So, the Trådfri smart-curtains are now official, and can already be found in some IKEAs in Germany, according to this article.
From February 2nd, they can also be ordered online.
The product works with a removable battery-pack than can be charged with (what seems to be) micro-USB, which everyone has millions of at home.
I can’t seem to find anything about battery-life or if the curtains can be cut shorter, but considering their normal curtains can, I don’t see how this can’t (unless they have hidden tech in the whole frame and a motor on each side of the curtain?).
I’m no developer, so I will have to wait until someone adds it to the Homey Trådfri app before I purchase one, but I just wanted to create a common topic for these curtains for discussion and to share experiences.
I honestly can’t wait to say “Okay Homey, we want to watch TV”, after which the room darkens and everything necessary turns on.
I am so sad that my curtains need to be 228cm in height…
However, in my experience battery powered devices that need to “listen” to signals 24/7 is not a good combination. But perhaps you can remove the battery pack and just power them via micro-USB?
Are these battery powered? It doesn’t have to be a big problem. Zigbee, as far as I can find out, has very low power usage when just listening. And since you won’t open/close your curtains every 15 minutes I guess it shouldn’t be a big issue here.
I just inspected the manual and if you check page 6 it uses battery pack. According to the battery specifics it has a capacity of 2600mA / 18.72Wh.
I just measured my curtains, and they’re 151cm wide (the cloth part of it), so looks like I won’t be able to use these. Shame!
Let’s hope IKEA will make a “combine with any roller curtain”-kind of system.
The carefull reader will also have noticed that the as a standard supplied power supply, that can be used to charge the battery, is as a matter of fact a Zigbee Signal repeater!
So, this product is apparently delayed until summer…
When I check online on the Dutch page, it now says an expected delivery date of 18/3 - 25/3.
On the Danish page, it says 15/2 - 22/2. I signed up for email notifications now, so I’ll return in a few weeks to update.
I know, let me find the source that mentioned summer
Although, all countries I mentioned and Germany (just checked) still mention a release before april. Germany actually mentions a release between the 17th and 24th of February! The article also doesn’t present proof that it’s being delayed, so I don’t know how much of it is true.
Edit: From the comments it seems IKEA UK has told the author that it’s delayed. I can’t see a release date on the UK IKEA page, so maybe it’s only delayed there?
Because of the activity the past few days, I decided to check the expected delivery date, only to find out that they have removed the product from all their pages (and redirecting to their “bedroom”-page when searching one of the names).
This doesn’t bode well, to be honest. A delay is fine, shit happens, and you can communicate this to the world. But removing all traces of a product seems weird.
anyone ordered them? must say I’m dissapointed that they can’t be cut to length accordingly. Some people like their blinds inside the windows. this needs to be over it making it estheticaly unpleasing imo
Looks possible to mount inside the windows… Length shouldn’t be a problem since I suppose the blinds could be calibrated (of course too short is a problem, but not too long probably).
I think Otter means width, because length has no impact on where to mount the curtain.
IKEA has communicated from the beginning that these curtains couldn’t be shortened, so I don’t get why it’s a disappointment. Also, I’m pretty sure one can cut them shorter, it just takes a bit more time and effort than their other curtains. The motor and battery is on one side, so it shouldn’t be that big of a problem.
I’m considering buying one to use it in my kitchen, since my other windows are 160 wide, and therefore too wide for the widest curtain.
