MatterreviewsThread

ZemiSmart Blind Motor w/Matter over Thread (review)

If you’re familiar with the state of the smart home now, and are up to speed on which companies are ahead of the game, chances are you’d mention Aqara. Rightly so I’d say, as they are prolific in terms of output. Still, one could easily miss some of the progress ZemiSmart has made in the last couple of years too, primarily in the area of Matter and Thread. Today’s review product has sort of trounced Aqara when it comes to releasing a retrofit roller shade motor with Matter over Thread, and the results are surprisingly good. If you’re in the market for a retrofit solution to make your existing blinds smart, read on.

CONTENTS – NO PACKAGING!

ZemiSmart sent this device to me in early December primarily to test it out, not for review purposes, and so it came in a plain white box. If you order one now, it’ll come in a nice, full colour box! So, I’m moving straight onto the device itself.

Prior to this device, the most recent retrofit roller shade motor I used was the Aqara RSD E1, which served me well for around two years before finally being replaced by a Matter over Thread motor from Smartwings (review HERE, video HERE). I am struggling to find homes for yet more roller shade motors, but luckily, I’ve got one space for this, so it has been set up and in use since it arrived, which is two months as of this article.

This doesn’t differ from Aqara’s model in that they both pull a beaded chain, which allows the blinds to be opened or closed automatically. The design is different however. With the MTP1 (this is the model number I’ll use to refer to it from now on) you get a large slab of plastic, with a similarly large round button on the front, although it’s actually more than a button. It’s quite slim at only 60mm wide, 135mm tall and just 30mm deep (including the wall bracket), although with the button it’s 40mm.

What makes this a better choice than the Aqara option is mostly down to the wall mount (surprising right?). Aqara’s option meant that mounting the bracket had to be pretty accurate if you wanted to get the right amount of tension on the beaded cord, which in turn is pretty essential if you want the motor to work as intended. With the back of the MTP1 you have a series of steps that correspond with a clip on the mount. This allows you to approximately affix the wall mount, but then more accurately secure the motor in a more granular way. This allows you to adjust to the right amount tension required on the beaded cord. I may not have explained it as well as I’d hoped, but trust me when I say it’s a lot better this way.



The top of the motor has two openings for the beaded cord to pass through, that attaches to a cog inside. More on that in a bit. The underside has a rubber cover that houses a USB-C port for recharging the internal battery, as well as a reset button, and a small toggle switch used for initial setup.



The cover that encases the motor and the cog is a little hard to get into, as there’s no grip for your fingers or thumbs to push it off the main body, but a thin food knife or flat head screwdriver does the trick. Once off, you can see a cog attached to a motor. The package comes with three different sized cogs for different bead sizes, as well as a USB-C cable, and a small remote control. The latter uses a 433MHz transmitter to directly control the blinds.

The remote control can be used to set the upper and lower limits for the blinds, but you can also set those parameters directly from the motor itself. The remote comes with a magnetic mounting plate, and uses a simple CR2032 battery. It has the three buttons you’re likely to need – open, close, stop – but repeated presses of either the open or close buttons cycles through the three available motor speeds, which I’ll talk more on later.

Speaking of cogs, ZemiSmart does state that this motor will work with cords without beads if the cord is 3-4mm in diameter. the MTP1 will also work not only with Roller shades, but Venetian blinds, honeycomb shades, zebra shades and more, although when it comes to Venetian blinds, it’ll only be able to control either the angle of the blinds or the opening and closing of them – not both.

PHYSICAL SETUP

I installed the MTP1 in my mother-in-law’s old room which has three blinds in total. I fixed it to the largest blind in the middle (great view, I know…). In the first pic you may notice some holes from a previous installation, which was for an older ZemiSmart roller blind motor using Zigbee. Although it was ok, this new model is way better in so many ways. The second and third pics shows that the beaded cord is at an angle to the motor, but it actually works fine this way, and better in fact than the previously alluded to location.

Due to the bracket mount I was able to get the tension on the beaded cord perfect. The package doesn’t come with an adhesive sticker, so you’ll either have to source a suitably strong one yourself, or simply drill into the wall. The latter is going to provide a more secure fit ultimately.

IN APPLE HOME

As this uses Matter over Thread, for Apple Home you’re going to need at least one Apple Home Hub acting as a Matter Controller, and preferably one with a Thread Border Router, like a HomePod mini for example. Installation is as easy as it is with any HomeKit compatible device, so you scan the Matter code and it’ll just install.

One thing to note, however; you should set the upper and lower limits for the blinds before you add it to Apple Home. If you add it to Apple Home first, the upper and lower limits not being set means it’ll not work as intended, and not stop when it starts moving in either direction.

As is standard, you get a single tile for the motor, and a slider control to more finely adjust the position of your blinds. This device contains a rechargeable battery so you also get to see the battery levels in the settings page.



Matter devices allow you to add them to more than one platform, and so you have an option listed as ‘Turn on Pairing Mode’, as the original Matter QR code can only be used for one initial platform/pairing. This option will generate a new digit-based Matter code for you. As you can see above, I’ve got the MTP1 added to two additional platforms – Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings.



In Google Home it’s much the same as Apple Home, with a single tile and a separate slider control. The same goes for SmartThings, although to go along with their slider interface, you get buttons for open, close, and pause. You also get the option to set a preset position.

With all these controls you can now operate the blinds from your phone or from Siri, and you can also add the device to scenes or create an automation. In my Apple Home setup the blinds open at 8am in the morning and close at 9pm, Monday through Sunday.

DIRECT CONTROL

When it comes to direct control of the device, the large dial is not quite…a dial. It does act as a button to stop the blinds if they’re opening or closing, but you can perform a quick twist of the dial to begin the process of opening or closing the blinds. The motor can operate at three speeds – low, medium, and high, so if the motor is turning at high speed and you then turn the dial, it’ll revert to the next available speed, which would be medium. Another quick twist, and it’ll go to the slowest speed. Another twist circles back to the highest speed, and so on.

During setup (before being added to Apple Home), you can set the dial to more act in a way that some might expect – i.e. turn the dial 50% and the blinds open to the same amount. Personally, I think it’s better to let the dial act as an open/close/stop control, and set specific open/closed percentages within automations, but either way it has to be decided upon during the initial setup.

One negative (and really the only one) is that you can’t access the different speeds from the Apple Home app or other apps connected to the ecosystem. The speed changes can only be accessed on the device itself, or via the remote.

BUILD QUALITY

In the past, ZemiSmart’s build quality has been questionable. That’s not really applicable to a lot of their newer products, however. This is the case with the MTP1, which is solidly constructed, even if the design might not appeal to some. Even if the dial isn’t of much appeal in terms of control, due to it being able to be used in automations and scenes as well as controlled by voice and app, there’s little need for direct control. That said, the included remote is incredibly fast to respond, due to the direct connection between the remote and the motor, so you’ll not be able to compete with it for the fastest of response times.

IN DAY-TO-DAY USE

Soon after I installed the motor, despite it being in a spare room, I did have a guest staying with us for a whole month from December 7th through to January 8th, so it was getting constant use at that time. It then say a bit of use over the Chinese New Year period when my stepson stayed. Combining the daily use with the already added automations for opening and closing at times of the day, it hasn’t failed once so far. I’ve been running it on the fastest speed in all that time, and so based on two months of use, as it stands the battery is at 79%. At that rate around 10% per month) it should last me another 7~8 months. Whilst that may seem optimistic, even three or four months between charges is more than adequate in my opinion.

In terms of noise from the motor, I did measure them, although I can’t claim to be a professional when it comes to this sort of thing. At the highest speed, it measured an average of 58dB, medium speed came in a little less at 54dB, and the lowest speed came in at 44dB.

I’ve largely moved to permanent motorised blinds – Eve Motion blinds in the living room, Smartwings in the bedroom, and an older Aqara motor in the studio – there’s still a good use case for a retrofit model, and as it stands, I’ll be keeping this in the spare room for the foreseeable future. It works well, and doesn’t go offline, so that’s all I require of any smart home gadget ultimately. Add to that the Thread (and Matter) connectivity, and I’m just glad that I have another device that doesn’t need or use WiFi, which as I’ve stated before is a goal I’m trying to achieve for devices where possible. Recommended.

 

ZemiSmart Blind Motor MTP1

8.4

Build quality

8.5/10

Ease of install

9.0/10

Reliability

9.0/10

Design

7.5/10

Extras

8.0/10

Pros

  • Matter over Thread for no hub requirements
  • Easy to install and get fitted correctly
  • Large controls for ease of use
  • Included remote
  • Decent battery life

Cons

  • No option to control speeds automatically

The Editor

Editor - Musician, graphic designer and HomeKit aficionado.

2 thoughts on “ZemiSmart Blind Motor w/Matter over Thread (review)

  • No mention of loudness, in general or at different speeds?

    Reply
    • Hi, you’re right I should add that info. It’s already in the video (and on ZemiSmart’s website), so the info is as follows; 58dB at high speed, 54dB at medium speed, and 44dB at the lowest speed.

      Reply

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