I recently bought some motorized blinds from SmartWings. I’m working towards my dream home setup, with really good thermal qualities and a sane amount of automation.
In this case, I want every window to have a really good motorized blind, and I never want to have to think about when to open and close them. Those blinds should have the type of honeycomb thing so that they keep the heat in during the winter, and can stop incoming heat in the summer.
Wireless Protocol Zoo
As much as I love digging into RF protocols, for my actual house, given the zoo of wireless home automation protocols out there, I actually went with the simplest 433mhz radios.
I want these to last a long time. Just using dumb 433mhz is just fine, it will never go out of style, and I’m not worried about security.
These blinds will continue to work, even if SmartWings goes out of business.
For actual IOT integration I went with a third-party bond bridge, which can do any 433mhz connectivity, and has a local API, and does NOT require access to the internet to work. This will last forever, even if the servers go down and they stop supporting it.
Cutting Perfect Blinds
If you go to any custom blinds website, somewhere they will tell you what the limitations are when it comes to sizing. For SmartWings blinds, the minimum for a motorized blind is 19 inches.
There is also the SmartWings sizing page, which has technical details about the sizing.
This is really important, because they only get one shot at making a blind for your window, so measure twice!
The thing is: what if you (like me) have 16" windows?
Well maybe you are also like me and will say: “Well, let’s just get the 19” and … make it work."
Cutting a 19" Blind
The trick to cutting these blinds is to tightly tape the sides, so that when a metal saw cuts through them, you get a super clean cut:
Then (sorry, no action shot), use a brand new metal blade and slice through!
If you look inside the actual blinds, you can see that the 2" on the side are not structural.
Yes, you have to clean up the ends, but generally, you can make it work:
So satisfying :)
You know you got it right when the blind struggles to go down during rainy days when the wood expands a little.
Cutting Bigger Than 19" Blinds
You might think that this is silly. If you have normal sized windows, why NOT let the experts do the cutting for you?
The thing is, manufacturers have to give some gaps to account for lots of slop.
They can’t cut you a perfect blind without being physically there, and the risk of cutting a blind too big is too high.
Therefore, with this particular type of blind, they add 5mm (3/16") margins from the factory:
On blackout blinds, this is super obvious.
The “Solution” is the same. Add a little (3/8") to your measurements to include this gap, and be prepared to trim it for a perfect fit.
Cutting Custom Shapes
Why stop there?
Have some wacky situation? Use your saw to cut a perfect shape:
Of course for this, use the metal saw to trim only the metal bottom part, and use scissors to do the fine cuts on the fabric.
Conclusion
I have no idea how to compute the R-Value of this modification. I’m sure it is tiny, but I’m very satisfied with the outcome.
I just hate the gaps and love the perfect fit.
And really the most important part about this is that I’m able to add motorized blinds into small windows, regardless of the minimum factory size.
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