‘Dumb’ and ‘Smart’ are two terms that group blind motors by the way that they receive information.
How Dumb Motors Work
The most common type of motor on the market right now is the dumb motor.
Once you send a signal to the dumb motor (whether that be via a radio handset, a hardwired switch or from your smarthome app), the motor will act on that command without sending any information back to the remote, switch or smarthome app that it has been acted upon.
How Smart Motors Work
Smart motors, or digital motors, work a little differently. The smart motor sends information back to the system that is controlling it.
This is very useful for features like opening blinds to a certain percentage level, getting blind position feedback, hembar alignment and standard maintenance.
It’s important to note that dumb motors can still be linked to smart home systems, the benefit of ‘smart’ motors is in the features that they open up.
Which Motors are Smart/Dumb?
All Smart Motors
Digital
Zigbee