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Monday, May 15, 2017

Automated blinds with Home Assistant, MQTT and NodeMCU

I came across this post on the Home Assistant community forums and decided to give it a try:
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/esp8266-window-blinds-mqtt/14863

I made some updates to the original code by jjhtpc, adding OTA updates. The new code will also retain your previous position when turning off and turning on the blinds if you want it. https://github.com/romahony/mqtt_blinds

Since I have a 3d printer I decided to sketch a quick coupler for the blinds. It can be found on Thingiverse here http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2320388

The blinds I used are from Home Depot and come in a wide variety of sizes.

Connect the red wire to the Vin pin and the black wire to the GND pin next to it. The white wire is connected to D3.

Parts list:
Cut-to-Width blinds from Home Depot
Futaba S3003 servo
White micro USB Cable (no longer used, replaced with longer cable for direct power)
16.5ft white USB cable
NodeMCU Module
5000mAh Solar Power Bank

Remove blind gears.


With the servo mount still on the servo would sit off-center.


Cut off servo mount.


The servo should now sit dead center to the shaft.


Print and attach the adapter to the servo. 


Cut off the ends of the screws.


Feed the USB cable through the hole left by the gears that were removed.


Attach the NodeMCU inside the blind channel with double sided tape.


Connect the USB cable and install the blinds.