My use case is an automated roller shade installed by the kitchen table. In the summer, sun comes through that window around dinner time and I typically close it manually to a partially closed position. The shade supports “close next/open next” with pre-configured positions.
That’s controllable via the Android app, but not in the scheduling section. That only offers full open and full close. I’d like to schedule it to perform one Close Next (assuming it’s already fully open). I’m not sure how much state tracking you do to remember partially closed and open “steps”, but I’d also be fine with a blind Close Next if you don’t track state that granularly.
Closing completely isn’t ideal since it blocks too much light. I only want it to block the sun from people’s eyes while they’re sitting.
There are other ways to improve this use case. Right now, the app offers an “x minutes before sunset” feature (which is great). Initially setting up that delta can be a bit tricky. After the user has entered a location and time offset, consider showing what time the schedule would trigger on the current day. Also consider listing when it would trigger on the 2 equinoxes and solstices to give users a sense of how it will change over the year.
In an ideal world, the schedule wouldn’t trigger at all at the height of summer when the sun is still high in the sky and in the depths of winter when the sun is down well before homework/dinner time.
I suspect users in the far north and far south might have edge cases where the next sunset or sunrise won’t be for several days. Also, there’s a case where “x minutes before sunset” can end up coming before a “y minutes before sunrise” for sufficiently short days. Open/close schedule pairs aren’t explicitly modelled in the UI, so that might be hard to do.
I use an integration of the Bond Bridge in Home Assistant (specifically through a Node Red flow) to achieve essentially exactly what you are trying to achieve here.
Yes I had the same request does to the same issue back in April 2024 ticket number: 89513, but received no response on whether a solution was going to be provided. I’m limited to open for schedule with no ability to schedule a close with me roller shades due to no “close next” provided. As you know “close” doesn’t function as intended leading to potential complete share rollout of spool. How you get a response with a resolution so I can use it as well.
That sounds like your shades aren’t configured correctly. During initial setup, you first set the extreme open and closed limits. From there, you optionally add additional stops between the two extremes for the close/open next commands.
There should be an instruction sheet that came with your shades that tells you how to perform a reset or re-program of the limits.
For the shades I’m familiar with, the app is just triggering the same remote signals that the physical remote sends. For most shades, there’s just Open, Close, Open Next, Close Next, and Stop commands. The app can’t make the shades do anything that the remote can’t do.
In the shade documentation I’ve read, it definitely states that the shade will not respond to the Open command if it’s at its configured fully opened position. Same for closed.
Does your shade have the same problem when you use the physical remote to issue the Close command? On some remotes, Close is issued by double tapping the close button. On others, it’s a long press.
During initial programming, it’s really easy to skip over setting one of the limits and accidentally set a step limit when you think you’re setting the full limits. I’ve done it myself on several shades.