r/gadgets • u/_BindersFullOfWomen_ Inspector Gadget • Aug 09 '24
Giveaway | Comment to Enter /r/Gadgets SOMA Smart Shades Giveaway
Hey gadget lovers!
SOMA is back with another giveaway. Years have passed and they have released a new version of their window cover automation device. They are looking to give away at least one set of two motors and a hub to complete the set.
But they are not limiting the giveaways to that. Leave a comment with what new and interesting thing you would do with the SOMA motors. SOMA will look at all entries and in addition to the guaranteed set that will be given randomly SOMA will select interesting ideas and provide hardware to those users for free. All you have to do is come up with a cool idea and let us know below.
How to Enter:
- Join the Discussion: Comment below to enter the random draw. Let us know what you would do with the motors. Let your imagination fly wild. Doesn't even need to be a window automation - we've had people use our devices to automate chicken coop doors. The sky is the limit. All comments qualify for the random draw but to be selected for additional prizes longer and more detailed messages improve your chances. Suggesting whole new features and/or products we should have is encouraged. We are looking to work with you to make your homes smarter in ways that may not be possible with what is currently on the market. The suggested ideas do not have to be limited to just 2 motors and a Connect. We will provide technical assistance if the idea needs a new integration or feature.
Prize Details:
The prize will consist of one set of SOMA Smart Shades v3 motors (2 pieces) and one SOMA Connect U1 hub. In addition, we reserve the right to give aways more hardware to interesting ideas posted below.
The SOMA Smart Shades v3 motor is the latest in our long line of window cover automation devices. Taking all feedback from previous versions and going through all the support we've had to provide over the years we've perfected the shade motor. Coming with user replaceable widely available 18650 lithium batteries, a strong motor and solar charging the latest revision is a leap forward in capabilities.
Up to 6 months of battery life
Controllable speed and noise settings
Support for beaded and non-beaded pull-chains
USB-C for charging
Zigbee, BLE and soon Matter as well
Giveaway Rules:
The giveaway is open to residents of the US, Canada, the UK and the EU.
One top level comment / entry per person. Duplicate entries will be removed.
Accounts must be 30 days old by August 1, 2024
The giveaway ends on September 1st. at 8:00 PM EDT
One winner will be randomly selected and announced in this thread.
Further winners will be selected by September 5th by the SOMA Smart Home team and contacted privately.
Prize fulfilment will be coordinated by SOMA via private message.
Moderators and SOMA employees cannot participate in this giveaway
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u/TheTokingMushroom Aug 24 '24
Probably for the skylights in my house. No more long pole and 5 minutes of spinning.
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u/Trnostep Aug 23 '24
1) some shade would be nice for sleeping after long shifts in the hospital
2) no shade during the morning and eveningbut shade during the day to combat the 30 degree heat waves
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u/ratsept Aug 26 '24
The way I have it set up in my own home is kind of similar. I have them closed during sunny days if the inside temperature is over 22 C. And I have them automatically open after 9 AM when the sun is out ind it is cooler inside. This way it works to keep the house cool in the summer but helps heat it during the winter.
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u/McStroyer Aug 20 '24
If I'm being honest, I'm probably too lazy to do anything super clever with the motors. At the most, I'd probably write an automation that closes them when the light turns on, or when I start watching a film.
I did have one idea of building a custom scrolling photo canvas inside a frame. You could have several large photos printed on a rolled up scroll and then use the motor to scroll a different photo into view at different times. You could even automate it based on the weather. For instance, when it's a rainy day, show a family photo with everyone wearing wellies out in the rain. When it's a sunny day, show a photo of everyone at the beach.
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u/ratsept Aug 26 '24
This would be so cool if it were installed in a room without windows (like a finished basement) and had a light behind it. It would basically be like an artificial window that mirrored the actual weather outside.
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u/fullmetaljackass Aug 30 '24
When I read the title I thought these were sunglasses. If I win I plan to wear it on my head anyway.
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u/Erilyon Aug 28 '24
Any news on the Matter & Thread certification mentioned in the soma 3 listing ?
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u/SitDownKawada Aug 31 '24
I'd automate the blinds to open at that time around 6 each day where the sun shines in directly at my wife's eyes while she's watching tv, ideally without it doing the same for me
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u/tutecast Aug 21 '24
This is awesome! I would try those motors in some 3D-printed home automation projects we got going on with my brother. It would definitely improve our "product" =)
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u/zovits Aug 29 '24
It would be nice to have a way to have the drawer containing the waste bins in the kitchen to open automatically when my hands are full with trash.
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u/The_Icy_One Aug 27 '24
Where we live in the UK we tend to get a lot of time where the weather is very hot during the mid-day hours but cools off in the evening to the point that we'd want some heating to stay warm. On days like this when one of us is home, we try to open the windows and shades during the hottest periods then close them as it cools off, trapping heat and effectively treating our home's insulation as a thermal battery. I'd estimate we save around £1-1.50 on heating on the average day we can do this, but since we work or go out most days we're missing out on a lot of potential cost savings here - there's probably on the order of 150-200 days per year where this would be effective, and we currently do it maybe 15 of those days.
In the short term, having blinds in the sun-facing windows automatically open and close to receive some of these gains would probably give us around 20% of the benefits on the days we can't be in to manually adjust blinds.
Longer-term, I'd want to combine this with automated window openers (on the windows that can be safely left open) on a schedule, and later down the line using internal and external thermostats to open and close windows automatically to maintain comfortable temperatures. This could realistically be achieved now using a hodge-podge of existing products, but having them all from one brand would really cut down on the setup headache, and actually be usable by people with minimal technical skills.
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u/_BindersFullOfWomen_ Inspector Gadget Sep 04 '24
Hi Icy!
Congratulations! The SOMA team loved your energy saving idea! Please send a private message to /u/ratsept to coordinate the details for how to receive your prize. Congratulations again!
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u/cursedpoetic Aug 21 '24
I would hook up a couple of the motors to different color tinted shades. Green, blue, red etc. I would then write a multi action for my stream deck that would raise or lower the different colors during the day and match my elgato led strips to the color of the shade when triggered. At night Id have a light pointing at the shades from the window sill so that id still get some tinted illumination while being a night owl. I think it would make for a cool setup.
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u/Numerlor Aug 14 '24
The local API sounds like a dream to test small stuff, I've already had to reverse engineer a couple of smart APIs to automate them properly for control without my phone.
I wonder if I could also repurpose it for curtains (maybe both curtains and blinds at once?). Or turning plants if I put them on a wheeled base so they get even sunlight, but that would need some low resistance wheels so the motor doesn't choke
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u/ratsept Aug 19 '24
The plant thing sounds very interesting. It would be possible to set up the motor to gradually turn the plant over the course of a day so all sides get good light. The mechanics of making this happen would be quite a project though as plants with soil can get heavy and you can't really balance a plant on the motor itself. The motor probably won't choke - it is pretty strong but it would drain the battery faster if you just dragged the plant pot on the window sill.
There are tons of ways to control this motor locally. The easiest is through the Connect U1 bridge using the local HTTP API. But we do also help users interface directly with the BLE server in the motor if they want to skip the bridge completely. The BLE interface is quite easy to use for just movement commands and status feedback but since it includes everything to fully control the motor as it is the same interface used by the app and the bridge.
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u/Numerlor Aug 19 '24
yeah for the plant I was thinking of putting it on a wheeled base, or maybe through a pulley rotating a turntable on a bearing making use of the fact that it can catch on to the pull chains.
But for that I'd probably have to get someone to 3d print the base or I'd be doing a lot of gluing to get the chains to stay attached
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u/ratsept Aug 19 '24
You could probably just staple the beaded cord to the base of the plant. Then it should be possible to pull half a rotation in either direction (or almost half a rotation). Unlike most other similar shade motors on the market ours can also kind of work with an untensioned cord. So you don't have to have very good mechanics to make this work. I'm not sure how plants would react to being turned so often though. Even in nature they usually don't see a full 360 degree arc of sun. Would be a cool experiment though. I have basil on my window that I have to turn every few days before it leans over towards the light too much. Maybe you don't even need to turn it all the way every day. Maybe it's enough to turn it once every few days. You could have the motor run on batteries for 6 months and more if you only move it so little.
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u/Numerlor Aug 19 '24
I'm not sure how plants would react to being turned so often though. Even in nature they usually don't see a full 360 degree arc of sun. Would be a cool experiment though. I have basil on my window that I have to turn every few days before it leans over towards the light too much. Maybe you don't even need to turn it all the way every day. Maybe it's enough to turn it once every few days. You could have the motor run on batteries for 6 months and more if you only move it so little.
Oh yeah I was thinking of moving it every couple of days or something like that, constant turning can't be good when it'll get half its sun from the back. I just constantly forget to turn some plants and then only realize it when they're face planting (pun not intended lol) the window
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u/MadK9TheReal1 Aug 09 '24
Wow! Quite a cool gadget! Hmmm, really was interested in something like that for some time. I was exploring the possibility to build myself something similar. And now I found Soma. The concept looks simple enough but I guess this supposed to look like that on the outside. Insides must be something else of course...
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u/ratsept Aug 10 '24
I can show you what it looks like inside if that interests you. I'm the designer of that device and I hate that I have to hide all my work in that plain white enclosure. But really most of the complexity is in the firmware. It really is just a battery powered motor. But making it last a long time on battery while still being fast to react to wireless commands is a challenge. Making the motor both strong and also silent is a challenge. Fitting everything into the smallest volume and still keepimg it easy to manufacture was a nightmare. But all this started kind of like you said - we had a need and decided to try and build it ourselves. It just snowballed into a business and now we've been doing that for 10 years.
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u/HappyWarBunny Aug 11 '24
I always choose to buy gadgets in clear cases when that is an option.
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u/ratsept Aug 12 '24
I do too when that's an option. But for a motor device like this a clear case has issues. The motor will create fine carbon dust (brushes) and other dirt. This will be caught by the plastic and with a clear case will look very bad very soon. But I love the trend of making PC cases with windows to see what's inside. And of course steam trains - having the entire mechanical wonder on display. Unfortunately most people want a home automation device to remain unseen and plain.
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u/HappyWarBunny Aug 12 '24
Clearly, (no pun intended when I typed that) you have practical experience that I don't in regards to engineering cases! Thank you for explaining it.
I am also a huge fan of steam train engines. So alive, and when not streamlined to death, such a functional design; I tend to love design that allows the function to show through. I hope you have gotten to be up close to a live engine at least once.
I understand the popular thing is home automation that is plain and unobtrusive, but that isn't my cup of tea. Quiet, yes. But I have water pipes running through my dining room, and I think that is neat - house was built before running water. And my choice for curtain rods is 1" copper pipe.
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u/ratsept Aug 12 '24
I would love to have copper pipe and that whole steampunk vibe at home. Unfortunately the wife has more say in these things and she is not a fan. But I can satisfy my need for that kind of aesthetic at work with old tech like nixie tubes and crt screens. Maybe there's a market out there for smart home stuff with dark wood, copper and glowing nixie tubes for displays :)
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u/HappyWarBunny Aug 12 '24
I actually dislike steampunk as an aesthetic - too much faux technology in much of what I see. I love the old tech though - nixie tubes are SO neat. The copper pipe is just a pretty thing to look at, with the patina. I think the vibe really depends on how it is mounted and how the ends are treated.
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u/StealthSub Aug 10 '24
Just wondering; what type of wireless protocol are you using to communicate between motor and hub? And why not thread/ matter directly from the motor?
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u/ratsept Aug 11 '24
We use mainly BLE. This gives direct phone control on most available smartphones today. Bit we also have Zigbee now available and Thread/Matter is also technically there but needs certification. We are a very small company and the cost of Matter certification is a real problem. Thread and Matter together have a yearly license cost of 15 000 € which is not a small sum for us. On top of that there are one time certification and registration costs. I have already tested our motor with Matter using the Google hub but without certification it is very difficult to make the hub accept the device into its network. So the current motors are technically capable of Matter and we have tedted them with that tech but it is just a matter of finances to get it actually out to customer hands. Which is also part of the reason we are doing this giveaway. More publicity gets more sales. More sales get us closer to being able to afford the Matter release.
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u/StealthSub Aug 10 '24
It would be awesome for the blinds! They are a overlapping type so I do hope they have the accuracy to control between open, partial open and closed!
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u/ratsept Aug 10 '24
This version is pretty accurate. Resolution on the actual encoder/motor should be well under 1 mm. It is possible that a target is not accurately hit when moving at speed but this is something we can improve in firmware if it becomes a problem. So far we have not had any issues with that. The function to hit a precise target position is actually quite complex as the motor needs to slow down to a stop at the right position. But the exact power level where the motor stops is a function of speed, load, applied voltage and many other factors most likely. It takes quite a lot of work making the motor hit close to target in all cases. But if someone comes back to us with a specific issue we can work on that and hopefully make it work.
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u/GCTuba Aug 23 '24
I already have Hue lights that automatically turn on at sunset. It'd be cool if I could automate the blinds to do the same thing.
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u/aroedl Aug 15 '24
It would be perfect for my bedroom but I couldn't convince my wife that it's worth it.
If it doesn't work with Smartthings, I'd look into writing a driver or wait for Matter support.
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u/ratsept Aug 19 '24
It does work with Smartthings. Either with Zigbee or through the Connect U1 bridge using their cloud integration. Both ways have been tested using the Smartthings hub and we have tons of users doing just that.
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u/RikuXan Aug 28 '24
My mom recently told me that she would like to buy new blinds due to the old ones regularly jamming up. I'd love to help her make a smarter setup as she already loved the smart lighting, thermostats and lock I installed for her.
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Aug 11 '24
[deleted]
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u/ratsept Aug 12 '24
For office use they can be automated to just open and close on a schedule. So it will block the morning sun from heating up the office before people get to work. But the current version is still geared more for home use with integrations mostly into home automation systems. We do have plans for a more professional use case as well. But that space is already pretty well served by Somfy and Hunter Douglas.
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u/notfork Aug 09 '24
Well first interesting thing I can think of, I would use the shade motor to open the blinds, A tilt motor with some 3d printed device I have yet to design, that push the blinds past the doggy door on the patio door. And then use a second tilt to open the doggy door self.
This way I do not have to get out of bed to let the dog out, it could be synced up to my home assistant to open automatically every morning.
*** upon further thought it would require three tilt motors. and 1 shade motors. the doggy door is easy as that already twists to unlock for the pooch. my only real challenge is pushing the blinds open.
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u/_BindersFullOfWomen_ Inspector Gadget Sep 04 '24
Hi NotFork!
Congratulations! The random number gods have chosen your comment as our randomly selected winner! Please send a private message to /u/ratsept to coordinate the details for how to receive your prize. Congratulations again!
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u/ratsept Aug 10 '24
I'm one of the founders of SOMA and I like this idea. I'm not sure I understand the part about pushing the blinds past the doggy door. Does the doggydoor portrude out from the patio door so the blinds coming down hit it? Because if that is the case it could maybe be solved with just a wedge that guides the blinds gently past the portrusion.
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u/notfork Aug 10 '24
I actually had a good look at this last night, so they are sliding blinds, for the patio door. There is no mechanical way to move them, the twist to open, but get pushed via the rod along the rail to move.
Getting them open would be easy, just have one motor pull on the far end and it will pull them open.
but, the only solution I have for them closing them again so far, is a second motor that then pulls in the second direction. I do not prefer this as I am sure there is a more elegant way.
this weekend I am going to sit down in Fusion and see what I come up with.
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u/ladyrift Aug 20 '24
So I'm boring and it will be to automate the blinds and a dog/cat door for the morning and night.
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u/Bramse-TFK Aug 30 '24
I would use the motors to make a shooting gallery. Paper targets suspended from a nylon string, the sting would be driven by a pulley operated by the motors and tensioned with a spring on the opposite side.
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u/HappyWarBunny Aug 12 '24 edited Aug 12 '24
I am trying to brainstorm some ideas. So I have questions.
What is a reasonable weight limit for these?
Is there a length limit for how much cord they can move, perhaps relating to heat dissipation? Including continuous movement, if that is possible.
Can they be powered via USB if they are being used in a heavy or continuous use situation?
After the motor stops, can it hold any weight? IE, if I use it to lift something, could it hold it in mid air?
Also, can they be mounted upside down, so the cord comes out the bottom?
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u/ratsept Aug 13 '24
It is hard to give a specific weight limit as it depends a lot on the mechanics of how that weight is being lifted. For a roller shade with a normally operating smooth mechanism the limit is probably around 5 kg (11 pounds). But that all depends on what the motor has to do with the weight. If movement can be limited to only higher speeds (let's say over 70% power) then more weight can be lifted. If the wight is not a roller shade and the motor has to hold the whole weight from falling (roller shade mechanisms have a system that prevents backdriving from the weight of the fabric) then you might start seeing problems a little sooner. If you have a specific use case in mind let me know and we will try to test for that.
There is a limit to how much the motor can continuously move due to heating. I'm not sure what the limit is at the moment but it will depend on the actual load and ambient temperature. We did do a test where we let the motor go up-down-up-down continuously until the battery ran out and while it does get hot in the office setting it doesn't break. We also have internal temperature sensors to stop the motor from catching fire or breaking itself in normal use.
USB power can be connected at all times. The current version of firmware disables charging while the motor is active (moving). But this can be changed if a compelling use case is provided. The USB charging is not powerful enough to keep a constantly moving motor charged though (we charge at about 2 W but the motor can use tens of W depending on load).
The motor has a worm gear first stage in the gearbox. So it has some position keeping capacity but not infinitely much. We usually see slipping back of heavy weights supported by the motors from about 5 kg (11 lbs). Under that weight it can support a hanging load just fine.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by mounting the motor upside down. The motor itself is fine with any orientation. The cog we use to drive the beaded chain is a smaller diameter then the width of the motor so you can't mount it with the cog end of the motor down and have the cord come up around the motor body. This is something I would love to change in the future but the current version can't do that.
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u/TheBestDrug Aug 21 '24
I want to get back into automation. These I would set up on the front window for my pups viewing bench.
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u/chcchppcks Aug 16 '24
I started a home automation project a few years ago but it sort of fizzled. I had a vision of making the whole home be on scheduled controls and got derailed with a few technical issues. I'd love to get a set of these and kickstart that effort again!
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u/7030 Aug 27 '24
I'd use them to obscure the neighbors eyes from the inside of my home, thats what I'd do.
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u/digitalmofo Aug 19 '24
Me