a towel over the bathroom window to take a shower makes this a ā€˜smart homeā€™?ā€ I couldnā€™t really dispute that argument.

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That's perfect...our spouses clearly share some DNA. :wink:

Yeah, I was kinda worried about manual control, too, but in the rare (not unheard of) event I'm having problems, it's not clear to me whether it's on Z-Wave side or just something with the device itself. There's no hope for v1/v2 here, but my hope is that v3 supports OTA updates (please be a 700-series requirement... :crossed_fingers:) and they might add it some day. I've thought about adding a secondary "remote"-type controller or seeing of Association could work here, but Picos with Hubitat are almost as good for me (safe to say the hub has never been a problem, except that one time when my power was out for a couple days).

Even more shocking, there is a button on the USB port/button thingie that takes the place of the tilt rod. I have no idea what it did originally, but I read that with the beta units, their testers requested that it be changed to do include/exclude for Z-Wave. I can understand why someone might want that for testing (testing the pairing process, of course), but if you want that more than you want manual control or whatever else this did before by the time you get to production, then you have a bad product or a bad hub, and I don't want either of those. :slight_smile:

In v2 they said it was a hardware limitation so unless they made a change, unfortunately, OTA software updates wonā€™t help. :frowning:

Is this on the v1 or v2 models, or (sounds like) you mean the v3? And so they ended w/the button used for include/exclude on the v3?

I can also imagine their lawyers saying "Ah, no, you will not want to have blinds strings connected to your motor that could cinch up while someone has hair, finger, whatever, tangled up in them...

The new features on the v3 all sound like FW changes.

Vs the ā€œitā€™s moving due to an automation and someoneā€™s hair is caught and there is no manual way to stop it to untangle the hair....ā€ :frowning: Both scenarios are unlikely but devices that trigger a motor moving without safety overrides are a bit scary

It was, I assume for the v1. I'm not aware of any differences between v1 and v2 besides a translucent instead of opaque case on the v2, which seems to have been a silent upgrade made late last fall. I haven't seen anything regarding v3 here, but it seems a reasonable assumption that it would follow suit. (But maybe there's some OTA hope?)

I meant OTA in the context of the 700-series v3 devices. "No hope for v1/v2" is exactly what I meant here regarding this point, unfortunately.

Thanks for all the comments!

Any updates on timing for shipment of v3?

Current orders are classified on their site as "pre-orders," and the estimates ship date on their hompage says November 2020. We'll probably be waiting another month or (more likely if they're like other companies :slight_smile: ) two before we get anything.

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