Hey guys Matt here from MKSmartHouse.com and in this video I am going to give you a demo
of the Blinds Control we will be creating.
[Intro]
So what is this Blinds Control exactly well, it is a device that receives commands from
our openhab server through MQTT and moves the blinds.
This is a cool device that removes one thing to do on my list in the morning and at night
as now my blinds automatically open and close at the times I set.
Also, it is just really awesome being able to control your blinds from your phone from
anywhere in the world with an internet connection.
If I pull out a mobile device and open up the openHAB app you can see that I now have
two controls in the JK Room Frame.
These two controls control the same item but there are two ways you can control it.
The first way is through the three buttons.
Currently the blinds are in the closed position.
If I press Open then the blinds go to the Open position.
Then when I press the Half button the blinds go to the half position.
You guessed it, if I press the close button then the blinds go to the closed position.
My personal favorite control is the slider and I like it because wherever I put the slider
the blinds go to that position.
The positions are 1 to 100.
Since we are on the topic of controlling with openHAB, I have written two rules in the rules
file, one to automatically open the blinds at 7 am and one to close the Blinds at 6 pm.
When we write the rules I will show you how to set your own custom times.
Since we previously connected the Amazon echo to our openhab server we can also control
the blinds using it.
“Alexa Set JK blinds to 0” “Alexa set JK blinds to 56”.
The way you tell alexa to control it is by using the item name then “set” and a number
1 to 100.
The same thing goes with siri “Set JK blinds to 100.”
If you would like to control your blinds and be ready for the hardware video where I show
you how to make it, then you can order a kit with all the parts from my shop over at mksmarthouse.com/shop.
As you may have noticed all over this video I have used the words JK Blinds, that is because
those are the initials of the person whose room the blinds are in.
If you called it just blinds and have many of them, Alexa and siri will get confused.
When I show you how to make the Blinds control we will be using the item name MK Blinds.
If we take a look at the blinds there are only two visual differences between these
blinds and normal blinds.
The first thing is that I have removed the original mechanism that was used to tilt the
blinds by hand.
It was removed because when the servo is in you really cannot move the shaft of the blinds,
you will understand it better when I show you inside.
The second thing is that there is a wire coming out from the blinds and into a power outlet,
this is just a 5 volt power line.
All the components are all nicely housed inside the blinds, so let me remove the blinds and
show you inside.
With these blinds the best outlet was to the left of the blinds so I kept the control box
and the servo motor together, when I show you how to make this, I will do it just a
little bit different and put the control box on the right side because in my room the best
outlet is to the right of the blinds.
Anyway going from right to left we have the servo motor with some 3D printed parts on
it.
The first 3D printed part is the servo to blinds adapter, what this does is allow the
servo motor to attach onto the shaft of the blinds.
Then the servo motor is sitting on a height adjustable mount.
The reason it is height adjustable is because there are many different blinds with different
heights between the shaft and the bottom of the blinds raceway.
For example my blinds in my room have a different height than the ones in the office.
I will provide the files so you can 3D print these parts at home.
If you do not have a 3D printer than you can buy the parts from my shop at mksmarthouse.com/shop.
Moving on the servo motor is then connected to the control box which is also connected
to power.
If we take a look inside the control box we will find the PCB with its components.
I would just like to note that this blinds control will work on most blinds as long as
you have a space for the servo motor in the top of them.
That’s it that is the entire device!
In the next video I will show you all the hardware we will need and how to put it together.
If you want to be ready for the hardware video you can buy a kit, the PCB or 3D printed parts
to make the device at the link in the video description.
Alright thank you for watching and If you have any questions leave them in the comments
section below or head over to mksmarthouse.com/forum.
Good Bye!