I have a nodered dashboard setup and all zigbee devices communicating via a Conbee II gateway.
I'm about to order some roller blinds and the manufacturer only provides Somfy motors with the blinds.
I can see Somfy supports the Zigbee protocol and they also have their own gateway called "Tahoma" which is fairly expensive.
Has anyone managed to integrate somfy blinds with nodered and the Conbee II? Interested to hear your setup.
On the Conbee II website somfy blinds are not listed on the compatibility list, but neither are a lot of other devices I have successfully connected up.
AFAIK Somfy does not support zigbee out of the box, they have additional hardware available for that. They love their (overpriced) closed systems to sell you more hardware.
If you get their motorized blinds, they will most likely run on Somfy IO (?), for which you will need a tahoma or connexoon box. They also have "RTS" versions, which are controllable via 433Mhz, this is DIY hackable using a RTL-SDR dongle or 433Mhz transmitter for example - without the need for a tahoma.
The 433MHz versions can be controlled via the RFXtrx433E dongle that I have. It has firmware that includes Somfy blinds. Node-RED has Max Hastings's excellent rfxcom nodes to support the dongle.
There's not much info on it however, so I'm not sure if my Conbee II gateway will pick it up. The problem is you cannot buy it before placing an order for an entire house worth of blinds! A costly mistake to make if it doesn't work
After days of research, I think your solution is the best one. Do you mind sharing which dongle you have? Is it this one:
Do you have node red running on linux? If so, do you need to install the dongle some how with some 3rd party software? Or is it just plug in and address it directly via the USB port in node red? I have no problem configuring it on a windows PC.
Do the blinds need to be stopped after initiating a start command (so they don't overshoot)? Or is functionality this built into the somfy motors themselves?
Also, can you still use the conventional somfy remote in parallel with the dongle?
The other option is the Connexoon, but the only way I can find out how to integrate that with nodered is via IFTTT which would rely on an internet connection, which I am not a fan of.
Seems to be the same one - weird that they call it a bridge though. It has nothing to do with Vera or Z-Wave. It is a pure 433MHz transeiver with custom firmware to make sense of many different manufacturers protocols.
It has drivers for both Windows and Linux - probably Mac as well. It is just a USB device and so simply plugs in. I do indeed use it on Linux. I had it on a Pi for years and moved it to an old Lenovo Thinkpad laptop which is now my home automation server about a year ago.
Thanks for the replies. I think the safest bet will be to purchase the RFXtrx433E and set it up with the blinds. Will be interested to hear if anyone has actually done this and what problems they potentially encountered. The problem I have is I can’t test it without purchasing the blinds and the blinds are $20,000, which doesn’t include the electrical wiring that needs to be installed. A costly mistake if I get it wrong haha
node-red-contrib-rfxcom developer Max (not Hastings!) here. I can confirm that you can use node-RED to control Somfy 'RFY' or 'RTS' type blind motors with 434 MHz receivers using the RFXCOM RFXtrx433E or RFXtrx433XL transceiver modules. They have a USB 2 interface, which uses an FTDI chip to implement a 'virtual' serial port. Windows, Linux, and macOS/OS X all have drivers built in, nothing extra to download. You can run Node-RED on any of these operating systems, and the node-red-contrib-rfxcom will find the transceiver and connect to it, so long as you tell it the correct com port or /dev file. There is a script provided to search all serial ports for transceivers, but it is generally easier to look through the operating system's list of serial ports to find the one that appears when you plug the transceiver in.
I don't have Somfy blinds myself, but I know there are node-red-contrib-rfxcom users who do, and with success. As far as I know, you can use the conventional remote in parallel with the transceiver - it's just another remote control as far as the blinds motors are aware. It is paired with the motors in a similar way to a normal remote, as described here. (you can transmit the program command by sending a message to the rfx-blinds-out node with payload of 'program')
You can send stop command from node-RED, but as far as I know you don't have to, the blinds will stop in the fully up or down position automatically.
You don't need an Internet connection - it's all local to the machine that is connected to the transceiver.
Note that node-red-contrib-rfxcom is actually a wrapper round node-rfxcom: a general-purpose node.js package of which I am also maintainer and main developer
As an alternative - if you go for the non wireless somfy blinds then you can simply use a shelly or sonoff mini in parallel with the wall switch.
On two of our blinds as they were not RTS we went this way and it works perfectly, the other blind is RTS and we went for the SDR 433 Mhz route - it also works.
Thanks for the response, I have about 25 blinds that I need to control, so I think it would be more cost effective to go down the road with the RTS protocol.
Out of curiosity, are non-RTS blinds some what smart? Or do you need to ensure your program with the Shelly switch stops the blind before it overshoots?
With that many, and with unknown distance between them, well, uncertain how the radio signal will reach them all with guarantee !?
Personally I have the German brand ELERO and they use a mesh network, means that the blind motors "talks to each other" if they are paired together. When I send up/down/stop I am guaranteed it works and so far it has, now for years. So if possible, I would try to select a solution that uses this kind of mesh technic. ZigBee is also such and is said to be used by Somfy in Asia and in the North America
Hang on - have you already got the blinds - i was under the impression you were getting them.
You will save a fair amount per blind by not going with the wireless option and instead going with the Shelly or Sonoff Mini - put that towards a good Mesh WIFI network for the house and you will have it covered.
Yes they have all the usual Sonoff smarts - pre set stops, limits etc.
No I haven't purchased the blinds yet, but needed to figure this out now as I'm about to wire the house up.
I've read Somfy RTS can span up to 60ft. There's no spec on the RFXtrx433XL, but looking at the large aerial it comes with, hopefully it's more than that? I cannot find any published data on this.
The furthest blind I have is about 20m away albeit there's one wall to navigate through.
I've purchased a few Shelly's and intend on using them, they're great devices. The problem is if I ever decide to rent or sell the house, I would have to give them my node red dashboard in order to control the blinds heh. With RTS, you can buy a standalone remote so that the blinds have no reliance on a home automation system.
Might it be worth running an active powered USB extension cable and having two RFX units such that the max length is <15m?
Installing this equipment only to find out half the blinds are out of range would be a disaster
I can't comment on the blinds but I've been using the RFXtrx433E for some years. It's range is pretty good - bearing in mind that I'm not using it with anything else that has an external aerial - but I'd say no more than 10-15m. At least in an old house like ours.
If you get 2 RFX's, I guess you could get Powerline, and USB over Ethernet adaptors.
In theory, it looks like you can replace the XL's USB interface with an Ethernet interface. Not sure if there is much supporting info for it though.
10-15m ? Is that what you’ve found? I just emailed the manufacturer and they said the range will be at least that of the somfy rts remote, so 65ft. Right on the cusp of my furtherest blind.
Probably best to run some conduits then use usb to Ethernet adaptors or active usb cables to position a few around the place just in case signal is not strong enough.
