How to shutter up and down simultaneously

I have some Somfy shutters connected to a Somfy motor controller, the CBUS shutter relays work as expected to raise and lower the shutters. My issue is that I can't stop the shutters other than at the top or the bottom. I tried setting 1%, 2% etc but it's ignored. According to a doc I have it says the stop command is issued by latching both up and down relays together for 1 sec. How can I do?

 

It sounds like you are using the shutter relay to simply press the up and down buttons on the somfy controller. This is not how it should have been set up. The shutter relay is designed to directly control the shutter motors without the somfy controller. The stop function of the shutter relay opens both up and down contacts to stop the blind. There is no way to get it to close both relays as this would destroy the blind motor in its intended operation. You need to either remove the somfy controller and connect directly to the blind motors (probably very difficult), or swap the shutter relay for 2 channels of a standard relay. This way you can program both relays to close, and you don't need all the protection in the shutter relay as the somfy controller is doing that for you.

 

Thanks Ashley,

So basically I either need to have the whole thing rewired or swap the 4 shutter relays for 8 relays (L5508RVFP) in order to actuate 4 shutter.

I'm really surprised Somfy don't seem to know anything about how C-Bus functions with their equipment.

Thanks

 

Somfy works great with CBus and the installers should know the right model to supply for this. However it sounds like you've had the wrong model specified by your installer/bind company? Can you post details?

 

Without knowing which somfy controller you are using and how it is currently wired it's hard to recommend your best course of action. If you are controlling low voltage switches you could use the 8 channel elv relay L5108RELVP which is much more economical. You should probably go back to your installer and get them to sort it out. It clearly has been poorly thought out.

 

I have a Somfy IB+, 4AC. The usual story is that the blind installers know nothing about cbus and the sparky who set up my original cbus shut down.

While I do like cbus it really complicates everything, I really have a lot of money tied up in it and it has bought me a very expensive headache.

 

With that controller you have direct access to the motors, so you could just dispense with the somfy controller and hook the motors directly to the shutter relays.

 

OK thank you that's pretty good news. I guess I would need to purchase a wind sensor as live in a very windy area and the wind sensor is currently attached to the Somfy and I have zero info on the wind sensor.

 

The wind sensor makes life a bit tricky. I had the same problem with an outdoor awning that used a wireless wind sensor to send a close command to the blind via RF. I patched up a receiver and decoded the close command which then triggered a cbus message via a PIC processor. In the end I decided it was all to complicated and just hooked up 2 cbus relays to the switches on a spare remote control and left the original controller in-place.

Probably not what you want to hear

 

Oh gee! Just when I thought my problem was solved. I thought c-bus would have had a wind sensor I could purchase and use the PACA to trigger the retraction based up whatever wind speed I set.

I always feel like a pioneer when trying to do any other that turn on lights with cbus

 

How does the existing wind sensor hook into the system. It's not obvious from the controller instructions I have.

 

I have Animeo controlled by Cbus LVR. Four blinds controlled by 8 relays.
Works without any problems

 

Ashley, the IB+ has an input for the wind sensor which triggers a shutter relay.

 

Grssll would be nice if I could trade my 4 shutter relays for a 8 relay unit but that seems unlikely.

 

The final solution

I thought I'd post my final solution for later reference.

I removed the IB+ as suggested by Ashley and connected the shutter relays directly to the louvres. As usual I got tripped up the the failsafe interval being too short but finally worked that out so now everything works fine, up, down, stop,tilt etc.

The only issue is the wind sensor which was connected to the IB+ via a separate switch mechanism with up/down button. I found that this switch also controls the response to the wind sensor. You set the max wind speed via a pot and once that speed is reached a relay is flipped. So I connected the switch to an L5504AUX and used the PACA to set my scene to raise the louvres.

I'm still not happy since I have to use this switch, so the next plan is to remove the switch and use a 5504GI to read the continuity of the wind sensor directly. All I need to do now is to find $800 for the 5504GI.

 

what you need to do is Animeo rts card and Somfy universal RTS.
Get Paca control via rs232. I have four Animeo now controlled via serial and Ness M1. Easy to program and later on you can add Somfy RTS motors to this set up.

 

Grssl I could but I really never wanted the IB+ in the first place when I can do everything I want without it. I have something like 20 blinds, 12 louvres, 6 awnings, 20 sheer curtains and 11 curtains so I have a lot of shutter relays, along with dimmers and relays all sitting nicely in my comms room. Suddenly this big ugly Animeo box appears and throws the whole equilibrium of the place off kilter. Not to mention that it's a really big bit of plastic to do such a basic task. Watch ebay it'll son be there

 

I still think Animeo is more economical and better way to control shutters.
One box can control four rollers and price wise could be had for $50-100.
Plus you can get building controller and do all shutter automation on Somfy software.
Cheers
George

 

Thanks Nick,

I was lucky in this case because I have already done my testing on the wind sensor and mapped out the wind speed to impedence, it's a pretty dumb device. But your advice is well taken because I did start with another wind sensor off my exiting weather station and it is a data stream.

Frankly I probably wouldn't buy a GI just for this but I'm building my watering system and integrating some float switches to keep my water walls and water features topped up, so I'll have many uses for it/them.