More than once a maker has wanted a thing, only to find it more economical to build it themselves. When your domicile has massive windows, closing what can feel like a mile of blinds becomes a trial every afternoon — or every time you sit down for a movie. [Kyle Stewart-Frantz] had enough of that and automated his blinds.
After taking down and dismantling his existing roller blinds, he rebuilt it using 1-1/4 in EMT conduit for the blinds’ roll to mount a 12V electric shade kit within — the key part: the motor is remote controlled. Fitting it inside the conduit takes a bit of hacking and smashing if you don’t want to or can’t 3D print specific parts. Reattaching the roller blind also takes a fair bit of precision lest they unroll crooked every time. He advises a quick test and fit to the window before moving on to calibrating and linking all your blinds to one remote — unless you want a different headache.
Now, to get Alexa to do your bidding.
[Stewart-Frantz] is using an RM Pro as the middleman, capable of controlling RF and IR receptive devices, and an Android box. He describes the process he used to connect the devices to the Alexa service, and customizing it to suit his chosen commands. In the end, all he has to do is speak and the blinds do his bidding.
At a total cost of $767, we’d say that’s a pretty good deal. There are other ways to hack together automated blinds, but sometimes you just want to ask Alexa about planes.
I prefer blinded automobiles.
I always thought linking blinds and windows into a thermostat would make a lot of sense.
black one side, reflective the other
e-paper blinds for thermal control without opening them?
bonus points for taunting the neighbours.
smart tint? http://www.smarttint.com/
We were suppose to have that by now when they first came out.
It was to replace Banners and be put in all the magazines as a regular thing.
Sure you could do that now but you would need big bucks. And it was to be so so cheep.
Ha Ha they got us again.
Black one side, solar panels the other.
With a data feed from a weather service (or your own sensors for wind, temperature, cloud, rain), there’s a lot of good stuff you could do.
One day, when I’m not renting…
Maybe I missed something but I don’t see any clutch mechanism that allows the blinds to be manually operated (it’s not mentioned on the product page in Amazon, though they do mention limit sensing), This means you’re at the mercy of your control system/power supply, or you’ll be fixing it a lot — the first (or maybe fifth) time [Stewart-Frantz] has someone over, it’s likely they’ll just pull on the bottom of the shade which is when the trouble starts.
The remote is mounted in the wall for manual control. They people I have over better know better than yanking on my blind project! If one ever stops working its a 30 min inconvenience but still just a motor swap non the less.
More products from the lizard people to keep warm at night
So disappointed not to hear Mozart’s Piano Concerto #21 playing in the background and seeing deep sea creatures out the window. (c:
FWIW, these are motorized shades (solid material), not blinds (slats). :(