Somfy and Bond work great

[jmwhite5]

Just got my new blinds from zebrablinds.com.   I ordered the motorized version with a Somfy controller.  I thought it had z-wave built-in, but it doesn't.  They expect you to purchase the Z-Wave RTS bridge adapter (ZRTSI).  

But I realized that my existing Bond bridge (that I have to control my fans) actually support my Somfy blinds.  So there you have it.  No need to rely on z-wave if you have a bond controller.

[carealtor]

@jmwhite5  What kind of range are you getting from the Bond (to the Somfy blinds)?  I might go this route.

Just doing a little research, it seems z-wave is pretty popular for blinds.  But I have no z-wave so I know I will be in a nightmare situation trying to get a z-wave blind to work.

[jmwhite5]

My blinds are outdoors and my bond gateway is indoors (about 50 feet away).  The walls are stucco.    I also ended up buying the z-wave bridge (ZRTSI II: 16-Channel Z-Wave to RTS Bridge) for Somfy because I thought I could get the status of the blind (the state of the blind, whether up or down) but that is NOT supported.  So literally, for me it was 100% waste of money.   The bond gateway was much easier to use AND you can control a bunch of other things too (bonus!). But you don't get the state of the blind.  So it's good for issuing commands that are not conditional on the blinds state.  But for the most part, it's fine.  I have automation that automatically retract the blinds if 1) the sun goes down 2) the wind is above a certain speed.