I used a different method of automating our room darkening window shades. Morningrising 12v Electric Roller shade/blind motors fit inside a (metal or plastic) tube, with the shade material rolled up on it. The tube replaces the usual wooden shade roller. Motor unit comes with remote for control and fine tuning via RF link. Needs a single 12vdc power supply (although solar charged motors are also sold). For three adjacent windows I bought one unit with remote ($55) , and two units without remote ($50 ea). Each unit was programmed independently, then all were connected to a 12 vdc plug-in power supply (parallel connection) and now the single remote controls the three room-darkening shades perfectly in unison. I realize this is different than the units in this excellent review that use an external motor to control a looped chain, so this is not a criticism of that approach, just a possible alternative where traditional roll up/down window/room darkening shades are used. My motor units are inside the roller of each shade, so they are out of sight for a clean install. Good tutorials on setup, shade install and related tech details available on KZfaq. Amazon carries the Morningrising line of roller motors. Different sizes of motor diameter are available, so care must be taken to check that the motor fits precisely within the inside diameter of your choice of metal pipe or plastic tubing upon which you attach the shade material. I recommend buying the motors and taking one to the home improvement store to buy the tube material and make sure the motors fit correctly inside the tube. The $55 unit with remote was received in a day or two, but the two motor units without remote had to be shipped from China and took a couple of weeks. If I was to do it over I would just order the three units with remotes and use the two extra remotes as "spares" just to get fast shipping of the entire order.

Thanks for packing a lot of info into a really efficient delivery. Thank you for calling what you felt wasn't realistic / normal. All in all an excellent review.

The chain idea is BRILLIANT!!! I will have to look at that for mine.

WOW! This is what I've been waiting for an affordable blind tilt device, I won't be ordering it just yet due to poor integration hopeful for some of the Home Assistant users to port control for this device. Or just wait for another version that has better control methods. Thanks for the info on this product, can't wait to see what comes of it.

Thanks for this analysis. Please be aware that AXIS does state that for the bead chains to work properly you have to remove all the bed connectors or large stops for the beads to run through the device properly.

I've been working with another developer who wrote a library to control these from esp32's, a wifi to bt bridge that can be controlled via MQTT or HA. We've pretty much got most of the issues ironed out. Additionally, I've got these working on venetian (pull cord style) blinds. Pull blinds typically have a locking mechanism which means you need to either divert the string (just run it across the window, or use tiny pulleys) to circumvent the lock, or remove it all together.

On my setup, I've weighted the 'down' side of the cord loop with enough mass to balance the force needed to pull the blinds up... and so, my motor doesn't have to lift the weight of my blinds. So, not only can I run my stepper motor at any speed, It doesn't consume huge amounts of power. Plus there's no 'pull back' if I stop the blinds in a position and so I power-off the stepper motor when idle.

I use Soma Smart Shades to control very large roller blinds. The first generation is very slow to do this, but they have worked consistently for 18 months. I have ordered the second generation since they promise to be ‘4x faster’. Anyhow, I had to replace my blinds’ chains with plastic infinite loop chains to remove the joining piece. This was pretty easy to achieve.

Thanks for the video!! Got some of the Zemismart and finally got the command to open and close them!! Trying to integrate with my HA, as soon as I have something I will share with the community! :)

I made my own with an ESP8266 controller and 28BYJ-48 stepper motor/driver for about $10 a piece - that includes the price of the custom 3D printed casing (obviously assuming my labor is free). Add another 5 bucks to that for a long micro USB cable and a 5V1A USB charger, and its a complete system for $15. Although the learning curve is steep (i'm a developer by trade and it had me scratching my head a few times) and introducing variables can be a daunting task (I have physical buttons on each unit besides the WiFi control), I still think it's worth it provided that you already have the tools required at your disposal. You get exactly how much effort you put in.

These companies need to make their own blinds.

Wow. Can’t believe people would get these for blinds that are within reach. I’m looking for something for windows that I can’t reach without a ladder. Thanks for the video.

Very detailed review, albeit somewhat biased against Axis Gear from the beginning. While I completely agree $249 each is steep, it’s also obvious to me the Axis Gear is far more attractive and better-made, plus it offers better functionality (which you point out). The Axis Gear company also notifies you of their periodic sales if you give them your email address, so you don’t need to pay full price. I scored a 60% discount last week and bought eleven, enough to outfit my entire condo. My home has several very large roller shades covering glass floor-to-ceiling panels throughout, including heavy blackout shades in the bedrooms, and the Axis Gears have had zero trouble operating them. Worth noting is the instructions clearly tell you to remove the larger chain-stop beads from the metal loop-style bead chains (if that’s what you have) to operate the Gears properly, so I did this when I installed them. Also, the latest version of the Axis Gear ships with a power adapter automatically (I now own eleven of them 🙃). If you want a much better-looking product (because these large-ish openers are very visible, for you and all your guests to see) with Zigbee and a touch-interface versus something actually named A-OK (apt considering its bargain-basement appearance), I recommend the Axis Gear. It’s still 50% off as of the date of my comment - a bit more than the Black Friday price I scored, but still affordable for folk with the means.

The extra money for Axis is that you can use it through google home and Alexa. There often on sale for 175. Which is still 125 more but for someone like me that lives in a big city and everyone and their mom could see in my apartment, I tend to close/open my blinds pretty often and doing that over voice is great. I have them on roller blind with no issue. The Axis comes with small connectors to replace on the chain

Really good in-depth review of the two products. Nice Job.

Im glad i kept watching some of your vids. Thanks for the comparison

I purchased the Axis many years ago, when it was still in “pledge funding” and it took almost a year for them to deliver the product. I did so not for the novelty, but because I really needed this solution; I have a 96”x72” roller shade that covers a window that sits atop a stair landing, some 12 feet up high, so there’s no way I could manually open/close it. In my experience, the solar rail is garbage; it never charged the unit and it is just a gimmick as the unit ran based off the 12 AA batteries in the rail, and when these were depleted, the unit would stop working. I even bought rechargeable batteries and the solar unit never charged them. I don’t think the unit itself has an internal battery. I had to open the wall just beneath it, install an a/c outlet and run electrical wire all the way down to the next outlet so I could power this thing with the supplied a/c adapter (they finally sent me one after complaining multiple times about the solar unit, around the time they starting issuing it for free for everyone). All in all, it does its job, albeit noisy as heck, and the lack of connectivity protocol (I was the second wave to get hands on an unit so I’m stuck with bluetooth) means I’m stuck without home automation like the rest of my house, so I just made a schedule and let it do its thing. Rarely I will find that the schedule has failed, like it will “forget” to close the shades at night, so I get on the app and do it myself. Another quirk I found is when you want to lower the shade from an open position, the app will not sync with the unit in that so it won’t respond unless you first give it a raise higher command immediately followed by a lower command. Other than that, it has been working fine since I connected to power; I was getting tired of whipping out my 16ft ladder, prop it on the stair landing to switch batteries every 3 weeks or so. Good review!

10:10 on my heavy blind I used some plyers and was able to make a chain that is identical 360 degrees around. This worked! But with more weight about every 2 weeks the chain stretches and I have to readjust the motor a few cm down. I also had to modify it with mini screws on the slider so it won’t slide up. It’s a pain I need to find something else that is more reliable….

Maybe you can loop the blind string around the control wheel once to eliminate slipping. Could you try that, and see if it causes any issues or makes any difference in the control consistency? Thanks!

awesome & outstanding vid...I live in Scottsdale Arizona, and I am a talented McGyver.....And with a west facing living room, one window has a blind, I just need to programming to close when the sun hits that special spot in the sky and keep closed until just B4 sunset. Now to figure out the drapes

Thanks, it´s the perfect test to explanin us the capacity of these blinds motors

Can the Bluetooth ones be controlled via hassio or Google assistant?

I hope you have a video on a remote vertical blinds device somewhere on your channel!

Even when the chain-connector seems to run through the gear, it will shorten the lifetime of gear and chain. Ask your local window decorator for an endless ball chain. Bring the 'old' or measure the diameter of the balls and the height of the loop.

Could you control the Zemismart with something like a Shelly2.5 to get full smart home integration?

If I were any company, I'd make cheap smart blind controllers. So many people want these more than smart lights. Honestly, lights is just a flick of a switch, dealing with blinds involves chains, strings, turning gears... technology really missed the boat on this one. It's 2019, do I really have to learn electronics to do this myself affordably? It sounds fun... but still...

Thanks!

I wish uy pays you handsomely for the work you did. Answered all the questions I asked for.

AOK have a few off the shelf Home Automation items which this would surely be able to connect into. Majority of the internal roller motors will work with it.

Thank you for a great, thorough review -- you saved me a lot of time!

You mention a bluetooth to wifi bridge - I think a Raspberry Pi with the right scripting could be used to communicate with the Zemismart, it might even be something that could be done with a NodeRed plugin on the Pi. It could then tie into whatever home automation system you want (e.g. MQTT packet that ties it into other events like time of day, voice commands, etc.).

What about the blinds that tilt using a rod and you spin it?

Thank you. I have been agonizing over this for days. Now I know its not worth it.

One hack- I'm wondering whether if you put a counterweight on the side of the chain that pulls the blind up, that might well solve the motor straining issue.

These are after thought solutions. They will never be good in any aspect. I realize buying a motorized shade and blinds can be expensive. But there are true "retro fit kits" out there for larger shades and blinds. I happen to be a "Somfy Expert" and certified Rollese Acmedia dealer. Rollese offer retro fit kits though Budget Blinds. They have built in Li-on batteries, have solar charging as an option, are quitter, have specific motors for specific window coverings, have smart home capability, have great apps that use wifi, and are hidden the head rail or tubes. They are more expensive then these by about $50 without the solar option at $300, but you are getting a system that will work with your existing window coverings, have true smart home integration, will lift shades up to and including 12ft x 12ft. Spend more now and not have to worry or buy something else later.

Should only use a continuous chain and remove the stoppers.

Thank you for getting into the technical.

openmqttgateway on an esp32 devices, and your cheap bluetooth to wifi+mqtt bridge is ready to go :)

Nice! Blinds/curtains/roller shades are unexplored territory for me regarding home automation.. I'll probably wait for the IKEA smart blinds! I hope you review them once they get released!

Thank you . You just saved me time and money. Need it for large blinds on a high rise . These wont work . Any recommendations ?

Great in depth review. Thanks!

Thanks for video! I would like to see a tear-down as well.

Great show!

I wish Sonoff would make a product like this. I'm looking for something cheap that I can intergrade with my Google home.

i nearly died when i saw how many emails you have.

Great content thanks for doing the testing

You can take the chain off the blind and reattach so that the end clasp doesn’t get in the way

There’s a new version of the a-ok motor that supports zigbee not sure what hubs it will pair with though

Excellent video buddy

why they added stupid solar panels as a seperate item baffles me.. they could have just as easily integrated it onto the device..

I bought one zemismart. Worked with bluetooth but couldn't get it to open / shut on a schedule. Buttons worked just fine. Then after 6 weeks it stopped working. Gave it plenty of solar time but nothing . May need new batteries but it didn't want to have to buy new batteries every few weeks.

Any way to mod them to work with 18650 batteries? or possibly a USB power bank?

Very Nice Job!

very informative! thank you Sir!

What are your thoughts of SOMA blinds?

Thanks for the reviews, I can keep my money in my wallet now :) Ti:, wrap the cord once or twice around the rotating wheel of the controller for more grip. Or print a custom addon :-)

I brought 2 of the AXIS Gear for $149.00 each. I would like to see how direct sunlight vs indirect sunlight effects the usage. I live in AZ and sunlight is abundant, but the windows I have the units on don’t get direct sunlight all day.

Thanks Rob.

Recycle all that packaging. Thank you for the review and explanation. Hope you do updates as technology develops. I am looking for rolling blind motors. I am in a loft with large roller shades. My blind is geared to auto close with any pull on the chain so I would need it only for opening. What is the size where they do work?

I created my own smart blinds tilt-mechanism using a servo, nodemcu, esphome, solar panels, and rechargeable batteries. All integrate to Home Assistant for less than $15. LOL

Great review. Thanks

Thorough!

Any update on the cheaper blind motor? Without wifi I have no use for them.in my home automation

Would these motors work with Venetian blinds or not really?

Wow, too bad these aren't zigbee/zwave or have similar versions for a bit more. Much like you said, I refuse to pay that much money to convert all my windows, but I would pay sub $100 each if they could be controlled via home automation software (eg. Alexa, SmartThings, etc). Although the price is right, I can't really justify it if the connection is Bluetooth only...that said, for the Zemismart, I'm guessing they at least retain programming when not connected to a phone (for scheduled tasks)?

A few thoughts: (1) Did you test battery life without the solar panel? On the Axis, in addition to the internal Lion battery, there is a AA battery compartment. I am curious how long the AA batteries last with no solar (on our windows, we have no way to mount the solar panel due to metal screens that would need to be removed to mount). (2) Just a note that the Axis instructions now include a specific warning about replacing the end of chain connector with a smaller connector that Axis includes in the package, so it seems they addressed that concern. Would love to pull apart a unit to see what the actual specs on each motor might be... based on other user reports, the Axis motor seems much more powerful (maybe too powerful, as it ripped someone's roller shade right out of the roller).

great review on pretty much the common issue with all these smart blinds. Anyone had success on an exact blind like his neighbours? mine is stiff at parts and even though ive replaced/services the fittings, brunt and the chinese knockoffs both failed. Brunt only refunded after loud complaint on their amazon review page.

I do it manually, the best part? I was made in America just ask my parents.

When you used the cord with the motor, did you try wrapping the cord around the motor drum another full turn?

is there a wifi version compatible with home assistant?

Wow I think I need to hear that again! Just a little too fast for us layman!

great vid

Great review thanks! Im still not convinced there isn't a way to make the cheap one connect with home automation system using ifttt or a raspberry pi though..

Will the solar operated shades work if the window glass is frosted?

Maybe, buying the device for parts and adding custom board with zigbee/zwave? Would it be feasible and worth it? Good project for The Hook Up i think...

Are they both UL listed?

I've got an Axis gear in my lounge and it's quite unimpressive - it's loud and slow and fails the WAF test. It also has poor zigbee range so I cant control it from my Vera Plus HAC. The only upside is that it will operate my huge 3m wide Roman blind.

Hi Rob, do you know if you could use the bluetooth from a PI (i happen to be running my HA on a pi still) to control this?

What about blinds that open and close using a twist pole like most modern venetians?

I think it's time to update this review with newer equipment

Thank

Bluetooth IS a dealbreaker, hopefully there is a zemismart 2

How about modding the zemi one with an esp8266 chip to use the motor and enclousure. Another thing, u should try zigbee2mqtt for home Assistant, it change my life, zigbee devices are really cheap vs zwave devices

I wonder if the Zemismart scheduling is held and executed in the devise (surely) or your phone which of course would need the phone/Bluetooth connected (Surely not!)

I have a similar system made by Teptron. Worse thing in the world. Only way to go is put in a tubular motor for roller blinds

Did you get the Lights Sensor working on the Zemismart?

Roller shades should always have limit stop beads when manually controlled. For your neighbors application I would recommend continuous metal/plastic bead chain loops. www.rowleycompany.com/continuous-metal-bead-chain-loop-10 For your horizontals you could theoretically record your cord tilt with one cord but may prove more hassle than it's worth.

Does it actually lift the blinds?

What I learned here is that neither of these products is anything like what I expect mine to be able to do. They're slow, weak, and ridiculously temperamental. And yes, that applies to the $250 product as well as the $49. Piss-poor, what you get for your money off-the-shelf!

Could you maybe connect this via the Xiaomi version 3 hub as it has Bluetooth connection available? (only the v3 hub has the Bluetooth and Bluetooth mesh system v1 & v2 font have it)

Check out Soma Smart Shades 2

That noise is awful lol! Your project motors are silent. I just bought and installed new blinds most of my choices did not have chains or strings. It really looks like the manufacturers are moving away from that design. Most have a rod to open blinds and you just lift from the bottom to put them up. These would really limit your choice of blinds.

Do you know if is possible to control the Axis Gear App in more than 1 device. Thank you

Would love a look inside the cheaper one! Particularly how the limits work (potentiameter?). Would totally be interested in esp-01 these for OH controls.

can you use d1 mini as a bluetooth gateway for them?

You Just saved $2k . I have 12 foot rolling blinds. I need a something heavy duty.

Are there any that can open and close vertical blinds? Not just adjust tilt?

Do either of them still allow manual control or are you fighting the motor to pull it by hand?

Was there a difference in motor strength when using the AC adapter versus the internal battery?

Hi mate. Love your videos. By any chance have you come across a DYI roller that runs off battery? Looking for a clean install and wires are not an option sadly :/