Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

Posted on
Wed Aug 21, 2013 6:59 pm
matt (support) offline
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Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

agrecu -- I believe the problem is you have only included the base node for the ZRTSI bridge with the Z-Stick (and then added to Indigo as a device). I believe this explains why Indigo doesn't know how to control that device -- as far as Indigo is concerned it (the base node) is just a static controller and doesn't support on/off/dim/brighten commands.

You need to add the virtual nodes that represent each channel/motor you are controlling (created by the ZRTSI), both to the Z-Stick and to Indigo as devices. The instruction manual for the ZRTSI has some steps, but I'm not sure on the details since I don't have any of that hardware.

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Posted on
Wed Aug 21, 2013 8:07 pm
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Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

Thank you Matt and sjoing for your help! Now it works very smoothly. Matt is right, I was not including but the base node in the network. Just in case others make the same mistake I was making: you are supposed to include both the base node 0 or 1 for that matter, and then separately the individual channels as different Z-Wave devices. If you have two motors like me, each assigned to its own channel, you will end up with three devices that will show up in the devices list just like in the screenshot below. Once I knew that I had to include at least one channel aside form the base node, the set up process was straightforward and easy - 10 minutes max. The device works very well now. Thank you again guys for a great product!
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Posted on
Tue Aug 27, 2013 1:12 pm
wiery offline
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Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

Guys just wondering how you find the reliability of this device, is it a case that its 100% reliable ? Just wondering in terms of determining the state of blind etc.

Posted on
Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:40 pm
ethanw offline

Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

So I am looking at the Somfy since I see a promising integration with Indigo.
How reliable is the setup described in this thread? Still running strong?

I have a 6000/SQF two story house with about 600/SQF worth of windows that I plan to cover with Somfy blinds. That being said do I need more than one Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) to cover the entire house?
All my house is Insteon right now, so I will be adding Z-Wave just for this project. Do I need Z-Wave repeaters to cover the entire house?

Thanks much

Posted on
Mon Sep 16, 2013 12:44 pm
sjoing offline
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Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

@ethanw
The range isn't that great. I've had trouble with the unit if it is placed inside a stereo cabinet. When it is out in the open it works well. If I were you I'd get one and see how it works in one room / on one level and add what you need after that.

Posted on
Sun Sep 22, 2013 4:51 pm
dduff617 offline
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Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

i'm encouraged to see more info in this thread. although i'm slightly bummed because i recently installed two additional i/olLinc + somfy contact closure interface boxes (smarthome product #318276I). my hope is that ZRTSI would provide a greater degree of control than 318276I does. in particular, i have a set of windows where i want to install top-down-style shades and i want to be able to have the shades all the way up, all the way down, or at a designated stop point in the middle. almost all motorization systems support this using the remote, but because 318276I does everything through a single contact closure relay device, it can really only toggle between sending UP and DOWN.

can some one tell me, assuming i am able to get this set up and installed properly in indigo as a zwave device with base node and individual channels, what does the indigo interface look like? can i send the equivalent of UP, DOWN and also the center "my" button (STOP)?

is it possible to program an intermediate position (like i can with a regular somfy remote) and then send a command using ZRTSI that will do the same as what the "my" button would do on the remote - i.e., go to the pre-set intermediate position and stop?

thanks to agrecu for providing a source - their price ($250) is slightly better than i had seen previously and not too bad considering smarthome wants $160 for their solution which is less flexible and controls at most one single set of shades per unit.

Posted on
Mon Sep 23, 2013 3:02 pm
dduff617 offline
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Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

just bringing to people's attention that there would appear to be two physically distinct products sold by somfy with the name "ZRTSI": Somfy Part # 1870202 and #1811265

the website for automated shade inc has a blurb that says part 1870202 is discontinued as of 9/16/2013 and the new part appears to be a replacement.

photos i saw of product 1870202 made it look a like a home-made kit. the push buttons were awkwardly located on the side and it appear that the plastic case had some holes drilled for the buttons and a tiny rotary dial to select channels. product 1811265 looks a bit more refined and has backlit LCD screen and nicer-looking molded buttons on the front of the case.

pdf instructions for the new unit can be found here

Posted on
Thu Sep 26, 2013 10:46 am
agrecu offline
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Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

@dduff617

I believe that Somfy ZRTSI is a static controller and cannot provide feedback to the Z-Wave system. Because of this, as I understand it, it cannot stop the shade at intermediary points between total on and total off positions. Indigo would have to know where the shade is and give the proper instruction to ZRTSI to further lower or raise the shade. You can however set the stop points at whatever level you wish prior to including the shade in ZRTSI network.

Posted on
Thu Sep 26, 2013 11:32 am
dduff617 offline
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Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

agrecu, you may be right. however, i think support for what i'm talking about may be baked-in to the somfy RTS motors and controllers. when you first get an RTS shade from the factory, you have to tell it the top and bottom stop points. to me, this indicates that there must some kind of sensor of motor position that is seen by the controller - probably an optical position sensor. so support for another (third) stop at the mid-point between the memorized high and low points doesn't take a lot of extra sophistication - it's just a third saved number.

somfy RTS remotes are strictly one-way devices, just as RTSI is. they have a center button on it that says "my" and also serves as a stop button. this button normally acts as a stop button (if used after you've hit up or down, for example). if you push the stop/my button and hold it for one second, it tells the shade to go to it's memorized midpoint position (aka "my" position). so that's all i'm asking the RTSI to be able to do. no two-way communication needed, afaik.

also, somewhere in my poking around, i saw a screenshot of the somfy TAHOMA (TOtal HOMe Automation) z-wave control system and on the screen they had visual renditions of the controls for blinds that looked exactly like a somfy remote (up, down, and my) which definitely made it look to me like they offered the same full control you get with an RTS remote via their on-screen interface. if i had seen only up and down buttons (and no my button) i might have thought otherwise.

if RTSI can send the equivalent of a "my" button command to RTS devices, a key question is what it will take for indigo to be able to communicate this? if the RTSI implements a simple z-wave motor controller protocol, it may have only up, down, and stop (and not a special command like "go to your pre-programmed midpoint"). anybody know how/whether this would work? anyone have a ZRTSI hooked to indigo? if so, what are the "verbs" you can execute on it?

Posted on
Fri Sep 27, 2013 7:44 pm
sjoing offline
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Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

@dduff617
I have the ZRTSI controlling 5 of the "Somfy WireFree RTS Tilt motor for 2 inch Horizontal Blinds".
See http://www.automatedshadeinc.com/conten ... nID=524212
On that page they have a PDF of the programming guide for the motors.

I have the ZRTSI that is recently discontinued (but replaced by another):
http://www.automatedshadestore.com/shop ... id504.html
On that page they have a PDF with the operating instructions.

I can't remember the specifics because it was last winter - but I combined the info in the instructions for these two products to get Indigo to be able to open and close the blinds. These are tilt motors so they don't do any up/down movement, just tilt the blinds open and closed. Basically, Indigo will toggle between fully closed and a midway point (which is fully open for a tilt blind, to let as much light through as possible). Said another way:
Indigo off: fully tilted up (closed)
Indigo on: moved to mid position (fully open)
(and fully tilted down is never used).

It's nice because Indigo opens all five blinds simultaneously at sunrise and closes them at sunset+10 minutes. We never have to touch them.

I probably explained this in a funny way, but hope it helps you.

Posted on
Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:57 pm
dduff617 offline
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Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

just acquired a ZRTSI. i have programmed a group of shades on the RTS side and linked it to indigo as a Z-wave device. i first did the "base device", then did the virtual nodes. it feels like basic comms are working.

i observe the following:
in the indigo interface, the indigo device corresponding to the first virtual node provides "ON", "OFF", a dimming slider, and a "send status request" command.
  • ON in indigo causes my shades to open (equivalent of pushing up button on the remote)
  • OFF in indigo causes the shades to close (equivalent to pushing down button on the remote).
  • dimming does nothing, afaik. perhaps not surprising.
  • send status request does nothing, afaik.
the behavior and functionality that i'm seeing essentially duplicates what i had previously implanted through the use of an I/OLinc connected to a somfy dry contact interface - a very simple two-state device - transmitting either UP or DOWN.

what i would like to be able to do that i don't know how to do now is to send the "stop" (aka "my") command. this would allow me to stop the shades in a partially open position by hitting "stop" when the shades are moving. also, the somfy system allows you to set a memorized intermediate position that they call the "my" setting. if you hit stop when the shades are stopped (not moving up/down), the shades will go from wherever they are to this memorized intermediate position.

so in my view, the ability to send "stop" is kind of important for indigo to support. i browsed the veralite forums and it appeared that veralite can do this via the ZRTSI. i assume the limitation in indigo comes from the way the ZRTSI maps to a standard device type ("Motor Control Class A"). would it be hard to change the config or add a new device subtype or something such that STOP were supported?

here are the details of one of the virtual nodes:
Code: Select all
Z-Wave                          Indigo Device "NBR Z Shades" Z-Wave Properties:
Indigo Z-Wave Version: 1.0.213
Node ID: 4
Model: Motor Control Class A
Model ID: 5A525401
Manufacturer: Somfy
Manufacturer ID: 0047
Protocol Version: 3.42
Application Version: 1.08
Model Definition Version: 0
Library Type: 7
Class Name: Motor Control Class A
Class Hierarchy: 03 : 11 : 05
Command Class Base: 26
Command Versions: 20v1 25v1 26v3 2Bv1 2Cv1 72v1 86v1
Multi-Endpoint Types: - none -
Multi-Endpoint Classes: - none -
Multi-Instance Counts: - none -
Features: - none -
Neighbors: 1
Associations: - none -
Config Values: - none -


i just set up z-wave in indigo for the first time yesterday, so my familiarity with device info is pretty limited.

Posted on
Thu Mar 27, 2014 2:13 pm
dduff617 offline
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Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

as i said, i'm out of my depth here when it comes to z-wave.

i did however stumble across some notes elsewhere on the web regarding control of window coverings via z-wave.

it says
There are a few different ways in Z-Wave that window covering devices are controlled, and our experience is that implementation is not always universal among all devices.
In the UI, if a device supports COMMAND_CLASS_SWITCH_MULTILEVEL, the UP button sends SWITCH_MULTILEVEL_START_LEVEL_CHANGE with the arguments 0x60, 0x0, and the DOWN button uses arguments 0x20, 0x0, while stop does SWITCH_MULTILEVEL_STOP_LEVEL_CHANGE.
If the device does not support that command class, but does support COMMAND_CLASS_BASIC_WINDOW_COVERING, the UP button sends BASIC_WINDOW_COVERING_START_LEVEL_CHANGE with the argument 0x0, DOWN sends 64, and STOP sends BASIC_WINDOW_COVERING_STOP_LEVEL_CHANGE.
If the device supports neither, then Up sends a BASIC_SET with 0x63, Down sends a BASIC_SET with 0x0.


is it possible to send "raw" z-wave commands to allow testing of such commands? i know there was a "send raw" command for insteon in indigo - i don't see anything similar for wave, however…

Posted on
Sun Mar 30, 2014 12:42 pm
matt (support) offline
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Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

The current version doesn't have support for sending raw Z-Wave commands, but it is pretty high on my priority list. I'll follow-up on this thread once it is available, then you can try sending the raw commands you found above to see if they work.

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Posted on
Thu May 15, 2014 10:18 pm
matt (support) offline
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Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

Indigo v6.0.12 is now available and supports the ability to send basic raw Z-Wave commands, either via the Interfaces -> Z-Wave menu or via the action panel.

I'm not sure if these are right, but try the following bytes for UP:

0x26, 0x04, 0x60, 0x00

DOWN:

0x26, 0x04, 0x20, 0x00

and STOP:

0x26, 0x05

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Posted on
Fri May 16, 2014 2:06 pm
dduff617 offline
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Re: Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Interface (ZRTSI) & Indigo?

thanks. i will test and report back.

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