Review:
Dooya - Automate curtains
If you have automated almost everything in your house, there is usually only one thing left that is tough to tackle.
And that is the automation of your curtains. In this post we will see if we can solve this in a reasonably cheap way.
This article is about how you can open and close your curtains automatically. Of course we also want to be able to do it manually. There are various options for achieving this. For example, there are do-it-yourself packages where you purchase a motorcycle and have to connect it to your existing rails yourself. There are of course also more professional solutions. This last category is often quite pricey. For a bit of curtain rails you can easily lose 500 euros. Now I really like home automation, but it also has to remain affordable.
So I started looking for a ready-made solution that is still somewhat affordable. After my search I came across the Dooya brand. This is a Chinese manufacturer that makes motorized window coverings. They are a lot cheaper compared to the competition. For example, a motorcycle is already available for 60 euros and rails are available from 25 euros a month.
Now you always have to wait and see what you get when you order something in China. This product is not available in the Netherlands. Occasionally you have to take a chance so I have ordered a motorcycle and a rail. The motor is available in 4 variants which ensures the opening and closing of the curtains:
- DT52E (45w and 75w) (433Mhz)
- DT52S (45w and 75w) (Wired)
There are more variants, but these do not work on 220V and are less quiet.
I chose the S variant because it can be connected to a Fibaro Roller Shutter module. This way I can connect it to my Z-Wave system (Athom - Homey). Because the 75w only cost 5 euros more, I opted for this one. In fact, you only choose this if you have somewhat heavier curtains, which in my case is actually not necessary. After a few weeks the package arrived. Of course I had to pay customs fees because the package was over 75 euros. So keep this in mind.
After opening, I came to the conclusion that they had sent the wrong engine. Not the S but E variant. This cannot be connected to the Fibaro roller shutter: bummer. In addition, my rail was bent. Not a very good start. Of course I contacted the selling party directly. After e-mailing back and forth, I was able to send the engine back and was reimbursed for the rail. So neatly dissolved in itself.
The E variant works with the 433Mhz protocol. Fortunately, the Homey has a chip for this and someone has made an APP for this. More about this later.
After some bending and turning the rail I got it neatly put together again. The rails are delivered in 3 pieces, the ends are already mounted. Normally it is a matter of screwing in and running the motor at the end. Everyone should do this.
The whole works via a band that is set in motion with radars at the end (left and right). Actually quite a simple system.
What do you get:
- Engine
- Suspension brackets
- Rails with band
- End stops
Appearance:
Size engine:
Installation:
Installing the rails is therefore done by joining the 3 pieces together. Brackets are provided for this and a type of clamp. I found the brackets not really clamp very well and they make the rail skew rather than straight.
You can hang the rails by attaching the brackets to the ceiling. Make sure you measure this well and hang up very straight. If you pay some extra attention to this, the rail hangs straight and it will also open and close much more smoothly. If the rail is hanging, provide the motor with a piece of cord to extend it a bit and make a plug here and plug it into the socket. The colors of the wires point themselves.
Because the rail is already delivered complete, it is immediately calibrated so that opening and closing stops at the right time. This is a good thing because there is a Chinese manual supplied and my Chinese is a bit rusty. I had ordered a few too many runners, luckily these are fairly easy to remove by removing the end piece. Unfortunately, after this the open and closed position was no longer correct. So I still had to pick up my Chinese. Fortunately there is an APP from Google that gives a great translation. You can re-calibrate by pressing the reset button and closing the curtains. After this, open and close the curtains again and it will stop at the correct position.
This motor also has a function to manually open and close it. You can activate this by pulling on the curtain, the engine will start and do the final part for you. I must honestly say that you have to pull the curtain pretty hard.
Another feature is the automatic stop function. If the curtain gets stuck on something, it will stop automatically. So he won't just break your curtains.
