Hubitat & Broadlink Motor Control for Blinds & Skylights

This article is about connecting your Hubitat^® hub to your router for controlling blind motors, skylight/window openers, drapery motors, and many other devices.

One of the most important features is its ability to "learn" RF radio commands, which means it can directly control 315 MHz devices and 433 MHz digital radio motors and other devices.

It is also an IR code learner for controlling systems such your TV, audio systems, air conditioners, projector screens, etc.

For more background information, please see the previous article for connecting the Broadlink emitter to your WiFi router.

Understanding Your Hubitat^® Automation Controller

This article assumes that you have some understanding of how your Hubitat automation hub works, and that you are somewhat familiar with it. Since the hub plugs directly into your local router, it automatically has a static IP address. It does not use WiFi, and thus you do not need to be concerned about assigning a fixed IP address (like you did with the Broadlink emitter).

You can actually operate the hub via WiFi by inserting a WiFi dongle into the USB port of your Hubitat, but we will not cover this operational aspect here.

Here is a screen capture of the home screen that you will see after you register your Hubitat hub, as a first time user. You should also bookmark the IP address in your browser for easy access:

If you look at the top right of the above picture, please note that we have clicked on the message indicator that shows that a new firmware update for the Hubitat is available. This is important because the crew at Hubitat are very active and produce almost daily updates of the firmware that contain many new device drivers and bug fixes. Here is a screen capture of the automated firmware update section:

In the next article we will be downloading and installing the special driver and app code; if you look at the Advanced section of the menu system on the left, you will see the menu items where you will paste the downloaded code:

      Advanced      

< > Apps Code

< > Drivers Code

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We sincerely hope you enjoy our advanced technology products; if you have any questions, please contact us at any time!

Articles in this series:

Part 1: Hubitat + Broadlink Motor Control: Introduction

Part 2: Connecting the Broadlink unit to your WiFi router

Part 3: Connecting the Hubitat Automation Controller (You are here)

Part 4: Downloading and Installing the Broadlink drivers and App

Part 5: Learning RF and IR codes & Testing Same

Part 6: Creating a Dashboard & Assigning Motor & TV Commands

Part 7: Implementing Voice Control of Motor & TV Commands