FAME Smart Blinds Preview 1

Please note this is a club preview, the text that follows is intended for the final product and may not represent the current state of the project. There may be changes to any and all parts of this page until it is finalised, and while this is completely functional there are a few finishing touches to add.

FAME Smart Blinds are low cost, open, easy to maintain self-build smart blinds for your home, supplied with apps for Android, iOS and macOS. They are designed to function like other IoT devices with:

• Simple initial setup via BLE

• App based control over wifi

• Optional Home Assistant integration via MQTT as a "cover" entity

This is the first in a line of open smart devices by Fyrby Additive, with more already in the pipe.

The software has feature parity on all platforms, with simple and streamlined setup of your device.

Hardware

A small selection of hardware is required for the build. Note a small amount of easy soldering is necessary to complete the model, and two heat-set inserts are used in the build hence a soldering iron is necessary. The build guide can be found under the Files tab in PDF format.

Roller Blind

This model is initially designed to work with the popular and cheap Ikea Fösterblad block-out roller blinds, which are available in different sizes and colours. I designed it with the 100x155cm version with part number 405.148.23.

Electronics

These parts are available from Seeed Studio. Note a generic 12v power supply can be used, and it's entirely possible you have one in a box somewhere you can re-use.

• Waveshare STS3215 smart serial bus servo (note: it's a rebranded Feetech STS3215) - $22

• Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-C3 - $4.90

• Seeed Studio Bus Servo Driver Board - $4.90

• Seeed Studio Grove Hall Sensor - $1.90

• 12v power supply

Some of you may discover or know the driver board and ESP32-C3 are available together in a bundle. Note that this does not include a wifi antenna if you do it this way.

If you would like to more easily re-use the hardware for a future project, it is suggested to use jumper cables to connect the hall sensor to the servo adapter to allow re-using it more easily in the future, however this is optional:

• 4-pin Female Jumper to Grove 4 pin Conversion Cable - $3.50

• 7-pin male header for Seeed Studio XIAO Series Board - $0.20

Hardware

The following hardware is required:

• 2x M2 inserts (Ruthex or CNC kitchen are a good fit)

• 4x M2x8 screws

• 2x M2 nuts

• 1x 608 bearing

• 2x strong rare earth disc shaped magnets, I use 8mm x 2mm

Software

Firstly there is a finished tool for flashing the initial firmware as part of the build. You can find the flashing utility here for various platforms - not iOS is not possible due to Apple restrictions on certified hardware.

The app and firmware for the smart blinds is open source and you can find it here on Github. It supports the following platforms with feature parity between each:

• macOS

• iOS

• Android

I am in the process of publishing the Apple software soon, and as of the date of publishing this article I have a verified Google Play account. This may take some time. As it is also published to Github people are able to submit their own modifications or fork their own versions.

There is a small risk this will not be approved for either app store. While this isn't a problem for Android users, it may be for iOS users.

The apps use BLE for setup and wifi for management and configuration after that. SSE is used for streaming telemetry back to clients (works with multiple simultaneous clients) and logging.

No personal or private information is wanted, needed, or collected and the app sends no telemetry (unless it crashes, then you can optionally submit a bug report).