A quick "thank you" to the UC team

General
1

I’ve now had my R3 for a few weeks. It took me a while to learn the core concepts of Unfolded OS – activities, macros, integrations, etc., and controlling my home theater is no easy task. I have a large variety of components, smart home devices, and even my own custom devices.

Tonight, I walked into my theater, grabbed my R3 off its dock, and settled in on the couch. With one tap on my “Streaming” activity, my lights dimmed and the curtains closed. The ceiling fan slowed to a whisper-quiet speed. My AVR turned on and flipped to the input for my Apple TV, and my UST projector turned on and slid smoothly into position. I fired up ATV+ and watched the latest episode of Foundation, with artwork from the episode displaying on my R3’s screen.

After finishing the (awesome) episode, I switched to my “Cinema” activity, which woke up my Ugoos AM6B+ running CoreELEC. I was in the mood for something fun, with big, booming sound, and a phenomenal Dolby Vision picture, so I picked Top Gun: Maverick, which is one of my favorite demo discs.

When the movie ended, I stopped the Cinema activity and selected “Good Night” on my R3. The lights dimmed, the curtains closed, and all of my equipment went to sleep. The projector slid back into its position on the cabinet, and the lights down the stairs were dimly illuminated. I plopped the R3 back into its dock, walked down the stairs, and a few seconds later, the stair lights turned completely off.

The R3 is an amazing little device, and even in its very early state, its made my home theater experience so much better. Kudos to the UC team. I can’t wait to see the R3 continue to improve. Good work!

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+1

Keep on the incredible work!:folded_hands:t3:

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I haven’t received my remote as yet but if I can get it to do half of what you have described I will be just as happy as you obviously are. Thanks for your reassurance , it is a change from the negative and sometime trivial comments that have been posted here since shipping started.

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Which commands do you use to “wake up” the am6b+? I’m getting a black screen through my AV10.

5

I just added the Kodi integration and use pretty standard button mappings. My AM6b+ is always on, so when I select its Activity, my receiver flips to the right input and off I go. I have it on my Tailscale network and route outbound traffic through Mullvad VPN so I don’t want to have it repeatedly connecting/disconnecting.

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It would be nice if this damn AM6b+ had a power light on it, so I could tell what is going on. I want to suspend or power off when I turn off the activity. I guess I could just leave it running 24/7.

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Yeah it’s not the nicest piece of hardware, and CoreELEC does its best to make Kodi tolerable, but it’s still a dog. If it wasn’t the only way to play my ripped Blu-Rays with DV P7 FEL, I wouldn’t bother with it. My Zidoo Z9X running Jellyfin is much easier to use and more stable.

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I would say you should consider yourself very fortunate. After I have done all the setting up, I sat down and I got error after error after error after error. My Lyngdorf is not supported with an integration. My Oppo is timing out. My vrroom has not switched HDMI inputs until this morning, when a kind user shared a command that actually worked. And I haven’t tested my JVC projector or the screen yet.

I have spent at least 30 hours with this otherwise very nice remote so far and I can’t yet start a single activity while developers are working on improving the IR code compatibility for instance, which to date has been woefully inadequate. There is beta firmware fixing issues and creating new ones. I am looking forward to a WORKING UC remote as, so far, I am still using my Harmony 2400 Pro which has been rock solid from day one.

To think that this is where we are at on the third iteration of this remote control after what, 5 years?, I don’t have much faith in future development. The progress is slow and relies heavily on enthusiasts who do this as a hobby, for free. It might work for you and I am pleased you are happy with your purchase. It hasn’t worked for me yet, despite considerable time and effort.

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You can power on the Ugoos with the wake on lan integration and power of if you paired it with Bluetooth. Both works like a charm für me. I also starts and shut down my synology in this activity (start via WOL, shut down with home assistant).

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Sorry your experience hasn’t been positive! There are tons of little issues here and there for me, and I certainly have run into missing Bluetooth and IR codes for my devices. That said, I have been able to work around most of them by going through Home Assistant for some things.

I would agree that as of today, R3 is best suited for people that are comfortable downloading and installing custom integrations and leveraging workarounds. It’ll get there over time. UC is a very small team with a gargantuan job of manufacturing and delivering thousands of remotes from a wildly successful Kickstarter. I imagine that the pace of development on the firmware will accelerate once they’re through the other side.

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The annoying thing is that this remote has so much going for it. But the manpower to turn a project and a hardware platform into a finite product is simply not there.

I spoke with a few developers - there are maybe 7-10 people who can only code integrations for the hardware they own and they can test. It’s a thankless job, they don’t get paid, they don’t even get a free remote for the time and effort.

Then you have the UC team itself, stuck in a perpetual cycle of releasing new remotes and then, two years down the line, abandoning their development for the next thing. I appreciate that the setup is local, no servers or clouds which can be turned off at some point in the future, but you can’t have a universal remote without the “universal” part of the deal. The IR database. Comprehensive integrations. And so on.

It is not clear to me yet how, for instance, I can turn RC-5 code, which is used by most high end audio equipment manufacturers, into usable HEX / Pronto for UC3. And this is just one of many things. There is a Github thread where this issue is registered as a bug they are working on. They will post guidelines. Software to convert the code. They will add compatibility to other formats in the firmware etc. It’s all shall and will - all in the future.

Again, the remote is a great concept, a lot of thought has been put into it and it could be the next great thing after Harmony, not quite a C4 but the next best thing. Pity about the software support or lack of. Either you learn to code integrations yourself or you can assume it will never happen.

HA is an added headache, another investment, another computer to build and maintain, update. Sure, it is there as an option and it can make up for many of UC’s omissions (I built a Pi HA server purely for the Lyngdorf integration) but it adds to the bill, the rack space, the complexity of the setup and time to maintain it all.

Today I have actually made good progress with a few of my last headaches and the last couple of devices I need to figure out are mainly IR controlled and they use RC5 code which is not accepted by the remote (supposed to with a csv file but I have had no luck with my Gryphon or my dCS so far). So much time was spent on this project that I don’t think I would do it again, if I started from scratch now.

At least if it would work reliably and deliver the goods in the future like a Harmony, once fully set up, I could forgive many of its early shortcomings. But with the wifi connection being so finicky as well (apparently it is still being worked on in the firmware), I am not at all sure.

I wish they went with a hardwired hub as the core of the system like Harmony or C4, then these constant disconnects and time outs wouldn’t occur as frequently as they do. But they didn’t. So we shall see.

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Totally understand your frustration. I’m a developer and already have a solid Home Assistant setup, which puts me at an advantage. I have one major issue to resolve, which is that my projector can be controlled almost entirely by Bluetooth, only requiring IR for power on and off operations. But, there is a settings button that I can’t figure out how to find the right configuration for in Bluetooth. Once I get that working I will start making some additional integrations for my DIY devices in my theater. This all makes R3 appealing for me.