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Installing the Eve Smart MotionBlind Upgrade with my Large Roller Shade

I have a large window in the front of my house and a roller shade was just the right window treatment for it.  But I also wanted to automate it.

My MotionBlind Upgrade kit and my new roller shade

I looked around to buy something that I was comfortable with, but simple non-automated roller blinds can be expensive, especially when they're larger than 6 ft x 6 ft.   This is disappointing, as a roller blind is just a tube with a small amount of synthetic cloth but can easily cost hundreds of dollars. Plus, since I wanted a smarthome blind, we're talking $500 or more from the "service oriented shops".

I'm a tech guy.  I think can do better.

After thinking about DIY and creative solutions, I decided to try out the Eve MotionBlinds Upgrade (MBU) kit.  This kit transforms an ordinary roller blind into a smart blind.  The MotionBlinds mechanism is basically consists of a small motor and battery in a long metal tube.  This motor tube slides into a roller blind tube.  Some radio electronics on the end of the tube allow it to communicate with smarthomes via HomeKit or Matter. Pretty neat and simple... but the devil is always in the details.

Analysis - Will the MotionBlinds Upgrade work for me?

Since I was pretty sure I wanted to go with the MotionBlinds Upgrade (again, I'll call it MBU from now on), the first trick is to make sure that the MBU will actually work in my situation.

My window is weirdly wide : roughly 74 inches wide and 77 inches tall.  I wanted to make sure that the MBU would work with such a wide and long blind, and that the MBU could be properly installed and powered inside my window's trim.

Looking at the specs, the MBU can drive a roller shade that is wider than 26 3/4.  So therefore, no problem in terms of driving such a wide or long shade.  
 
Another concern is power.  The MBU has an internal battery, probably a set of 18650s or similar Lithium rechargeable cells.  The battery is recharged via "your own" USB-C cable on a periodic basis (quarterly?).  Suffice to say that my window does not have USB power going to it, and so therefore I will have to climb up and recharge the battery on an occasional basis.  This doesn't seem too bad, as long as the battery can keep its charge up.


Ordering A Blind That Works

Since I recognized that the MBU can reasonably work in my home, the next challenge was to find a blind that can work with my window and the MBU.  First, a wide blind is hard to find. Most vendors do not sell blinds wider than 58 inches - likely due to being rarely ordered and hard to ship.

Furthermore, the blind tube diameter needs to be the right size for the MBU to slide into.  The MBU manual says that the blind tube's outside diameter needs to be between 1.5 and 2 inches. Sadly, most blind vendors do not publish information about tube diameter, and there are no specific blind tube standards and are usually not a measurement that buyers care about.

I used calipers to measure the diameter of the aluminum blind tube.

After searching high and low for a blind that would seem to work in terms of cost, size, and tube diameter, I ended up buying a 74 inch Linkcoo Roller Shade via Amazon for about $80. Once I received the Linkcoo roller shade, I used my digital caliper to measure the diameter of the tube: 39.5 mm.  Nice! The MBU unit would definitely fit inside.

Installing the Blind

The first trick to installation is: don't install the blind!  The MBU uses its own mounting brackets, so I was smart enough to avoid using the brackets that came with the blind. In other words, the brackets and chain that came with my Linkcoo roller blind have gone unused, and are now spare parts for some other project.  At the same time, I was wise to avoid buying fancier roller shade chains and hardware, as this stuff is not used with the MBU . In short, all that I needed in the blind department was the blind cloth, its roller tube, and its bottom weight.

I'm glad I didn't install the blind with the stock Linkcoo brackets...


... because the MotionBlind Upgrade uses its own brackets

 

Adding the MBU to the Blind Tube

I first installed the MBU withing my blind's roller tube.  This was pretty easy, but I think the goal here is DO NOT FORCE anything.  The motor needs to slide into the tube, and its a friction fit.  Since my blind tube was so long, I needed a friend to push on the far end of the roller tube as I pushed in the MBU from the other end.

The MBU slides into the roller tube... carefully!

 

Once the MBU was slid into the tube, I got to installing the brackets around my window.  My advice here is to follow the  MBU's instuctions and make sure everything is accurately installed with a little bit of +/- adjustability.  In the end, the blind unit should gently clip into the brackets.  There is roughly 3/8 inch of total adjustability with the brackets, so try to get it all within a quarter inch.  I found that "dry fitting" the blind unit very helpful, and this requires two people.

The business end: antennas, pull chain, and etc.

Configuration 

Once it was all up, I fired up the Eve app to do the initial configuration.  It is all pretty striaght forward.  The first step is to identify which way the tube should turn to open and close.   The second step is to set the high (open) and low (closed) points of the blind.  A single tug on the chain puts it to the other position, or a long tug will adjust it in small increments.

Rest assured that the MBU is very good at keeping track of the blind's position.  It is stepping up and down with high accuracy.

Downsides and Issues

I did have some issues and concerns:
  • My first MBU quickly developed some kind of stutter while closing.  I could never figure out why, but I ended up needed to do a warranty replacement.
  • For the warranty replacement, Eve could give me no advice on how to remove the MBU from my blind tube.  Happily, I was just able to pull it out with some force.
  • My MBU somehow lost connectivity to my home.  I needed to reset the MBU and add it to my home again.  I'm not sure if this was due to user error, a Smartphone issue, or a problem with the MBU.
  • I suspect the battery will need to be replaced within 8 years or so. There doesn't seem to be an easy way to replace the battery, but I'm sure someone will figure that out over time. 

Non-issues:

  • The blind supports HomeKit, Matter, and Thread, so I have no worries about it being supported for the long haul.
  • The noise is minimal, and is no different than what one would expect from a small, slow moving stepper motor.

Conclusion

So would I do it again?  I don't have a need for another smarthome blind, but I would definitely recommend it.  The caveat is that I don't know if this unit will have a lifespan of 5 years or 15+ years.  I, of course, would like it to last forever, but only "time in the field" will tell.

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