Some home automatin types have noticed that Lowes home improvement centers have started carrying an IR remote controlled blind tilting gizmo. It attaches where the tilt wand goes and will do open/close by turning the wand stub in the desired direction. It is switchable between A, B, and C channels (same on remote). The current price for the master unit with the IR remote controller and one blind tilter is $12. Additional blind tilt units are $9. Just thought this might be of interest for hacking as it has a geared reversing motor setup and three channels of operation.
Interesting gizmo at Lowes
Oct 24, 2004
4 Replies
I think it would also help readers to tell that you are from Rock Hill, South Carolina, USA. Are you ? I assume that "Lowes" is some retailer in your locale. Is it?
Lowes is probably of little use to those of you in Melbourne, but the gizmo is called "Power Ease" remote control window blind tilter. Made in China. The blister pack says "New Item". They were first noticed a couple of weeks ago on the QVC shopping network, and now they have started appearing at Lowes. They may start turning up at other home improvement centers like HomeDepot and such. Haven't opened one up yet, but probably won't be long before I do.
At about the time of 10/23/2004 7:47 PM, Helen stated the following:
Actually, they are nationwide. Not as big as Home Depot, but big nonetheless. There's one where I live on the west coast.
I went to google and searched for "patent 5818183" (with out quotes) and found the gizmo. Had to alt-print screen on the images to get copies of the tx/rx schematics showing the IR and H-bridge setup. Might be interesting to get a second master set and make a two wheeled web controlled bot.
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