Hi,
For the past couple years I have connected Bond to Alexa in order to tell it to raise and lower my shades. I also have Bond raise and lower them automatically at sunrise and sunset, but, for example, in the middle of the night when I come downstairs to take the dog out, I have to say “Alexa, raise shade 4”.
I am souring on having things inside the house that listen in on me, and would love to use, for example, a Leviton scene button (Leviton Decora Smart Scene Controller Switch, Wi-Fi 2nd Gen, Neutral Wire Required, Works with My Leviton, Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Home/Siri, & Wired or Wire-Free 3-Way, D2SCS-2RW, White https://a.co/d/13tpg23) to hit on the wall to raise or lower the shade. I think I could do it with a relay like this: “Leviton—>ifttt—>alexa—>bond—>shade” but that seems unnecessarily clunky. And since Bond opted out of ifttt I’m assuming there must be a better way.
If it’s specifically Shades / Blinds (which are integrated / controlled by Bond), that’s the exact usage case of Sidekick remotes for Bond Bridge Pros if you have, or are willing to get, a Bridge Pro.
However, if you potentially want more than Shades / Blinds control, or don’t have / want a Bridge Pro, and you have (or are willing to get and set up) a third party home home controller, the options are nearly limitless.
I use an ISY / Polisy from Universal Devices, while many other community members use Home Assistant, Hubitat, Homebridge, SmartThings, etc. Bond’s Local API gives us all ultimate flexibility.
So with those controllers integrated into the mix, you can do things like use Harmony remotes, Insteon keypads switches or remotes, Z-Wave or Zigbee switches or keypads, networked, or IR devices (remotes, keypads, switches, etc) – or even Bond Sidekicks in either Scene or Shades mode - but only if you have a Bridge Pro.
I’m eager to hear what other community members suggest here too.
While what you described is likely possible (the Leviton → IFTTT → Alexa → Bond → Shade), it is indeed clunky and prone to delays and / or interruptions due to cloud-based middleware.
I’m a “fully local unless all else fails” kind of person, so you might find something like Z-Wave (which to be fair has its own pros and cons) switches and a third-party home controller to be less sour-inducing?
Check this out from Leviton and Home Assistant. (Disclaimer: I don’t use Leviton or Home Assistant, but it sounds pretty polished?)
A motion sensor will do this within alexa and gives you all kinds of additional controls.
Even simpler, have one dedicated remote set to the respective channel for the blind. I keep my remotes always close to my graywind blinds so I can do a local override if need be.
This may seem too simple, but if you create a basic routine within Alexa to operate this shade you could tie this routine to button press using a Flic button. So that you do not need a voice command but can simply press a button. This button can live on your night stand and could essentially be a toggle control to implement and reverse your commands.
They even can trigger 3 different things through different types of button presses; i.e. single press, double press, and long hold.
Essentially you could build a routine to create a scene that is optimal for taking your dog out, i.e. dimming path lights for middle of the night travel, opening the shade, turning on any exterior lights to assist with visibility of what may be outside etc. Then create a second routine to put it all back the way it was to reverse the scene. Very easy.
I like your approach because the automation I suggested has the downside that it can be triggered by any motion within the sensing area will trigger the respective multifunctional routine. So the convenience of full automation has its downside. The need for multiple routines for on-and-off operation can be easily combined in a single routine with a preset delay step.
