Confusion regarding selectBlinds and remote options

[robotsgoboop]

Hello!

I’m setting up a ‘smart home’ for the first time and the first thing we’re looking to automate is blinds, planning to purchase from selectBlinds and saw that they integrate with bond. Further, I am planning to set up a home assistant instance so I can control them fully locally with the home assistant bond integration.

Hoping someone can help answer some questions I have around selectBlinds, bond, and remote options. Just kind of want to know I’m understanding how everything works so I know what I need to purchase to get everything set up the way I want, and what limitations there may be.

1. I see that selectBlinds sells a ‘select connect bridge’ - Is there any difference between the plain bond bridge? same firmware, uses same bond home Android app ?
2. The selectBlinds blinds/shades apparently have a QR code on them to help with pairing - Does that require the selectConnect bridge / some selectConnect specific app to work ?
3. If I do require the select connect bridge (for some reason), can I still use it to do home assistant and also use the select connect bridge for controlling other devices (like a fan I already have, something else that is RF in the future)
4. Regarding remotes, it looks like selectBlinds sells a 5 channel remote for their motorized blinds. Having physical remotes is a must instead of having to use the app, but it’s not clear to me how remotes work with the bridge. I guess I’m curious about state management - Does using the physical remote to make a shade go up, would I bond bridge know the shade is now up (and I could see the state in home assistant?) Or, does this require something like the sidekick + bond bridge pro to achieve? Sidekick for Shades Gen 2 | Bond I guess for shades, state is less important since there is a separate command for up and down and automations would not be very dependent on state (if you tell it to go down and it’s already down, motor knows it’s limits and wouldn’t do anything?) Or does the bond do something clever like receive the same RF signal from remotes and can infer state that way?
5. Lastly, I assume that the bond bridge acts as a local server for saving the known devices. Does that mean in order to control devices through home assistant, that I have to register the devices with the bond bridge using the bond home app? (No way to add new devices to the bridge through home assistant). But once connected, theoretically don’t need to use the bond home app?

Thanks in advance for any help and clarification!

[merck]

Great questions. You clearly are really researching this well and understand how the tech works. I’m honored that Bond is top of your list for control solutions

@robotsgoboop

• I see that selectBlinds sells a ‘select connect bridge’ - Is there any difference between the plain bond bridge? same firmware, uses same bond home Android app ?

Same Bond Home app. SelectConnect Bridge is optimized for working with SelectBlinds products, it may be somewhat easier to set up, and firmware updates may be available sooner for addressing issues with SelectBlinds shades versus the Bond Bridge. However, at this time, all the SelectBlinds shades that we support are indeed supported on both the SelectConnect Bridge and the Bond Bridge.

@robotsgoboop

• The selectBlinds blinds/shades apparently have a QR code on them to help with pairing - Does that require the selectConnect bridge / some selectConnect specific app to work ?

Works with Bond Home app. This is part of what makes the SelectBlinds-branded products easier to set up.

@robotsgoboop

• If I do require the select connect bridge (for some reason), can I still use it to do home assistant

Yes. It has the same API so the HA integration just works.

@robotsgoboop

and also use the select connect bridge for controlling other devices (like a fan I already have, something else that is RF in the future)

Yes, unless they are IR. SelectConnect Bridge does not have IR support.

@robotsgoboop

Does using the physical remote to make a shade go up, would I bond bridge know the shade is now up (and I could see the state in home assistant?) Or, does this require something like the sidekick + bond bridge pro to achieve?

Factory Remote + any Bridge = state will be out of sync on the app & integrations

Sidekick Gen2 + Bond Bridge Pro = state will remain in sync

Note that, like the factory remote, Sidekick can still control the motors even if the Bridge is unplugged because it communicates directly to the shade.

@robotsgoboop

Or does the bond do something clever like receive the same RF signal from remotes and can infer state that way?

Sadly, no. That would be awesome, but impractical due to the limited signal strength from the remotes that often cannot be decoded two rooms away by the Bridge.

@robotsgoboop

I assume that the bond bridge acts as a local server for saving the known devices. Does that mean in order to control devices through home assistant, that I have to register the devices with the bond bridge using the bond home app?

That is correct.

Note that cloud is required for (1) account creation & login, and (2) initial Bridge discovery after adding to WiFi. Thereafter, everything is local. You can airgap if you really want to.

Setup of the devices is not easy via API directly, due to the multitude of motor technologies on the market which each have their own different setup procedures. The app makes this easy. However, we do publish our full API spec so if someone really wants to configure new devices with Bridge via HA, they are welcome to [write the python code to] do so.