Homekit automations and scenes broken with Somfy Tahoma blinds

Summary of the issue with Somfy Tahoma blinds with Apple Home/Homekit integration:

PROBLEM:

When you set a blind in Apple Home app in a scene/automation and run it, it sends two commands at the same time to the blind:

1. Target state (i.e. 100 % open, 50 % open, 0 % open)
2. Target horizontal tilt angle (i.e. -90 degrees)

Tahoma starts performing the first action (i.e. opening/closing), but it immediately gets also the second action and stops performing the first one. Which is why it rarely does the right thing.

SOLUTION:

You need to send only one of the above command at the same time to Tahoma in order it to work correctly. Unfortunately, this is not possible with the Apple Home app.

If you don't want to use Homebridge, you need to install a third party Homekit app (like Eve or, in my case, Home+). There you can set only one command (either open/close, or change the horizontal tilt angle).

However, you sometimes want to do both at the same time, right (closing the blind will make your room dark, so you also want to change the tilt angle to -90 degrees).

Well, there is only a workaround that works for me:

• If I want to completely close the blind and make the room dark, I just close the blind (target state: 0% open).

• When I want to open it, again one command (target state: 100% open).

• When I want to simulate the above two commands state with sunlight coming in, but don't want the blind to be open completely, I put it to target state: 1% open. The key is to send only this one command, not sending two (see the screenshot).

• Then I have a Homekit automation in the Home+ (you cannot do that in the Apple Home app again), that triggers when the blind state position changed to "Stopped", and if the current state is in between 1 to 99 %, it performs an autofix action - it sends the command "target horizontal tilt angle" always to -90 degrees (or any other value you prefer, but unfortunately it works reliably only with values -90 or 0).

• In that way, the second command always get executed only after the first one, so Tahoma does both.

Downsides:

• You can use only one tilt angle value when the blind is open in scenes/automations. Everything else will be suppressed by the autofix automation.

• If you have any Tahoma scenarios in their app, this automation will react to them as well and will change the tilt angle always to -90 if the blind is at least 1% open.

• However, if you just change the tilt angle (either in the app or via remote control), it stays until the next opening/closing, since changing the tilt angle only will not trigger the "stopped" event.

I attach my autofix automation in the post. Hopefully this will help someone.

It is unbelievable customers have to make these hacks when using pricey professional solution like Apple Home.

Hello Jmanna13,

thank you for your reply, however, it isn't helpful in my case. The Homekit accessory IS responding and I can always see its state in the Home app, it just behaves incorrectly.

The issue here is the wrong integration into Apple Home. I am not sure if Apple or Tahoma is here to blame, but I am shocked this can have the official Apple Home certification and support. There are tons of reports on the forums and FB groups of Tahoma customers who are experiencing the exactly same thing and cannot use Apple Home automations at all with Tahoma blinds.

Let me explain what the problem is: When you set blinds state in Apple Home app in a scene or an automation, then run it, it sends both the target position and horizontal tilt angle position to the blind. Tahoma treats it as two commands, so while it performs changing the position (i.e. closing/opening), it stops after it gets the second command to change the horizontal tilt angle (Tahoma app does it differently - first it changes the position, only then the tilt angle).

The "solution" here is to use a third party Homekit app like Eve or Home+, where you can send only one command to the blind - either the position or the tilt angle. Then it works fine. Or when you use Siri and say "hey siri, open/close the living room window", it works, because it sends only a command for opening/closing, no tilt angle command. However, this is highly unpractical as sometimes you want to change both, of course (i.e. closing the blind will make your room dark, so you want to also to set the tilt angle to -90 degrees to let the sunlight in).

Again, I'm amazed this integration can have the official Apple Home certification, and both Apple and Somfy/Tahoma don't care it doesn't work at all.