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Lutron alternatives for automatic shades


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Hey guys,

We are in the market for some automatic shades for some of our windows but the Lutron dealer gave us a quote that was a little on the high side. I was wondering if any of you guys are using automatic shades integrated with C4 that are a little more economical but not with a huge sacrifice in quality. We are in the Houston area.

Any help would be appreciated!!

Thanks!!

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THEORY has a driver to intergrate all Hunter Douglas Powerrise products into C4...which is cheaper than Lutron

http://www.theoryav.com/

http://www.theoryav.com/blog/?p=207

But you can contact him about this driver, or I can or you can have your dealer do it ......however you want to handle it.

i attached 2 links so you can see some of the other useful drivers as well.

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We had the Somfy Sonesse 30 RTS motors (with the Somfy URTSII to integrate with C4) retrofitted in our current home. And we just had our new home pre-wried for the the Somfy Sonesse 30 RS485 motors. (They're very quiet and much less than the Lutron quote).

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We have Hunter Douglas honeycomb blinds that are powered by Somfy motors - they were installed in about 2007/8. The C4 integration is done via IR blasters as there is an IR remote control with the blinds. Two downsides - it is noisy and (for some reason) with C4 you can only stop and start blinds, not reverse direction. So if you open halfway then you have to open all the way before closing and vice-versa. But with other IR control (like a Harmony remote) I can choose up or down, so this may be a driver issue.

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I've been using the HD PowerRise shades with the HD RF adapter and a Control4 Wireless Outlet Switch. Works perfectly.

I'll likely test out the bridge unit and Theory's driver when it's ready. Definitely something my customers will want going forward.

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... was hoping there was a newer/cheaper/better solution from all the past threads?

I'm 100% certain there are *newer* and *better* solutions, but I've never heard of blinds solutions getting cheaper.

They tend to go the other way...

:)

RyanE

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I've been using the HD PowerRise shades with the HD RF adapter and a Control4 Wireless Outlet Switch. Works perfectly.

I'll likely test out the bridge unit and Theory's driver when it's ready. Definitely something my customers will want going forward.

I need new shades. is it worth waiting for this? any idea how far out it is?

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I've been using the HD PowerRise shades with the HD RF adapter and a Control4 Wireless Outlet Switch. Works perfectly.

I'll likely test out the bridge unit and Theory's driver when it's ready. Definitely something my customers will want going forward.

I need new shades. is it worth waiting for this? any idea how far out it is?

The driver is ready

will only be sold at the moment with hard coded MAC:......your dealer sends THEORY your director MAC and the driver is coded to it

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I went to the Theory website and couldn't find any info on the driver. Would love to see some screenshots.

exactly - can we get some info? what if my MAC changes? I change things from time to time.

On any driver like this, changing the director will mean changing the driver so a new one would need to be created and put in. Wether Steven will be willing to do so is up to his discretion though I doubt he'll give you much hassle in an upgrade or replacement situation. Wether he'll do it every other month for you because your constantly messing around..... Again that'll be up to him.

It's a bit of a pain (recluse is the same unless they changed it) but not a big problem generally. For a "tinker" it can be a bit more so. But not everyone is EV with the capability to set everything up the way they have - in part the reason EV also sells drivers made by others (Cinegration for example).

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has anyone tried hunter douglas or century blinds? I was told century blinds are about 40% cheaper and as good (owned by hunter douglas) so has anyone installed them and/or motorized them?

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I used Somfy motors and components (a combo of wired and battery powered) which I bought online from avoutlet.com. They were great. Probably cost me $200/shade (if not less) to retrofit existing rollease tubes. The RTS interface was a bit of a bitch to integrate, but my dealer was able to figure it out without too much trouble.

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  • 1 month later...

we had a somfy dealer come by to do a measurement and she quoted us the CT 32 (vs the Sonesse 30 that i've been hearing about). She said that the Sonesse 30 will be significantly more expensive. Anyone heard about these CT32's? how quiet are they?

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How long do the motors last and do you have to do any maintenance on them? My blinds have been up for about 6-7 years and one of the motors is getting noisier - doe they occasionally need lubrication? My blinds are Hunter Douglas and I think that I have Somfy motors.

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I doubt you have somfy motors as HD has had their own Platinum motors for a number of years. The chances of them being Somfy are very slim. There is no need to lubricate the motors, make sure the shade is balanced properly.

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We have Hunter Douglas honeycomb blinds that are powered by Somfy motors - they were installed in about 2007/8. The C4 integration is done via IR blasters as there is an IR remote control with the blinds. Two downsides - it is noisy and (for some reason) with C4 you can only stop and start blinds, not reverse direction. So if you open halfway then you have to open all the way before closing and vice-versa. But with other IR control (like a Harmony remote) I can choose up or down, so this may be a driver issue.

Do you know which IR driver you used to integrate the Hunter Douglas blinds into your system? My blinds are from about the same time but I cannot find an IR driver that will work with them. Mine are the non platinum PowerRise 1.0 which was the IR only models before they went to the IR/RF remotes. Thanks in advance.

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I read about Arduino automatic shades the other day and was quite intrigued. Looks like you can retrofit most shades for under 50 dollars each. If all you want to do is set them and forget them, it might be a good option for some people like me who is moderately DIY handy and unable to spend the $$$ for the Somfy, Lutron and other brands. http://lifehacker.com/automate-your-window-blinds-with-an-arduino-477587897

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