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Step 10Setup The Controller
The most practical way to tweak the controller to your blinds is to hook it up to your computer while it is mounted to the blinds. My computer is right beside my blinds so this part was easy. If your's is not close and you don't have a laptop computer then you will have to either remove the controller and take it to your computer to make adjustments or use the alternate setup method described in the next step.
The tweaking needs to be done at some time other than early morning or late evening so the controller won't be opening and closing the blinds automatically while you are trying to make adjustments.
If you do this step during the day you will need to manually close the blinds using the adjustment buttons before you download the program to the controller.
If you do this at night, you will need to manually open the blinds using the adjustment buttons before downloading the program to the controller.
This is necessary because as soon as the program is downloaded to the controller it is going to open or close the blinds depending on whether it is light or dark outside.
Once the program is downloaded and the blinds have either opened or closed automatically you will need to either cover the LDR or shine a bright light (use a flashlight) on it to make the controller operate.
Adjust the Open and Close pause times in the program to make the blinds stop in the fully open and closed position.
I manually set the open position and only adjusted the close pause time to get the blinds to close fully. It may take several cycles of this to get the controller to stop in the desired fully open and fully closed position each time.
My controller still gets off a bit over the course of a couple weeks or so of opening and closing, but a quick tweak of the adjustment buttons on front of the controller gets everything back where I want it.
You could use a 360 degree servo motor or a stepper motor instead of the gear motor I used. I am sure this would result in much better position accuracy but the cost of the project will increase significantly. With the money I saved using the cheaper gear motor I can build two more complete controllers for my living room and just manually tweak them every 2 or 3 weeks.
The tweaking needs to be done at some time other than early morning or late evening so the controller won't be opening and closing the blinds automatically while you are trying to make adjustments.
If you do this step during the day you will need to manually close the blinds using the adjustment buttons before you download the program to the controller.
If you do this at night, you will need to manually open the blinds using the adjustment buttons before downloading the program to the controller.
This is necessary because as soon as the program is downloaded to the controller it is going to open or close the blinds depending on whether it is light or dark outside.
Once the program is downloaded and the blinds have either opened or closed automatically you will need to either cover the LDR or shine a bright light (use a flashlight) on it to make the controller operate.
Adjust the Open and Close pause times in the program to make the blinds stop in the fully open and closed position.
I manually set the open position and only adjusted the close pause time to get the blinds to close fully. It may take several cycles of this to get the controller to stop in the desired fully open and fully closed position each time.
My controller still gets off a bit over the course of a couple weeks or so of opening and closing, but a quick tweak of the adjustment buttons on front of the controller gets everything back where I want it.
You could use a 360 degree servo motor or a stepper motor instead of the gear motor I used. I am sure this would result in much better position accuracy but the cost of the project will increase significantly. With the money I saved using the cheaper gear motor I can build two more complete controllers for my living room and just manually tweak them every 2 or 3 weeks.
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