[Hai-users] Somfy blind control

[Dan Hoehnen]

Thanks for the detail.  I'll try it this weekend.  It actually isn't as
limiting as I first thought.  I could use your technique in each room, which
would allow people in different rooms to operate blinds at the same time.  I
was originally thinking to do it for all blinds in the house, which would
give the largest reduction in relays used, but doing it on a room basis
still helps a lot.  

I also have the ability to give visual feedback on the UPB keypads, so this
is another good idea.  

Thanks again Tony.

Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: hai-users-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:hai-users-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of Dan Hoehnen
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 6:31 AM
To: hai-users at tssi.com
Subject: RE: [Hai-users] Somfy blind control

[snip]
> 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.

I connected the "Up" wires from *all* the blinds to one relay's NO terminal,
and all the "Down" wires to the NO of a second relay.  The "Common" of each
blind went to the NO terminals of corresponding relays.  The C terminals of
these relays were connected to the C of the other two.

In operation, a blind's relay is activated to "select" it (connecting it's C
to the Up/Down relays), then the Up or Down relay is pulsed.  It's also
possible to use a single relay for the Up/Down functions.


> 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.

That's true, although I agree the scenario is probably unlikely.  

In my particular installation, the users controlled the shades with Crestron
touchpanels, which can be programmed to give visual or audible notification
that another operation was already in progress.  The same could also be done
with their keypads...