New AutoView Z-Wave Somfy Motors from Bali

[jbonzey]

I got mine at blindsaver.com
I selected Bali DiamondCell Double Cell Light Filtering Shades then when you go in to  - customize and buy - step 4 makes you select how to control them and - autoview motorization - is an option

Also as an FYI it comes by default with a little remote for the specific shade so you don?t need to buy the single channel remote they have as an option.

[waltzer11]

I am not cheap but i consider myself a smart buyer. so I did comparative shopping for about 2-3 months comparing prices: BlindSaver.com, Blinds.com, Costco, Home Depot, Lowes, American Blinds and probably 2 more stores. I ended up buying from Blindsaver.com 9 Autoview Bali roller shades for $2150.48. I don't mind waiting for a long time. I will do it again this winter holidays. I don't want to bother with replacing batteries so I bought all with transformer. It came out to $318.59 per shade

[integlikewhoa]

I am not cheap but i consider myself a smart buyer. so I did comparative shopping for about 2-3 months comparing prices: BlindSaver.com, Blinds.com, Costco, Home Depot, Lowes, American Blinds and probably 2 more stores. I ended up buying from Blindsaver.com 9 Autoview Bali roller shades for $2150.48. I don't mind waiting for a long time. I will do it again this winter holidays. I don't want to bother with replacing batteries so I bought all with transformer. It came out to $318.59 per shade

Depending on the material and size, with no batteries 318 seems like a normal price at HomeDepot. Bali was just 30% off two weeks ago. I spend around 350 for Black out 3/8" double cell with batteries. I think it was like 20-30 cheaper without batteries.

[waltzer11]

$318.59 each shade (9 of them) 31-1/2" W x 65-1/4"H; light filtering roller shades, Estevan collection, color: Boutique including Valance. Total for the 9 shades $2867.31 less discount of $716.83 = $2150.48, no tax. At that time everyone else are more expensive including Home Depot. It's worth investing time to shop around. just my 2 cents.

[ojovilla]

I have had these for about 2 years now. Blindsaver was the cheapest , they are all distributors as the original manufacturer is springwindowfashions . I started off with energizer lithium batteries , but realized that would be expensive , I also tried some rechargeable lithum (12v) batteries from a brand called (Sorbo) , they work quite well with a usb charging interface. I eventually decided to hardwire , cost me about 80 bucks for all components for 8 blinds giving the right Volts and Amps to each blind.

I can share components if anyones interested.

[oldtown]

How would one hardwire the motor? I'm gutting out sunroom and want to get the electrician to pre-wire the windows to accommodate the motor.

[maja]

I got some of these blinds and I am trying to wire them up to a 12V power supply to replace the power packs (which I never intended to use). So what I did is removing the batteries and just leave the open case that is mounted between the blinds and window. I then hooked up the negative of the power supply to the negative on that open case (where the negative of the batteries would go). The positive of the power supply was connected to the positive on that open case. So basically I replaced the batteries with the power supply but still using the power pack setup. So far so good. Everything works.

I know wanted to remove the entire battery pack and not just the batteries. So I disconnected the USB cable that comes from the motor and the USB cable that comes from the battery pack. Then I took a 'charger' USB cable and connected that to the USB cable of the motor. Then I hooked up the power supply to the other cut off part of the 'charger' USB cable. However, the motor doesn't butch. Reversing polarity didn't help and I know the motor wasn't damaged because when I hook it up to the battery pack again it works.

So somehow that 'charger' USB cable is messing something up. This cable has just two conductors as it is meant to only fast charge Android devices (no data) using two thicker power conductors. So that really just leaves two possible conclusions. Either that 'charger' cable is somehow messed up or Somfy uses some proprietary connection, maybe combining two pins for positive and two pins for negative or something different altogether. Does anybody know how the Somfy USB cables/connectors are wired up?

[maja]

Ok, never mind. I took a really cheap micro USB cable, cut it apart and hooked up the red wire to positive and the black wire to negative (can be confusing because for 120V circuits black is line/120V and white is neutral). It worked without a problem. So the culprit is that $3.5 charger cable from ebay.

Having said that, the cheap cable has super thin power wires. I can keep the resistance low by keeping the wire short but I am still concerned. Does anybody have recommendations for a good USB cable, possibly just a two conductor cable to provide power?

[Don Phillips]

You can probably get some 18 or 20 gauge cord at Radio Shack.

[maja]

I have a good selection of wires but that's not the problem. The wires going to the blinds are 16/4 wires. Trying to solder two 16AWG wires to two micro USB connector pins positioned very closely to each other is the challenge. So I just want to get a micro USB cable, cut it and then solder the USB's internal power cables to my 16 AWG cables. It's kind of hard to find the appropriate cable.

Having said that, it seems the motors use less than 1A but can peak to about 2A when starting up. In any case, even if moving the shades up takes like 10-20s you are not challenging the cable for a long time (like charging a cellular phone for 30 minutes to 2 hours). So just look for a USB cable that supports 2A charging (most fast charging USB cables do). If you want to go overboard or don't trust specs then just go for a cable that supports 2.4A charging. This far exceeds the demand for 2A peak charge for less than 1 second and less than 20-40s of 1A to move the motor.

[Darrenrex]

Lund Alaskan. Comes in 16,18,and 20. Tiller or side console. You buying new or used?


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