Hi all,
I'm very familiar with the IKEA smart blinds, and they work well when they're working however there have been a few issues. Anyway, had to return one, and I'm looking at options to get a double smart blind (blockout and light filtering) installed.
Does anyone have any experience with the Somfy driver? Are there any other options in Australia? I'm waiting on a non-motorised order from DIYBlinds so I'll see what they're like but they do have the option.
Thanks!
Does anyone have any experience with the Somfy driver?
I use the Connexoon gateway with the Somfy motors. The gateway itself is pretty damn expensive for what it is - I paid $300 for it. (and then each blind, with the motor, averaged $1000 each). It does the job well and has been quite reliable, but the app seems like it hasn't been updated for years so feels a little antiquated. But once you've got it set, you don't really need to touch it anymore.
As an example, On Monday to Fridays, I've got the living room blinds set to go down halfway at 9am so that I can work without so much glare and raise themselves half an hour before sunset in the evening so that I can still enjoy the city views. In my room, the blinds go up halfway at 6am with my alarm and back down at 9pm. So plenty of options for settings.
I use Alexa for my home and they don't seem to play well together when it comes to voice activation. I mucked around with IFTTT for a while and it works, but it felt quite clunky. I hear it works better with Google but I haven't got around to trying it.
A year ago we put up some DIYblinds motorised romans. Quality of the fabric is amazing and the whole unit is put together extremely well. The motor is better than expected and the battery is easily hidden (one of my concerns when researching Somfy's etc). Battery life is around 9 months, using them up/down around twice per day. I also hooked them up to Google with a Bond IR transmitter and it works flawlessly.
I was looking at Somfy's and AliExpress motors for self install but the price worked out slightly cheaper using DIYblinds as a complete unit. Would absolutely buy from them again.