DIY Smart Blinds — Part 1

In a previous article, I showed you how to control your DIY smart blinds via Google Home enabling you to open or close your blinds by voice or time of day. In this article, I’ll show you how to build the actual blinds.

Materials List

• Double sided tape
• Pipe. Needs to be strong enough to support the shade material, and the inside diameter to fit the motor. My motor outside diameter is 19mm. I’ve used 3/4" copper pipe (expensive but I had it lying around) and 3/4 electrical conduit pipe (EMT)
• Screws
  – 1@ 3/8 to 1/2" x 1/8" diameter to attach motor to pipe
  – 8 @ 1/2 to 1" x 1/8 diameter to attach shades to window
• Shade Material of your choice
• Motor
• 12v converter (not shown)

Tools

• Drill with phillips head attachment and 1/8 drill bit
• Measuring tape
• Square (optional)
• Pipe cutter
• Razor knife or scissors
• A straight edge is also nice for cutting the fabric. I used a 4' metal level, but any straight edge will suffice.

Step 1

Measure your windows between shade mount locations. Subtract 1 1/4 inch for the hardware. For example, a 27 inch = 25 3/4 inch

Step 2

Transfer the measurement to the 1/2 inch pipe and cut the pipe.

Step 3

The motor needs to spin the pipe when operating. Often, the motor is slightly too small for the pipe, so when the motor operates, the pipe does not spin with it. To fix, we’re going to place a screw through the pipe and into the rubber portion of the motor.

Align the motor next to the pipe and place a mark on the pipe where the rubber portion of the motor falls.

Step 4

Place the motor into the pipe, and drill a 1/8 in hole through the pipe down into the motor. Do not go to far. Only allow the drill to penetrate the rubber portion of the motor.

Step 5

Place the motor into the pipe and screw the motor into place using a 3/8 inch length screw. The screw wants to penetrate the pipe and the motor. It’s important the screw head be as flush to the pipe as possible. If the screw sits too high, the shade material will not wrap around the pipe evenly.

Step 6

Measure the length of the window. Add 6–8" to the length.

Cut the shade material to the width of the pipe, and the length of the window plus 6 to 8" so the shade can extend all the way without unrolling itself off the pipe.

The shade material MUST be square. Be precise. I use a 2" square for measuring and a 4' level as my straight edge.

visit https://theclevercoop.com/collections/rollershades for the remaining instructions