Z-Wave Rollladen Gurtwickler - belt winders for roller shutters

 Hi,

ever wondered if there are any z-wave enabled belt winders for roller shutters on the market? No, there aren't any. Some manufacturers will offer you their on "smart-home" protocol solution, like Velux, Rademacher or Somfy. They use protocols like RTS, io-control or whatnot... If you are looking to use a z-wave based system, it's not possible without some DIY.

I recently was able to convert a Rademacher Rollotron ("RolloTron Standard DuoFern") into a functional z-wave controllabe device without butchering it. There is another solution I have found from the Blog www.siio.de but it involves to destroy and make a lot of modifications to the (different style and model and make) belt winder. My solution here is probably more expensive but won't damage the belt winder and it will stay fully functional as before and still can be controlled locally or through the DuoFern remote and ecosystem. 

So I used a Fibaro Roller Shutter 3 to act as the Z-Wave modul. This was controlling a "DuoFern 9497 module" which is basically a DuoFern barbone remote. it is supposed to be installed as a wall switch behind a switch but I connected it to the Fibaro module. 

It requires a 12V source. I used an old power supply from a broken gadget. As the device contacts are "dry contacts" I couldn't connect the fibaro roller shutter directly to the DF9497. I used two relays which "closed" when the fibaro gave power to the exit (up or down). I used two WAGO xxx as relays. 

The Fibaro roller shutter module S1 and GND was connected to A1 and A2. The DF9497 was connected to 11 and 14. If the Fibaro gives power for "DOWN" for example, the relay would close, finalizing the circuit on the DF9497 module. This would then send a command with the standard DuoFern protocol to the roller shutter belt winder and close it. Same for UP movement.

Something like this but this is with a KLF-050 for the Velux system (RTS). This actually inspired me and I adopted this below to the DuoFern system once I discovered they have the DF 9497 module. 

It would probably would have been easier to use a Qubino module which works in 12V mode to eliminate the need to 230V in the setup. maybe it is also possible to use the Fibaro smart implant in the setup but you would need to get two "potential free" dry contact outputs which act as a remote switch for the DuoFern 9497 to close the connection for "up" and "down". At the time this was my best solution for this to integrate a single DuoFern belt winder in my Vera Lite Z-Wave eco system. I might post more pictures later as well as some z-wave parameters for the Fibaro unit to get positioning % working.

To summarize, the advantages are:

• No modification on the belt winder needed
• belt winder continues to work as normal with any other potential DuoFern equipment
• native z-wave integration in the end with positioning %
• You can add a switch as well to control the blind from somewhere else (the purpose of the DF 9497 originally intended, but we will connect)

Downsides are:

• You need a z-wave module, a DF9497 module, two relays for each belt winder [100€ minimum]
• If you control the DuoFern locally or via DuoFern system, the positioning in z-wave is not synchronized 
• The whole "control package" is quite big with all the cables and clutter, no way you can fit that in the wall, but you can put it anywhere really as it just acts as a "Z-Wave to DuoFern translator box" actually. I put all the stuff in a electrical connector box and chucked it onto a shell on the top out of the way and sight, not bothering me
• You need to know what you do as it involves 230V!

Probably if you ahve more than one or two DuoFern things to control, it is better to take the homepilot hub from Rademacher and somehow integrate the homepilot hub into Vera. I haven't investigated this option. Maybe with home-assittant or openhab or iobroker these home-pilot can be integrated. 

Vision Security ZP 3102 EU

This is a nice a very reliable PIR sensor which even offers a temperature monitor. But in Vera Lite UI5 there is no device added to use this as temperature probe.

Workaround:

Procedure :
o App/Develop App/Create device
o Enter "D_TemperatureSensor1.xml" in the field "Upnp device filename"
o Enter whatever you want in the field "Description" -> it will be the virtual sensor name...
o Choose a room if applicable
o Click 'Create Device'
o Open the newly created device, go to 'advanced' tab.
o Enter "urn:upnp-org:serviceId:TemperatureSensor1" in the field 'New service'
o Enter "CurrentTemperature" in the field 'New Variable'
o Enter "0" in the field 'new value', click 'Add'

=> Then you must create a scene that runs every x minutes (like 5 minutes).
o In the scene luup code, enter :

 local my_temp = luup.variable_get("urn:upnp-org:serviceId:TemperatureSensor1","CurrentTemperature",motion_id)   
 luup.variable_set("urn:upnp-org:serviceId:TemperatureSensor1", "CurrentTemperature", my_temp, virtual_id)  
 return true  

replace 'motion_id' by the ZP3102 device ID, replace 'virtual_id' by the virtual sensor device ID

o Save the code, finish the scene (name, room etc), save

=> Now, when clicking 'Run scene', the virtual sensor temperature should update with the one of the ZP3102...


If you want to use more than one ZP3102, just make sure to create a scene which updates the temp for each device. One scene for every device. Adjust the device and virtual IDs!

edit: Today I had a look again at it and there is a easier way if you have more than one device. You can all put it in ONE scene which runs every 5 minutes. All you need to to is rename there variable for every sensor.

 local my_temp1 = luup.variable_get("urn:upnp-org:serviceId:TemperatureSensor1","CurrentTemperature",21)  
 luup.variable_set("urn:upnp-org:serviceId:TemperatureSensor1", "CurrentTemperature", my_temp1,38)  
 local my_temp2 = luup.variable_get("urn:upnp-org:serviceId:TemperatureSensor1","CurrentTemperature",31)  
 luup.variable_set("urn:upnp-org:serviceId:TemperatureSensor1", "CurrentTemperature", my_temp2,37)  
 return true  

The first variable is called my_temp1, the second my_temp2. Make sure you set the corresponding IDs of the sensor and the virtual probe correctly. The code above is illustrating my setup with two sensors (ID 21 and ID 31) and the two virtual probes ( ID 37 and ID 38).

More Z-Wave Stuff

I recently added some door/window contact sensors to my setup. Easy install. In addition I also added a motion sensor and a siren. All products are battery powered. If they sense a motion or an door/windows opening, they wake up from hibernation and send their new state to the z-wave controller.

The siren is also battery powered, but it useses something like Flirs. It sleeps for 900ms seconds, then wakes up, checks for new instructions for 100ms and then sleeps again. This way it can conserve battery power but is also ready for new commands like "power up the siren, we have an intrusiuon!".

But until I haven't tested the whole setup for false alarms and tripping sensors, I ll stay with email notifications until i feel comfortable enabling the siren in the alarm pattern. Because once this thing goes off, it really makes a hell of a noise.

Z-Wave Home Automation

I recently decided to renew my shutters in the living room and the dining room. The old plastic ones were getting yellowish from the sun and some elements had dents and cracks. I decided to get new Aluminium shutters with can be operated with a motor.

As motors I chose simple "dumb" Oximo WT by Somfy. They have 4 wires running down from the motor, PE, N, P1 and P2. P1 and P2 are used for either up or down and are the same as L.

They were installed with a simple switch to control them locally. But I wanted them to be more "smart". They should open in the morning and close in the evening. I chose the Z-Wave system as it seems promising for future additions.

To control the shutters I chose the Düwi 05436, which have L N Com P1 P2. Connecting those to the Oximo WT was quite easy, just keep in mind that you need to connect Com from the 05436 to L of your installation. A simple small "bridge" to connect them is all you need. If the shutters run up when pressing the down button, just change P1 and P2.

Now I have shutters in my house which can be operated locally with a switch (same as before) but can also be controlled via Z-Wave technology. The Z-Wave hub (like the "central") is a MiCasaVerde Lite, a small controller hub. It's connected to your local network via LAN cable and provides a user interface via its local IP address. Adding the shutter controllers to it wasn't a big deal, pretty standard procedure straight from the manual.

But then problems started. I couldn't access the UI of the Vera Lite any more. Long story short, using Chrome's "private tab" solved the problem. Now I can control my shutters with the UI from any computer or smartphone. I also invested in a dimmable wall plug  to control a light remotely. Works fine too. Moving the bar to a specific % works perfectly for the dimmable wall plug.

Sadly, it does not work the same way for the shutters. As I found out, the % indicated there is a time-% of the total operating time of either state "up" or "down" by default its is set to 120s. So 50% would be 60s of operating. But for example my small window (just 30cm wide) is closed completly by the Oximo WT within 20s. So If I would like to close the small window shutter only down to 50% I need to set the shutter to 8,3%.

You can modify the "total time need to operate to 100%" in the advanced Z-Wave settings somehow... But haven't read into that yet. For now I am happy to operate them to full close/ full open.

I have read in the Düwi 054368 that there is a "calibration" mode of the switch to do this process directly on the device. I ll try that on my Düwi 05436 next weekend. If this works, I think the Düwis will set their "total time needed to operate to 100%" by themselves.

What else did I got for my Z-Wave system?

I fetched myself a Düwi 05431 wall switch to control the balcony light. But i couldn't install it as the provided wall mount plate and all the exterior of the switch ( Everlux series ) is not compatible with my already installed switches. Will go to the hardware-store and look for a double housing which is compatible with the Everlux. Or maybe just get an Everlux wall socket. Whatever is cheaper.

And I got me an PHI_PAN06 from Philio. It is a relay which can control two separate loads of max 1500 Watts. Before I tried to mount it in my garage to control the garden illumination and the garden power sockets ( some Christmas decoration lights are connected to the garden sockets), i quickly connected it to a spare wire in my hobby room to test it. And I am glad I did. Because the Vera Lite didn't really discovered it, merely added four devices which were not functional. After some digging I found out that you need to update the "device library" of the Vera Lite so that the Vera know what device it is and how to handle it. Compare it to installing some new drivers on the Vera. Otherwise the Vera does not know what a PHI_PAN06 is.

So you do this by adding an MiOS app on the Vera Called Updater. Search the App Store of the Vera for the device list updater and run an update. After that the Vera discovers the relay and it works fine. Although it added 4 devices again with different functions, I don't care. Now they work.

The next part is installing the relay in the garage. Should be not a big deal, will do next weekend before Christmas. Will need some more stuff from the hardware store to do this properly. Like a small fuse box to put all the cabling in. And some external regular wall switches to operate the relay locally as well. Always handy to have a local option if the Z-wave shouldn't work for any reason.