Somfy blinds retrofit question

[firstone]

Hello. I'd like use Somfy RTS with cellular blinds but cannot afford getting something like 25 of them right now. If anybody has experience with it, is it possible to order blinds separate and retrofit motors later? What kind would I get? Corded? Cordless? I've tried to call blinds.com and they said their blinds cannot be retrofitted. Doesn't sound right to me. 

[jfai]

Most likely you will face two issues for retrofitting cellular blinds/roller shades.

1. The brackets for Somfy RTS motors could be different from the existing brackets. They may not only be mechanically incompatible, but also may require different widths of the tube/fabric. This definitely is an issue for inside mounting. You may be able to use adapters for the existing brackets, but the adapters will require extra room.
2. The tube diameter needs to be correct for the desired RTS motor. As long as the tubes of your blinds/shades have the correct diameter for the Somfy motor, you will be able to retrofit. Even if the tube diameter is wrong, you could swap out the tube and reuse the existing fabric - tedious but doable. I've done it for a couple of roller shades - no experience with cellular blinds.

Besides the motor with its included crown, you will also need the idler part. 

If you have a choice, stay away from cordless motors. They are much more noisy (comparing Sonesse ST30 and Sonesse 30 Wirefree) and if you have a bunch of them, taking care of the battery recharging can become cumbersome, especially if you don't have an outlet close to the motor. The longest charging cable is about 10 ft.

For each wired RTS motor, you'll need to provide 24 VDC power through a 2-conductor wire (>= 18 gauge). You can either run the wire to a central power supply or have a 'wall wart' in an outlet at each window.

Before you start ordering, make sure you understand the retrofit path.

[midrar]

I hate to hijack this post but I’m not nearly as active as I used to be. 10 years ago, Somfy shades were the way to go. I’m building a house and I’m thinking about going with motorized wired shades, is Somfy still the big player, or is there a less expensive yet good quality item that can work with the ISY?