Comments on: Remote control your blinds

By: shower screen

shower screen — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:02:20 +0000

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By: ALo

ALo — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:07:20 +0000

Any chance of modding this for rod-controlled tilt of horizontal blinds? There used to be a device on the market a few years ago, but I can't find it anymore.

- A

By: jaded

jaded — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 06:58:58 +0000

#12, the answer is in the article:

"I also called Levelor, the maker of the blinds, and requested extra ball-chain gears. These are identical to the gear which allows the ball-chain type rope to control the movement (tilt) of the blinds. I adapted this gear to the reduction gear assembly output and simply slid the blind's ball-chain onto the gear which I had mounted to the motor assembly."

By: alex

alex — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:51:14 +0000

I've been wanting to do this for a while, but I could never find the ball-chain gear.

*** Where can I buy/acquire ball-chain gears? ***

Also, this hack was posted on usenet in 1997, apparently.

@ comment 7: the ball-chain must have stops that, when the proper place on the chain is reached, push the arms down, triggering the switches and turning off the motor

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 03:24:48 +0000

Looks neat, and very simple. Seems rare to see any purely mechanical devices anymore. Everyone just programs an PIC. But I can’t tell what the springs are for, can someone clue me in?

By: BigBri

BigBri — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:32:38 +0000

Back in High School, i could never wake up on time (6:30am) so I just bought a digital security time and hooked it up to a few halogen lights directly above my bed. I set the lights up to turn on about 5 minutes after my alarm. They were so bright and disorienting that I’d get out of bed right away just to avoid the hellish beams. But this looks good for my new apt, I’d much rather wake to natural light than 300 W shining down.

By: strider_mt2k

strider_mt2k — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:34:36 +0000

great pics and a great project!

Cool stuff!

By: Brandon Thomson

Brandon Thomson — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:42:15 +0000

Curtains is a good idea, although for simplicity I was thinking about just sticking a 300W floodlight over my bed and tying that to the alarm. Light wakes me up a lot better than noise, in the long term.

By: Aidan

Aidan — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:08:42 +0000

I've been planning to rig a motor to my curtains and trigger it with my alarm clock so that I might actually notice when the sun comes up.

Maybe this is a sign to get off my arse and do it.

By: Gecko

Gecko — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:37:46 +0000

Not difficult, but still a fun little project!

By: fucter

fucter — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:58:59 +0000

I was thinking about doing this for quite some time