Louvolite blinds do not respond

[NigelBlimp]

I'm new to this so it's likely to be something simple wrong.

I want to use HomeKit to open and close my Louvolite blinds based on temperature or other input. I have installed the Neo hub which works to raise and lower the blinds successfully from the Neo app but not via the homebridge-blinds app.
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Where I am:-

• I have installed the Louvolite/Neo OneTouch C-BR300 box and configured it for my blinds. They work normally using the Neo iPhone app.
• I have an existing installed HomeBridge with various items (Hue bulbs, Zigbee plugs, Aranet4 air quality monitor etc) exposed successfully to HomeKit.
• installed the homebridge-blinds add-on which went smoothly and the blind icons appear in Homekit.
• I initially copied the config for Louvolite from the Wiki changing the IP address, Controller ID and Blind Code however on startup homebridge said the format was deprecated. I then used the Config option in Homebridge to generate the following configuration.

 {
            "name": "Living Area",

            "up_url": {
                "url": "http://10.0.20.103:8838/neo/v1/transmit?id=Xxxxxx&command=041.240-15-up",
                "method": "GET"
            },

            "down_url": {
                "url": "http://10.0.20.103:8838/neo/v1/transmit?id=Xxxxxxxxxx&command=041.240-15-dn",
                "method": "GET"
            },
            "show_toggle_button": true,

            "stop_url": {
                "url": "http://10.0.20.103:8838/neo/v1/transmit?id=Xxxxxxxxxxxxx&command=041.240-15-sp"
            },
            "show_stop_button": true,
            "accessory": "BlindsHTTP"
        } 

This may be a red herring but there is also a "Motor Code" referenced in the iOS app which I have not configured

When I use HomeKit to open/close the blinds there is no response.

I have also tested using curl from the Raspberry pi running homebridge (see log below).

homebridge:~ $ curl -v "http://10.0.20.103:8838/neo/v1/transmit?id=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&command=041.240-01-dn"
*   Trying 10.0.20.103:8838...
* Connected to 10.0.20.103 (10.0.20.103) port 8838 (#0)
> GET /neo/v1/transmit?id=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&command=041.240-01-dn HTTP/1.1
> Host: 10.0.20.103:8838
> User-Agent: curl/7.74.0
> Accept: */*
> 
* Recv failure: Connection reset by peer
* Closing connection 0
curl: (56) Recv failure: Connection reset by peer

I have also seen that the Neo controller box goes offline when I issue a command. I assume this is because the config I am using is not valid causing the box to crash.

Any hints or information are welcome. Happy to try anything you suggest.

[dxdc]

Hi @NigelBlimp :

I initially copied the config for Louvolite from the Wiki changing the IP address, Controller ID and Blind Code however on startup homebridge said the format was deprecated. I then used the Config option in Homebridge to generate the following configuration.

I just updated the entire plugin today, so that is probably the reason for the deprecation notice. There is no harm in using the deprecated version, but I've also updated the configuration here:

https://github.com/dxdc/homebridge-blinds/wiki/Tested-configurations#louvolite-one-touch-neo-smart-blinds

That being said, I don't necessarily see anything wrong with your current configuration.

This may be a red herring but there is also a "Motor Code" referenced in the iOS app which I have not configured

I'm not familiar with Louvolite. Maybe @navoshta has some helpful ideas for you? See: #62.

curl -v "http://10.0.20.103:8838/neo/v1/transmit?id=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&command=041.240-01-dn"

This is likely your problem. Try turning off homebridge, just to confirm there aren't any issues, and then debug first to ensure your curl commands work properly. The plugin just transmits these same URLs. If it's not working, you'll have to start there. If the Neo box goes offline, again, I'm not familiar with how that API works.

I want to use HomeKit to open and close my Louvolite blinds based on temperature or other input.

I have my blinds controlled by outdoor cloudiness and solar glare, and it can behave differently whether or not someone is home. I would suggest checking out NodeRED and NorthernMan54's node-red-contrib-homebridge-automation plugin for it. It's excellent and allows you to do any number of sophisticated automations.

[NigelBlimp]

The issue with the URL is when I use the curl command as shown below:-

curl -v "http://10.0.20.103:8838/neo/v1/transmit?command=041.240-03-dn!k2&id=xxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
zsh: event not found: k2&id=xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I can also confirm if the %21 is required in the config.

Thanks, I will try the favourite button. I have used 'md' (which goes to next favourite down in these blinds) successfully using curl but have not used as part of the config yet.

[dxdc]

Try this way, with single quotes:

curl -v 'http://10.0.20.103:8838/neo/v1/transmit?command=041.240-03-dn!k2&id=xxxxxxxxxxxxxx'

[NigelBlimp]

Oh dear - single quote it is. It works.

[dxdc]

Double-quotes can invoke expressions in a shell-environment, and ! has a special meaning (just like $ is used for variable substitution). Let me know if it works in the config without it and I'll remove that from the Wiki.

[NigelBlimp]

Thanks for the explanation and apologies for the red herring. Just modified the config file, replacing %21 with ! and it works fine. As you will have realised, I'm not a Linux command line expert.