[Hai-users] Somfy blind control

[Dan Hoehnen]

There must be different Somfy motors and/or motor controller boards.  My
controller board is a DC5, but I'm not sure yet what the blind motors are.
The DC5 gives a constant +24vdc or -24vdc, depending on whether I pulse the
UP or DOWN inputs for less than .5 seconds.  If I give a contact closure to
the UP or DOWN inputs that lasts longer then .5 seconds, the DC5 outputs
start pulsing either +24 or -24vdc.  So, I'm not sure that with my Somfy
hardware a 1 second pulse will even make the blinds go up or down.  It may
just start them tilting.  I'll have blinds to play with next week and then
I'll know for sure.

I love your 10 relay solution for 8 blinds.  I assume you used the extra 1
or 2 relays to route the ground wire to the blinds you wanted to control.
Thus, you first set the "selection" relays, then the other relays control
the selected bank of blinds.  Is this correct?  I'll sketch up a schematic
and see how it looks.

The only drawback I see with this idea is that there are no Somfy control
keypads in the house.  There are only UPB lighting keypads (this was a
customer driven requirement - they have wall-switch-plate-phobia).  With
your approach, if the husband was controlling a set of blinds, it's possible
that the wife would not be able to control another set of blinds at the same
time.  This would not be common, and could be solved with training.  But,
the first time it happens guess who is getting a phone call?  I will give it
some more thought.  We are going over the final design next week and so this
may still work.  I will certainly remember this idea for future projects.

Thanks,
Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Golden [mailto:MrGolden at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 9:36 AM
To: 'Dan Hoehnen'; hai-users at tssi.com
Subject: RE: [Hai-users] Somfy blind control

Dan,

I've used an OmniPro II to control Somfy contact-closure inputs.  The
installation had shades which only used Up/Down (no tilt), but they worked
fine.  I don't remember the exact Somfy part number, but I'm sure they're
all the same, in that regard.

Through some "creative wiring", I was also able to control up *and* down for
eight shades with only ten relays (not 16).

For the UPB problem, you could use an "intermediate" controller, such as a
Crestron QM-RMC, or maybe even an Ocelot, to interpret the keypads' UPB
messages, then trigger the appropriate Omni outputs...



-----Original Message-----
From: hai-users-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:hai-users-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of Dan Hoehnen
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 5:50 AM
To: hai-users at tssi.com
Subject: RE: [Hai-users] Somfy blind control

Thanks Larry.  I had thought of this, but I have 15 blinds, each requiring 2
relays (1 for up and 1 for down).  There are also 4 master UP/DOWN contacts,
adding 8 more relays.  This brings the total to 38 relays needed.  Since I
need the relays to close for either 200ms or 700ms, this would get too
complicated.

The answer is going to be to use IR (by adding an Ocelot), or use a
different controller.

I have been fighting using IR partly because I want to keep everything in 1
box, and partly because I'm not sure if the Ocelot can send the signals in
the way needed.  I do have a Somfy IR interface on order just so I can try
it and see.  

But, in the end, it looks like the Omni won't work due to UPB limitations.
I need to control the blinds from UPB lighting keypads.  The keypads are
programmed to send various UPB messages, such as FADE and GOTO in order to
control the blinds.  The Omni can't currently respond to these messages.  In
fairness, if I had enough keypad buttons available, I could assign a
different LINK message to each button and this would work.  But, it would
require several buttons per blind and I don't have that many buttons
available in all rooms.  I want to control each blind with 1 button (up/down
and tilt open/close), which requires the goto and fade messages to be used. 

Thanks to everyone for your replies.  I hope to become a regular poster here
after lurking for a very long time.  

Regards,
Dan