Several months ago, I shared my first-hand experience with SmartWing’s Matter-over-Thread Smart Blinds. I went into detail about the ordering process, unboxing, installation, as well as Home Assistant integration. The company produces high-quality window coverings from all types, including zebra, cellular, woven shades, draperies and several others.
I am very confident in recommending SmartWings to anyone looking for smart shades or blinds. Their products are top notch, their motors are noiseless, and can be bought in 433MHz, Zigbee, Z-Wave, or Matter over Thread variants. As a complete smart blind replacement option, SmartWings is a great choice. Their price tag is debatable and in my opinion, very market dependent.
About a month ago, the company contacted me saying they are pushing a new version of roller motors on the market as asked if I could review it. They developed and certified a Matter over Ethernet Roller Motor with a PoE power option, the first of this type and something I’ve never encountered before.
In this article, I’m sharing my experience in installing and setting up the new SmartWings Matter over Ethernet Smart Blinds with Home Assistant. They are available on their Website as well as Amazon, with price being highly dependent on the size and features you choose.
DISCLAIMER: SmartWings provided me with three PoE Matter-over-Ethernet smart shades of my choice for the purpose of a review. This will in no way influence, sway or affect my opinion of their products and will just be my usual observations and unbiased testing approach. I shared my guidelines and principles for collaboration with their PR person, to which they fully agreed.
Overview and Package Contents
When you visit the SmartWings website, you are kind of overwhelmed by the amount of options and possibilities available. Obviously, it’s up to you and/or your significant other to decide whether you’re getting roller blinds, zebra, dual shades, cellular shades or whatever else. Hopefully, this article will help you decide on the smart aspect of choosing SmartWings blinds.
Whatever option you go for, it will come well-packaged in dual boxes, cushioned in protective bubble wrap, pre-assembled and ready to be installed. You will also receive a user manual, mounting brackets and an optional remote if you order it. Please note, the remote is absolutely necessary (more on this bellow) for many things, so make sure you get the basic version at least.
The new Matter over Ethernet (PoE) smart motors are found under the Hardwired Shades menu on their website. The motor has a 30cm cable with a male RJ45 connector attached for connecting it to your PoE switch. The package also includes a CAT 6A inline coupler (female-to-female) so you can extend the cable as much as you need to.
The small antenna you see in the image is used for the 433MHz receiver, used by the remote. There is no other connectivity to the PoE version, so understand that you will need to use a LAN cable at all times. Both cables are neatly tucked away behind the blind valance and hidden out of sight.
Here’s where things get interesting. While SmartWings Matter over Ethernet PoE motors do have built-in battery backup, there is an USB-C connector which can also be used for power. Meaning, you can provide 5V with an USB cable and simply use the LAN cable for connectivity.
The purpose of this connector is to power the blinds in case of an emergency. Obviously, running two cables at all times defeats the purpose entirely of installing hardwired PoE shades. It’s a good option to have at your disposal in case of issues with your PoE switch, but not really feasible for daily use. Granted, it’s not advertised as such either. The pairing button as well as an indicator LED are placed next to this USB-C connector.
What’s really neat is that SmartWings installed the Matter QR pairing code on several locations. It’s found in at the top, behind the valance as well as the bottom weight rod which holds the blind extended. This placement makes pairing so convenient, as the QR code is easily accessible at all times.
I took out the roller motor out of the aluminum tube by detaching the latch keeping it in place. It’s labelled as model WM25L/P, rated for 0.7Nm with 24 RPM, which is capable of lifting blinds up to 40kg. The “6min” marking refers to the motor’s duty cycle, which means the motor can continuously operate for up to 6 minutes before it requires a cooldown period. This is to prevent overheating and ensure longevity.
Installation and Calibration
All SmartWings blinds, shades and draperies come pre-calibrated with preset limits from the factory. This means that the limits are set according to the length you choose during the ordering process. Very little remains to make these blinds operational, and that’s installation and pairing with your Matter controller.
These shades came with two sets of mounting brackets for an outside-the-frame mounting position. The first set is a simple clip-on type of bracket which holds the shades very close to the window frame. However, you can use the extension bracket to distance them a little more from the window or wall and give it a bit of space. This is especially useful if you have a light switch or a shutter controller hidden behind the shade.
Once I did all measurements and marked the mounting location, it was a simple job of drilling and attaching the brackets. My previous brackets which were already mounted matched these more or less, so I needed to drill only a few new holes. As I mentioned in my previous review of SmartWing’s Matter-over-Thread Blinds, you are going to need a helping hand for this. You won’t be able to hold and attach the blinds on your own.
Now, I did not have PoE cabling pulled to any of my window blinds. It never occurred to me I would be needing an Ethernet cable for connecting and powering window blind motors. However, I did have a plastic tube installed to one corner of each window which allowed me to pull an Ethernet cable and hide it completely out of sight. It was a pain to do for each window, but it resulted in no cabling sticking out.
Click here to see wireless Thread version installed on the same window
Once the blinds are installed in place, they are ready to be controlled and used with the remote. This is why I mentioned it is important to always order a remote with the blinds as well. Even though they come pre-calibrated with limits pre-set, you will need to adjust them and change the channels. You can do this only with the remote.
Further, I found each SmartWings motor has adjustable speeds. You can change between low, medium and high speed according to your preferences. Again, you can do this only with the remote. Matter does not allow such advances configuration parameters in this stage of development, so the remote is absolutely necessary.
Home Assistant Integration
Once I made sure the shades operated as they should with the remote and the limits are correct, It was time to add the SmartWings Matter over Ethernet Shades to Home Assistant. Like all things Matter, all I needed to do was scan the QR code, and give it a name. Here’s how they look like once added:
The Matter integration exposes a single cover entity in Home Assistant. The network type is set correctly as Ethernet, working beautifully while being powered by PoE. There is absolutely no delay when triggering the shades from Home Assistant. As expected, communication is reliable and robust.
With firmware 1.0, the battery level is not available in Home Assistant. Perhaps this is not meant to be exposed, since these require a constant LAN/PoE connection to operate anyway and the battery is used solely as a backup. It would be nice though, to know the current level like in the Matter over Thread version.
Final Thoughts and Suggestions
The SmartWings Matter over Ethernet Smart Blinds are a set and forget solution for making your blinds smart. Ethernet completely eliminates any connectivity challenges you might encounter with Zigbee, Thread or other wireless protocols. But here’s the thing: How many users really have ethernet cabling pulled to their windows?
Even though I prefer wired over wireless for almost anything else, I fail to see the utility in using Ethernet for this specific use case. I think for window blinds or shades, wireless Matter over Thread works much better. I only had to recharge the motor in those once in 5 months, which is not troublesome or inconvenient anyway.
If you happen to have an ethernet cable nearby or you have a tube that you can pull one through, the Matter over Ethernet version is a great choice. You will have a better connection and better overall experience with pairing, controlling and daily use. For everyone else, the SmartWings Matter over Thread variant is the best option.
PoE sounds useful to me. Two reasons.
Firstly while most blinds are easy enough to reach with a ladder, some are not. I have one that’s a right pain and I dread the battery running out. Laying an Ethernet cable to it would also be awkward, but it would be a one-off pain.
Second, consider a new build. Laying PoE everywhere is the logical choice since it’s practically free on a new build. You might have had speakers or cameras in mind when you did it, but presence sensors or blinds will benefit just as much.