Motors, remotes and sensors

The products we sell are motorized by one of two families, and which one you have determines every programming procedure you will ever look up. Somfy's RTS system, built around the Maestria 50 RTS tubular motor, is one. Dooya's motor range is the other.

Somfy's Maestria 50 RTS runs on 120 V AC at 60 Hz with electronic RTS limits, is rated IP44, and is published in models spanning roughly 10 to 50 Nm of torque. Dooya's range covers mains-powered tubular motors for awnings and screens, plus lithium-ion battery motors where running power to the housing is impractical.

Dooya's screen remotes come as a single-channel handset and a fifteen-channel handset — the difference matters when you have several screens and want to run them individually and together. There is also a keychain remote for the pocket, though it can only join a motor that has already been programmed with its limits from a full remote.

Somfy's RTS side has its own transmitter family — Telis, Situo, Smoove and DecoFlex among them — along with interfaces, repeaters and sensors, all documented in Somfy's RTS pocket programming guide.

Every one of these motors has to be taught where the top and the bottom are. That is the limit-setting procedure, it happens at installation, and it is why a screen stops exactly at the slide bar's home position instead of grinding.

One rule from SunPro's own awning limit bulletin is worth knowing because it explains a common confusion: the motor must be moving when a negative limit is being set. Procedures also differ between motor generations — SunPro documents a change in the awning motor's indicator behavior for units made from January 2024 — so a procedure found online for the wrong generation simply will not work.

A wind sensor is the accessory we would argue hardest for. Wind is the condition that damages retractable products, and the manufacturers' warranties exclude damage from leaving a unit out in weather it is not rated for. A sensor that retracts the unit automatically removes the failure mode that depends on somebody being home and paying attention.

Dooya's solar-powered sun and wind sensor is published with a light range up to 100,000 lux and a wind range of roughly 0.1 to 180 km/h, with adjustable thresholds. SunPro also documents wind and vibration sensor programming for awning motors — in two separate bulletins for two different sensor variants, whose procedures are not interchangeable.

Most 'it stopped working' calls are one of a small handful of things: a motor that has lost or never learned its limits, a handset that has fallen out of pairing, an obstacle-detection trip, or a sensor threshold set somewhere unhelpful. Somfy's own troubleshooting FAQ covers the obstacle-detection cases in detail — including motors that refuse to lower in setting mode, motors that jog at power-up, and load bars that reverse at the upper limit.

Call us before you start factory-resetting things. A reset that clears the travel limits turns a five-minute problem into a service visit.