Very many thanks for the inspiration! I successfully followed a similar approach but with a wand driven 1 inch blind rail (rather challenging in this space!). Had to cut away some plastic from around the worm gear mechanism, trim the drive shaft and drill a hole and host the motor externally on back of blind rail (Lucky I have space behind else would have to be on front side which is not as neat) . I used a 5mm shaft coupling to then attach to stepper to the worm gear shaft and dropped Ethernet directly down to the controller and power supply. You can buy the Switchbot that turns the wand but they are very expensive! Anyhow to avoid power/reboot issues potentially breaking/straining something due to wrong motor positioning (defaults to 0 on reboot even if open etc..) I modified the code slightly to include a 'globals' variable that is 'set' on each action and is checked and updated to flash memory every 1 minute (time can be adapted as a preference setting). I included an on_boot section to report/target the motor position using the saved 'globals' value and also update the sensor template value. As the motor is now the only way to activate then I assume that if power issues are experienced then the last target/current value is to be assumed on re-boot. Of course if you power down during operation or less than the flash update period, then you could still get stuck in wrong/misaligned position, but in general I think the risk is mitigated much better if for instance you are operating on a timer sequence without being home to monitor it. Very many thanks for the big push in the right direction! Keep up the excellent work!

Great project and excellent video! Keep it up man you have a great gift in creating easy to follow videos with good explanations!

Total winner, really enjoyed this. I might try this with a geared motor and drive the shaft directly. Thanks heaps.

Love the D1 mini!!! Use them for WLED projects...LED stuff. Buy these puppies 10 at time for like $2.50 each...gotta love it. Just started watching this... Looks like it may be a winner. Only wish I didn't have so many projects ahead of this...lol.

btw, the wiring diagram is wrong. the lm2596 has in + on both sides, and where the red/positive and black/negative should go on that end are reversed. i also burned out a d1 mini before i figured out i had to adjust the voltage 😆

I would looooove the same type of video for a cheap smart curtain closing/opening mechanism please!

Very cool brother! In order to control the blinds being able to be lifted as well, would you just mirror the project with the other cord? and would that stepper motor have enough torque to accomplish that added feature? You also had mentioned in this video, you rather had attached the motor on the shaft. Since you have a printer, you may be able to build a planetary gear torque multiplier. You would then have to recalibrate your code. Take that advice with a grain of salt, I am no expert. Then also if you would dermal out two slotted holes where you secured the motor, you could then slide the motor back and forth (or side to side) to make the cord more taught without having to play with it as much. Using locking washers would then ensure the motor would give on the slotted holes. Unsure if that is any help, but I am excited to try this my-self. Thank you for this video.

thanks for this, I was looking for a way to motorize my blinds, and I have exactly the same system

Would love to see an updated version of this but with rechargeable batteries. Would be a game changer.

Very slick install, I have a blackout blinds with a long looped wire with beads on it. Will try to adapt your design and have it pull the wire, just need to design a gear for the motor. Thanks for the video

Very nice and simple project. Thank you, man

Wow! Exactly what I was looking for 😮 one question: Is it possible to use one d1 mini to control 2 stepper motors?

Any update on the battery and solar aspect.....would be most valuable!

Thank you very much for tutorial it worked perfect for my kitchen blinds. Now I'm trying to make second window blind automated with new ESP and ran into confusion what needs to be changed/renamed in a code to create a new device and entities?

This will be very useful for me. Unfortunately I'm trying to smart life/push top/borrow shade blinds, and I HAVE to figure out how to turn that rod directly... trying to figure out using a 12v 15rpm electric motor which I think is for an rc car or something

Nice project

My blinds use 2 sets of strings to open. 1 set lifts the entire thing up so there are no blinds covering the window. The other just opens makes the blinds flat as to allow light in. It seems like this is the same system as the one you have. Is that correct? I have seen many systems that use a looped beaded pulley, which mine does not have.

I see a problem - I don't remember where the zero point is after the reset...How did you ensure that the engine does not lose its initial state? I did everything like you and the engine always recognizes the current state of the device as zero after resetting the device

I do not have a 3D printer, is there anywhere i can buy the 3D printed spooler?

If you had more space what would you change? Other than using NEMA 17?

Hey, great video 👍🏻 I’m been searching for something which would control my roller blinds. While there are many out there, most use MQTT. Do you think this config file would work to control a roller blind set up pretty much made in the same way?

Awesome job well done! Namaste 🙏

awesome thanks :)

i really like this project, but i cant handle it.. how the hell i install the program into esp is there any tutorial for new version esphome?

Could this be controlled by Alexa? As in, could I make one of these and install it at my mother's home, who only has the use of Amazon devices

Could you do this with battery?

Excellent video man! How's it going?

What are options, to make it go faster? Every Video I watch, They speed up 😂 . Any suggestions?

a planet gear stepper should do the job directly mounted ?!?

Great video! If you were to DIY this today, would you still use all the same parts?

Did any update of Esphome or Homeassistant broke this? My was working fine. Suddently the motor spinning L and R only. There was lot of esphome updates in the past weeks Thnx

The code you posted doesn't work, it finds devices but there are no entities. What needs to be set in the HA configuration file and what needs to be set in the HA automation file? I'm using ULN2003 instead of A4988, my settings of stepper: stepper: - platform: uln2003 id: my_stepper sleep_when_done: true pin_a: D1 pin_b: D2 pin_c: D3 pin_d: D4 max_speed: 250

Hi tried with the 12v version same setting but the motor was less powerful than the 5v anyone recommend something to increase speed and torque of the same 12v motor pls ?

👏👏👏 Gracias 👍

Talking to a camera isn't easy for you? Ahaha I feel like that didn't age too well? 😁

What’s the point of having a blind on a window that already has a curtain?

I just came across this video and was able to flash my D1 Mini, but I am having trouble getting it integrated into my HA dashboard. How did you go about doing this? When I look at this device I see a control for cover.my_blind, but when I add it to Lovelace, I get Entity not available.

Can this work with smartthings?

What are you thinking to use that with a battery?

Do you sell the 3D spooler?

Have anyone tried to do it with ESP8266? I done all but looks like the motor is not moving. Any ideas?

Hi, thanks for your video. I followed your guide and it works great. But sometimes the blinds are out of sync. So if they are open I can't close them because Home Assistant thinks they are already closed. So I can only open them again. If I do that the blinds will turn the other way and close again. But they close not fully. I hope you know what I mean. And what I can do about this?

Hello Fiends , I am not able to connect with com port . it keep failing while flashing the code . Please can you help |ERROR Error resolving IP address of blinds_office.local. Is it connected to WiFi? ERROR (If this error persists, please set a static IP address: esphome.io/components/wifi.html#manual-ips) ERROR Error resolving IP address: Error resolving address with mDNS: Did not respond. Maybe the device is offline., [Errno -5] No address associated with hostname

Awesome, hey any link/guide to mqtt implementation?

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