I'm trying to design a system to control and motorize roller shades, with the goals of:
Fitting the motor and controller inside of a 1.5" diameter roller tube
Status/control via MQTT over WiFi or Z-Wave (I want to be able to do precise open % status/control, which the "dumb" roller shade motors like Rollerhouse don't do)
(I have 2-conductor low voltage wire available at each window location to run power.)
I've been hacking away at home automation for years but never ventured into Arduino land. However, after spending months digging around at motorized shade options, I think building my own is going to be the best bet to get what I want. Plus I'll finally learn Arduino!
I believe I will need a geared stepper motor (this type recommended by Rob of The Hook Up for shades).
To control and power it, I believe (this is where I'm getting a bit lost) I need an Arduino board and a motor driver...right? Here's what I'm wondering if I can use:
Arduino Nano 33 IoT
Adafruit stepper/featherwing add-on
Am I on the right track here? An important consideration for this project is physically fitting this stuff inside the shade tube, so before I go to far with designing a housing I want to at least make sure I've identified hardware that can achieve what I want.
Fitting the motor and controller inside of a 1.5" diameter roller tube
Status/control via MQTT over WiFi or Z-Wave (I want to be able to do precise open % status/control, which the "dumb" roller shade motors like Rollerhouse don't do)
(I have 2-conductor low voltage wire available at each window location to run power.)
I've been hacking away at home automation for years but never ventured into Arduino land. However, after spending months digging around at motorized shade options, I think building my own is going to be the best bet to get what I want. Plus I'll finally learn Arduino!
I believe I will need a geared stepper motor (this type recommended by Rob of The Hook Up for shades).
To control and power it, I believe (this is where I'm getting a bit lost) I need an Arduino board and a motor driver...right? Here's what I'm wondering if I can use:
Arduino Nano 33 IoT
Adafruit stepper/featherwing add-on
Am I on the right track here? An important consideration for this project is physically fitting this stuff inside the shade tube, so before I go to far with designing a housing I want to at least make sure I've identified hardware that can achieve what I want.