Somfy Motorized Shades

[ajd123]

My system has a number of somfy automatic shades integrated.  They are controlled wirelessly via an URTSI.

Unfortunately C4 only remembers the last position the shades were in based on the last key press from within the C4 app.  If I open a shade in the office via the Somfy remote, the area will still show as closed in the C4 app.

This is problematic because it ruins my programming.  I have a schedule setup at sunset to "Set the blind target level on Equipment --> Office Blinds to Closed".  However, if the office blinds are opened during the day with the Somfy remote, the system still thinks they are closed. When the scheduled program runs, these blinds do to not close because Control4 thinks they are already closed.

Is there any way to send a "close blinds" or "open blinds" signal so the command will trigger regardless of the shades position?

[ILoveC4]

I know that Somfy supports that, because I can use my Google Home and say close the shades or open the shades and it knows the difference. In Control4 I just have keypad buttons that do a toggle so I don’t ever pay attention to whether or not Control4 understands the state correctly. 

[ILoveC4]

I just checked and out of our 5 “zones” of shades (which are all down right now) Control4 thinks 4 are done and 1 is up. I’ll play with this and see what I can figure out. 

[ILoveC4]

I told it to close the shades that it thought were open, and the UI toggled to close and the shades didn’t move. I then told the UI to open them and it did. Mine understands and open command and a close command. 

[South Africa C4 user]

If I recall correctly (there is another thread on this somewhere and I have been meaning to play with this forever). The Domosapiens driver. (Not sure which driver you are using) has a command to tell Control4 that the blind is open without actually sending anything to Somfy. @pbir developed the driver and could confirm this.

Programming a close on a schedule can then be done via two commands:

1. Inform Control4 that the blind is open

2. close the blind

Based on my understanding (untested ) this should result in the blind being closed in all instances without opening an already closed blind.

[ajd123]

10 hours ago, ILoveC4 said:

I told it to close the shades that it thought were open, and the UI toggled to close and the shades didn’t move. I then told the UI to open them and it did. Mine understands and open command and a close command. 

Close a blind in the control4 app.  The little icon to the right of the shade controls will show the shade in the down position.  Now open the same blind with the Somfy remote.  The shade will still show up as closed in the Control4 app.  Now try to use the close blind button in the control4 app.  It will not work.

[ajd123]

7 hours ago, South Africa C4 user said:

If I recall correctly (there is another thread on this somewhere and I have been meaning to play with this forever). The Domosapiens driver. (Not sure which driver you are using) has a command to tell Control4 that the blind is open without actually sending anything to Somfy. @pbir developed the driver and could confirm this.

Programming a close on a schedule can then be done via two commands:

1. Inform Control4 that the blind is open

2. close the blind

Based on my understanding (untested ) this should result in the blind being closed in all instances without opening an already closed blind.

Is there any way in Composer Home to check what driver is installed for the Somfy integration?

[South Africa C4 user]

3 hours ago, ajd123 said:

Close a blind in the control4 app.  The little icon to the right of the shade controls will show the shade in the down position.  Now open the same blind with the Somfy remote.  The shade will still show up as closed in the Control4 app.  Now try to use the close blind button in the control4 app.  It will not work.

This is correct for most Somfy drivers.

[South Africa C4 user]

3 hours ago, ajd123 said:

Is there any way in Composer Home to check what driver is installed for the Somfy integration?

You should be able to go to the relevant room in Monitoring and see what driver is installed.  

[OceanDad]

Yup.  Just hover over the device (a shade) in Monitoring and you will see some basic driver info.  That will be enough to tell you if you have the Domo driver.  I doubt it, as it's a paid driver ($150?) and most dealers will have used the free driver unless specifically requested to do something else.

[pbir]

13 hours ago, South Africa C4 user said:

If I recall correctly (there is another thread on this somewhere and I have been meaning to play with this forever). The Domosapiens driver. (Not sure which driver you are using) has a command to tell Control4 that the blind is open without actually sending anything to Somfy. @pbir developed the driver and could confirm this.

Programming a close on a schedule can then be done via two commands:

1. Inform Control4 that the blind is open

2. close the blind

Based on my understanding (untested ) this should result in the blind being closed in all instances without opening an already closed blind.

This is correct.

[ajd123]

19 hours ago, pbir said:

This is correct.

Which driver do I need: Somfy Generic RTS and DCT Driver OR Advanced Blind Driver

Will this driver allow communication between the motor and control4 so if someone opens or closes a shade with the Somfy remote, the icon in the Control4 app will update accordingly?

[pbir]

Our Somfy Generic RTS and DCT driver supports the URTSI and should do the trick.

[OceanDad]

5 hours ago, ajd123 said:

Will this driver allow communication between the motor and control4 so if someone opens or closes a shade with the Somfy remote, the icon in the Control4 app will update accordingly?

No - if it's a shade motor that doesn't have 2-way control, then there is no way for the motor to tell C4 that it just moved.  C4 can tell the shade to move, but not the other way around.

[lippavisual]

Can add wireless window sensors to your shades if it becomes too much of an issue.

My suggestion would be to throw away/hide the Somfy remotes and only use C4 for control. 

[rocky350z]

1 hour ago, lippavisual said:

Can add wireless window sensors to your shades if it becomes too much of an issue.

My suggestion would be to throw away/hide the Somfy remotes and only use C4 for control. 

I added keypads into each room with one of the keys for my somfy blinds

[boxpilot]

I have the exact same setup and had the same issues with opening/closing commands. My installer came up with a programming solution that has worked flawless.  In my case I wanted a shade to CLOSE at sunrise. He set a conditional - If the blind is reporting fully closed, command the shade to OPEN. Then a 5 ms delay. Then command to CLOSE. If the condition is reporting the shade OPEN, then a command to CLOSE. 
 

When my shade is already closed I’ll hear a quick bump of the shade motor as it starts up, and then a bump as it closes. At least it works! Hope this helps.

[ajd123]

I thought of a clever way to solve this problem and it seems to be working. The routine below is when I want the scheduler to CLOSE all the blinds at sunset.  In the schedule I have the following string of commands for every blind.  This essentially resets any of the blinds to the open position in C4 so the close blinds command works.  Can anyone see a reason why this might be problematic in the future? 

 

Set the blind target level on Equipment --> Office Blinds to Open

Stop the Equipment --> Office Blinds

Set the blind target level on Equipment --> office Blinds to Close

[boxpilot]

7 hours ago, ajd123 said:

I thought of a clever way to solve this problem and it seems to be working. 

You mean like I recommended to you in the previous post?

[ILoveC4]

On 1/21/2022 at 8:27 AM, rocky350z said:

I added keypads into each room with one of the keys for my somfy blinds

That’s exactly what I do. We NEVER use the Somfy remote. My family doesn’t know where it is or even that it is exists. 

[ajd123]

15 hours ago, boxpilot said:

You mean like I recommended to you in the previous post?

Yes exactly.  Somehow I overlooked your post.  I like the fact that yours is based on conditionals.  I simply just told it to do every blind.  I also used a 250ms delay.  Found that a shorter delay was not as effective.

[ajd123]

1 hour ago, ILoveC4 said:

That’s exactly what I do. We NEVER use the Somfy remote. My family doesn’t know where it is or even that it is exists. 

We already have the somfy handhelds and wall buttons in every room.  While this is a good idea it would require the installation of additional control4 keypads in every room.  It also prevents use of the remotes (which are kept on the night tables) from bed which is how they are used most often.  

[OceanDad]

2 hours ago, ajd123 said:

While this is a good idea it would require the installation of additional control4 keypads in every room.  It also prevents use of the remotes (which are kept on the night tables) from bed which is how they are used most often.  

We use a Lutron Caseta Smartbridge Pro with Pico remotes to overcome this problem with Somfy shades.  Pico comes in a version specifically engraved for shade control, and they are way cheaper than Control4 keypads.  They are also perfect for nightstands, and can be put into a wallplate to look just like a hardwired wall switch.  $15-$30 each for Picos, but you have to buy the hub to begin with, which is around $150.  Driver is free in the database.

 

 

[ajd123]

3 hours ago, OceanDad said:

We use a Lutron Caseta Smartbridge Pro with Pico remotes to overcome this problem with Somfy shades.  Pico comes in a version specifically engraved for shade control, and they are way cheaper than Control4 keypads.  They are also perfect for nightstands, and can be put into a wallplate to look just like a hardwired wall switch.  $15-$30 each for Picos, but you have to buy the hub to begin with, which is around $150.  Driver is free in the database.

 

 

Thanks for the pictures and suggestions.  Since I have an abundance of Somfy wall controls and remotes would hate to let them go to waste.  This is good no now for future projects.  I already have the Pro Bridge since our system is a hybrid of control4 and caseta switches, but don't really feel like retrofitting everything.  I presume the caseta system communicates with control4 so blind position remains accurate in the C4 app?

[OceanDad]

That is correct.  You are basically just using the Pico as a button against which to program an action from the Control4 side.  The Lutron side doesn't have to keep track of anything, as it just issuing a button push to C4.  If you already have the Smartbridge Pro, then I highly recommend this route.