Hello folks,
my local window manufacturer could provide me Somfy IO rollershutter motors and he asked me which RF system I would choose. But I don’t know.
I will get only 6 rollershutters, that’s it. And I’m not planning to buy any other Somfy devices.
None of them is truely “best”, they’re either unreliable, proprietary, or both. And you don’t need and should not want to have another technology for these. Get ZWave actuators instead.
None of them (not because of openHAB, but because of Somfy). I have Somfy in my outside awnings and I ended up soldering wires to the remote and attaching relays to them.
Ask him to change the offer (motors only, no RF) or even no motors, then get yourself cheap motors just as @sihui suggests. But make sure they have a switchoff function at 0% and 100%. Jalousiescout is a reasonable source.
I have 2 Somfy controlled blinds and use an RFXTRX433XL, connected via USB to my OH2 Raspberry Pi. Haven’t had any problems with it. Also have them working via Alexa, which is handy.
My problem is, that the rollershutters will be mounted in a cassette in front of the windows. (= in german: Vorbaurollladen) .The manufacturer provides only a complete package.
You can control with TaHoma: RTS and io-homecontrol
With Connexoon: io-homecontrol
With rfxtrx433e and URTSI II: RTS
Now my problem: I have also Z-Wave (868,42 MHz) and Max! Cube (868,33 MHz).
I fear that 6 further Z-Wave devices could cause more interferences with Max!Cube. And io-homecontrol could cause interferences with Z-Wave. So RTS will be left, but this is only unidirectional, so no exact positioning will be possible.
First, I concur with @sihui and @mstormi . Ask your dealer to provide you with something that is open. And not “open” in the sense that “you can use your iPad with it” (o-ton Somfy dealer ).
And whatever you put into your walls, get something that is bi-directional, meaning, that the rollershutters and awnings can be queried and will tell you how far they are extended.
I started with Somfy motors a looooong time ago (15 years, house automation for private persons was not really a topic back then) . Even since the last four years, I try to get them to talk properly to OpenHAB. Even with the somfytahoma binding and the official hardware bridge, the upstream servers of Somfy are unreliable as hell.
I too have the problem that my awnings and rollershutters are integrated in the walls so removing and exchanging for something that plays nicely with zwave would be preferable but unfortunately is too costly at the moment.
Long story short: Don’t make my mistake, don’t get Somfy hardware.
I have Somfy RTS here, too. At this time somfy offers base stations which could talk to your motor-receivers. If these are easy to integrate, I don´t no. And they are not that cheap.
If you are into soldering and programming a bit, you could integrate RTS unidirectional.
I used an ESP microcontroller and a 433mhz serial board. As somfy is using 433 mhz with a little offset, I also bought a chrystal from ebay (china).
Regarding the protocol and sample code, a good starting point is:
Finaly I connect both with mqtt.
With this solution I can send commands to the motors, but I don´t receive there actual state. It is not 100% reliable, but for ~10-15€ it fit my needs.
If you have any more questions feel free to contact me. PM in german is also ok.
Don’t know. My impression is that all motors on the market are more or less the same in terms of reliability: they’re fine but after years of operation they suddenly start failing at an extraordinarily high rate.
Don’t know that particular one, but in general do NOT get “electronic” but electromechanical ones.
Less electronics - less failures. The intelligence (e.g. to calibrate) will be in the actuators and OH anyway.
I have about 10 somfy RTS battery powered rollers. No issues so far, over a 2 to 3 year period.
The main downside as others have pointed out is that the RTS communications is unidirectional. I cannot get the current state of the blinds, and have to trust whatever my openHAB item says.
Also occasionally commands get missed by one or other blind. So for example, I have a rule that closes blinds at sunset (assuming windows are closed). Every so often, one or other blind seems to ignore the close command. To overcome this, I send the close commands twice with a few minutes gap between them. Overall, the Somfy motors are ok.
If I was doing it again, I would evaluate alternative options that do give full two-way communications, via an open system.
I can’t speak for other solutions, but I’ve got 21 Somfy external shutters with RTS radio, and a RFXTRX433e stuck in a downstairs cupboard.
With openHAB, they work 100%, 100% of the time.
They are over ten years old now.
(When I close them all at once, I have a rule that adds a short-delay between operation of each shutter).
One needs re-programming with it’s Somfy remote though and I need to remove the power from this one which isn’t easy as it’s difficult to reach the plug/socket next to the motor.
However, isn’t RTS old technology to replaced by IO?
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