Motorising Roman blinds to control them remotely

[Tim+]

We have a hankering for some Roman blinds but unlike curtains you can?t just yank them open so I?m thinking about motorising them. I reckon the chains and winding components will last a lot better without an impatient ape yanking at them. ;-)

There seem to be two main types of motors, one that just pulls on the chain with a motorised pulley and another that actually fits inside the roller at the top.

Anyone got experience of either type? Would ideally like something ?smart? that I can control remotely with my phone or basic remote.

Tim

[Brian]

IKEA do them. I believe they work with Alexa etc.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Which reminds me of yet another whizzo idea from Tomorrows World which never seems to have become commercially available, the liquid Crystal window blind. Brian

[Andy Burns]

You can be forgiven for not noticing that they do exist, but only in Grand Designs land.

[Theo]

Not sure about blinds, but the Boeing 787 and German ICE trains use them for window glass (in the ICE case, the partition behind the driver). So they must be available for non-eyewatering prices, although maybe less eyewatering if you're bashing out thousands of the things to the same design.

WRT the OP, I have a blind motor that looks like this:

't remember where it came from, but it's not in my Amazon history)

I never got around to fixing it for other reasons, but the motor sorta worked OK. The app was flaky, as the apps for these things often are (it does Bluetooth direct from your phone, so depends on your phone cooperating).

I'd have wanted something that could hook into a network and be told when to do things, rather than have a phone running the app in the room, but maybe that takes too much power.

Got it to play with and the need to automate the blinds was not strong enough that it's stayed on the shelf. (would be happy to sell it for say £20 if anyone wants it)

Theo