The Wevolor

My first attempt was controlling a servo which pushed the up and down buttons on the remote. Surprisingly it worked pretty well, but I figured I could do something more sophisticated. After all, if the Levolor app on my phone can drive the remote, I should be able to too, right! It took a while to figure it out, but eventually I worked out how the app communicated to the remote, and hey presto!

My 'version 4' (2 and 3 were a bust) was really the ideal solution, get the Wevolor to pretend it's a WEMO switch which Alexa can talk to locally without having to go outside my home network to the cloud. Worked very well initially, but changes to Alexa software caused it to be unstable - Alexa would loose contact with my 'switch' and it was a real issue getting her to find it again.

That led me to look at what Alexa and other home automation hubs can already talk to. If-this-then-that(IFTTT) is really easy to set up to take commands from Alexa and many other 'triggers'. That seemed the way to go, so version 5 of Wevolor has been all about that. There are too many hops if we're honest: Alexa sends a command to IFTTT which send another to the messaging server which gets polled by the Wevolor, and connects to the 6-channel remote, which finally sends the command to the blinds. Sounds more 'overcomplicated' than 'sophisticated', but it works well enough.

I'm looking at ways next to potentially take IFTTT and the messaging server out of the loop. 'Home Assistant' works well and since the Wevolor exposes an API which is easy to send commands to on your local network, it was very simple to configure Home Assistant to do so. The only issue is there's a monthly subscription charge to allow Alexa to connect (I'm kinda allergic to monthly subscriptions). I'm also looking at 'OpenHab', and that seems promising. If you want more information about setting up Home Assistant or OpenHab to drive the Wevolor, e-mail me.

1. Wevolor works with the 6-channel remote from LEVOLOR. The 3-channel remote and new 15-channel one are not usable. The Wevolor pairs with a single remote. Multiple remotes require multiple Wevolors.
2. Wevolor was made so I could automate my blinds. It seemed others had the same issue so I'm making it available. As I improve the code, fixes and new code versions will be pulled down by the Wevolor automatically.
3. It's not endorsed by LEVOLOR. It works well, but if LEVOLOR changes the remote code in the future that could potentially cause issues. If you want a shades solution that works natively with home-automation then other brands may be a better choice.
4. Wevolor works great if you want to set up Alexa to open the blinds at 7am and close them at sunset etc (no problem if there's a few seconds delay). If your primary use will be "Alexa, open the blinds" then there will be a few seconds delay - typically 3-5 seconds.
5. The biggest consideration is the range of the LEVOLOR premium 6-channel remote from the blinds and from the paired Wevolor. I have to have two remotes, and two Wevolors - one paired with each of the remotes. My blinds are at opposite ends of the house, and too far apart for the single remote to work reliably. If you have to walk around your home with the remote to close your multiple sets of shades then one remote and one Wevolor will not work for you.
   However, if you can control all the blinds from a central location then 1 remote and 1 Wevolor can control the shades in up to 6 groups. Otherwise multiple remotes/Wevolor pairs is required.
6. The free version of If-this-then-that only allows 3 'applets'. You can set it up to close all blinds (single or multiple Wevolors) and one to open them. If you want more granularity: "Alexa, open bedroom 2 shades", "Alexa, tilt-open master bedroom shades", etc. You will need the professional version of IFTTT.