Bond Home

I’ve had my back patio roller shades for about a year. I bought a Bond Bridge when they were installed but didn’t hook it up; I just used the shades remote. This month I took the time to set up the bridge and it’s so nice. I can control the shades from anywhere when traveling and protect my patio from storms. I can also use voice control through Alexa to control the bridge from inside the house. I can closed all shades at once or individually. I can also open any or all of the shades to a percent open or closed by phone app or Alexa. The best feature is being able to set a schedule to have the shades close partially or fully daily to keep the western facing sun exposure off of the patio to keep the house cool inside. Support was excellent via chat to help me with the set up process and troubleshooting. Very pleased so far. Time will tell.

I replaced my Somfy URTSII with the Bond Pro hub. The range is much better and it is much more reliable working with groups of Somfy RTS motors. After upgrading to Bond, I rarely find a window where one of the grouped motors did not respond to the open or close command from Bond. Also, Bonds ability to track the state of the RTS motor is amazing. I I use their 5 button controls for the large rooms with many shades. I have two rooms with one window each. There I use Lutron Caseta Pico switches integrated with a HomeSeer hub to relay open and close commands with the Bond Pro Hub. This keeps the state of all windows in perfect sync with the Bond Pro Hub. I use the Bond app to watch my home when I am not there. The one thing that would make the app better is to add the state of the motor, open or closed, on the Home Screen. I have twenty shades in the house and checking each window is a pain. I also use Alexa as a speech engine. It would be really cool if Groups of shades configured in Bond could be orchestrated through the speech engine. Thank you, It just works.

While the setup wasn’t quite as quick as it said it would be - it was still pretty darn slick - and anybody with any experience setting up wireless devices will get through it in no time. The only obstacles I faced were the initial connection and the firmware upgrade. Both resulted in the device not responding - and both were solved by unplugging it and plugging it back in again. Aside from that it was slicker than snot on a doorknob. I’m now controlling my ceiling fan, fan light, and fireplace - all with simple voice commands through Google Home and Alexa. I have the Bond plugged in upstairs in my bedroom and it has no problem controlling the fans and light in the same room as well as the fireplace in the basement. Everything works as advertised and for Day 1 I couldn’t be more pleased! I especially like the dimming feature that allows me to reduce the ambient light produced from the Bond device itself such that it allows me to completely eliminate any ambient light being output from the device itself. I’m very sensitive to any foreign light and even my router is disruptive to my sleep - but the app allows me to completely dim the Bond light such that it only produces light when it’s actively responding to my commands through Google or Alexa. Highly recommend for anything that’s not already WiFi capable and has a remote.