I have a few more versions of this code coming out in the next week. One precompiled .bin file with MQTT and wifi mananger, and one Alexa enabled (no separate hub required) .bin with wifi manager. I wanted to have them done in time to release with the video, but they need a bit more tweaking. Stay tuned!

@cr8zyeditor

5 жыл бұрын

Great DIY video. Should be able to find some blinds to adapt and give it a try. Thanks for sharing.

@nickm324

5 жыл бұрын

Holding out for the Alexa Version, any update?

@TheHookUp

5 жыл бұрын

@@nickm324 I posted it last week, forgot to update this comment. It's under the releases tab on github: github.com/thehookup/Motorized_MQTT_Blinds/releases

@nickm324

5 жыл бұрын

@@TheHookUp Awesome, thanks.

@nickm324

5 жыл бұрын

@@TheHookUp Have you tested this Alexa version? I am getting all kinds of wierd results. First the Flasher wouldnt work, as soon as I would click the FLASH button it would instantly say FLASH COMPLETE in a small dialog. So I then decided to use NodeMCU-PyFlasher, which worked. I finally got it to show up on my phone as Blinds Setup so I connected to that AP, set the SSID, password and left 12 in the box. It then said it was going to attempt to connect to the network and that was it no other interaction on the phone from that point. So after I just went ahead and hit the reset NodeMCU to let it reboot although I cant tell what its doing if anything. So then Opened the Alexa App and did a discover devices and chose type as OTHER since I have no idea what type of device its going to show up as. 1 device showed up called "12" as a LIGHT, that is connected via HUE HUB and the type is LIGHT. And it says to say Alexa turn off or on the LIGHT to control it. Then I dicided to look at the source code so I downloaded that and opened it up all I see is a bunch of stuff about MQTT and everthing in that source looks like its trying to use an MQTT broker to do what ever its trying to do. Any insight to what I am doing wrong would be greatly appreciated.

I'm probably not going to take this project on. But had to comment on just how great the video was. All the information without the classic youtube fluff. Good job.

@ibissaazcona9223

4 жыл бұрын

Same!!!!

@jeffro.

Жыл бұрын

What's YT "fluff?". Y'mean the ads? I'm not following...

I’ve been in the window covering industry for almost 15 years. This is incredible. You’re a great engineer - keep up the great work. Happy to subscribe and like.

Me at the beginning of this video: okay, this is a little technical, but I'm up to the challenge Me at the end: oh god

@richardwilde1348

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, would need to buy a whole bunch of tools & equipment and learn how to use it all. Maybe one day.

@philramirez8945

3 жыл бұрын

Yea. Once he started scraping away solder and snipping wires I was like 🙅🏻‍♂️🙅🏻‍♂️🙅🏻‍♂️

@benjaminfair9253

3 жыл бұрын

@@richardwilde1348 The tools required for this will 100% be useful if you plan to do any other sort of DIY home automation. It is a lot to buy all at once but it is all very useful stuff.

@AudioSoulHealing

3 жыл бұрын

haha I totally had the same reaction

@zainahmed6502

3 жыл бұрын

Its not as complicated as it seems. He literally tells you exactly what to do

"Without going in to much mechanical detail" I was already Googling a handy man at this point haha

This is the kind of solution I've been waiting for--very low cost, reasonably within my skillset, and with a quality result. Awesome project! Now to find the time to do it....;)

I've battled this task since I got into home automation 4 years ago. The hardest part for me has always been the connection between the servo/motor and the blind shaft. This might be the end of my woes. Thanks so much!

@joeyv821

2 жыл бұрын

Did you ever end up finishing your blind automation?

@keithcroshaw

2 жыл бұрын

@@joeyv821 No. I have one set of blinds that has an iBlinds Z-Wave module in it that I was able to beta test. It's actually pretty solid. One day I might just buy more and call it a day...

You're spot on with regard to 3D printer ownership. I've printed enough parts for household repairs and DIY projects to more than pay for the printer, so the ability to use it for tinkering/making is icing on the cake.

@jetah50

5 жыл бұрын

hum.. 3d print icing..

Quickly becoming the best DIY home automation channel in the world.

I really appreciate this and breaking down some of the information to make it more understandable. Thank you for sharing.

Wow! Thank you so much! Before I seen this video about 3 weeks ago, I didn’t even know what Home Assistant was let alone what a nodeMCU or node red or mqtt was. I’m proud to say that I got one of my blinds set up today and now have a completely automated house thanks to HASS. This project lead me down many rabbit holes but I enjoyed them all (even if my partner didn’t) thanks again. Keep up the amazing work.

Hi, I just completed this for my blinds. It is working extremely well. Thank you for a brilliant tutorial. I did destroy a driver board and a buck module in the process but that is what I call school fees. Again, thank you. I just love watching your videos.

@TheHookUp

4 жыл бұрын

Haha, I’ve lost count of how many boards I’ve destroyed while learning new things.

As always, a fantastic video. Another project to ad to my list! And you are dead on about a 3D printer!

You're a legend - an all-around good guy. Very well explained (it shows that you're a teacher) and super helpful insight!

I appreciate the thoroughness and the print links. This is the type of tutorials I’m into. Thank you such an amazing job in creating tech and testing it. Sub’d

Finally a well done smart blinds DIY project. Thank you.

How would I set this project up in SmartThings? I also have mini blinds.

I'm very interested in this, but I would love to retain manual control. Let's say the blinds think they're at 0%, then I go open them half way (50%). What's going to happen if I tell them to open to 100%? They'll open the other 50, then start slipping? Is that bad for the motor or the blinds? I could probably have them reset themselves at night. Maybe open to 100%, then close to 0%... Just thinking out loud here. Any ideas?

@rohankoripalli

3 жыл бұрын

You might want to add a potentiometer to the shaft so you know the absolute position. This way your stepper motor could know only drive until you reach a certain value on the potentiometer

Brother thank you so much for all of your hard work! Please support his links and videos because all of his work is A+.

Instantly subscribed. Now gonna go through your videos and watch every single one. Bravo.

@Sully365

5 жыл бұрын

Ditto

This is awesome! You've got to do raise and lower. That is the one I can't figure out!

How do you set the initial position of the blind position? How do you allow for jfeedback positioning during manual adjustment of the blinds back to the steppe rmotor position?

@navinmaharaj2352

2 жыл бұрын

Have you managed to solve this?

@shelllaz

2 жыл бұрын

I am too stuck on this step

Nice work. These are very common blinds (at least in the U.S.) so this is hopefully going to get great adoption from DIYers. Thanks and keep it up !

Incredibly helpful, mate, I appreciate all the time put into this and the clarity of the instruction!

Great content, congrats! Question: if you'd do this all over again, would you still use NodeMCU? How about going wireless, maybe a small LiPo and a solar cell out the window, have you given any thought on that? Thanks a lot!

Great project! I’m going to put in a parts order soon. Can this work with Apple HomeKit / Homebridge?

Re: servo - you can use a transistor to turn it on/off as needed. Servo has the advantage of absolute position sensing which is nice. Many thanks for the video - watching other folk's implementation is a great way to learn!

@leblancexplores

4 жыл бұрын

Neo Geo this is what I was thinking. Is the servo quieter than these steppers?

Rob, brilliant, Thanks. I live in the UK and adapted your instructions to operate 3 separate vertical blinds around a bay window at the front of the house and 2 more at a kitchen window and patio door at the rear of the house. They each now have individual control nodeMCUs to rotate their slats through 90o Open to Closed. I also added a Sonoff basic for each blind, which I have located to a convenient spot, local to each blind. This gives visitors a manual control, without needing access to HA. It keeps it all running through MQTT. They were bit more expensive to build than yours, due to the additional components required. Because they are vertical blinds, I decided to fit the motors to brackets made from angled aluminium, connected to the top of the blind track. Drive is connected via aluminium gears and small diameter toothed belts. I fitted most motors to the back of the track, as you have to cut a piece out of the track, to allow the attachment of the belt. Being at the back (window side), its less obvious. Each blind has a control box with circuit board where NodeMCU and A4988 Stepper Drivers are all plugged into sockets, as are the motors, so if I ever need to replace anything, it should be easy. Thanks again, I think your videos are really helpful and informative.

@NeilBourneHarris

3 жыл бұрын

I live in the UK too. Can you let me know where you aquired your parts? All the links in the video description are to items that are not in stock, and most of them are for a handful of each item, rather than sold singularly. I have a bay window that uses 10 individual blinds (yes, 10!). But I just want to see if I can "make" 1 automated blind before I get too excited.

@pjb6817520

3 жыл бұрын

@@NeilBourneHarris Neil, sorry for the late reply. I haven't been monitoring the site. To answer your question re parts. I got the NodeMCU's and A4988 stepper drivers from Amazon I think. The gears, Veroboard, boxes, header pins, header sockets and belts from ebay. There were 2 types of gear. One with a 5mm diameter hole for the motor and one with a 6mm hole for the blind shaft. I ended up making 2 psu cases to supply the 5vdc and 12vdc to the pcb's I made for each blind. I had some spare PSU's that provided 12v and 5v, so I only needed cases to put them in. One psu at the back of the house feeds the kitchen blind and the dining room blind. Whilst the one at the front supply's power to the 3 blinds around the bay window. All the cable was run in the narrow self adhesive trunking from Screwfix. Best part. All still working as expected. I would like to have voice activation, but maybe I will try this after we move house. I think it may all need re-working then as I think the boss would like Venetian Blinds in the new house. Good Luck. ps you can get some free ps power supplies from old scrap pc's if you put a wanted on freecycle or you have some friends who are getting rid of old equipment. Perfect for 12v and 5v projects.

Is there any way these can be hooked up to batteries & solar panels?

What is the noise level like on those motors?

I cannot wait to try this project! Luckily I understand the software side and I have a working knowledge of motors and wiring, so it’s definitely within reach for me :) keep em coming!

Great info. My blinds are calling!

Is there a way to do this with individual z wave controllers rather than wifi?

@aloak

5 жыл бұрын

Steven Jeppesen I was thinking the same and just did some research. Just the z wave component is over $50 each, though.

I'd appreciated if you prepare some video about how to control roller blind as well

@JamesScholesUK

5 жыл бұрын

Agreed. The issue I've come up against is roller blinds need torque, and lots of it. I've had some success with Lego motors and some pretty serious gearing (probably around 1/150 for a small, light blind), directly driving the roller.

The servo wasn't the problem, it was the drive type. Linear drives (AKA) screw jack/worm gear would have eliminated the negative feed back on a load bearing suspension while simultaneously giving you gear reductions for compounding torque advantage. That being said.... You made the right move by just going open loop PWM for this sorta thing when it comes to cost effectiveness! Great video and thanks for the efforts.

Absolutely fantastic! please keep these How2s coming. And for anyone complaining about not having 3D printer, 2 words - It's TIme!

Me: Buys everything. Realizes later that I need an MQTT Server. This is more work then expected, but I'm almost at the finishing line.

@nchilltopper

3 жыл бұрын

Building on his his comment "let's face it, if you're into diy, it's time to get a 3d printer"... If you're a smart home geek and do not own a Raspberry Pi or equivalent, let's face it, it's time.

@cabasse_music

2 жыл бұрын

me: has existing raspberry pi file server. "oh i can just use the docker image and leave everything else in place, perfect!" a couple hours later "where's this supervisor panel? why can't i find the add-ons page? oh shit, you have to use the full OS image. fuck!"

He's spot on with his comments about purchasing a 3d printer (I would recommend any beginner to consider the CR-10 mini)

Thank you for guidance and the "uncompromising" support materials. Have the parts printed thanks to you, now need to look for a blind (or two) - hammer in search of nails, eh! All the same, as others have commented, your video rocks - no unwarranted self-promotion but bountiful advice even for a "newbie" like myself. Kind regards.

Is it possible to pay and order the 3D printed components from you? I just need one set

@Thirtybird

5 жыл бұрын

upload the STL files to Shapeways, have them print them and ship them to you.

@Wrenchmonkey1

4 жыл бұрын

@@Thirtybird Shapeways seems to have gotten really out of control with pricing. I ran this through their parts calculator, and they wanted $80 for one. If anybody doesn't have access to a 3d printer and wants to take on this project, get in contact with me and I'll print them off for you for a FAR more reasonable price.

I did almost the same project 3 weeks ago with the same stepper motors :D

I really like this project and your channel in general. If you're looking for another version of this to tackle, I would love to see an adaptation for plantation shutter control. It doesn't look like there's many commercial solutions available, much less DIY.

@justthecarguy2212

2 жыл бұрын

Great video! I also am looking for a solution to use on plantation shutters! Anyone have any ideas other than LouvreEase?

great video and i fully agree with any diyer needs to have a 3d printer nowadays.

i will pay someone 20 per window to do mine

@mattandersen1601

5 жыл бұрын

Ill pay double that

@seanbedingfield3590

4 жыл бұрын

@@mattandersen1601 How many windows do you want done???

@seanbedingfield3590

4 жыл бұрын

How many windows do you want done???

@Vgp-rp4iu

4 жыл бұрын

Yep I would pay someone 40 per blind to do this for me. I need 3 blinds done. Also I have a sun room that's about 18x6 on the back of my house. 3 sides are all windows and I'm wanting 1floor to celing curtain to cover all 3 sides on some kind of track. I guess 2 curtains on each side that met in the middle would be ok but would prefer no gaps. Also would need to be automated. Anyone have any ideas on something like that? I know that's alot of curtain and probably pretty heavy so would there be anything out there to be able to move 30 ft of heavy curtains on a track?

I'm in the middle of renovating our kitchen and joining it onto our dining room, going to do this project so will wire in some CAT5 ! Thanks

Just bought a home. I plan to fully automate - most likely with a ST HUB. First project will be home security (locks, cameras, sirens). After that I'll do blinds! I have a 3D printer at my university. I'll keep you posted.

Too much geek-speak for me. I could never manage such a project. Hell, I'm lucky to get the manual blinds to work.

In summary, you can automate your blinds for $10 BUT you need to have a degree in electrical engineering... sigh!

@TheHookUp

4 жыл бұрын

Don't sell yourself short, you can handle it.

In one word, “Genius”

I invested in 6 iBlinds (Z-Wave) long before I discovered the wonderful and very time consuming but fun world of HA! I have one though that is constantly causing me grief and rather than investing in another newer version iBlind motor, I could put that money towards 5 or 6 of these wonderfully engineered solutions. Love your excellent video tutorial BTW and the explicit attention to detail!!

Excellent video. I have been researching this sort of project for many months now. For me, it was making my blinds Alexa enabled and fully hidden via a battery. Like you, I first used servos but then abandoned that idea due to the loud sounds and high current draw. I think your implementation + a 12v 3000mah battery would be a good idea, and sleep the ESP. Only issue is that the ESP8266 would not be able to respond to Alexa during sleep, so some other idea would have to come into play.

Great Video, will done. And very inspire full. Here in Scandinavia things are much smaller than in US

The ultimate would be to gather the weather forecast and indoor temperature, and have an algorithm determine if the blinds need to let more sunlight in, or reject it, with the goal of maintaining comfortable temperatures automatically. The very tricky part would be constantly monitoring the angle of the sun and continuously adjusting the slats in response. I'd settle for fully raising or fully lowering the blinds based on heating needs.

@jeffro.

Жыл бұрын

Yeah but you don't need to "raise and lower" the blinds, only adjust the tilt. That doesn't take nearly as much torque. I think you're getting lost in the weeds.... Really, all you'd need is a light sensor to adjust the tilt to maintain as much (or as little) sun coming in, depending on whether you're trying to keep it bright, or block the warming of the sun. You could get "fancy" by incorporating a temp sensor (with the light sensor) and develop a "fuzzy algorithm" if you wanted to, lol. That way you can have the best of both worlds. Maybe even patent it!

Just came across your video as I'm about to the same thing.This is very helpful thanks! If you have enough of the tilt rod sticking out from the other end of the blinds you don't need to disassemble the tilt mechanism (just have the motor at that end) vand have the best of both worlds!

Another suggestion for making a coupler would be to cast them. Square bars might be able to be adjusted via some cobbled square tube to round tube assemblies.

Just found this channel, this is great info. I also totally agree on 3D printing, they are so cheap these days and quite a fun hobby on their own, every DIY or Home Automation person needs one! Subd

outstanding video, very thorough

Excellent vid. Clear and concise. Excellent presentation.

ok, back to looking achieveable.. glad I'm watching these from oldest to newest

@TheHookUp

4 жыл бұрын

Haha! These are great, highly recommend

Cool .... Would love to do the same thing here. Will have to keep this in mind for future reference.

This was great! What was the closest to "Good enough" you got in your gearing experiments? I have some large and heavy blinds, so I'm thinking just swapping out the controller isn't going to be enough for me. Or would you say I should hunt down a stronger stepper motor and still not fuss with printed gearing?

Fantastic video. I was hoping to setup something like this up for my blinds but... Wow. That looks mega complicated! Fancy popping round to my house to install them? 🤣

This project is going to be way over many people's heads!

@TheHookUp

5 жыл бұрын

Hopefully this is a good starter project for some people out there. If you look on the github page I have a couple pre-compiled "No Programming Required" .bin files. One of them even uses Alexa local discovery so you don't need anything but an echo device to get started.

I would love for someone to design a system that would work for vertical blinds. For clarification, the blinds open with a wand that you twist and the blinds open like these, but then you push the wand to the right to move the blinds (which are on a track) out of the way, similar to a curtain. These types of blinds are most often found in apartments.

Love your videos. Started building this blinds project including buying a 3D printer. Would you do a video (or two) on your 3D printing experiences? What CAD software do you use? Also impressed by your use of 3D printed gears.

@TheHookUp

4 жыл бұрын

There are tons of great KZreadrs who are way better than me at 3D printing. I’d personally recommend CHEP.

Well, this was awesome. Thanks!

I’m attempting this now, parts are just taking forever to come in because boarders have been closed. Buying the parts in Canada is far more expensive than USA also, so I opted to buy them from China. Which could be part of my shipping problem. Finally 3D printers are far more expensive up here even after exchange rate calculated in. I’m waiting for the maker space to open back up.

Wow great video thanks!

I’m doing my 3rd (triple) and 4th (double) set of blinds and I realized that The state of my cover.blindsXXX entities is unknown. I remember I used to see the icons change colors, but not anymore. The only difference in my code is that my blinds close in 9 turns, so my position open is 0 and close is 9, and I inverted my motor wires so the blinds close upwards, as personal preference. How can I get the state só the icons change colors like my other entities?

Great project!

I set this all up but my blinds seem to be too heavy even with the 12 volt drivers. Do you have any recommendations on how to beef this up even more? I was thinking I could use two stepper motors, one on each end of each blind but I would need a way to reverse one of them to spin the opposite direction.

Hi, Thanks for all you nice videos and material. It is always nice to watch, and gives lots of inspiration. You gave me the last push into 3D printing, and I bought a Ender 3 Pro - works very nice, and after figuring out the initial bed leveling, it has been printing none stop - nice. This brings me to my question, about which tools you and others are using to create stl files - or modyfing/updating existing stl files. Both for windows and linux. So what are you/community using ? What can you/community recommend? TinkerCAD ?, SketchUp ? Fusion 360 - what to engave with ? Thanks /Joern

@agentl3r

5 жыл бұрын

I used sketchup for about 3 years and recently moved to Fusion 360. Sketchup is good for helping you get the basics of CAD, but Fusion 360 is incredibly more powerful. If your familiar with CAD, try Fusion.

TOOOOO Cool! What an awesome and well presented video. Thanks for sharing!!!

Great video. Is there any DIY for lifting the blinds. All of them shows tilt versions. i am interested in Lift as well

used servos and mosfet to disable power on servo when not controlled, works perfect

Nicely done!

I have been thinking that if I want something 3D-printed, I can just go to one of the local shops that does that for you. Of course that will be expensive on the long run, but might be an option for some.

Great video. Did you try the 12V versions of the same stepper motor? I've read that they have more torque and you can use the same driver boards supplied with the steppers

@TheHookUp

5 жыл бұрын

I didn't try them. I read some articles that said the 12v version had significantly less torque than running the 5v version at 12v, but I never tested it myself.

You could also save more money by going to a 3D shop and print some of the parts that you needed, I am sure that in USA (your current country) does have a lot of 3D printing shops.

I hope you will consider a revision to this video. It's a very popular idea, but only one path was pursued. I would like to see something more common for the stepper, perhaps nema 17, which is common in 3D printers. Maybe something 12 or 24 volt. Overall great video, I love the 3D printed parts, modern DIY is awesome!

Hey! Its been 2 years and the blinds are still working great had to switch to mqtt a while ago but they are still going strong. I still blame you for 3d printing and home assistant! lol

@TheHookUp

2 жыл бұрын

I’ll take that blame any day.

Can you run the 12v out of a rechargeable battery and not plug it on the wall?

Is their a way to add an 18650 Battery and a mini solar panel to charge the battery and never have to worry about replacing batteries?

Hope you Will make one that can raise them aswell. That would be awesome

Simply Brillant !

You say that you leave the current to the stepper motors too high, because the trim potentiometers are cr@p. How much would a new trim potentiometer cost? So just replace it. How much current would be ideal for these stepper motors?

great! Thank you!

This is fantastic content! I'm looking for ideas to automate my miniblinds, I will definitely be using some of the information from this video. I was going to go for servos, but what you said about them making noise to hold position is a very good point. I've got a 28byj stepper already, so i'll try that route first and see how it goes, I didn't know these weren't compatible with other stepper drivers, and i didn't know about the conversion from unipolar to bipolar. I'll try this out with some A4988 drivers from an old 3d printer.

Turns out, there's a 3mm square as well. Off to Fusion 360, I go!

You would add your window sensor to this!

Great Work!! This is right on time as this summers project is to automate all my blinds to include my sunshades. I do have 2 quick questions. The most important is, What is your recommended amperage for each unit? I am going to go a little different route with 12 Power supply in my attic to supply power to several units at a time. 2nd question i am not to familiar with MQTT and my experience in the past i have run into multiple issues and really need easy walk through that will help me understand. I want to run MQTT on a separate machine than my hassio. I have a high power server running several programs with little to now effort.

Thanks for an excellent tutorial and all the parts lists! Is there a way to make this work with voice control?

Great video! I have a very basic background with circuits from over 20 years ago, but would love to understand more and have this project within my skill set. Do you have any recommendations on simple projects I can do to get to this level of comprehension? Thanks! :)

Thank you. Been waiting since Ben took down his code with his website The drivers that come with the motors ULN2003 Driver Board need to be skipped. Rob - please tell us the difference between these and the 8825s. thanks

Since blind automation has stayed over $100 per blind for the last few years, I wish you would commercialize this but selling the 3d parts or a kit that has everything. Then take it a step further and incorporate a battery and figure out if it can "remember" the location of blinds changed manually using the tilt rod. For years I have been looking for something that would be around $25 per blind (and most things are hidden).

I’ve bought all the same parts but I’m stuck… my MQTT server works, I’m able with the serial to see the message coming in and the steps (0-12) but there is no activity on pins D5,D6 and D7… any clue?

we need one vertical blinds (up and down) that open and tracks sun so it opens slowly was the sun comes out and follows it then simply closes at certain time of evening then rinse and repeat the next day ...

@TheHookUp

5 жыл бұрын

You'll probably need something with a little more torque to do that. But the second part would be pretty easy to automate in node red (just divide the total movement desired by the difference between sunrise and sunset times to get a %/minute move), if doing that you should probably limit the movements to every ~10 minutes or so to give the motor time to turn off and cool down (ie. don't issue a movement of .01% every 15 seconds).

Can you add a rechargeable battery and solar panel instead of hard wiring? If so, do you how?? Thanks

Hi the hook up, i want to implant this diy project in my house, i have only one problem, can i power the motorized blinds with a powerbank?

I don’t like the idea of running cable to each window. You reckon this can be done with a solar cell and battery?