Motorized Blinds

Projects General Guidance
1

I have a bunch of venetian blinds in my apartment and I wanted to automate them all to raise and lower together. There are at least 10 sets of blinds in this room all with a pull string. Since I don't own the apartment I can't actually modify the blinds themselves so this method can't be very invasive. I also want this project to be wirelessly accessible and relatively cheap. I was thinking of having a controller node and just chaining all the motors together to start when they get a signal from the controller. However I can't find anyone who really has done this or has a tutorial on how to do such a thing (even just one window).

What I need are suggestions on motors that can pull the strings with enough force to raise these blinds. It also can't be these huge ugly motors they need to be relatively compact and discrete. Any suggestions or links would be appreciated.

Thank You

2

something like this ? The Energy Defender: Arduino Controlled Electric Blinds

3

Depending on your level of electronics skill, you could adapt the link from @steen to use a motor shield to drive the gear motors rather than the custom opto isolated driver approach that the author took.

Alternatively, I would experiment with servos and see if they have enough oomph to switch the blind position.

4

Yeah I want the blinds to go up and down not open and close. Not spin the plastic handle but pull the string down. I've seen a lot of how to automate that but haven't really found anything to open the blinds vertically.

5

If the blinds are heavy, then its not going to be easy. A fairly powerful gearmotor winding the cord around a cylinder might work okay.

Its the kind of project where you will probably need to try a few things out - do some experimenting.

If there is a way to use a counterweight against the weight of the blinds, that will considerably reduce the power of gearmotor required.

6

I suggest a google search like below to reseatch DIY and commercial solutions.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q=home+automation+blinds&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=&as_occt=any&safe=off&tbs=&as_filetype=&as_rights=

7

Whatever you do you are going to have to mount the motors firmly to something, if its not your appartment is that not an issue?

The conterweight idea sounds good and maybe could be made to look like a feature.

One problem I have with blinds is that they always seem to stick or jam on me. Some thought might be needed on how to detect and handle this in the automated system.

8

Hi, there are 12v motors for blinds, shades, window openers, etc over at http://rollertrol.com, they have Arduino interface

-dn

9

They are certainly giving the Arduino a good sales pitch.

If I am understanding the diagrams correctly the motors are directly driving the roller blinds. That would probably be a lot more reliable than trying to operate the blinds by attaching to the cords used for manual operation in some way. However eric91 has venetian blinds (quite a few of them) which he cannot modify so it looks like an interesting product but probably not much use to eric91.