Electric Blinds/Curtains using Shutter Control

Hi Guys,

I am new to this forum, wiring my own house with C Bus and want to know if there is a good brand of Electric Blinds/Curtains that work well with the C Bus Shutter Relays?? I have run one 1.5mm Twin and earth and an additional cat6 cable to each window. I would like to use the Data cable to monitor position if possible and program the Shutter relay to stop at specific Percentages. I am worried about the Blind/Curtain losing track of its position. Thats why I ran the additional cat6 to maybe monitor positioning. Does anyone know a specific brand that I could use?

cheers Matt

 

twin and earth is the wrong cable for [240VAC] shutters. You have two active wires - UP and Down, Neutral and Earth.

I have never seen any motor that has position feedback. The Clipsal unit "guesses" the position based on time.

i.e., if it takes 15 seconds to open and close the blind and you have set the time in the blind relay to 15 seconds then setting the output to 50% will run the blind motor for ~7.5sec.

Basically, the value of the group assigned to the output on the blind relay estimates the position (in %).

Can't specify a brand for you - E-bay has motors listed a suitable for C-Bus, but I would guess that any 4 wire motor is suitable.

Mick

 

Thanks for the advice,

While I was in America on holidays, the curtains in Las Vagas at our room was a Single GPO with an additional data cable run to it, I didn't end up getting a brand name cause I was drunk most of the time, might have to look into this abit more.

 

Somfy sell a blind motor that uses RS485 to control the blind (usually using cat5), but it still only gives you up/down/stop. I have never heard of a blind motor with positional feedback. Unless you require very precise control, the shutter relay in proportional timing mode works ok to set the blind at a midway position from fully open/closed. If you continually change it 'from a midway position it will drift out of position though.

 

If you set it to close to 105% does physically stop at 100% and reset to the actual 100%? (or similarly when asked to open to -5%, it stops at 0% and resets to the actual 0%). This would stop a drift.

 

What you were seeing was probably the local control module mounted near the blind motor. There are many that use a bus to send signals to the control module (Somfy, ESI now owned Hunter).

 

Hi guys I have sent Somfy an email, has anyone had success with intergrating Somfy with C bus control?

 

I have done a fair few cbus installs with somfey blinds, no problems at all, but only ever used two actives, neutral and earth.

 

Got an email back from Somfy today, recommending me to use these blinds



As for the integration with c bus control I'm not sure how it will work yet

 

TO use C-Bus to control this motor you wont need the blind controller. The ELV relay (L5108RELVP) will do the job just fine.

Since these are change over relays, you can wire it up so that you can not have both the open and close on at the same time (search the forums for the diagrams for this, it has been discussed before).

One RELVP will do 4 blinds.

Its a bit of a guess, but I would say that by putting 5V onto the up wire will send the motor in one direction, putting 5V onto the down will send it the other way.

There is nothing difficult here either way and will be simple to implement.

Mick

 

If proportional control is really a requirement it's going to be very difficult with those blinds though