Hello knowlegeable crowd of the Know How community

[G+_Yannick Lemin]

Hello knowlegeable crowd of the Know How community,

 

I am very much into home automation and I'm playing around with Raspberry Pis and a little Arduino.

My current project is the following: I live in an appartment which I rent, I can't transform anything, and this I have to find was to add to it.

One of the nice thing about the appartment is that I have electric blinds at the windows, and they all work with a remote control, which must be RF because I can use it without a line of sight.

 

Do any of you know a way I can build some kind of a similar remote on a Raspberry Pi so that I can connect it to my network?

 

Thanks a lot in advance :)

 

Cheers

Yannick

[G+_Rickbearcat]

What you really only need is an on/off switch. Probably something that can be remotely activated via your WiFi network. No need to reinvent the wheel as the remote that activates the blinds already has the correct radio frequency. I would think that you could just take the blinds remote control apart, figure out how it is activated (probably some sort of voltage applied at the switch button) and make a breadboard switch connected to the Pi that activates the blinds remote. This is the limit of my idea on this project as I don't have the hardware and software knowledge to go any further. But if you didn't think to reuse the remote control for the blinds, I've at least saved you from having to build that again.

[G+_Yannick Lemin]

Thanks for that, but I can't really Frankenstein that, it's not mine. Plus there are actually 5 separate blinds, each only have one remote control, and on top of that I have one multi remote that can control the all individually or separately, which is why I wanted to emulate the master multi remote ... Does that make sense ?

[G+_Bruno Cadorin]

Your remote is probably the easiest way to controlling the blinds.

I would venture a guess that the remote is "Keyed" to the receiver in your apartment, else you'd be operating your neighbours blinds too. You could rig up solenoids to activate the keys, the solenoids being activated by the Pi. You could, purchase another remote off e-bay and jury-rig that, by applying the correct signal to the switch contacts of the remote. Bare in mind you would need to program the new remote to match your current receiver, or reprogram your current receiver to match your new transmitter. These systems operate with different codes, much like car remotes and garage door openers.

This system may be Bluetooth or conventional RF, but guaranteed the signals will be coded and locked to the reciever.

If you have the equipment, you could hook up a logger at the receiver, capture all the codes then purchase an RF transmitter, then use the Pi to key, or code the signals into the transmitter.

Have you considered checking with the manufacturer, to see if they had some kind of an addressable transmitter.

[G+_Tony Martin]

So the first thing that you would need to do is to decode the RF codes from your remotes. Then send those codes to your blinds via your own means. I would use an arduino for this project. There are many tutorials on how to decode RF signals using an arduino so I am not going to write it all here, a google search should give you all the information you need. Once you have the codes it is easy to send those codes to the blinds from the arduino in any way you want such as an app on your phone or a button on the wall. If you have any specific questions along the way let us know so we can help.

 

PS I made my own motorized blinds that I control through voice commands on the amazon alexa using the nodemcu board and a servo, but I could modify my blinds however I wanted so how I did it do not really apply here.

[G+_Yannick Lemin]

Hello Tony Martin? and thanks for this. The reason I asked this here was because I couldn't find the answers I needed by mere Google search unfortunately :( what I am looking for is for instance what kind of shield / sensor / electronic piece should I get to do such a thing and where can I buy it online ? I can deal with the code, it's the electronics I have more trouble with :)

Thanks :)

[G+_Tony Martin]

well in that case here you go.....

 

instructables.com - Decoding and Sending 433MHz RF Codes With Arduino and Rc-switch

 

http://www.princetronics.com/how-to-read-433-mhz-codes-w-arduino-433-mhz-receiver/

 

http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=242010.0

 

http://www.nrocy.com/2014/08/02/mimicking-rf-remote-light-signals-with-arduino/

 

Hope one of those will help

[G+_Yannick Lemin]

Terrific thank you so much ?

[G+_Ben Reese]

Never tried myself, but Hak5 did a few videos on this very thing.

 

I would probably start with the FCC filing. The remotes should have a label with the FCC code. That will give at least the frequency they use, but maybe additional info - such as what type of keying they're using. (I'd expect probably 433 Mhz)

 

After that, you'll probably need to listen to the signal using a radio in the same band. There are cheap SDRs (Software Defined Radios) that will work.

 

Once you're able to record and analyze the code emitted by the remote, HOPEFULLY you'll be able to just record and replay the recording. I'd be very, very surprised if they use a rotating code like in your car's keyfob.

 

I'll see what I can find too. There may be Arduino libraries already that will sniff and record the signal.

[G+_Yannick Lemin]

Thanks a lot :)

[G+_Ben Reese]

If it's 433 Mhz, hopefully this will help. I didn't look through enough to know how difficult it would be to adapt to other frequencies. arduinobasics.blogspot.com.au - 433 MHz RF module with Arduino Tutorial 1