SwitchBot's new Blind Tilt is the latest smart tool for home automation setup! It is designed to open and close the angle of your blinds slats.

 

Switch Blind Tilt is made for horizontal "Venetian"type  blinds which have a wand/rod tilter, which the long stick that hooks onto the tilt mechanism inside the blinds head rail.  Blind Tilt is a simple device and fairly compact: 14cm tall x 5cm wide x 5.5cm diameter. 

Blind Tilt has an 8-shaped with a cylindrical body remiscent of two dry battery cells joinede together.  The main body has a 3cm diameter and houses the electronics, 2000 mAh rechargeable battery and an electric motor with 1 kgf·cm (kilogram-force centimeter) of torque and low 30 RPM (max speed). 

The secondary enclosure has a 2.5cm diameter and, it is designed to house the toothed barrel coupler which matches the motor's plastic toothed cog.  When the motor activates, it spins the toothed barrel which, itself, is designed to hold the wand tilt rod of your blinds. The toothed barrel opens and closes via a quick release metal buckle and has 20 teeth on each side.

 

Blind Tilt comes with a solar panel included designed to power Blind Tilt using the energy of the sun. The solar panel is a neat idea that allows Blind Tilt's internal battery to be always topped up, so, you won't have to recharge it. The solar panel also works in a cloudy day without direct sunlight, although not quite as fast.


The Blind Tilt solar panel is dual purpose. As well as charging, the solar panel cabling is designed to anchor Blind Tilt so, the motor can rotate the wand tilter. Without anchoring, Blind Tilt won't work properly. It will just spin around out of control. 

The Solar panel cabling measures 36cm long and, it is made of a soft rubber sheath with a bendy memory wire arm attached to a thick plug USB-C connector. The dimensions of the Blind Tilt solar panel are: 10.5cm long x 7cm wide x 1.3cm thick. Blind Tilt weighs 112 grams. The toothed barrel weighs 6 grams. The solar panel and cabling (non-detachable) weighs 73 grams. 

Blind Tilt is controlled via the SwitchBot app but you can also control it via SwitchBot Remote (sold separately). App control is more convenient because it's done right from your phone. The app features three on-screen action buttons for adjusting the angle of the blinds, as well as a slider which lets you adjust the angle opening of the blinds from 0% (fully closed) to 100% (fully open). The action buttons are customizable to any angle percentage (e.g. 50% open or 80% half open or half closed).

 

The SwitchBot app gives you access to other features to re-calibrate Blind, update firmware, check battery level, control the blinds and enable "silent mode" - which decreases the noise generated by the motor. The only drawback with "silent mode" is that it is slower and not as powerful as the standard "performance mode" which is set by default. The noise level of the motor is similar to the SwitchBot Curtain motor.

From the SwitchBot app, you can also manage existing SwitchBot devices and enable light sensing, which turns blind Tilt into light sensing automated blinds. This is achieved via Blind tilt integrated ambient light sensor designed to measure the ambient light inside the room and outside the window and adjust the angle of the blinds automatically to change the brightness of the room.

 

Blind Tilt comes with the necessary kit including spacers of different thickness to suit different size wand tilters. The spacers use 3M adhesive - same as the solar panel and bracket - so, there is no drilling required. That said, the kit also includes screws and wall plugs. There is also a small alignment sticker designed to help you choose the right size spacer and to help you position Blind Tilt at the correct height on the wand tilter. 

Before buying, be sure your blinds are Venetian blinds type with a wand stick. Venetian blinds are easy to differentiate from vertical blinds as they slide up and down. Vertical blinds slide sideways and typically do not have a wand/rod controller. Some Venetian blinds use a cord tilter instead of a wand. These aren't compatible either. You can buy Blind Tilt from SwitchBot website. You can get 30% off on both Amazon and Shopify when using promo code 13BFCMSB