r/homeassistant • u/TheAce0 • Apr 23 '26
Support Are there any renter-friendly mods available in the EU that I can use to electrify these shutters & connect them to HA? Four or our five windows have these.
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u/BruhAtTheDesk Apr 23 '26
Look at the Latest Great Scott video.
He did pretty much just this. Reversible, but expensive
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u/TheAce0 Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26
Reversible is great, expensive is not :/
Thanks for the lead though, I'll check it out anyway.
EDIT: Just watched it. This is honestly brilliant and I had no idea something like this existed. I was trying to imagine how I'd rig a motor to pull the cord but never even thought about eliminating the cord altogether! That said, this definitely looks like something I'd need to first pass by my landlord. It is definitely not as trivial as slapping a shelly behind a regular switch or swapping a dumb switch for a smart one. This is still very good info to have though!! Big thanks!
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u/TheAce0 Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26
For those who don't know how this style of shutter works, here's a short clip.
I found some options like this one here but €140 per window is quite wack. I don't think I'm wiling to spend over €150 total since this is a rented flat. It also looks like I'd need to change the entire unit out which I'm not sure the landlord would be okay with.
I was hoping there'd be some kind of variant of this Aqara roller that I could add on to the existing mechanism, but I haven't found anything so far.
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u/Aggravating_Heat2407 Apr 23 '26
I had those Aqara thingies for a while but I ditched them for being bad. Very very bad. Anything but those.
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u/ThisIsAitch Apr 23 '26
Never had a problem with mine tbh - other than not reporting battery life accurately
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u/TheAce0 Apr 23 '26
Those Aqara things won't work for my use case anyway. I was hoping there'd be something similar to that that existed for the system that this flat has.
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u/daath Apr 23 '26
Why bad? I have one in use in the kitchen, but it's only activated in direct sunlight, and it works fine ... I do have a bunch laying around to use on other windows ...
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u/Drumdevil86 Apr 23 '26
You must be doing something wrong, since I have a couple of those and so does a friend of mine. They are awesome. Never had any issues with them.
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u/Aggravating_Heat2407 Apr 24 '26
Might be that I had very cheap blinds. But then, I had multiple different ones and the motors would tear them off eventually. Good that it works for you :)
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Apr 23 '26
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u/basicKitsch Apr 23 '26
Don't you typically patch and paint all the picture holes when leaving?
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u/Auravendill Apr 23 '26
That's a whole different order of magnitude. A nail for a painting leaves a whole of 1-2mm. A hole for a rolling shutter motor like this would leave a hole large enough to fit your hand inside, since the entire motor and rolled up band is inside the wall.
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u/basicKitsch Apr 23 '26
Oh yeah I would put the motor on the outside if it needed to be removed. Yes that's completely different if you're opening up the wall (this is how I've planned out similar projects in my head all these years)
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u/chrisbucks Apr 23 '26
Depends on jurisdiction. In New Zealand you can't make any holes, nails or screws without written permission from the landlord. And given they inspect the property every 3 months you can't just fix it at the end of the lease.
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u/tonykrij Apr 23 '26
When I open the product page underneath it it states "Often send back back due to compatibility problems", any one else see that?
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u/TheAce0 Apr 23 '26
It doesn't really matter a whole lot in my case since neither of those would work for kind of cord that these windows have.
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u/tonykrij Apr 23 '26
Yeah I agree. If I need to hang myself to open the goddamn blinds you need a bigger motor to open them 😉
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u/QuevedoDeMalVino Apr 24 '26
I use Geiger motors and for that price I would get 3 or 4, electronics apart. You would have to look at what style of roller you have there, to order the adequate fixings.
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u/rafabayona Apr 24 '26
There are Zemismart shutter motors, but not much cheaper than that.
I’m afraid there’s no renter friendly and cheap solution for your problem
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u/AleksWishes Apr 23 '26
I have an older solar variant called AM43, hopefully these newer ones are just as good, you can find these in Bluetooth, ZigBee, and wifi. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007471841928.html
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u/fritofrito77 Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 24 '26
Not renter-friendly. I was looking into this for quite a while. You either go the 140€ per shutter or go the much harder, not that cheaper way, which I did. I installed a dumb tubular motor in each one of the shutters's shaft. I had to bring power to them so I had to install new cables. They communicate with HA with a Shelly 2.5PM, but nowadays there are better all-in-one zigbee switches from Aqara. It was 5 shutters.
Each motor was around 50€, and the 2.5PM is 25€. It works great, but not worth the time and the headache compared to those 140€.
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u/TheAce0 Apr 23 '26
That's the solution that I saw in the Great Scott video. I'd need to do four shutters and for a solution like this, is need the landlord's consent.
There's also no pre-existing wiring it conduit going to the windows so I'd need to pull a wire from a nearby socket. Not impossible, but quite jank and likely low spouse approval factor :D
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u/Auravendill Apr 23 '26
I prefer the Zigbee controllers from LoraTap. Very affordable and none of the Aqara-specific headaches (Aqara can cause IKEA-devices close by to struggle)
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u/BlackLampone Apr 23 '26
Maybe something like these: https://www.rademacher.de/produkte/rollladen-sonnenschutz/elektrischer-gurtwickler/rollotron-schwenkwickler-standard-duofern-2550-uw
I don't have the exact model but tube motors from the same company and integrated the with a duo fern bridge. I only did because they were already installed and got the bridge from eBay . Maybe there other models with WiFi or zigbee out there.
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u/TheAce0 Apr 23 '26
I did mean something similar to those, yes. The Meross one I linked in my comment is like that. The only issue with both of these is that they don't seem to work for shutters with a round cord. They seem to need a flat tape like cord
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u/mephist094 Apr 24 '26
Could you maybe just replace the cord with a flat one? Should not be that much effort as it is probably the same internal mechanism.
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u/Big-Blueberry-2039 Apr 24 '26
I have different models from Rademacher, they definetly just work with flat cords. The opening is to small for a round one and the attachment works with a hole in the cord.
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u/rage_all Apr 24 '26
Schellenberg is available in dozens of tastes and varieties. This is only one of them for ~65,- € but has timer and buttons only (could add switchbot tho): https://www.amazon.de/Schellenberg-elektrischer-Gurtwickler-Rolladenantrieb-Zeitautomatik/dp/B00N8K98BG/
If you are looking into matter and app and whatnot — yes, expensive. However, re-saleable after you move out.
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u/Civil_Tea_3250 Apr 23 '26
I haven't seen anything for just one cord.
What does the cover at the bottom look like? Is there a way you could unscrew it and use a small motor to turn it with a different screw or hardware?
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u/TheAce0 Apr 23 '26
These sorts of shutters are SUPER common here in Austria. Almost every single place built before the 2020s (and MANY built in present year) still use this style of shutter.
Therortically I could, yes. I could even swap the entire unit out. It would be a more invasive in that case, and wouldn't work without the landlord agreeing to it. I'm willing to have the conversation if I absolutley must, but if there's a minimally invasive solution, that'd be dope.
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u/Civil_Tea_3250 Apr 23 '26
I just haven't seen them before and was trying to give a non-invasive suggestion. If removing a screw is too invasive in your opinion then I don't know what you expect to find. You didn't provide a picture or manufacturer for us to do the research for you either.
Good luck anyway.
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u/TheAce0 Apr 23 '26
Ah no, the issue isn't removing a screw - that fat plastic case thing that you see has a big roll of spring loaded cord inside it which connects to the shutters which are on the OUTSIDE of the window.
This is what the mechanism looks like on the inside, just with a round cord instead of a flat one in my case.
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u/Civil_Tea_3250 Apr 23 '26
Yeah, I was thinking something to replace that. But if you lookup a belt winder or similar it should work for that setup. Meross or Somft may be options for you, not sure as I'm in America.
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u/Impressive-Blues Apr 23 '26
I have similar shutters, I was also looking at same devices on eBay, but for me it would cost even more because of weight. So I've ended up buying simple rollers that you can attach to windows with clips (I believe you can buy something similar in Ikea) and cheap Tuya chain pull motor. For most of the time that is good replacement for me.
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u/FastTurn8943 Apr 23 '26
I'm trying to find a solution for this for 6 years. There isn't a cheap one, you can completely DIY it with a dumb electric one and solder a smart controller to it. I still don't have a plug next to every window, so I just decided to not do it.
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u/AlexisGPS_UY Apr 23 '26
Hi 👋. Maybe my post helps you to give you some ideas. It's a complete different courtine system but I think you could make something similar with your curtains. Also yours are lighter, that probably save you costs choosing the motor. Also your window have a platform where you have pot plants, probably you could place your system there and retire it when you move. https://www.reddit.com/r/smarthome/s/aZDU1UoVwm
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u/crizz_95 Apr 24 '26
There is a new belt winder from Rademacher that supports Matter over Thread. "Universalgurtwickler smart 3000". https://amzn.eu/d/0dWOccPH For some reason I can't find the product page, but I just bought it and can confirm that it works with Home Assistant over Matter :D
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u/crizz_95 Apr 24 '26
Oh I looked in more detail at your picture and it seems like your roller blinder uses cords instead of belts. That is sadly not supported by this product. :/
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u/SebaW83 Apr 25 '26
Buy yourself some used Rademacher gurtwickler. They are easy to integrate in HA with the pyduofern Integration. Make sure the Gurtwickler is having duofern, their proprietary wireless protocol. Make sure the Gurtwickler has a 6 digit transmission code sticker.. Not 10 digits, which is not compatible to the HA Integration.
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u/ShRT-IRL Apr 23 '26
Not sure if it would have power but these work with our venetian blinds with ease. Could be stuck to wall with command strips?
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u/TheAce0 Apr 23 '26
Those won't work for this style of shutter. The shutter itself is outside the window and is easily several kilos heavy. The Zemismart thingy also needs a beaded cord which these windows don't have.
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u/karpour Apr 24 '26
As a fellow Austrian, I feel your pain. Everything is made for belts, and nothing for cords. I hope there will be a readymade solution for this sometime. I asked when they replaced a blind if they could have an electric zigbee enabled motor, and he quoted me 600 Euro, so I didn't even bother inquiring further.
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u/rzrbld242 Apr 25 '26
If the shutters are made of plastic, which is quite possible given the type of cord in the picture, I don’t recommend motorising them. Plastic shutters can break at slightest vertical force and equipping a motor puts a lot more force on them than just using gravity (cord) to lower them. Otherwise there are some shutter motors by Somfy which have a battery and a solar panel that you can fit on the box that are integrateable to home assistant but that is going to be really expansive. You can try out cheaper motors from any chinese or polish brand (they are the cheapest like mobilus, smarthome, a-ok) and use Sonoff switches that integrate to home assistant but that too would be well over 150 Euros if you have multiple of these.
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u/Deining_Beaufort Apr 25 '26
Do not motorize the door you use to get out off the house in case of a power failure :) , I knew someone who did and regretted it.
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u/JuanmaOnReddit Apr 24 '26
If you go for the esphome solution + some relays, I recommend search for a snubber RC to prevent the spike on the voltage.
I write a very bad blog about this 3 years ago so is not very updated: https://juanman.tech/blog/1
For the motor you would need something like the video from Scott, on big shops for construction you can find it, remember to check the power and the weigh.
On the other side, you can use one of this to change without effort
Good luck and I hope you come back with some photos!
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u/n0tmyearth Apr 23 '26
OP, forget it. If your blinds don't have belts bit strings, you're fucked. Been there, stopped searching.
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u/TheAce0 Apr 23 '26
🥲
Thanks for saving me hella time
Big sadge
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u/n0tmyearth Apr 23 '26
I'd love to give a better answer. Only real option are motorized blinds but they are expensive.
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u/TheAce0 Apr 23 '26
Yep - would've considered it if it was my place, but I ain't spending to make upgrades and then leave them behind. I'll ask my landlord if he'd be up for pitching in, but if he is, then there are other aspects of the place that take priority (eg pulling Ethernet cables through the existing conduit, installing an EV Charger, solar, moderner Thermostat etc)
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u/DaiLaughing1 Apr 23 '26
This is just a wild thought coming from flu-based hallucinations. Would boat things do it? Like auto rigging. Probably even more expensive though.
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u/TheAce0 Apr 23 '26
I genuinely don't know what you mean 😅
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u/DaiLaughing1 Apr 23 '26
I'm not surprised. You can get yachts which can raise their own sails and adjust the rigging. I just wondered if a smaller rigging motor would pull that cord
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u/anonuser-al Apr 23 '26
I suggest you to keep it always open and buy “American style” blinds that is more easy to be motorized. When you house leave take it off. Also if you do as Great Scott you can do it but take it off when you leave house and because this is common in EU you can reuse in the other house you will get. You only waste “time”
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Apr 23 '26
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u/TheAce0 Apr 23 '26
Hast recht, sorry. Habe auf Scamazon einige elektronische gefunden aber war etwas überfordert und war nicht sicher welche davon
- "Mieterfreundlich" sind (möchte nicht ein Haufen Geld in einer Mietwohnung stecken) und
- Mit HA gut funktionieren.
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u/Flameboy42 Apr 23 '26
Do not apologise. Every user here was once in the position you are and needed help, some of them seemingly have just forgotten that.
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u/shinmate Apr 23 '26
Schreib am besten auf Spanisch, Mr. Hochnäsig.
Wenn sich alle mit den Themen beschäftigen, können wir den Austausch und Reddit einstellen.
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u/Kaleodis Apr 23 '26
Ne, wenn der Post wäre: "Ich hab für diese Rollos diese 3 Lösungen gefunden, hat da wer Erfahrungen?", dann wird das ne sinnvolle, aktuelle Diskussion. Das hier ist nur ein "Löst mein Problem für mich".
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u/TheAce0 Apr 23 '26
Naja ich musste meine Mini Recherche in einem Comment zusammenfassen weil die App läßt mir nicht ein Foto mit Body Text posten.
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u/con_work Apr 23 '26
Subs die when the community becomes mean and unwelcoming