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I agree. The TVR has been in the garage throughout the build. The Jaguar for half of it. But I just couldn't resist a genuine barn find 15k-mile-from-new Elise!

Yes. The curtain motors have a battery backup that apparently lasts for 3 weeks. Tugging the curtain triggers an open/close response.

I did. And it contained a ittle more information. One of the two connections seems to be for controls, and the other might be inferred to be data. That does look like a eureka moment! I think there's enough info there to do something. I suspected it was Modbus based on some other comments on websites using similar looking motors. I don't need solar logging over Christmas so I will steal the parts and play. I am my own worst enemy though. 2 Elises, a TVR, a Jaguar and a Range Rover all needing work while I try to build a house... But agreed, you can't beat a V8!

I expect I will. So it's not really a waste of cable. Yes. 230v input and USB C. Both will charge the battery and operate the motor - they seem to have thought it through. This is indeed my fallback plan. But the idea of data is complelling. (See later comments from both of us) Done. No response as yet. I'm not planning to open up the motor because it won't tell me about the protocol. The instructions are clear for using the logical inputs, but don't do much else. It's as yet uncommitted, taken back to a central location so it can be purposed as needed. I don't like to be caught out if I can plan around it. Yes. I have that page of instructions on paper, so it's not new or helpful for thr RS485 issue. But thanks for posting it up here since it makes it clear which motors we are discussing. I want the RS485 because the motor does support tug to open/close and I suspect the motor will report the state over RS485 due to other research, and I want the BMS to know about the state centrally for temperature management. (I know it doesn't count to anything in building control land.) Unfortunately not. And the postman didn't bring me the RS485 thingy today so I can't play without taking the solar data logger apart. Guess I will have to fix one of the pair of Lotus cluttering up the garage instead.

I got to a similar place too, but I know a few of us are curious about such things, and it wouldn't be the only thing that gets reverse engineered in my life so I thought it worth a shot here. Nothing for it than to monitor the bus and see what happens. I believe it will be something fairly standard, so maybe modbus? It's something to keep me amused over Christmas. This thread is now the prime source for the information for "acrimo rs485 protocol" according to Google!

In a fit of hopefulness about finishing my build (or insanity, I'm not sure...) I bought a couple of Acrimo motorised curtain tracks in a Black Friday sale so I could evaluate them. For the price I am quite impressed - the whole thing cost not much more than a similar length manual pull cord rail. The curtain rails themselves are designed nicely and implemented well. The battery built in to the motor and supplied small solar panel and is a nice feature to avoid running power (I already have power there, so that was a waste of wire...). The instructions however are less good unless you understand Spanish because the translation to English has some comedy moments. That said, the product doesn't really need too many instructions because the basic set up is fairly intuituve. Of course motorised curtains are silly unless they are automatically controlled somehow. The instructions claim the motors have two RS485 connections via a RJ45 connector, but then don't explain much more about these. The RJ45 connector also has some logical connections to trigger opening and closing. I could use a micro controller connected to Ethernet (Pi Pico or similar since these are cheap enough) to operate the curtains according to the home automation system's commands but it would be fewer components and therefore better if I could work out how the RS485 bus works. I am waiting for a couple of USB RS485 interfaces to arrive in the post, but in the mean time does anyone have experience of these motors?

I put up bat boxes, but our local woodpecker population decided they were going to evict the bats. Guess they can't read the endangered list. We are working out the last few details for digging our pond. We have smooth newts so I am hoping they like it

The second bit I know... But this very sensivlke advice comes about 4 years late. I'm not changing anything now!! For the record the BCO and warranty folk were happy with the C24 graded 2x1.5 I sourced for reasonable cost, and happy with all of the fixing plans. My understanding is that the documentation has moved on a stage now so perhaps I wouldn't get away with it so easily now, but if that's the case then a product would have become available. @junglejim The BS document isn't freely available. The BSI like you to buy it from them! But you can usually find the useful sections from it in places like a LABC technical guide or NHBC documents.

I have an rs485 based modbus connection working on cat5e for my solar inverter data. No problems so far.

Guessing that the problem here has come from the cavity side and it's only been noticed when the whole frame depth is affected. I am going for a similar theory to @ProDave - something is allowing water into the cavity and it's getting to the back of the frame. Another window (or something) above it without a drip cove on the sill that lets water track into the cavity? The pictures suggest there is no cavity closer for that window.

And I thought the 2 lift scaffolding staircase I had was posh! (and very useful for getting stuff up to the top) Is it just me, or did they spend all the money on scaffolding so couldn't afford labour to mix the brick packs up thoroughly?

Had a bit of fun playing find the good bits of metal with the MIG and the inevitable running out of wire on Easter Saturday. All together again and back to doing the landscaping. Going to need to do a few more repairs over the next winter I think but all OK for now.

Looking good! Finishing this job off myself and can say that Steico do indeed make a very detailed document saying what you can and can't do. I spent ages reworking the design to minimise joist penetrations and keep the holes away from the edges and the other (electrical) constraints - it was like doing circuit board design all over again.

I bought mine because I have a lot of work for it that I couldn't do all at once. I'm still "winning" over hiring because the flexibility is worth a lot to me especially when I've had experiences of weeks where there were zero available diggers for hire on the whole island. You can imagine how much they were costing to hire that month, and what the terms for "one more day" were... A bit of servicing and welding every so often isn't so bad if you have the equipment. It's worth highlighing that this sort of repair should be a consideration for running your own plant, especially if you buy an older machine. In hindsight a better cover for the worst of the winter months would have been a good idea.

But boring in the extreme! The weekend was the first fine weekend of the year where I was not working. So I put a bit of time into getting the digger serviced and ready for the spring groundworks. During testing it made a bad noise and on removing the battery that was more or less hanging on by the cables found the battery tray was slowly disassembling itself like a 1970s vintage Jaguar! Heaven only knows how the -ve terminal connected to anything through that rust! I resolved to fix the digger that day because it will be good for a biscuit or two in "House not finished anonymous" and the weather looks good for getting some industrial weeding done later in the week. Cardboard will work, won't it? Maybe not the cardboard. It's even less conductive than rust. I found some steel from the stores (read scrap heap). Bends formed with a bit of angle iron and a hammer. And it even fits in the hole. Welding and painting will be done next time I am not at work.