Wooden Shutter Control

[jebundy]

I have never worked with Arduino. So I am looking for some help determining if it is right for a project I'm thinking about.

I have wooden shutters on the window in my office. I am wanting to automate the opening and shutting of the blinds and from looking around it looks like this would be done with the use of a stepper motor, but I am open to suggestions for anyone who has an idea of how best to accomplish this.

Here is my wishlist, let me know if it's completely unrealistic or not.

-I would love the whole thing to be solar powered.
-I have all the lights in my office connected to Home Kit, linked to my location, so they turn on when I arrive at work, and turn off when I leave. I would like the blinds to function the same way. If not home kit, maybe with IFTTT
-There are two blind, and I would like for one system to be able to control both of them. I'm attaching a picture so you can see the setup.

Like I said, I am new to this so any and all help would be greatly appreciated, including items I would need to purchase, the code I would need, how to's, etc.

[Robin2]

Image from Original Post so we don't have to download it. See this Simple Image Guide

...R

PS ... I think the image file is not a valid JPG.

[jebundy]

I got the images fixed. Thanks for the help!

[Robin2]

If you just want to move the slats of the blind through 90° then I reckon a hobby servo would be sufficient and a great deal simpler than a stepper motor. Stepper motors don't "know" where the are so you need to have a HOME switch that the Arduino can use to figure out the zero position. Servos do "know" where they are and all of the electronics is in a neat package that should be easy to install.

(I am assuming it takes very little effort to move the slats.)

...R