Great video Mark. Just installed my second one today to tilt my horizontal lounge blinds. I was very impressed by the first one on my mancave roller blind. The integration with my deConz stick works great (just add as a light and it detects it as a cover). I've added them to my sunrise and sunset automations. Currently about £47 and being black friday I stocked up on some more Aqara sensors.
TOP MAN and top review of the controller! I just love your work (all reviews and tutorials). I am using rf device to control my verticals atm, it is synched with Sonoff RF bridge and HA Node Red automations but it is a bit patchy due to no state recording. I managed to get it work for 95% of the time, but you defo convinced me to move over to this Aqara controller! Keep up the good work.
I have 3 of these. Two work well but the third keeps dropping off, if you press a button on the device it wakes up fine and reconnects to Home Assistant. You can stop the blind at any point by pressing the button again
Thanks for the review Mark! You mentioned that you need an Aqara Zigbee 3.0 Hub, and I think you showed the Aqara Smart Home Zentrale M2, which is around 60 euros in Amazon. I've found another option, the Aqara Hub E1, which costs around 30 euros. Would the latter be enough for the purpose of controlling several Aqara Roller Drivers with Alexa?
Absolutely right about the adjustment on the zemismart, that template makes no allowance for the distance of the cord from the wall to the cog the micro adjustment is very useful. Think I’ll pick one of these up though as need a couple more and who wants just one standard throughout the house 😂
Hi All, I just bought this roller shade driver but I found it really slow ! Do you know any similar product which will be at least 2x faster (rotation speed) ?
Hi I saw you using it with blind with string, is it working well? My blind is string type too. I asked the aqara seller but was told only beaded cord is supported.
I think Aqara doesn't officially support the string blinds but with my old string blinds it worked perfectly fine just with the default attachments. Ive seen people 3D printing attachments to also help with the strengthz
One thing not mentioned is how you can use it with a metal bead chain that has a connector in the middle to join the two ends. The blind has a sealed cog wheel which the connector cannot pass through. The smart blind device has a cog that the connector also cannot pass through. The length of the chain between both cogs is not enough to fully open and close the blinds and it's already at the lowest part of the window recess. How do you solve that?
Hello Mark, if you have a Conbee II / DeConz set up, are you saying that to get the Roller Shade Driver to operate with H.A. you have to use the M2 Smart Hub. If that is the case, is there a mechanism to find out when the Driver will be compatible with the Conbee II / DEConz in the same way as the Water sensor, the Door and Window sensor, etc. (Mine are working sweetly, by the way)
The best place to check would just be Google or checking the deConz repo pull requests and issues on GitHub to be honest. I stopped following it as I have been doing testing with ZHA and Zigbee2Mqtt for a comparison video in the future.
I’m currently having issues with this using a conbee II and ZHA. I can lower the motor and stop motors but can not open the motor on home assistant. Any suggestions to why this would be?
Hi. One of the reasons I didn't get this was because my blinds are using a non-beaded cable. But, I saw that your are using this E1 on a non-beaded cable too! Does it work well? Mine blinds cable is just a 4mm nylon-ish string. Looks like the same as yours.
It does work with both but I think it’s primarily designed with beads in mind. I haven’t had any issues and you get a few different cogs to try. Also if your a 3D printer user/owner I’ve seen a few people create some custom cogs for set blinds. Hope that helps :)
I tried to find this in the US as I've bought some other Aqara products and was impressed but I can't find it anywhere. Is this not distributed to the USA? I'll be in the UK in August (my house there is currently an AirBNB rental) ... also wondering if global supply chain issues or anything else is delaying shipments there.
What about using this for tilt only rather than using the string using the chain only ... How much would this increase baterry ? I never open my blinds fully as you did just do them 90/45/0 .. Also do you have any automations in HA for the aqara ?
You can attatch them to the tilt string (if its a string) it's what I actually did (see the zemismart video). I just attatched it to the open one for a viual effect for the video. I wouldn't usually open them all the way :) The battery on these things last for ages! Using it for tilt would deffinetly give you more tilts than open/closes. They are very simple to charge via USB power banks or solar panels though. In HA I just had an automation that opened and closed the blinds at set times in the morning and in the evening.
@@MarkWattTech just bought 2 aqara at an £45 quid offer .. they work great .. now I'm going to start working on some nice automations such as when my son tells Alexa to open Netflix .. to close the blinds as there's light reflecting into the screen . Also many other ! Worth all the money ! Thanks
Another great video. I really want to get these for my new house. I only have HA but have seen a lot of people have had their up arrows in HA greyed out. I saw in your video it was the same. Have you had an issues with HA and the E1 motor?
The driver remembers the positions. You can set them on the driver and then it knows 😎. A bit like the Zemismart one and others. You can also add it straight into HomeKit which I didn’t mention.
Heya. You could still pull the cord but you would also then have to pull it round the blind gears. You could use the physical buttons on the blind too.
@@MarkWattTech yes of course, usong the buttons would be the best but just in case someone who is not awate of them or so… or also if it ran out of battery. Its a bit of a pitty having that small battery, it runs at 7V but eventhough🤷🏻♂️. They coild have used some 18650 in series.
Managed to get one of these when they first came out but then found it was not (yet) compatable with Deconz (I'm running Deconz with a Combee II) . I have over 50 Zigbee devices so don't want the hassle of changing to ZHA.. Perhaps a silly question but can you run deconz and ZHA concurrently with the same Zigbee co-ordinator?
You can’t have both at the same time unfortunately. The other option would be to set it up via the HomeKit controller. I imagine DeConz will get an update for it soon enough though. For some testing I recently switched from DeConz to ZHA (also with Conbee II) and it’s deffo a few hours work. ZHA seems to get devices quicker and also offers extra functionality with some devices.
I have another string that controls de angle of the slats (vertical blind slat). Is it able to control that too? Do i need two in that case for one blind? One that sets the angle of the slats and one that opens and closes the blind?
For this particular one it's designed for just one chain/string so you would need two separate ones. I've only seen one model (some kind of Tuya based motor) that allowed two chains/cords to be attached and independently controlled.
Nice one, Mark. I'm implementing this as we speak. Although it is slightly off topic, have you done anything on Energy Management? I'd be interested in your views.
Hey David. I have soo much energy stuff planned but it’s all shelved till I move! After the big move though, expect plenty of diy energy monitors, out of the box solutions and more!
Hi Mark, Do you know what the weight limit is? I've just installed new blinds and they are really heavy and long (2.9 meters). I really want to automate them but i am not sure if driver can handle them. If not i am going to try to diy it based on ESP home :) Thank you for your video! Marc
@@MarkWattTech is there a way to test this? I was thinking the same thing. Possible test method - using a luggage scale hook scale to measure the tension needed to pull a string blind then seeing if the aqara can handle it. increase the tension bit by bit (somehow).
Thanks really appreciate it. If you head over to www.buymeacoffee.com/markwatttech You should see a panel on the right that says membership by default. Just to the right of that you will see a support option which will allow the caffeine to flow :P
Heya. It basically works on a "time" based state. You set your open and close position and it then just uses that time and spins that amount of time (if that makes sense). So if it takes 3 seconds to close after the 3 seconds it will assume its closed. Hope that makes sense :)
@@MarkWattTech I heard it the first time and was confused, then you kept saying it haha! Greet vid though. Glad these are in the UK now, they seem quite well priced too
Great video Mark. Just installed my second one today to tilt my horizontal lounge blinds. I was very impressed by the first one on my mancave roller blind. The integration with my deConz stick works great (just add as a light and it detects it as a cover). I've added them to my sunrise and sunset automations. Currently about £47 and being black friday I stocked up on some more Aqara sensors.
Hello, i have a Big blind ( 2.5 per 4 Meyer high) would this be able to control it ?
These are great. Have three working on a schedule in HA. Only issue is the string joiner can cause a little slippage and I can run with the cover on.
Also just got some aqara light switches.. again good equipment with native HA control
I came here b/c of a recommendation from Reed at Smart Home Solver. I subscribed b/c of the Paul Hibbert cameo. 😆
lol.. i was waiting for the home assistant thrusts.. it's legendary !! lol great video mark.. as always..
I had to do it 🤣
I just wanted to applaud the use of the Paul Hibbert Hoooooooooooome assistant thrust! Nice video, too :)
Had to be done 🤣. Thank you!
I dont understand, so what can I use it in apple homekit without that Aqara Hub??
TOP MAN and top review of the controller! I just love your work (all reviews and tutorials). I am using rf device to control my verticals atm, it is synched with Sonoff RF bridge and HA Node Red automations but it is a bit patchy due to no state recording. I managed to get it work for 95% of the time, but you defo convinced me to move over to this Aqara controller! Keep up the good work.
I have 3 of these. Two work well but the third keeps dropping off, if you press a button on the device it wakes up fine and reconnects to Home Assistant. You can stop the blind at any point by pressing the button again
Thanks for the review Mark! You mentioned that you need an Aqara Zigbee 3.0 Hub, and I think you showed the Aqara Smart Home Zentrale M2, which is around 60 euros in Amazon. I've found another option, the Aqara Hub E1, which costs around 30 euros. Would the latter be enough for the purpose of controlling several Aqara Roller Drivers with Alexa?
Absolutely right about the adjustment on the zemismart, that template makes no allowance for the distance of the cord from the wall to the cog the micro adjustment is very useful. Think I’ll pick one of these up though as need a couple more and who wants just one standard throughout the house 😂
This one actually fits onto the Zemismart wall plate funnily enough :P
Hi All, I just bought this roller shade driver but I found it really slow ! Do you know any similar product which will be at least 2x faster (rotation speed) ?
I have a similar product by Livolo, but I watched this anyway because I'm enjoying your channel so much :) great explanations and editing. keep it up!
Awesome! Thank you! Plenty more to come :)
Hi I saw you using it with blind with string, is it working well? My blind is string type too. I asked the aqara seller but was told only beaded cord is supported.
I think Aqara doesn't officially support the string blinds but with my old string blinds it worked perfectly fine just with the default attachments. Ive seen people 3D printing attachments to also help with the strengthz
Thanks! I have 2 of them sitting on my table for weeks, I shall try them next few days.
One thing not mentioned is how you can use it with a metal bead chain that has a connector in the middle to join the two ends. The blind has a sealed cog wheel which the connector cannot pass through. The smart blind device has a cog that the connector also cannot pass through. The length of the chain between both cogs is not enough to fully open and close the blinds and it's already at the lowest part of the window recess. How do you solve that?
I never used Home Assistant and I don't want to buy a Hub, can you use the product without a physical hub?
Amazon Review says it's now Matter compatible. Maybe you already have a Matter hub?
Nope I don't :/ can I install Home Assistant on a virtual machine and use it to configure the Smart Blind?
Hello Mark, if you have a Conbee II / DeConz set up, are you saying that to get the Roller Shade Driver to operate with H.A. you have to use the M2 Smart Hub. If that is the case, is there a mechanism to find out when the Driver will be compatible with the Conbee II / DEConz in the same way as the Water sensor, the Door and Window sensor, etc. (Mine are working sweetly, by the way)
The best place to check would just be Google or checking the deConz repo pull requests and issues on GitHub to be honest. I stopped following it as I have been doing testing with ZHA and Zigbee2Mqtt for a comparison video in the future.
I’m currently having issues with this using a conbee II and ZHA. I can lower the motor and stop motors but can not open the motor on home assistant. Any suggestions to why this would be?
Hi. One of the reasons I didn't get this was because my blinds are using a non-beaded cable.
But, I saw that your are using this E1 on a non-beaded cable too! Does it work well?
Mine blinds cable is just a 4mm nylon-ish string. Looks like the same as yours.
It does work with both but I think it’s primarily designed with beads in mind. I haven’t had any issues and you get a few different cogs to try.
Also if your a 3D printer user/owner I’ve seen a few people create some custom cogs for set blinds.
Hope that helps :)
@@MarkWattTech Thank you!!
I tried to find this in the US as I've bought some other Aqara products and was impressed but I can't find it anywhere. Is this not distributed to the USA? I'll be in the UK in August (my house there is currently an AirBNB rental) ... also wondering if global supply chain issues or anything else is delaying shipments there.
I think this one is global but there has been stock issues. When it launched it was impossible to get a hold of.
How well does it handle heaven wide blinds?
What about using this for tilt only rather than using the string using the chain only ... How much would this increase baterry ? I never open my blinds fully as you did just do them 90/45/0 ..
Also do you have any automations in HA for the aqara ?
You can attatch them to the tilt string (if its a string) it's what I actually did (see the zemismart video). I just attatched it to the open one for a viual effect for the video. I wouldn't usually open them all the way :)
The battery on these things last for ages! Using it for tilt would deffinetly give you more tilts than open/closes. They are very simple to charge via USB power banks or solar panels though.
In HA I just had an automation that opened and closed the blinds at set times in the morning and in the evening.
@@MarkWattTech just bought 2 aqara at an £45 quid offer .. they work great .. now I'm going to start working on some nice automations such as when my son tells Alexa to open Netflix .. to close the blinds as there's light reflecting into the screen . Also many other ! Worth all the money !
Thanks
Could I automate the roller shades directly with Homeassistant without the hub (I use sonoff USB dongle and Zigbee2MQTT)?
You can yes :)
Another great video. I really want to get these for my new house. I only have HA but have seen a lot of people have had their up arrows in HA greyed out. I saw in your video it was the same. Have you had an issues with HA and the E1 motor?
In my video it was due to them being so new. Since then they are now supported and are working well :)
At 06:44, I noticed your "up" button on HA is greyed out. I'm having the same issue. Was it temporary for you?
Heya. This was a long while back. Adding this via Zigbee2Mqtt using a Sonoff Dongle has no issues for me anymore.
Hey Mark, can you buy the E1 without having to get the hub? I’d rather just use it via Google Home or Apple HomeKit
You can pair them directly to a Zigbee coordinator. All the positioning settings etc can be done on the unit without the Aqara hub.
Do I need to get the Aqara hub to use the automation function or I can do it on the App?
You can independently set the limits on the device without the hub. The instruction manual that comes with it explains it in detail :)
Hi. Great video. I have Philips hue hub at home. Any chance it will work together? Thanks
Unfortunately I don’t think the Hue hub allows any devices other than Hue or “friends of Hue” branded devices to be paired to it.
@@MarkWattTech Ok. Thank you
Hey Matt! If you don't use their hub, how do you set the stop positions?
The driver remembers the positions. You can set them on the driver and then it knows 😎. A bit like the Zemismart one and others.
You can also add it straight into HomeKit which I didn’t mention.
@@MarkWattTech Oh, so it can be setup all by itself? That is neat. Most stuff I have need a stupid app to be setup.
@@JonnyBergdahl even some of my apps need app for setup 😁
I have apps that have an app for their app
@@dpn1604 Yeah, I have been looking for that for several years. I haven't found anything.
hi! lovely video, only a question, is there the possibility to still use the shades manually?
thanks a lot!
Heya. You could still pull the cord but you would also then have to pull it round the blind gears. You could use the physical buttons on the blind too.
@@MarkWattTech yes of course, usong the buttons would be the best but just in case someone who is not awate of them or so… or also if it ran out of battery. Its a bit of a pitty having that small battery, it runs at 7V but eventhough🤷🏻♂️. They coild have used some 18650 in series.
Managed to get one of these when they first came out but then found it was not (yet) compatable with Deconz (I'm running Deconz with a Combee II) . I have over 50 Zigbee devices so don't want the hassle of changing to ZHA.. Perhaps a silly question but can you run deconz and ZHA concurrently with the same Zigbee co-ordinator?
You can’t have both at the same time unfortunately.
The other option would be to set it up via the HomeKit controller. I imagine DeConz will get an update for it soon enough though.
For some testing I recently switched from DeConz to ZHA (also with Conbee II) and it’s deffo a few hours work. ZHA seems to get devices quicker and also offers extra functionality with some devices.
@@MarkWattTech Am I right in thinking you need an Aqara hub to use it with Homekit?
I have another string that controls de angle of the slats (vertical blind slat). Is it able to control that too? Do i need two in that case for one blind? One that sets the angle of the slats and one that opens and closes the blind?
For this particular one it's designed for just one chain/string so you would need two separate ones.
I've only seen one model (some kind of Tuya based motor) that allowed two chains/cords to be attached and independently controlled.
Great video Matt, as always! Liked to comparison with alternative driver.
Special Easter egg in this one for you Mr Tinky. Did you spot it? 😂 ( 9:44 )
@@MarkWattTech missed it completely - even with time stamp had to rewatch it few times🤣 Thanks!!!!
@@BeardedTinker 🤣🤙🏻
I can't now hear 'Home Assistant' and not think of Paul Hibbert... HOME ASSISTANT!!!!!
Nice video. I wish that somebody does the same but for the venetian blinds (the ones with 3 cords)
I'm actually looking into some Venetian blind solutions at the minute. I will be sure to share something if it ticks all the boxes :)
@@MarkWattTech That will be really interesting.
Nice one, Mark. I'm implementing this as we speak. Although it is slightly off topic, have you done anything on Energy Management? I'd be interested in your views.
Hey David. I have soo much energy stuff planned but it’s all shelved till I move! After the big move though, expect plenty of diy energy monitors, out of the box solutions and more!
@@MarkWattTech Thank you, Mark. I look forward to it. Take care with the move.
Hey Mark, can you tilt the horizontal blinds with this driver?
You can yes. I do that in my Zemismart blind video (similar design and function).
Hi Mark,
Do you know what the weight limit is?
I've just installed new blinds and they are really heavy and long (2.9 meters). I really want to automate them but i am not sure if driver can handle them.
If not i am going to try to diy it based on ESP home :)
Thank you for your video!
Marc
Hey Marc. Unfortunately I don’t sorry. I couldn’t find anything specified on the Aqara site or in the manual.
@@MarkWattTech is there a way to test this? I was thinking the same thing.
Possible test method - using a luggage scale hook scale to measure the tension needed to pull a string blind then seeing if the aqara can handle it. increase the tension bit by bit (somehow).
@@jasonwebber2674 UPDATE- just spoken with Aqara. They recommended using the driver with blinds under 3KG. Hope that helps :)
Update - Aqara recommend using the driver with blinds under the weight of 3KG. Hope that helps :)
I am looking to get a few of these motors. however im using DeConz.. does anyone know if there is a work around?
I would like to do automated blinds but.... the price of them for what they do... I just can't justify it!
These will deffo be on some kind of promo at some point :)
P.S. I tried to "buy you a coffee" I can't see the woods for the trees. It is my first time. How do you do it?
Thanks really appreciate it. If you head over to www.buymeacoffee.com/markwatttech
You should see a panel on the right that says membership by default. Just to the right of that you will see a support option which will allow the caffeine to flow :P
Thanks, Mark. I'll have a look in the office tomorrow.
Curious if anyone has this in Homekit? How does the Aqara "know" the blind is fully closed or open? It detects no movement in the cord and stops?
Heya. It basically works on a "time" based state. You set your open and close position and it then just uses that time and spins that amount of time (if that makes sense). So if it takes 3 seconds to close after the 3 seconds it will assume its closed.
Hope that makes sense :)
TWO or THREE EM tape?
It’s 3. I had a bit of a forgetful moment 🤣
Is it just me or did it just disappear from the usual marketplaces? Not available on Amazon or AliExpress.
I think they have been super popular and selling out fast!
What is "2m tape" ?
Its a brand for double sided sticky tape :)
Essentially a strong sticky pad to allow you to stick the plate to the wall.
@@MarkWattTech I think you meant 3M tape? 🤔😁
@@robert.wigley i deffo did! Did I say 2M in the video? 🤣.
I was err… testing you 😂
kø'øns
2M tape? It's 3M lol
Haha Ooopsy :P
Crazy how many things you say wrong when filming haha. +10 points for noticing though ;)
@@MarkWattTech I heard it the first time and was confused, then you kept saying it haha! Greet vid though. Glad these are in the UK now, they seem quite well priced too
@@IJm3 haha I must have convinced myself 🤣.
I think they are well priced and work really well 👌🏻
@@MarkWattTech definitely on my list I think.
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