Blinds with Tasmota firmware

#1

Has anyone tried using Tasmota firmware for the blinds?

#2

@vez727 While I have not tried Tasmota on MK’s blinds, I don’t see why it would not work. But considering that the default firmware has solid support for MQTT and compatibility with OpenHab/2, Home Assistant, Node-Red and others is great, this seems like an extra complexity. Out of curiosity, can you share your use case for Tasmota on this device?

For the record, I do have two side projects going on the blinds that are not done. In both cases I have serious hacking that needs to be done to any firmware to add the two new functions. Admittedly, one of the projects could very easily be accomplished if Tasmota was flashed instead of MK’s firmware. The other…that is a whole different level of complexity that will most likely require some custom code. So if you do successfully get Tasmota flashed, please respond back and let the community know.

#3

What type of hacking or features are you looking for in MK’s firmware?
The tasmota blind control option only looks at blind control hardware that uses relays to control motors, from what I have read.
I have modified MK’s firmware to simulate tasmota. with telemetry , device online, LWT, WiFi siginal strength, group topic commands to allow remote firmware upgrade, directional control for closing, trim adjustment, remote reset via command line and more
also State topic and command topic matches tasmota format

I have looked at tasmota code and is very complex even to modify.
MK is simple and works, needed a few extra features which I have coded into MK’s firmware
I have the firmware available in dropbox as in another post on this forum if your are interested

#4

No real reason, other than playing around. I’ve been able to successfully integrate the blinds within Home Assistant with tilt using Matt’s FW. I have integration into Google Home but I’m only able to tell it to either open or close my blinds, it will not incrementally tilt. Wondering if playing around with Tasmota FW + MQTT would help add the functionality.

#5

I just responded to freedog96150. It was more for playing around, but at the same time trying to figure out how to get the tilt action added into the Google Home integration from Home Assistant. What’s the version of the FW you updated? I found a v4, is that the one?

#6

v4 is the one , v5 I am about to upload. v5 simulates tasmota. with telemetry , device online, LWT, WiFi siginal strength, group topic commands to allow remote firmware upgrade, directional control for closing, trim adjustment, remote reset via command line and more
also State topic and command topic matches tasmota format.

I use ALEXA and Openhab

“ALEXA set Kitchen Blind to 40 percent” blinds are moved to 40 percent
Check that GOOGLE can do percentage or Dimmer

#7

Awesome. THANK YOU. I’ve tried everything, never an issue with google for my lights or dimmers…only the blinds.

#8

Version 5 now on DropBox
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1mlggdz3sf9sr4f/MK-BlindsControlV5.bin?dl=0

When you upgrade from V2 or V4 to V5, The blinds control module will go into AP mode.
You will need to re configure via Phone etc.
Note there are more settings to configure. Make sure admin id and password and Reset PIN are configured as if these fields can not be blank.

The MQTT topics will be changed to match Tasmota format
MQTT Command Topic: cmnd//POWER
MQTT Status Topic: stat//STATE

is the MQTT Device ID you set in Config portal

#9

Thanks! I downloaded and going to apply it over the next couple of days.

#10

link seems to be broken or no longer there, help?

#11

having a look at link

.bin files can’t be previewed.

Try this one…You can not read the file error comes up, but you download file

Installation How To
#12

got it… that one is working

#13

Blockquote
The MQTT topics will be changed to match Tasmota format
MQTT Command Topic: cmnd//POWER
MQTT Status Topic: stat//STATE

I’ve got v501 working. BTW, my setup with the original MK firmware worked as expected.

Below are the changes in my home.items file to get v501 to work. I added cmnd & stat in front of the two mqtt entries. I did NOT change the topics on my blinds firmware. I can control the blinds via my iOS Openhab app, but the status is not updating there. Also, all my automation is still working as as expected with v501. Should I change the topics on the firmware? To exactly what? OR is there something wrong with my entries in home.items?? Just trying to get the feedback to my Openhab iOS app to show appropriately.

Dimmer LivingRoomBlinds "Living Room Blinds [%s]" <rollershutter> [ "Lighting" ] {mqtt=">[mosquitto:cmnd/MK-Smarthouse/utilities/LivingRoomBlinds:command:*:default],<[mosquitto:stat/MK-Smarthouse/utilities/LivingRoomBlinds/state:state:default]", autoupdate="false"}

Blinds control V 2 Invert blind state
#14

Thanks for upgrading…looking at you items file you will need to change the cmnd and stat sections to match the new format.
cmnd/MK-Smarthouse/utilities/LivingRoomBlinds/POWER:command:*:default
stat/MK-Smarthouse/utilities/LivingRoomBlinds/STATE:state:default

The format is cmnd//POWER for the command
stat//STATE for the state
Replace the

Note The POWER and STATE are in upper case.

This should work. Let me know either way as I am in process of adding new features to V6 and resolving any bugs on the way

#15

Completely worked! Thank you! The way I use the blinds changes with Summer & Winter. In Summer, I have the blinds flipped upward to block the early sunlight. In Winter, it’s the opposite to let the late light in. I’m not sure if you can fix my particular use case. Seems like the servo just doesn’t have enough range to cover the closed positions of all the up and all the way down.

#16

Great they are working.
The servo motor used in these blind kits only have a 180 degree rotation.
To implement to swing both ways would take a servo motor to rotate 360 degrees.
ie. open would be 180 degrees, closed up would be 0 and closed down 360.
The firmware would need to be modified as well, I do like what you are looking for.
I will try and obtain a 360 servo motor and look at modifying the firmware. Should not take to much in the coding. I do like that option. “swing both ways” for summer or winter mode

#17

Every now & then, the blinds go fast for half the motion & then slow. I have them set slow & most of the time, they move slow through the same motion. Any idea? Is there a newer version of the firmware?

#18

I have had this problem too, have noticed this after a reboot of the module, also after a firmware upload…
After a reboot or firmware upgrade the blinds position hasnt changed until you send command to open or close…
When a power cycle happens the servo motor will report a position of 42 regardless , giving incorrect state… even if you issue a servo.read it comes back as 42 until you issue a command the servo will quickly track its position then move to its commanded setting…
I have re coded the firmware to save servo position to dat file known as last position.
On a reboot due do power , restart or firmware upgrade, the servo will move to last known location…this as helped

This was bugging me too, I hardly change blind position and this was happing but not all the time…After a lot of investigation I did have loss of power to home which caused all systems to restart…
I have read on other forums regarding similar problems…
If someone else can enlighten me would be great.

V6 Beta will have a lot of new features, should address a lot of requests and fix some bugs
I am in the process of creating a new topic in this forum just for this version
Currently testing V6

#19

I haven’t had any of the issues using your firmware. In some other MQTT devices they have the auto discovery feature. Would something like that help in reporting back the correct state?

#20

I do have part of discovery as you say in bootup, I do a servo.read() to get servo position and report state to MQTT, but was giving 42 this is the default, until servo.write() then servo will get its true position. On bootup I do a servo.write() to its last position that is now stored in DAT file which now gives true position.
Thanks for idea will still look at improving on this.