I’ve been asked twice today about how to connect a Somfy Sonesse 40 WT motor to a Velbus VMB2BLE, so I thought I should post something for everyone to find.
Please note, keep it simple.
Use the most basic motors, that come shipped with a rocker switch. (Or at least are designed to work with a rocker switch)
Don’t let the supplier tell you that the RTS / radio version motors are designed for home automation.
They are, but they aren’t.
They requires their radio base station / Gateway and still doesn’t connect easily to Velbus (or any other system for that matter)
Also note that the 12V or 24V DC versions can be connected to Velbus, but they need a little more between them and the Velbus module.
See second post below
First you need to know what the cable cores from the Somfy Sonesse 40WT do.
Blue - Neutral power
Brown - Switched live for travel in one direction
Black - Switched live for travel in the other direction
FYI
NEVER connect LIVE to both Brown and Black at the same time.
Identify the Neutral connection of the VMB2BLE blind motor controller and link it to the BLUE core from the Somfy motor.
After that, it is a simple matter of connecting the UP connection from the VMB2BLE to the UP core of the Somfy motor
and the DOWN connection to the DOWN core of the Somfy.
No harm done if they are the wrong way, just swap them.
When you have physical control of the blind in Velbus, you can do the following for configuration within VelbusLink
Deploy the blind to its maximum.
Wait for the VMB2BLE to time out.
TIME how long the blind takes to retract.
Add ± 10% to that time and configure the VMB2BLE channel with that time.
You will then have an approximate position control for the blind from Velbus
12V or 24V DC motors require a little more effort, in order to create an inverted DC control for the motor.
DC in one polarity will cause the motor to travel in one direction, swapping the DC polarity will cause travel in the other direction.
This simple diagram shows the use of two dumb relays and a VMB1BLS to create a DC inverter system, this will also act as an electrical brake on the motor, be aware of this.
I’ve looked at the technical spec and installation guides for the following motor models and can confirm they will work with the VMB2BLE or VMB1BLS, using one of the two above methods.
yes - the position itself goes haywire - but that is a generic problem I’ve also found with the more smarter motors anyway. You only need to click twice sometimes (if Velbus thinks the blind is completely up, but its down) to reset the sequence… even if Velbus applies “down” power too long - the motor itself has the intelligence to shutdown and ignore the Velbus commands
Are there any motors with position feedback/pulse output? A simple rotary encoder would solve the problem and would allow exact positioning of the blinds, not only approximate based on time.
…