Chowmain - Bond Bridge controls Somfy Shades, RF Ceiling Fans, Fireplaces and more!

[Amr]

Is there any way we can shaw a Projection Screen Experience Button for a Projection Screen instead of the regular Shade Icon of C4? All Types are using the shade driver and would be great if we manage to get a screen UI instead of the Shade one? C4 Experince Button works with relays which is not availabe with the driver.

[alanchow]

You can set it to a screen icon by changing the Blind Type in the driver's properties.  Note that it will still be in the same section in your navigator user interfaces.  Just different icon.

[South Africa C4 user]

I would assume that you could also create your own screen Experience button and program against this?

Edited April 6, 2023 by South Africa C4 user

[Amr]

12 hours ago, alanchow said:

You can set it to a screen icon by changing the Blind Type in the driver's properties.  Note that it will still be in the same section in your navigator user interfaces.  Just different icon.

Yep it’s configured as screen but the UI is exactly like shade, is that a bug in C4 app?

[Amr]

11 hours ago, South Africa C4 user said:

I would assume that you could also create your own screen Experience button and program against this?

No that is not possible, there will be no bindings for it to work, bond driver doesn’t expose any connection

[South Africa C4 user]

2 hours ago, Amr said:

No that is not possible, there will be no bindings for it to work, bond driver doesn’t expose any connection

But you can do this with programming (without bindings) unless I am missing something? I do a fair amount of programming against blinds in the bond driver. I also have a number of 2 state experience buttons that I have created.  Combining a 2 state experience button with programming against the bond blinds should do exactly what you want?

I currently only use the bond driver for fan and light control (although I used to use it for blind control) and I have done exactly what I described above for some of my fans.

[Amr]

2 hours ago, South Africa C4 user said:

But you can do this with programming (without bindings) unless I am missing something? I do a fair amount of programming against blinds in the bond driver. I also have a number of 2 state experience buttons that I have created.  Combining a 2 state experience button with programming against the bond blinds should do exactly what you want?

I currently only use the bond driver for fan and light control (although I used to use it for blind control) and I have done exactly what I described above for some of my fans.

Yes, you are right, aganist programing, I will ask my dealer to install C4 Screen experience button and will see if I can manipulate that in HE.

[SpencerT]

Silly question, but Is there a way in HE to move Bond fans from lighting to the comfort menu?

[South Africa C4 user]

15 minutes ago, SpencerT said:

Silly question, but Is there a way in HE to move Bond fans from lighting to the comfort menu?

Not in HE but your dealer can do this.  Chowmain have a pretty cool fan experience button (3 speed although one can use it for other configurations) for just this purpose.  Another alternative is the bIcons driver from bNet solutions which has some great fan icons also (3, 4, 5 and 6 speed from memory)

[SpencerT]

Just now, South Africa C4 user said:

Not in HE but your dealer can do this.  Chowmain have a pretty cool fan experience button (3 speed although one can use it for other configurations) for just this purpose.  Another alternative is the bIcons driver from bNet solutions which has some great fan icons also (3, 4, 5 and 6 speed from memory)

Awesome, thank you @South Africa C4 user

[thecodingart]

I can’t be the only one who tried to use a Bond Bridge with a BAF Haiku fan, and failed to see how the IR blaster needed to be within a 3 foot distance and odd angle to register with the fan right?

[Amr]

1 hour ago, thecodingart said:

I can’t be the only one who tried to use a Bond Bridge with a BAF Haiku fan, and failed to see how the IR blaster needed to be within a 3 foot distance and odd angle to register with the fan right?

I understand the Haiku’s are WiFi controlled, unless urs aren’t?

[alanchow]

33 minutes ago, Amr said:

I understand the Haiku’s are WiFi controlled, unless urs aren’t?

Haikus have an optional module to make it wifi compatible called SenseMe.

Basically if the fan works with the Big Ass Fans app it will work with our Big Ass Fans driver.

I think you can retrofit the wifi module in but may be wrong.

[thecodingart]

17 hours ago, Amr said:

I understand the Haiku’s are WiFi controlled, unless urs aren’t?

They are. When strictly looking at WiFi controls, there's the unfortunate side effect of not having compatibility with certain other systems such as Josh.ai.

[Amr]

51 minutes ago, thecodingart said:

They are. When strictly looking at WiFi controls, there's the unfortunate side effect of not having compatibility with certain other systems such as Josh.ai.

So why don’t u use BAF driver? Why Bond, I still didn’t get it, am slow today?

[alanchow]

The Big Ass Fans driver for Control4 is the best way to operate the fan as it provides bi-directional control and feedback.

This means you can utilise the original remote, wall controller, etc to operate the fan (and light) and both Control4 and the Big Ass Fans app will always stay in sync.

Driver here.

https://chowmain.software/drivers/control4-big-ass-fans-haiku

[yvr76]

I have a Bond Bridge Pro (running stable firmware 3.12.6) with 4 sets of blinds programmed (2 Somfy, and 2 A-OK motors).  All of them work great in the Bond app (iPad) and the Alexa skill.

With the Chowmain Bond driver, my dealer can't get them to show up.  The token and PIN are set correctly, and when you click Auto setup they all show up, e.g.

[11:01:35 1697] DEVICE ID (a7509797********):{"name":"Bedroom Blinds","type":"MS","location":"Bedroom","template":"RMS12","subtype":"ROLLER_SHADE","tech":0,"actions":["Close","Hold","Open","Pair","Preset","Stop","ToggleOpen"],"_":"9fc320fe","__":"7a49bd7a","commands":{"_":"b940b61d"},"state":{"_":"a06b1d67"},"properties":{"_":"50f0af59"},"skeds":{"_":"00000000"}}

[11:01:35 1697] DEVICE ID (eed71ee9********):{"name":"Study Blinds","type":"MS","location":"Study","template":"RMS25","subtype":"ROLLER_SHADE","tech":8,"actions":["Close","Hold","Open","Stop","ToggleOpen"],"_":"f099ed87","__":"985aaa96","commands":{"_":"f0602436"},"state":{"_":"b2ead58a"},"properties":{"_":"e30b32b0"},"skeds":{"_":"00000000"}}

But for Number of Blinds Found, it's 0, and nothing in the Connections tab.

 

Previously I had Somfy blinds set to positional (the Pro can do % positions based on timings), and they would show up (but not the other motors), but it's a bit flaky on the Bond side so I disabled that and just have the Somfy open/close/stop.

 

Now nothing shows up.

[Amr]

3 hours ago, yvr76 said:

I have a Bond Bridge Pro (running stable firmware 3.12.6) with 4 sets of blinds programmed (2 Somfy, and 2 A-OK motors).  All of them work great in the Bond app (iPad) and the Alexa skill.

With the Chowmain Bond driver, my dealer can't get them to show up.  The token and PIN are set correctly, and when you click Auto setup they all show up, e.g.

[11:01:35 1697] DEVICE ID (a7509797********):{"name":"Bedroom Blinds","type":"MS","location":"Bedroom","template":"RMS12","subtype":"ROLLER_SHADE","tech":0,"actions":["Close","Hold","Open","Pair","Preset","Stop","ToggleOpen"],"_":"9fc320fe","__":"7a49bd7a","commands":{"_":"b940b61d"},"state":{"_":"a06b1d67"},"properties":{"_":"50f0af59"},"skeds":{"_":"00000000"}}

[11:01:35 1697] DEVICE ID (eed71ee9********):{"name":"Study Blinds","type":"MS","location":"Study","template":"RMS25","subtype":"ROLLER_SHADE","tech":8,"actions":["Close","Hold","Open","Stop","ToggleOpen"],"_":"f099ed87","__":"985aaa96","commands":{"_":"f0602436"},"state":{"_":"b2ead58a"},"properties":{"_":"e30b32b0"},"skeds":{"_":"00000000"}}

But for Number of Blinds Found, it's 0, and nothing in the Connections tab.

 

Previously I had Somfy blinds set to positional (the Pro can do % positions based on timings), and they would show up (but not the other motors), but it's a bit flaky on the Bond side so I disabled that and just have the Somfy open/close/stop.

 

Now nothing shows up.

The best thing to open a ticket with Chowmain, they are pretty responsive and will fix u up, I have no issues with bond on my side.

[yvr76]

On 5/7/2023 at 11:19 AM, yvr76 said:

I have a Bond Bridge Pro (running stable firmware 3.12.6) with 4 sets of blinds programmed (2 Somfy, and 2 A-OK motors).  All of them work great in the Bond app (iPad) and the Alexa skill.

With the Chowmain Bond driver, my dealer can't get them to show up.  The token and PIN are set correctly, and when you click Auto setup they all show up, e.g.

[11:01:35 1697] DEVICE ID (a7509797********):{"name":"Bedroom Blinds","type":"MS","location":"Bedroom","template":"RMS12","subtype":"ROLLER_SHADE","tech":0,"actions":["Close","Hold","Open","Pair","Preset","Stop","ToggleOpen"],"_":"9fc320fe","__":"7a49bd7a","commands":{"_":"b940b61d"},"state":{"_":"a06b1d67"},"properties":{"_":"50f0af59"},"skeds":{"_":"00000000"}}

[11:01:35 1697] DEVICE ID (eed71ee9********):{"name":"Study Blinds","type":"MS","location":"Study","template":"RMS25","subtype":"ROLLER_SHADE","tech":8,"actions":["Close","Hold","Open","Stop","ToggleOpen"],"_":"f099ed87","__":"985aaa96","commands":{"_":"f0602436"},"state":{"_":"b2ead58a"},"properties":{"_":"e30b32b0"},"skeds":{"_":"00000000"}}

But for Number of Blinds Found, it's 0, and nothing in the Connections tab.

 

Previously I had Somfy blinds set to positional (the Pro can do % positions based on timings), and they would show up (but not the other motors), but it's a bit flaky on the Bond side so I disabled that and just have the Somfy open/close/stop.

 

Now nothing shows up.

 

Turned out to be the version on drivercentral wasn't the latest (I had changed the blind types, and the driver wasn't picking them up).  This was fixed in the 20230531 release.  Support was great, just took a while to get escalated from drivercentral. 

[yvr76]

Here's an issue I'm not sure if there's a way to get around.  My Somfy blinds are just using up/down/stop (not positional)

• Opening and closing the blinds work great, as is the My (stop)
• If you Open and then do "Stop" part way (all via the Control4 Bond driver), the Open is subsequently disabled (and subsequent commands won't work until you issue Close) as Control4 says the blind level is 100 (Open) -- see screenshot.  Frustrating as I may want to lower the blind further.  Same issue with Close the other way around.
• This is also an issue if you use Bond app directly (e.g. Alexa integration) or the Somfy remote.  If I lower the blinds with Control4, then raise them via Alexa or the remote, Control4 thinks they are still closed and subsequent close commands won't work

 

Doesn't make a lot of sense.  Have managed to work around this on a keypad by issuing a stop command immediately before open/close as the stop temporarily puts the blind level to an unknown state (which can also cause the blind to move in the wrong direction temporarily as it goes to the "My" position).  But not with the app / T4 wall panel.

 

Is there a proper way around this?  Not sure if it's Control4 that is preventing the command or the Chowmain driver.

 

(this is occurring with both my Somfy and A-OK motors)

 

[c4toys]

i have a similar somfy shade. i use a- my command>300ms> up/down>150ms> my command to "jog" shades slowly over time. works ok, up is more reliable then the down sequence for me

[jfh]

I need to replace an Automate Pulse 2 hub for Rollease Acmeda shades.  I see that Rollease is supported by Bond Bridge Pro.

 

Does anyone know if the non-Pro Bond supports Rollease?

 

Does the Chowmain driver support Bond Bridge Pro or just the regular?  If using Bond Bridge Pro that supports 2 way communication- does the shade driver support 2 way?

[alanchow]

7 hours ago, jfh said:

I need to replace an Automate Pulse 2 hub for Rollease Acmeda shades.  I see that Rollease is supported by Bond Bridge Pro.

 

Does anyone know if the non-Pro Bond supports Rollease?

 

Does the Chowmain driver support Bond Bridge Pro or just the regular?  If using Bond Bridge Pro that supports 2 way communication- does the shade driver support 2 way?

Our driver supports all Bond products (Bond Bridge, Bond Bridge Pro, Smart by Bond & Bond Sidekick keypads).

Bond Bridge Pro supports positional control.  Our driver does indeed get updates from Bond Bridge Pro with positions (if your shade supports feedback).

[jfh]

Great.

I guess that means I’m going to license yet another Chowmain driver.  
 

At some point I may have to refer to it as my Chowmain system instead of my Control4 system …

[Cyknight]

LOL.

 

Do note Alan's comment on the shade requiring the support feedback option. Basically if the Bond bridge can do positional feedback for that blind, Control4 can get that data from the chowmain driver, so search for your blind plus bondbridge to see if they do or do not.

 

Chowmain's good but can't magically make a product do something it can't already.

There IS I believe a driver for 'virtual' postitions for blinds that does work with the bond bridge as well (just check on driver central), but that really only works if you don't EVER touch any other controls (ie the shade's remotes, wall buttons, manual overrides, use the bond bridge app as well). Not knocking that driver, just pointing out it's limitations in that it calculates the position based on run time only (and pretty accurately) but with no feedback it's easy to get it out of sync.