Drive your Chronosoft 8 remote from a Raspberry Pi.
If you want to know how to use your Chronosoft 8 remote you're in the wrong place :)
I made this project because my roller shutters use a proprietary protocol (M4G) which I did not manage to handle using open tools. To drive them from my computer/phone/tablet/<add any connected device here> I decided to solder a few wires to the remote PCB and drive them with relays from a Raspberry Pi.
The Chronosoft 8 is a remote sold by Franciaflex, it managed up to 8 roller shutters :
It is also able to shedule roller shutters opening and closing.
The remote has 5 buttons :
- Retour (Return)
- Valider (Validate)
- Up
- Stop
- Down
I removed the PCB from the remote and using a multimeter I identified the vias that could be used to simulate a button pressed :
- Red : power supply (3V)
- Black : ground
- Blue : the "power" signal which is connected to a button input signal when pressed (all blue vias are linked together)
- Yellow : buttons input :
- V : validate
- R : return
- U : up
- S : stop
- D : down
As you might have notice on the back of the PCB (first image) the up button input signal is close to a connector render it difficult to soder, using the other side of the PCB is far easier.
The PCB with the wires :
To drive the remote I used a 6 channels hl-56S relay :
6 channels is perfect to drive the 5 buttons + the power supply.
As the remote requires 3V power supply I used a 3V3 pin from the Raspberry Pi to power it. The relay is also powered by a 3V3 pin from the Raspberry Pi.
The remote buttons and power supply are connected to the relay 6 channels. The relay itself is connected to a Raspberry Pi GPIOs.
Chronosoft8 puppeteer is a python software to drive the remote. It configures the remote channels (up to 8) and has plugins to manage the remote :
- websocket plugin to manage the remote from a webpage
- scheduling plugin to drive the shutters based on time/sun
This project is licensed under the MIT license.