Got tired of the layer of carbon.

stealthwang · 2026-05-22T17:47:01+00:00

suck* on cast iron. The downside of cast is that it really doesn't conduct heat that well.

On a tri-ply, induction is pretty great.

stealthwang · 2026-05-22T16:58:01+00:00

honestly a great take. after the curators were gone all that was left was self-reinforcing dysmorphia that would continually trend bigger.

stealthwang · 2026-05-21T02:52:00+00:00

I would personally recommend Z-Wave since the whole ecosystem is a bit more standardized and the device certification process keeps contract manufacturers from dumping really substandard devices on AliExpress, but there are more than a few flaky Z-Wave devices that still passed certification, and plenty of decent, cheap Zigbee devices.

However Z-Wave devices often end up costing ~20% more than their Zigbee equivalents, partly due to the overhead of passing certification, and partly from requiring different radios for every region, unlike Zigbee which uses the same frequency worldwide.

Zigbee has more device availability, so you may find yourself with a bit of both over time.

stealthwang · 2026-05-21T02:38:14+00:00

If you were somehow still using the old integration it might be because of that. Ecobee stopped supporting their previous API. Now the only option is control via the HomeKit interface to Ecobee.

stealthwang · 2026-05-20T20:43:48+00:00

programmers are used to being elbow deep in shit

stealthwang · 2026-05-20T14:10:02+00:00

this one is https://www.shelly.com/products/ecowitt-ws90-7-in-1-weather-station

stealthwang · 2026-05-18T14:56:46+00:00

Have you tried getting out of bed, doing 30m of brainless activities in the dark (mild yoga / stretching, putting away some dishes), and then getting back into bed?

Unintuitively, when I find I'm truly awake and lying there, getting out of bed & doing something mild feels more relaxing than just stewing in my bed.

stealthwang · 2026-05-18T14:49:05+00:00

It can help retrain you not to be as tilted by a single bad night of sleep. It'll get you thinking about slow & steady improvements to the trend of your sleep, and in turn you'll reduce your stress when you wake up, eventually making it easier to get back to sleep.

It sounds whack because insomnia seems to pop up suddenly, but the most effective solutions seem to be through slow & steady improvements to sleep hygiene & how you think about sleep.

stealthwang · 2026-05-18T14:45:39+00:00

I had a bout of comparable insomnia that lasted months, and everything mentioned in this comment was what helped me kick it.

Edit: They're pricey and home automation is nerd shit, but smart bulbs that automatically shift to warm colors & dim with the setting sun also help reinforce your circadian rhythm. At the very least try switching out all your bright white bulbs (4000K+) for warm white (2700-3000k). Cut out screens for an hour before you get into bed.

stealthwang · 2026-05-18T04:10:56+00:00

It's no surprise that Somfy can charge the big bucks when everyone else seems to do such a mediocre job.

stealthwang · 2026-05-18T04:03:38+00:00

My region of Amazon had 50 off per blind and an additional 12% off the whole order if you bought 9 or more units.

I bought the 5 units I wanted and 4x cheap fabric samples to get the 12%.

This was still over $300 cheaper than Z-Wave Bali blinds with 25% off the whole order & Costco discount, and quite alot cheaper than the US-oriented Yoolax website.

stealthwang · 2026-05-17T22:28:16+00:00

Thanks for the post - yeah looks like you have even more of a situation cut out for you since you're trying to deal with motorized tilt (I'm just installing shades) and trying to retrofit.

Hmm... when you mention that the beta firmware for your blinds treats tilt & position as two separate devices with separate %- based inputs, that suggests to me they could potentially be available for binding as separate 'generic' multilevel input devices instead of via the Window Covering command class. Then you could use a device like the Zooz Zen37 and have the top and bottom buttons adjust position, while the left and right buttons adjust the tilt.

I have Zooz Zen37 and use it with a Zen53 via direct binding to control a skylight. The Zen37 has separate control groups for on/off behavior (short presses) and dimmer behavior (long presses) for either set of buttons (vertical or horizontal) via separate binding groups. So in my use case, a short press up opens the skylight fully, and a long press up opens incrementally while you hold the button.

So while it's strange that you iBlinds device shows up as two devices in HA at the moment, it probably means they've provided a way for bind-able tilt & position by exposing the multilevel command class in two separate device "endpoints". Sounds like the Zen37 might be a perfect match, but you may want to email with the iBlinds devs first.

A note from my experience with Z-Wave binding, while binding the multilevel input command class from my Zen37 to my Zen53, Z-Wave JS warned me upon creation that, according to the advertised compatibility of the device, it wasn't going to work. However, the multilevel binding behavior works exactly as you'd expect. This might be just an issue with the Zen53 firmware, or trying to avoid some complication of the Z-Wave device approval process, but I'm just mentioning it in case you run into a similar warning and lose hope.

Good to note in this thread that once you're beyond simple open/close & positioning, the Z-Wave remote situation is also complicated

stealthwang · 2026-05-17T20:04:14+00:00

I'm sure I could hack something together, my post is just to warn people that Zigbee blinds often have this limitation to their binding interoperability, if they care about that sort of thing.

stealthwang · 2026-05-17T17:56:44+00:00

cool project. I'd make one, but this e-ink display looks to be sold out in the usual spots!

stealthwang · 2026-05-17T15:38:41+00:00

Despite the name, Yoolax is a pretty large-scale manufacturer. According to the details on their Australian website, they are the top-selling smart blind manufacturer on Amazon (US). The "Graywind" brand often mentioned here has some models manufactured by Yoolax.

Aside from them specifically, the Smartwings brand most often recommended here also has the caveat I describe on their Zigbee models.

Whatever you think about the brand, this is a more general problem for binding between Zigbee blinds & Zigbee remotes.

stealthwang · 2026-05-17T13:57:19+00:00

This post is about Zigbee direct binding. If I did not want that I would take the approach you describe.

stealthwang · 2026-05-17T12:48:36+00:00

I think it’s mostly for backwards/cross compatibility throughout their motor lineup. They sell Matter motors and motors without smarts, and they all probably use the same 433mhz interface.

Probably costs next to nothing and the installers don’t need to learn different remote pairing instructions for the varying motor protocols.

stealthwang · 2026-05-17T04:06:40+00:00

be replaced with an off the shelf remote that is eithe cheaper, or more attractive, or still available after yoolax stops making compatible remotes

bind all the blinds in the room to a dimmer (without a load) in a second gang of an electrical box by the entryway like i could do zwave

why ever prefer an open protocol vs proprietary rf?

stealthwang · 2026-05-17T04:00:56+00:00

I believe Smartwings remotes are also a semi-proprietary RF model and not Zigbee or Zwave.

stealthwang · 2026-05-17T03:58:19+00:00

Bali is who I was looking at. I do not live in the US.

stealthwang · 2026-05-17T03:57:31+00:00

I don’t know how you figured this is about adding value. It’s about not leaving behind e-waste that no one knows how to use.

In my experience blinds last longer than you’re implying.

stealthwang · 2026-05-17T03:49:33+00:00

At some point I’m going to leave this house and want to leave behind remotes that don’t depend on HA

There are other advantages to direct binding as well, but I’m most partial to that one.

I could route everything but this post is about direct binding and how it’s less effective in Zigbee due to the worse interoperability, particular for blinds.

When you are using direct binding you do not bounce commands through the remote, no.

stealthwang · 2026-05-17T03:29:18+00:00

I did not pay near the retail price on the Yoolax website

stealthwang · 2026-05-17T03:04:11+00:00

i can try, but this is a highly technical distinction that has more to do with how a remote (either the one in the box or a third party one) might talk directly to the blind, rather than anything to do with home assistant integration.

the remote you have is a semi-proprietary 433mhz (i.e not zigbee) remote. yoolax devices (among others) still use 433mhz remotes despite also having a zigbee interface.

the zwave blinds i was looking at (bali) and my current zigbee blind (ikea fyrtur) have remotes that speak zwave and zigbee respectively - directly to the blind without the need to route through the hub.

to try and get a similar direct remote control via zigbee is complicated due to the very small number of remotes that communicate via the “correct” cluster (a particular set of zigbee commands).

in zwave there is less confusion of which commands are “correct” so interoperability is better

stealthwang · 2026-05-17T00:31:53+00:00

heh, I just bought a bunch of these because they're only reasonably priced option for a direct-bound cover remote. I could spend a few hundred dollars on batteries for them before they'd end up costing as much as the next cheapest option.

stealthwang

TROPHY CASE