Zebra roller blinds with DC 12V Motor and Qubino Z-Wave / Vera controller hub - Part 3

 Part 1 can be seen here and Part 2 here.

Zebra Roller Blind unboxing.

I was keen to see which motor was actual in the blinds as I hadn't managed to obtain that information from the seller on Alixpress. I had just specified I needed a standard 12V DC roller tube motor with no inbuilt RF radio. 

So I took the motor out of the roller blind tube to take a look at it. The motor is a Bofu ES2512-1.5/28.

Its a brand I've not heard of before but appears to be the same brand of motors sold on Amazon by "Rollerhouse". 

The motor is smaller in size than I was expecting so hope its going to be powerful enough for my size of blind.

There are no mechanical limit screw holes like there are on my AC Dooya tubular motors. However the top and bottom limits can be set on the motor by pressing the button and following the directions in the supplied instructions, which you can see below. 

I didn't take a photo of it but the inside of the tube has a notch, similar to this image I found on Google.

This is the other end of the motor that slides in to the tube and has to be aligned over the notch in the tube.

Enclosed Instructions:

This is the other end of the tube from the motor.

I pulled out the end to take a look at it.

There are three supplied brackets which clip in to the header rail like this. 

These brackets will have to be screwed up in to the Windows lintel inside the reveal, which I hope isn't going to be a major hassle but might be if its solid concrete and not much gap between it and the plaster work for any fixings.

In Part 4 I will be fitting the blind and taking a closer look at it as I haven't been able to pull out much of the fabric yet with the motor installed and not powered up etc.

Part 4 here. 

Zebra roller blinds with DC 12V Motor and Qubino Z-Wave / Vera controller hub - Part 2

 Part 1 can be seen here.

Installation of the Qubino Flush Shutter DC module.

The whole reason I opted for the Qubino DC module is because I couldn't be bothered chasing out the walls for mains AC cables that would be needed for a Fibaro Roller Shutter module. 

So I just installed a deep surface mount back box in the top corner of the window reveal and ran some low voltage bell cable down to a nearby plug socket area.

The Qubino module will sit inside the back box and a blanking cover plate will hide it.

Optional Temperature Sensor Probe. 

An optional temperature sensor probe can be purchased and connected to the Qubino Flush Shutter DC module. You can purchase these from Vesternet here for £12.56.

However that seemed a bit pricey for what is just a DS18B20 Digital Temp Probe. So I made my own for about £4. 

I already had a spare one in a draw that I previously purchased from Aliexpress here for about £2 shipped. 

I just needed to find a suitable connector to be able to connect it to the Qubino module. 

The correct connector needed is a Micro JST 1.25mm Connector Plug and I found one on eBay for £2.

I then just soldered the two together using this diagram.

JST Connector - Yellow -> Temp Probe - Black (GND)

JST Connector - Black -> Temp Probe - Yellow (DQ)

JST Connector Red -> Temp Probe - Red (VDD)

I then drilled a hole through the wall out from the back of the surface mount back box, so I could have this as an outdoor temperature probe. 

Including the Qubino Flush Shutter DC module in to the Z-Wave Vera controller hub.

The temperature sensor probe should be connected to the Qubino module before you pair the module to your Z-Wave controller hub.

I paired the Qubino module to my VeraPlus Z-Wave controller hub, however I ended up with four devices rather than just the two that I was expecting to see. 

It added a parent device which I named “Lounge Blind” and assigned it to my Lounge Room.

It also added a child device for the Temperature Sensor, which appeared to be working and changing values.

However its also added two additional child devices which I was not expecting.

Its added another child device for “Window Covering”.

If I press the open or close buttons on this “Window Covering” child device, then the parent “Lounge Blind” device is also changed to open or closed.

And another child device which I have no idea what it is.

Seems these two extra devices are phantom or ghost devices, so I just hid them from the Vera UI7 web GUI. by adding two lines of code to the Startup LUA.

Where number 502 and 503 are the device ID numbers of the child devices you want to be hidden.

luup.attr_set("invisible","1",502)

luup.attr_set("invisible","1",503)

In Part 3 we will have a look at the Zebra blind that has arrived from China. 

Part 3 here.