For years, closing the shade in our master bathroom meant stepping into the tub and pulling down a creaky old roller shade, hoping it wouldn’t snap back and bite me. The changing of the seasons and the accompanying loss or gain of privacy made this shuffle a biannual chore. Five years ago, I decided to install a motorized roller shade and retired the tub walk for good. The user experience, however, left much to be desired.
My new shade was voice controlled and required a wonky third-party Alexa skill: “Alexa, tell Powershades to open the Master Bathroom.” I’m not sure who decided this verbal concatenation was a good idea, let alone how hard it would be to train other members of the household on the right (mostly wrong) word order.
Needless to say, when the folks at Bond offered to send me their new Mate Pro remote, I quickly agreed. The Mate Pro is a standalone handheld that natively talks to more than a dozen shade brands right out of the box, no bridge or hub required for most of them. While its water-resistant form factor was launched with outdoor applications in mind, the slim chassis makes it a killer indoor solution as well. Seamlessly adding physical up/down control to my shade would solve a minor pain point I’d lived with for the last half decade.
The unassuming craft cardboard box showed up on my doorstep a few days later. I flipped up the lid to find the remote, accessories, and a user guide prominently featuring a “start here” QR code. I followed along, downloaded the Bond app, and began walking through a wizard asking me to connect all my Bond gear. A second box revealed a white puck called the Bond Bridge Pro. I plugged it in, watched its LEDs flicker on, then added the Bridge and remote to the app in sequential order. The remote connected via Bluetooth while the Bridge plugged straight into the network over Ethernet. The intuitive process only took a couple of minutes, and I continued to let the anticipation build.
Next up: Connecting the remote to the shade. Here’s where my setup turned out to be the edge case. My PoE shade is a first-generation motor, and getting it talking to the Bond ecosystem called for one more piece of gear: the Collider by Modern Atomics. Part PoE switch, part shade controller, part nuclear reactor, it’s a Swiss Army knife that ties disparate PoE shades into any control system and even lets you test an install with no internet via physical raise/lower buttons. Most Mate Pro installs won’t need it, but if your CI business integrates PoE shades from different manufacturers, you want one on the truck.
With the Collider plugged in, I added the Modern Atomics integration in the Bond app and watched my bathroom shade magically appear. I grabbed the Mate Pro Remote and headed upstairs. After assigning the correct channel in the app (the Mate Pro supports up to 15 devices), I named it and pressed the down arrow expectantly. The Powershades motor whirred to life and stopped exactly where it should. I reversed the process with the up arrow, hitting the center “stop” button on the way up to make sure it worked. It did.
I know it doesn’t sound like much, connecting a shade to a remote. But when you consider all the physical and digital pieces and parts needed to make things work properly across manufacturer and protocol lines, the greatest compliment to great design is an end result that’s simple and “just works.” As with most things in our industry, the heavy lifting behind the scenes is substantial and only made possible by amazing manufacturers like Bond (recently acquired by Somfy) and Modern Atomics. Is it worth $289 MSRP for a remote that keeps your spouse from wading through your bathtub or memorizing a 10-word voice prompt? A resounding “hell yes!”
The Mate Pro Remote stands on its own for the vast majority of shades you’ll encounter in the field, with the Modern Atomics integration extending that reach to PoE motors that would otherwise be left out. Either way, the end result is the same: a remote your clients can hand to a houseguest without a tutorial.
I can’t wait to see what Bond and Modern Atomics launch next. What’s the pain point in your own house you’ve been living with for 5 years because the control experience stinks?
Stay frosty, and see you in the field.
The Mate (Pro) Outdoors
By Zohar Shinar, CEO, Bond
“The Mate Pro is a very specifically crafted solution-oriented device. The outdoor lifestyle is very much on the upswing. Mate Pro is designed to smoothly control multiple motorized pergola, awning, shutter, and screen brands. It replaces multiple remote controls and provides individual and group control via each of its 15 customizable channels! It is water-resistant, and the integrated Bluetooth and guided DIY configuration process via the App makes for easy setup. Mate Pro solves the control confusion created by so many outdoor residential and commercial living spaces often including some variety of pergolas, shutters, awnings, and screens — each from a different brand with different motors and remotes that use different proprietary RF control protocols. This makes consolidated or even smart control of all these devices impossible. Mate Pro solves all of this.
With Mate Pro, devices can be operated individually or in groups. Users can set quick-action triggers, schedules, positions (favorites), and assign custom channel names. It features a 169-dot matrix LED display that makes for comfortable viewing day and night and boasts a 200-foott transmission range, contingent on the property, communicating with devices via radio frequency (RF). And because Mate Pro is water resistant it can be left outdoors without worry.
Mate Pro works with leading shade motor brands, including Somfy, Rollease Acmeda, Gaposa, Nice, MagnaTrack, Azenco, Forest Drapery, Dooya, AMP, and others. Mate Pro remote does not require a bridge — once setup is complete via the App, it manages operation of all the connected devices directly. However, if integrated with the Bond Bridge Pro RF-to-Wi-Fi hub, Mate Pro is then able to communicate state feedback and trigger scenes. This allows for control of different devices at once, for example raising blackouts and lowering insect screens with just one button press.
For more information, visit bondhome.io.
