Messages

76

Voltage, polarity, wire size, etc. / Re: Use solar charger on multiple motors?

« on: February 15, 2013, 07:51:27 PM »

Hi, you can certainly connect multiple motors in parallel with a single solar panel charger, but each time you do it, you divide the charging capacity between the number of motors. You could start with a single panel, then add more later if you don't get enough time between charges with the AC charger. It will depend a lot on how much sunlight you get on the solar panel.

Regards, Adrian

Adrian Biffen
Customer Service
RollerTrol Automation Systems
http://RollerTrol.com/

77

Pairing remotes to motors and assigning channels / Re: setting limits without the remote

« on: January 12, 2013, 11:43:21 AM »

Hi @tcghost, the RFXmgr is not capable of setting travel limits yet, as far as I know. You should be able to do that easily with the hand held remotes because you don't need to get anywhere near the actual motor, it's all done by remote control.

If you ordered motors only, without any remotes, please let me know and we'll fire one out to you. It is very easy to set travel limits with a remote, without touching the motor; you can just sit back in an easy chair and do it.

Regards, Adrian

Adrian Biffen
Customer Service
RollerTrol Automation Systems
http://RollerTrol.com/

78

Tubular Motors: General Discussion / Re: Rollertrol Motor

« on: December 30, 2012, 09:48:23 AM »

Hi, thanks for your interest. We use a generic housing for our remotes that is manufactured by an OEM company, and it is unlikely that your motors are using the same RF protocol. If you can contact me by email with your address, I can search our records to see if we ever shipped any motors there.

Regards, Adrian

Adrian Biffen
Customer Service
RollerTrol Automation Systems
http://RollerTrol.com/

79

Inside vs Outside diameter and other key issues / Re: Weight of tube

« on: November 18, 2012, 03:27:55 PM »

Hi, EMT is no problem, actually a good choice for use with our blind and shade motors as it is very strong. You could do chin-ups on a piece like that and it would not flex perceptibly. Our brackets will hold the weight of EMT (but not with chin-ups).

Regards, Adrian

80

Selecting the right material for your application / Re: Fabric for wide windows

« on: November 18, 2012, 10:30:56 AM »

Hi LedZepRox, sounds like you found some good solutions for a large shade, it will be interesting to hear about the motorization of the blinds.

Cheers, Adrian

81

Selecting the right material for your application / Re: Blackout Fabric Choices...

« on: September 04, 2012, 08:47:19 PM »

Hi, we bought some vinyl blinds at Home Depot and modified them by inserting motors into the rollers, see this 'how to' article:

http://rollertrol.com/motor-for-blinds-and-shades-fits-existing-roller

Regards, Adrian

82

Choosing a home automation system / Re: RollerTrol, RFXtrx & Indigo

« on: September 03, 2012, 08:41:11 PM »

Hi Sylvain, thanks for your continued interest.

The Vera plugin for our blind and shade motors was written by a very clever member of the Vera forum. It is freely available, so you should have no problem downloading it. Here is the article:

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,9563.0.html

If all else fails, we do have the RFXCOM USB transceivers in stock:

http://rollertrol.com/store/en/vera-home-automation-control/96-rfxcom-usb-transceiver.html

If I can be of further assistance, please contact me anytime.

Regards, Adrian

Adrian Biffen
Customer Service
RollerTrol Automation Systems
http://RollerTrol.com/

83

Tubular Motors: General Discussion / Re: Controlling RF Motors with Logitech Harmony 900 RF?

« on: June 29, 2012, 07:16:14 AM »

Hi All, just a note to let you know our new Vera and Veralite controllers are capable of learning RF codes:

http://rollertrol.com/vera-and-veralite-wifi-controller-for-blinds-or-shades

Vera and VeraLite are powerful home automation controllers that run as a web server on your local lan and/or wifi network. They can be used simply as local controllers, but they can also be accessed remotely from any location via browser using a secure encrypted system.

Regards, Adrian

Adrian Biffen
Customer Service
RollerTrol Automation Systems
http://RollerTrol.com/

84

Voltage, polarity, wire size, etc. / Re: RTS now, Home Automation later?

« on: May 23, 2012, 08:13:16 PM »

Hi @jpherron, thanks for your continued interest. This is just a note to let you know we have completed our bench testing of the RFXCOM™ unit, and it works flawlessly with our radio remote control window and blind motors. You can use it with any USB enabled device: PC, tablet, phone, etc., and there is a plug-in already available for the excellent Vera web server hub that we distribute. You can also control our window blind motors on a PC with the HomeSeer™ plugin.

We have a shipment arriving shortly and, if you wish, you can reserve your unit in our online store:

http://rollertrol.com/store/en/vera-home-automation-control/96-rfxcom-usb-transceiver.html

The cost is $US 129.00

If I can be of further assistance, please contact me anytime.

Regards, Adrian

Adrian Biffen
Customer Service
RollerTrol™ Automation Systems
http://RollerTrol.com/

85

Voltage, polarity, wire size, etc. / Re: RTS now, Home Automation later?

« on: May 12, 2012, 04:17:21 PM »

Hi, thanks for your interest.

We have just today successfully programmed the RFXCOM™ USB transceiver with the communication protocols for our RF radio controlled motors. We will shortly be offering the RFXCOM™ transceiver unit for sale in our online store where you can buy motors and remote controls for your blinds and shades:

http://rollertrol.com/store/

The RFXCOM™ unit can be used with any home automation program on a PC, Mac or Linux machine that supports the RFXCOM™ device via the USB port. You can also use it with Vera, which already has the plugin developed for it; please see this RollerTrol™ discussion in the Vera forum:

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,9555.15.html

If I can be of further assistance, please contact me anytime.

Regards, Adrian

Adrian Biffen
Customer Service
RollerTrol™ Automation Systems
http://RollerTrol.com/

86

Voltage, polarity, wire size, etc. / Re: Battery charge

« on: April 10, 2012, 09:53:05 PM »

Hi Walter, sorry for the late reply, I missed your post. You will get about 3 days with our standard motors, if the charger is not connected.

If you want to run the motors without the charger connected, you may want to use our ultra-low standby motors. They have 1,000 times less consumption than our standard motors.

Regards, Adrian

Adrian Biffen
Customer Service
RollerTrol Automation Systems
http://RollerTrol.com/

87

Voltage, polarity, wire size, etc. / Re: Battery charge

« on: January 10, 2012, 07:17:14 PM »

Hi Walter, thanks for your positive feedback. The batteries are shipped in half charged state, so they should be charged up with the supplied charger. It is very important to use the included charger to charge the battery - if you connect a regular power supply to it, the LiPo battery will overheat and be destroyed.

The red LED is a simple pilot light that indicates that the power switch on the battery is on. There are red/green status lights on the charger itself that indicate the state of charge (charging -> red, charged->green).

If you are using our standard radio motors, keep in mind that the radio is constantly 'listening' for a remote command, so the battery is being constantly drained (about 30 mA of standby current). Thus it is a good idea to keep the charger connected to the motor. It only needs a very thin wire because it is providing only a small trickle charge.

We also have an ultra-low standby motor (0.03 mA) for solar powered blind applications. Here is our web page with a motor comparison table:

http://rollertrol.com/tubular-motor-comparison-table

If I can be of further assistance, please contact me anytime.

Regards, Adrian

Adrian Biffen
Systems Administrator
RollerTrol Automation Systems
http://RollerTrol.com/

88

Tubular Motors: General Discussion / Re: Controlling RF Motors with Logitech Harmony 900 RF?

« on: November 11, 2011, 12:18:58 PM »

You got it, that's the way to go ...

Just to clarify things a bit further, I should add that we have been working on a remote control system that will allow the use of smartphones or PDA's running Android, Windows mobile, Symbian, IOS4, etc. It will be compatible with other wireless control systems such as Zigbee and Android@home, so that it can be used as a part of a whole home automation system. This generic approach will keep costs down, allow for custom software designed consoles (ie buttons), and will not require the use of fairly expensive dedicated universal remotes.

We now have a working solution for learning RF codes; it is a USB transceiver that can work with the Vera and Veralite controllers (or HomeSeer):

http://rollertrol.com/vera-and-veralite-wifi-controller-for-blinds-or-shades

Regards, Adrian

89

Tubular Motors: General Discussion / Re: Controlling RF Motors with Logitech Harmony 900 RF?

« on: November 11, 2011, 09:58:51 AM »

Hi, thanks for your input on this. We now have a solution for learning RF codes; it is a USB transceiver that can work with the Vera and Veralite controllers (or HomeSeer):

http://rollertrol.com/vera-and-veralite-wifi-controller-for-blinds-or-shades

Regards, Adrian
Moderator

90

Selecting the right material for your application / Re: Blackout Fabric Choices...

« on: November 07, 2011, 09:07:49 AM »

Hi, we use plain old vinyl in our home, but I have seen inexpensive blackout fabric for sale at one of our local fabric stores (Fabricland).

If you are having trouble with alignment, and you have attached it perfectly straight, you could try putting a guide ring at each end of your roller. I have never had to do this, but it probably depends on the type of fabric you are using.

Regards, Adrian