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The original was posted on /r/homeassistant by /u/stealthwang on 2026-05-17 00:13:33+00:00.
I found a good deal on some Yoolax Zigbee-based smart blinds. Saved a few hundred dollars cheaper over the closest Z-Wave based equivalents I could find.
Nearly every Zigbee-based blind also comes with an accompanying remote, so I thought (naively) that their remotes would also be Zigbee-based and function via direct device binding - like the Z-Wave blinds I saw and the single Zigbee blind I already own (Ikea Fyrtur). Direct binding at the protocol level for a device installed into my home has real appeal - the device keeps basic functionality even if I move out, all while not being tied to a proprietary remote that may eventually get lost or broken.
However, I found out the remote for my Yoolax blinds (like many cheap-to-mid-range Zigbee blinds) is actually an old 433hz RF remote - and more than that, the Zigbee protocol is particular about how blinds should be controlled.
A window covering device following the spec ought to implement the window covering cluster to communicate it's state and take commands. This sounds fine, but it also means the device won't communicate via the on/off cluster or the level control clusters, which is what 99% of Zigbee remotes expose as an interface (since those are used to control lights, switches & dimmers). There are Zigbee blinds out there that can receive commands via the on/off & level control clusters to workaround this incompatibility, but this doesn't appear to be a widely adopted convention.
For my use case, I was dismayed to only find 3 Zigbee remotes that actually act as a client of the window covering cluster:
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now-unobtainable Ikea E1766 remotes for the Fyrtur blinds
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remotes from Somfy (expensive)
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remotes from Profalux (expensive and impossible to find in North America)
So, if you're out there thinking about Zigbee smart blinds, and you care about direct binding their remote controls, I strongly recommend some close research of the device you're buying, or just getting Z-Wave motors instead.
(Z-Wave handles this better at the protocol level, all cover devices are required by the spec to respond to the equivalents of the on/off binding & level control binding.)