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For several weeks I try to find and implement a functional version of my curtain opener. This is the progress up the final version.
Step 1
Remember the drille Pas Home / Curtain open close prototype 1
First test a made with a drill and fishing line is to test the concept. The idea is simple, copy a Washing line with pulley. One curtain is on the top rop and other on the button. When the line turn the curtaint open or close.
During this test we discoper we need to made many loop on the pencil to add more friction to made the line turn. I will reuse this trick in other proto and in the final release.
Step 2
Replace the drill with stepper motor. Pas Home / Stepper motor
In this step we discover we need a good stepper motor and a good stepper motor controler
Step 3
With my brother, we tried a new concept using long threaded rod, Half of the rod is filled in one direction and the othe half in other direction.
This proto working great and he is very robust. But the main problem is the speed with my stepper motor, it take very long time to close or open the curtain and he do this with many noise.
Several solutions are possible. Using a faster motor, use a custom rode with lest fillet. But his was starting to get really expensive.
The first video is very long so you can see the speed problem and buzzing
Step 4
Finalize the proto of the step 2. Some video and photo here Pas Home / Proto shield + curtain progress
In this step i made a motor handler with acrylic using similar process discribe here. Pas Home / Temperature sensor bracket v2
This proto work well but he is very difficult to install. The curtain in the edge block the access and for remove the curtain or the poll we need to remove the fishing line which is not easy to reinstall.
In the first photo you can see the many loop trick.
As you can see there are not many pieces, with the curtains in place we see just a bit of he the fishing line.
Step 5
Finalize the controller part, the stepper motor controller board are install in my basement for the control of the 3 windows of the ground floor. Pas Home / Adafruit Motor Shield
I also made a portable version to install in my room on the second floor. I use electrical tape to cover the led.
You can find my motor shield controler/curtain controler node js application install step here https://github.com/pascalmartin/ForgetMeNot/tree/master/bundles/motorshield
And my OpenHab configuration also in github here https://github.com/pascalmartin/ForgetMeNot/blob/master/bundles/openhab/openhab/configurations/rules/default.rules
OpenHab only need to call the good url to open or close curtain. EX: http://Pi ip/sm/:shieldID/:motorID/:stepMode/:direction/:speed/:step
Step 5
Made a better proto, i combine the proto with fishing line and the threaded rod proto to make the ultimate curtain opener.
It seems the same, but he did not
In this version i put the fishing line in the pole and add a adjustable tender system. We also put the moto pulley in the pole, for an very good aligment with other end pulley.
This version is a bit slower because we use a smalest pulley but with motor shield speed to the max, the speed to open or close de curtain is great. With this proto we are able to remove curtain very easily without the need to remove the fishing line.
It's always impressive the number of tools we need to do a job that seems simple
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