yvr76

Somfy released low voltage Zigbee 3.0 motors last year: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230419005033/en/Somfy-North-America-Announces-Zigbee-3.0-Integration-Capabilities-For-Its-New-Product-Ecosystem

I'm currently using a Bond Bridge Pro right now for my existing motors.  If I got Zigbee motors for another room would these need Tahoma as well to bridge to Control4 or can they be added directly to my mesh with the EA-3?

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)

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. 

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.

I've read some recommendations on this and a few different options have come up.  Basically I want action my blinds / lights during the daytime based on the amount of sunlight.  Looking at 3 options:

1. Open Weather Agent driver.  This is easiest, but weather forecast isn't always entirely accurate
2. Axxess Wireless Motion Sensor.  How sensitive is the lighting sensor on this?  i.e. I don't want my lights to go off in the morning on a cloudy day but if the sun is glaring then I would and to lower some blinds
3. Tempest Weather System w/WeatherFlow Tempest Control4 driver.  This is a pretty pricey option.

Any recommendations or other ideas?

Ok, I actually just found it - it's part of the Sonos Driver, there is a Delay for Auto Off setting that you can configure per room (which is nice since my other rooms just have Sonos speakers, not a Port).  You can configure this between 10 seconds to 30 minutes.

That was the first thing I tried, but it's curiously capped (Power Off Delay) at 5 seconds.

There is a Power On Delay as well (maximum 30 seconds) - this is used to prescribe a waiting time before subsequent commands are run after the receiver turns on.  Not sure why the Power Off Delay has such a short interval.

Is there any way to override how "Room Off" turns off AV components for a specific room?

Running OS 3.3, and can do programming with Home Composer.   I have a Sonos Port connected to a Integra DRX 3.1 (multiple zones).  Often times we just do requests of multiple songs in a row with Alexa.  This turns on the receiver and starts playing, but when the song is done, the receiver turns off again.  There's also a 2 second power on delay (and one for power off) with the receiver, so that adds some delays if you're requesting one song right after another.

What's the best way to delay turning off the receiver by e.g. 5 minutes for these cases, in case we have more requests, and then it'll turn off after the delay if it's no longer in use (the receiver takes around 45W in idle mode, so leaving it on throughout the day isn't an option)

I did something similar with my Samsung TV, by adjusting the picture mode. Samsung has 4 modes (Standard, Games, Sports, Movie) and you can even adjust the brightness for each.  During the day, it's set to Standard (which has higher brightness) and at night Movie mode.

When the TV turns on, it will set the mode accordingly, and I have an additional trigger at sunset for it to switch to Movie if the TV is on.

Update - this is now gone.

Up until now they've only been recognized as light switches, so you're stuck with "Turn on Living Room blinds" unless you create custom voice scenes.  They have support for proper Blind devices now.

Hopefully Control4 will update their Alexa skill soon to support.

I have an HC-250 that's been collecting dust for a while.  Willing to part with it for free.  Send me a PM.

• If you're in the Vancouver, B.C. area you can pick it up
• If you're in elsewhere Canada or the U.S., you pay shipping (I'll generate the shipping label first and send a screenshot prior)

All cables, etc included.