Project details: The purpose of my project is to make a practical motorized roller blinds, in which I can use every day. The plan is to make a roller blind controlled through a bipolar stepper motor in which, I will control through an arduino uno board. After the blinds work functionally through the motor, I hope to connect it to a Bluetooth receiver on the arduino in which I can control with a remote. Later I will set the blinds to a timer in which it opens in the morning but closes at night. I intend on learning how to control a motor through an arduino board, and learn the software involved with it.

Step 1: Materials Needed

Bipolar stepper motor (byj48)
Motor driver
fm jumper wires
mm jumper wires
Arduino uno board
3d printed parts
vinyl sheet for blinds
3/4 in pvc pipe

Step 2: How to Assemble Blinds

First cut the PVC pipe to desired length (I cut mine to 2.5 feet in order to fit my window size)
Next cut the pipe in horizontal line with a table saw all the way through the pipe
Hem the top and bottom of the vinyl sheet to make a 1/2 inch loop
I then inserted a 3/8 inch wooden dowel to hold the vinyl sheet up, and slide the sheet through

Step 3: 3D Printed Materials

I 3d printed a motor case, and knob insert, in order to allow for the blinds to rotate with the motor, and to improve the aesthetic appeal of the project
I made a twist knob for the side the motor would be on, but a tube insert for the other side in which I attached a bearing the size of the PVC pipe diameter.

Step 4: Arduino Hardware Setup

Step 5: Software for Stepper Motor

Download the arduino ide software onto your desktop
Then open up the software and click on the file tab, then examples, and follow it down to the example titled "stepper", and click on stepper one revolution.
For this particular code you will need to change the steps per revolution to fit your motor, and you can figure that out by this following equation

steps = Number of steps in One Revolution * Gear ratio .
steps= (360°/5.625°)*64"Gear ratio" = 64 * 64 =4096 . this value will substitute it on The arduino Sketch

You also will need to change the step sequence on the software from 1234 to 1324, otherwise the motor will not run
you can also play around with the speeds if needed to fit your needs

Step 6: How to Set Motor to an Ir Reciever

The parts you will need for this sketch, is an arduino breadboard, a 5v breadboard power supply, a Ir receiver, and remote control
The schematic used of the circuit, and all of the wiring came from brainy bits
The code needed to run the motor through the receiver will use two libraries in the arduino sketch, IR remote and stepper
The stepper library will be under examples in the arduino sketch, but you will need to download and extract the IR remote from a website such as GitHub

Step 7: Final Code for the Blinds

Step 8: Final Thoughts

Overall the project did not turn out the way I wanted to. I wanted a fully autonomous roller blind that I could mount in my room in a practical manner. Although I learned a lot and it is not a complete failure, as it partially works, I am going to try and fix the mistakes I made. I am going to replace the byj48 stepper motor, and stepper driver with a more powerful nema 17 stepper motor along with a a4988 stepper driver. I hope with some modifications in the hardware, and software that I will be able to have a fully functioning stepper motor powered roller blinds.