Somfy (Legacy via Vantage)

Driver for Somfy motorized shades that are already wired into a Vantage system. Instead of talking to the Somfy hardware directly, this driver rides on top of an existing Vantage InFusion controller and drives each shade by pressing the Vantage buttons that were programmed to open, close, and stop it. GEM's standard Open / Close / Stop shade verbs are mapped onto three Vantage button presses.

This is the retrofit path. Reach for it when you inherit a job where the Somfy motors have already been commissioned into a Vantage keypad/automation project and you want GEM to drive them without re-integrating the radios. If you are wiring Somfy motors fresh, prefer a direct Somfy integration instead — Somfy URTSI II for RTS motors behind a serial interface, or Somfy TaHoma / Somfy TaHoma (Local) for a TaHoma/Connexoon hub.

This is a "slave" device — it has no connection of its own

Somfy (Legacy via Vantage) never opens a network connection. Every command is handed to the parent Vantage controller, which puts it on the wire. So there is no IP address or port to enter on this device — you point it at the Vantage device instead. Create the Vantage InFusion device first.

How it works

A Somfy shade that lives inside a Vantage project is operated the same way a keypad button operates it: Vantage has an Open button, a Close button, and a Stop button (each a Vantage object with its own numeric VID), and firing one of those buttons makes the shade move.

GEM reproduces exactly that. Each GEM shade zone stores the three Vantage VIDs for its open, close, and stop buttons in the zone Address. When you press:

You press / call	GEM presses this Vantage VID	Result
Open	the 1st VID in the Address	Vantage fires the shade's Open button
Close	the 2nd VID in the Address	Vantage fires the shade's Close button
Stop	the 3rd VID in the Address	Vantage fires the shade's Stop button

Under the hood each press is delivered as the Vantage controller's own press command (a TASK <vid> PRESS on the Host Command protocol). You never type that — you just enter the three VIDs and use the zone's Open / Close / Stop buttons.

Because the shades share the single Vantage connection, commands are paced 3 seconds apart. That spacing is deliberate: Somfy RTS radio has duty-cycle limits, and the throttle keeps a burst of shade moves from being dropped.

Prerequisites

• Commission the Somfy shades in Vantage first. The Open / Close / Stop buttons for each shade must already exist and work from the Vantage system (test them from a Vantage keypad or from Design Center). GEM only presses those buttons; it does not pair Somfy motors or set their travel limits.
• Add the Vantage InFusion controller in GEM and enable it — see Vantage InFusion. This Somfy device attaches to it as a child, so the Vantage device must exist and be reachable before Somfy commands can go anywhere.
• Collect the three Vantage VIDs per shade — the object id (from Design Center) of the Open button, the Close button, and the Stop button, for every shade you want GEM to control. You enter them in open, close, stop order.

Setup

1. Add the device

1. Go to System → Devices → Add Device.
2. Set Driver to Somfy (Legacy via Vantage).
3. In Connection Settings, set the Controller field to your Vantage InFusion device. (The Controller picker lists devices whose type is controller; the Vantage InFusion device appears there once it exists.) Leave Address blank — a slave device has no connection address of its own.
4. Save and enable the device. There is no socket to open and nothing to "discover" — the device simply attaches to the Vantage controller and waits for zone commands.

2. Create one zone per shade

1. Open the device's Zones tab (or System → Zones → Add) and add a zone for each Somfy shade.

2. GEM pre-selects the Shades subsystem for you. Set Control to Shade so the zone renders Open / Close / Stop in UIs.

3. Set Address to the shade's three Vantage VIDs, comma-separated, in open,close,stop order — for example 12,13,14:

   • 12 → the VID of the Open button
   • 13 → the VID of the Close button
   • 14 → the VID of the Stop button
   Order and count matter

   The Address must contain all three VIDs separated by commas, in open, close, stop order. If the Address has no comma, GEM rejects the command (invalid somfy vantage address format); if a slot is missing or out of order, GEM will press the wrong Vantage button (or none). Double-check each VID against Design Center.

That is everything a shade zone needs. The standard Open, Close, and Stop buttons work immediately.

Device attributes

Attribute	Set by	Purpose
Controller (controller_id)	You	The parent Vantage InFusion device this shade rides on. Required — without it, commands return "missing controller".
command_throttle	Driver (advanced)	Minimum spacing between commands sent to the Vantage controller. This driver defaults it to 3000 ms (3 s) to respect Somfy RTS duty-cycle limits. Leave it alone in almost every case; only widen it if a controller is unusually rate-sensitive. Do not lower it.

Zone attributes

Attribute	Purpose
Address	The shade's three Vantage VIDs, comma-separated, in open,close,stop order (e.g. 12,13,14). Required — this is how the zone's Open / Close / Stop reach the right Vantage buttons.

There are no other required attributes on the device or the zone.

Command reference

The driver declares exactly three commands. Each takes the zone's Address and presses the matching Vantage VID:

Command	Presses	Action
open	1st VID in the Address	Open / raise the shade
close	2nd VID in the Address	Close / lower the shade
stop	3rd VID in the Address	Stop the shade mid-travel

There is no set-to-position (percentage) command — a Vantage button press is a single action, so GEM can only open, close, or stop. If a shade has a Somfy "my" favorite position, whether a Stop recalls it is a property of the motor, not of GEM.

You can run these three commands from the device's Commands tab, from macros, and from UI buttons. Because each command is just a button press, an "All shades down" scene is simply a macro that fires Close on each shade zone (spaced out automatically by the 3-second throttle).

What GEM knows — and what it doesn't

This integration is open-loop / send-only. GEM presses Vantage buttons but gets no position feedback back from the Somfy motors, so a shade zone reflects only the last command GEM sent. It will not update if someone moves that shade from a Vantage keypad or a handheld Somfy remote, and it cannot show a partial position. For predictable state, drive the shades from GEM (or from scenes GEM triggers) rather than mixing in manual operation.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Check
Every command returns "somfy vantage command missing address"	The zone Address is empty. Set it to the three comma-separated Vantage VIDs (open,close,stop).
Command returns "invalid somfy vantage address format"	The Address has no comma. It must be three VIDs separated by commas, e.g. 12,13,14.
Command returns "missing controller"	The Controller field isn't set, or the parent Vantage InFusion device is missing, disabled, or not yet connected. Confirm the Vantage device exists and is enabled, then reload this device.
Commands issue but the shade does not move	Test the individual Vantage VID directly from the parent device's press command (or from a Vantage keypad). If the button doesn't move the shade in Vantage, the problem is in the Vantage/Somfy commissioning, not GEM.
Open and Close are swapped, or Stop hits the wrong shade	The VIDs in the zone Address are in the wrong order or point at the wrong buttons. They must be open, close, stop. Re-check each VID in Design Center.
Rapid presses seem to be dropped	Expected — commands are throttled to one every 3 seconds to honor RTS duty-cycle limits. Space shade moves at least 3 s apart.
Shade state in a UI looks stale after someone used a keypad/remote	Expected — this integration is open-loop and cannot read the motor's real position (see above).

Related documentation

• Vantage InFusion — the parent controller this driver rides on; add and enable it first, and read up on VIDs there.
• Somfy URTSI II — direct RTS control via a serial interface (preferred for fresh RTS installs).
• Somfy TaHoma / Somfy TaHoma (Local) — TaHoma/Connexoon hub integrations.
• Devices — add this device and set its Controller.
• Zones — create one Shade zone per shade and set its Address.
• Subsystems — the Shades subsystem these zones land in.
• Commands — where open, close, and stop appear and can be tested.
• Macros — build shade scenes (e.g. "All shades down") from these commands.