My HomeSeer user has an issue controlling the group of two Somfy shades. I tried the group API first, then another option - passing the ‘Hold’ command to each shade separately.
Basically he needs to execute ‘Hold’ command three times in a row to get both shades to home position:
First Hold Command - South Shade responded correctly
Second Hold Command - Neither shade moved
Third Hold Command - North Shade responded correctly
I checked the log - both shades confirm (via BPUP) receiving the action.
Suggestion: try to group the shades at the remote level first. I have with my somfy shades no problem. My 5 shades, 3 east, 2 south, are configured into 2 respective groups at the remote level and control with bond and subsequent alexa works fine.
@Joachim47, thank you for the suggestion. I am the HomeSeer user that @alexbk66 mentioned.
I only have two shades on my Somfy Remote (it is a Telis 4 RTS US Patio). Each shade uses it own independent channel that has been programmed separately. On the Somfy Remote, I can individually control each shade by selecting only one channel. Alternately, a group on my Somfy Remote is enabled when all channels are selected using the Somfy Remote.
I need help following your suggestion. Are you suggesting that there is another way to group on my Somfy (Telis 4) remote? Thanks.
In my installation, I got for each shade a unique remote that was configured to operate just the 1 associated shade on channel 1. So all 5 shades operate independently on channel 1 of their associated remote. To group several on 1 remote, I needed to copy the control function onto an unused channel and doing this for those you want to group together. Once that is done you will see that on that channel the assigned shades operate in a group. Once that is established I used that particular channel to learn bond the control and it will start to operate those shades merged on the same channel as a group. This made for me a lot less work initially since I needed only to go through 2 learning processes to control my 5 shades in 2 groups, 3 and 2 each, respectively. The control functionality of a group I found to be equivalent to that of an individual remote. The Shade 2C3 and 5C2 represent my naming of the groups 3 and 2.
Clarification: I’m not part of the Bond team, just enthusiastic on the forums.
Alas, I don’t have much shade experience of any brand - hence my lack of constructive commentary in this thread.
Two things (A) there’s a difference between the Group feature in the app and programming two motors to the same device in the app, and (B) the “groups” on the remote control are really just the same remote control address paired to multiple motors: there’s no sense in which this group can be copied to Bond besides the fact that you have a shortcut for getting both motors to enter pairing mode at once.
DETAILS:
To clarify, there’s two ways to get both shades to move when you press a single button in the app (or in supported integrations):
By using Groups feature in the app: App > Groups > select both shades. On the API, this will be one call to groups/{}. For Somfy RTS, when there is one call to PUT groups/{}/actions/Open there is one RF transmission for each shade in the group. We sort the transmissions by alphabetical order of shade name.
By pairing one Bond device to both shades: Easiest way is to create a device in the Bond app + > Shade > Somfy RTS. Then at the setup screen, you hold PROG on channel 1 of your remote, tap Pair in the app, then hold PROG on channel 2 of your remote, tap Pair again, and now you’ve got control of both shade motors with one Bond “device”. — If you want to manage the paired motors later, you can get to the Pair button again by going to Device > Settings > Advanced > Pair/Unpair.
Note that it is also possible to use the PROG button with the All Shades channel on your Telis remote. This should cause all the paired shades to jog at the same time and so they will all accept the Pair signal when you’re setting up the device in the app. However, if for some reason one of the shades didn’t get your PROG or Pair signal, then you’re left in a situation where you need to go to the individual channels to resolve.
I hope that helps clarify how the Somfy RTS pair signals work.
Thank you @merck , as I said, I did use the Group API and the user had an issue described in the HS forum link above.
AKBond Plug-in device control “Toggleopen” DOES NOT function properly in the grouped “Lanai Shades” device. When Toggleopen is selected, both shades “jog” open ~3 inches and then close. “Toggleopen” DOES operate correctly on individual shade devices (North Shade and South Shade).
So I provide an option in the plugin - to send same command to both shades separately. Still an issue:
First Hold Command - South Shade responded correctly
Second Hold Command - Neither shade moved
Third Hold Command - North Shade responded correctly
So I’m guessing there’s some issue in the Bridge when handling the simultaneous commands (even with 1 sec delay between them.
The Log shows acknowledge of the action (from BPUP) for each shade correctly, but shades don’t behave:
Devices in Group: 7601e4edd624e2aa, 8f0c2cc897683f24
{“B”:“ZZGH85765”,“d”:0,“v”:“v3.20.1”,“t”:“devices/7601e4edd624e2aa/actions/Hold”,“i”:“0600003050b41d88”,“f”:132,“s”:200,“m”:2,“x”:“http”,“b”:{““:“00000000”,”__“:“00000000”}}
BPUP status update: {“B”:“ZZGH85765”,“d”:0,“v”:“v3.20.1”,“t”:“devices/8f0c2cc897683f24/actions/Hold”,“i”:“0600003a7805bc98”,“f”:132,“s”:200,“m”:2,“x”:“http”,“b”:{””:“00000000”,“__”:“00000000”}}
One important note about Hold and Preset actions on RTS: both of these are implemented with a single RTS command called My. The My command will stop the motor if its moving, or send it to the preset position if the motor is stationary (and then only if the preset position has been set).
So it’s expected that sending Open — Hold — Hold will cause the motor to move, stop, then move again.
I don’t entirely understand your setup, but if you had a setup where two Bond devices control the same motor, then weird things will happen when doing A.Hold then B.Hold.
That’s what I found when playing with the My function.
On the other hand, the grouping on the remote level has clearly some merits.
it ensures synchronous operation which is otherwise not really guarantied.
the number of devices that the bridge can support is limited and reduced
in case you have trouble with the learning process (e.g. template mismatch), you have to go thru it multiple times.
I hate my zigbee setup with 5 blinds that I can group and operate on 1 remote but the grouping is not carried forward through the bridge causing random sequence of operating, everyday a different sequence.
@merck the problem is (in short) - two shades in a group, works fine from Bond app, but from the plugin (using Group API) it doesn’t work correctly. However the plugin receives the action confirmation from BPUP correctly - the shades don’t move, or move briefly, then stop.
Something doesn’t compute here. The Bond Home app’s “Groups” tab uses the same Groups API as you are using. So if it works fine when tapping Open/Close as a group from the Bond app, then it should work fine with Open/Close actions from the API.
Only gotcha is that SetPosition on the Groups API is currently not recommended. Specifically for RTS technology, the shades won’t reach the expected positions. But Open/Close/Hold should work as expected.
