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The Homey Community has been moved to https://community.athom.com.
This forum is now read-only for archive purposes.
Slide make your existing curtains smart (kickstarter)
JanH
Member
Just became backer of the Kickstarterproject Slide. Sounds great and ....... Mind the price!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/41829059/slide-make-your-existing-curtains-smart
It will function via WiFi, an iOS/android app and should be IFTTT-compatible. So, could Slide become in a nice fellowship with Homey?
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/41829059/slide-make-your-existing-curtains-smart
It will function via WiFi, an iOS/android app and should be IFTTT-compatible. So, could Slide become in a nice fellowship with Homey?
Comments
But if its IFTTT enabled I think homey could talk to it.
It uses nylon lines running on the outside; in sight
How about noise? Most of this type of units make quite some noise....
Just my 2 cents.
Talking about a thin wire.....
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jalousier/flipflic
works with Zigbee and BLE
If you can tackle that in a good way then I'm interested!
This is Thijs from Innovation in Motion/Slide! Just saw this forum topic, very nice.
Just to answer a few questions:
- The Slide unit hangs between your curtain and your window/wall so you do not actually see it. The slide wire is actually right behind the rails so you don't see that either.
- The wire is thin but strong, it's a polyethylene wire with a straight pull capacity of 22kg. By means of creative experimenting we were able to lift a 15kg weight lift dumbbell up with our motor + wire. That worked, and the wire didn't snap, so we're pretty confident here.
There's been a lot of questions to showcase more, e.g. a rod-based setup, noise, and so on. So we're collecting all these things and doing a video/film day in a few days to answer all those questions with more video material.
It's very hectic so it might take a while before I can check back in here, but I'll keep an eye out on this forum post! Cheers
A small question: Only communication by wifi? It's a esp module isn't it? No plans for other protocols?
Sorry for taking a while to reply. We're excited to sit down with Jorden and our dev team in a while (as the API is coming together) to make sure there's a Slide app in the Homey app store ASAP.
@kasteleman ;
Wifi was our first choice because of the versatility it offers, e.g. IFTTT but also because you can set up Slide as a webserver, etc. We're looking into an optional Z-wave/Zigbee upgrade. It seems Z-wave is more popular in NL/Europe whereas US seems to prefer Zigbee (generalizing). BLE is also still on the table, but for all these things it may the case they're added in later version (we want to make sure not to overpromise on anything
@MarcelTimmermans ;
Can you send me some pictures through DM? Thanks
@fuzzybear ;
The other part of your rails does have a straight end right? I made a little mock-up for a similar question I got from someone else, showing what's possible with curved rails. Check:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mjno0vh2qf09xnx/setup nick.jpg?dl=0
Cheers!
Please be causious because you don 't want your slide to become one of those IoT devices that got hacked and are ddossing the internetz once in a while. I guess.
Also: the only reason you'd want to go for BLE is to save batteries? Zwave I can imagine you'd want to support but OTOH: if it works with wifi, probably zwave is not needed anymore (or am I too used to working with Homey?)
it is only on the two ends of the curtain that has this sharp bend the rest of the rail is straight. Most of the curtains are made up of two halves so the open from the middle.
@BasVanDenBosch ;
Valid points, and something we've thought about extensively, also when we were initially contemplating an only-local protocol (zigbee,zwave, ble) vs wifi. Basically, Slide needs to function as a (web)server in order for cloud services like IFTTT to interact with it. But also to enable users to access Slide when they're not connected to the Wifi network. One of the comments we get is "why would the user need to control Slide when they're not home?". What's often overlooked, though, is that a lot of people no longer connect their smartphone to their wifi at home. Since Vodafone bumped me to a 12GB plan, I generally prefer the steady 4G over wifi. In cases like mine, there's added value in being able to control Slide when not connected to the local wifi .
In terms of personal preference, the choice is yours. If you want to connect to a cloud platform like IFTTT, you can. During setup, the Slide App will ask if you want to allow remote access (e.g. controlling Slide without being on the wifi network). In order to register a new control device with Slide (e.g. a new phone, or a Homey,...) the first time setup requires a connection to the local (wifi) network.
I do share your overall security concerns with IoT devices, definitely. The issue with the large DDoS attacks like back in October was that those devices didn't have even rudimentary security, firewall, anything. Partly because the companies didn't care. Partly because there was still a mentality of 'a device will not get hacked, unless [someone external] actively decides to hack it'. The reality, obviously, is the opposite. Bots constantly scan and monitor the internet for devices with open ports and try to brute force with default passwords (check out this great article about a IoT honeypot build that was hacked in an hour).
All I can say is that we're very aware about the precautions needed when setting up an IoT device with a server. Security is key, and there's a range of musts (including a secure connection, no use of default credentials, and requiring a local network presence for an initial pairing). It's also good to mention that one of the advantages of the ESP chip is the ability to push OTA firmware updates in the future.
@ Fuzzybear:
Gotcha, yeah that'll be fine, though keep in mind the movement range of the curtains will be limited to the straight part (e.g. in the photolink I shared above). Send me a picture with the full width (both curves) if you need me to visualize.
I have a question too:
I assume this was one-time? Those curtain systems will have to work day-in day-out, for many years. So have you thought about doing stress tests? In other words: I would be curious to know how many times that 15kg can be lifted and lowered before the wire snaps? (and what kind of warranty will you give on the device and on the wires?)
What I love about Slide, is how I can also open/close by hand and Slide will register that.
What I am wondering about, however, is... My curtains consist of a single part, so one side is fixed (the side I will hide Slide behind), the other side moves. I think I understand how Slide opens the curtain (just pull the wire closer), but how does it close it again?
They use a double (circular) wire (like with blinds, where you can pull one side of the cord to open the blinds, and the other side to close them). The wire goes from one end of the curtain rail all the way to the other end. They have a custom 'node' attached at the end of each curtain, that moves along this wire. Depending on which side of the wire is pulled, these nodes either move forward (close the curtain) or backward (open the curtain).
So it doesn't matter if you have a single curtain, or double curtains (as long as the double curtains are the same length). And that's also why you can still operate them manually.