HOME AUTOMATION: Teptron move control from Linux

UPDATE: this method does not appear to work with the latest Teptron Move firmware. The developer of csrmesh is looking in to the problem but there is no current solution for controlling the Teptron Move from anything other than the app.

My biggest pain point with the Teptron Move automated blinds device at the moment is the lack of app updates and any functionality other than just simply commanding the blinds from my phone. Because of this I have basically removed the devices from my blinds. You can read more about my issues with the device in an old post.

I recently started to think about how I could potentially expose the CSR bluetooth mesh that the Move uses to my wireless network. This would allow me to get the automation I'm looking for out of my OpenHAB controller. I came across a project on GitHub claiming to have reverse engineered the CSRMesh protocol for the Teptron Move and decided to give it a shot.

I did a little more digging and found some posts on the domoticz forums talking about how to integrate the linux script with the domoticz home automation solution to automated the Move units, so I decided to investigate the possibility of integrating the devices with my OpenHAB system.

Installing The Script

Git is not installed on the Ubuntu image for the Pine64. Install with the following commands:

 apt-get install git  

If it's the first time using git on your machine you need to:

• Generate an rsa key 
• Follow the Github instructions to add the rsa key to you github account

I also found this article useful to debug my problem.

If you don't follow these steps you will get the error:

 Permission denied (publickey).  
 fatal: Could not read from remote repository.  

Now create a new directory clone the csrmesh repository into that directory:

 mkdir Downloads  
 cd Downloads  
 git clone git@github.com:nkaminski/csrmesh.git  

Build and install the project:

 python setup.py build  
 sudo python setup.py install  

The script also needs the bluez software installed:

 sudo apt-get installed bluez  

If you are trouble getting your bluetooth running on an Raspberry Pi 3 with OpenHABian I have explained how I did it in an older post.

Bluetooth Setup

If your device doesn't support Bluetooth natively you will need to do some work with a USB Bluetooth adapter to get connected  to the Move units.

Insert the USB adapter in to the Pine64 and run the following command to check the device was recognised:

 dmesg  

 If the device was recognised by the linux kernel you should see an output something like this

 [449253.083342] input: Logitech Logitech BT Mini-Receiver as /devices/soc.0/1c1b000.ohci1-controller/usb4/4-1/4-1.2/4-1.2:1.0/input/input5  
 [449253.083769] hid-generic 0003:046D:C71B.0001: input: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Logitech Logitech BT Mini-Receiver] on usb-sunxi-ohci-1.2/input0  
 [449253.159418] usb 4-1.3: new full-speed USB device number 4 using sunxi-ohci  
 [449253.303636] input: Logitech Logitech BT Mini-Receiver as /devices/soc.0/1c1b000.ohci1-controller/usb4/4-1/4-1.3/4-1.3:1.0/input/input6  
 [449253.304398] hid-generic 0003:046D:C71C.0002: input,hiddev0: USB HID v1.11 Mouse [Logitech Logitech BT Mini-Receiver] on usb-sunxi-ohci-1.3/input0  
 [449253.581549] usb 4-1.1: new full-speed USB device number 5 using sunxi-ohci  
 [449253.750067] usbcore: registered new interface driver btusb  
 [449253.875233] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3  
 [449253.875245] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast  
 [449253.875282] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized  
 [470188.654809] sunxi-bt bt.28: set block: 0  
 [470188.654971] sunxi-bt bt.28: check bluetooth io_regulator voltage: 1800000  
 [470193.118153] sunxi-bt bt.28: block state already is 0  

We can now run one of the bluez commands to check if the bluetooth adapter was recognised and is available for us:

 hcitool dev  

If everything is in order with your setup you should see an output like the one below and you can continue on to the next section:

 ubuntu@pine64:~$ hcitool dev  
 Devices:  
     hci0  00:1F:20:51:CC:AA  

If you don't see any devices listed then you will have to do some work to enable the Bluetooth adapter. You should have a utility installed called rfkill that is used to enable and disable wireless devices. If it's not installed you can install it with the command:

 sudo apt-get install rfkill  

Run the following command to see your connection status:

 ubuntu@pine64:~$ rfkill list  
 0: sunxi-bt: Bluetooth  
     Soft blocked: Yes  
     Hard blocked: no  
 1: phy0: Wireless LAN  
     Soft blocked: no  
     Hard blocked: no  
 2: phy1: Wireless LAN  
     Soft blocked: no  
     Hard blocked: no  
 3: hci0: Bluetooth  
     Soft blocked: Yes  
     Hard blocked: no  

The following command will remove the soft block on the Bluetooth adapter:

 sudo rfkill unblock bluetooth  

Now run the "rfkill list" command again and you should see the soft block has been removed.

Success! The Bluetooth output has been enabled and we should be able to see available Bluetooth devices if we run the hcitool dev command again. We can confirm the device is working by scanning for available Bluetooth devices:

 hcitool scan  

The above command will scan for regular Bluetooth devices but will not be able to to see Low Energy (BLE) devices. In order to scan the available BLE devices we need to run the command:

 sudo hcitool lescan

Testing The Script

Typically we would do a hcitool scan to get a devices MAC address, but the csrmesh network doesn't allow us to do this (at least in my setup). I've connected to the CSRMesh network from my Windows laptop and used that connection to gather the device address to include in the script.
The address I grabbed from my PC was: BTHLE\Dev_43c55b040006

The Github documentation tells us to format the command in the following way:

 ./bin/csrmesh-cli move --pin 8888 --dest 43:c5:5b:04:00:06 --objid 1 --position 255  

You need to make sure you are running this command from within the csrmesh folder that was cloned earlier. If everything worked you should see your Move unit move to the set position and the output:

 Running: gatttool -b 43:c5:5b:04:00:06 --char-write-req -a 0x0021 -n 0fe2bd00809bb9d83b76b48585673a77b747ff  
 Characteristic value was written successfully  

Note: The only gotcha here is the pin for the Move units. Here you will need to remember the password you set to the CSRMesh network when you first set up your move unit. If like me you have forgotten this, perform a factory reset on the unit by removing the battery, hold down the stop key then re-insert the battery. The notification light on the bottom of the device should be on solid. Keep holding the stop key for at least 5 seconds at which point the device should be reset. In my experience you don't get any feedback that it has performed the reset. With the device having been factory reset you can restart the Android app and enter a new password.

The next step here is to now enable the device for use with OpenHAB.


UPDATE:
I've written a post on how to get this script working with openHAB here

HOME AUTOMATION: Automated blinds - Teptron Move

Adding automated blinds to my home automation system has always been something I wanted to do. The promise of waking up to natural lighting the morning or coming home to a cool house on a hot day is what I imagine is an essential part of the house of the future.

I did some research and didn't find much in the way of a cheap DIY solution on the market, most of the solutions were at least a couple of hundred dollars per unit and required 240v wiring.

That was until I found the Teptron Move Kickstarter campaign, promising to give me everything I wanted for about $60 per blind including a solar charging panel. It was the cheapest of the DIY solutions I found and didn't require and extra wiring.

The reality:

The Kickstarter campaign took longer than expected (as usual) but I did eventually get my Bluetooth controlled blinds. I'm using the units on block-out roller blinks and opted to install with the double sided adhesive tape to try the system out before drilling any holes.

My experience with the system has been mixed, but here are the main points:

• Be careful where you place the mechanism. May work on the way up but not down. My blinds catch on the Move unit on their way down so I need to stand by the unit to flick the bottom of the blind over the unit.
• When I initially ordered the device there was no mention of load rating. I have big blinds and am right on the edge of capability for two out of three blinds and overweight on the third. This is probably not an issue if you are using the device for vertical blinds
• Being over the load rating I needed to pull some serious tension on the beaded chain to get the device to work properly. As you can imagine this does not work well with the double sided tape over a long period of time in the heat of summer.
• It's not always convenient to use my phone to open the blind. This point has probably been my single biggest issue with the Move unit
• In my situation the physical buttons are impossible to get to when the blind is closed

Chain tension and double sided tape over time

Chain cover moved as it was getting in the way

Physical buttons hidden by the blind when closed

App (Android) v1.02

It was immediately obvious that the developers had over promised on this one. It's been a few months now and updates don't seem to be making it out, there is not much functionality at the moment and a few things are clearly missing:

• I was only able to pair with one phone. I initially did it from a tablet then had to reset the device to connect with my phone, but somehow now both my phone and tablet can connect with the unit and set blind position
• No automation functionality at the moment
• No IFTTT support 
• My blinds are back to front to the pictures shown
• Blind doesn't always go to the correct position as per the slider bar, but has never gone past the end points

My blind is closed in the state shown

    

No automation support

Conclusion:

After using the devices for a little over one month the biggest issue I have with my system is not the devices fault, but my blinds catch on the way down and jam up on the unit itself. It's really annoying. I'm waiting on another Kickstarter campaign to send me my 3D printer so I can make a deflector bracket for the blind.

Blind caught in chain on the way down

My second biggest pain point with the device is that it's not as convenient as I thought it would be due to the placement of the manual control buttons. In my configuration the physical buttons are hidden behind the blind and it's really annoying to access.

Move unit hidden behind the blind

In reality without the automation component of the blinds I use the physical buttons 95% of the time, so it's pretty annoying to use at the moment. I'm considering a couple of hacks to expose the buttons for use with a wired remote but I'm not of the possibility of that at the moment, the unit isn't as easy to pull apart as I first though.

Update - 21/01/2017

I've tried to disassemble my move unit with no luck. The unit really doesn't appear to be made to disassemble...

Update - 24/01/2017

I contacted Teptron directly, they tell me the device is glued together and would need to be destroyed to be disassembled. Going to need to think of something else...