I have my Remote 3 setup to control the main parts of my home cinema but am still trying to update my Home Assistant scripts so that they can send commands to my 2 Remote 3 docks to lower projector screen, turn on speakers, etc. In the past I had HA performing this task using Logitech Harmony Hubs using a script with “Remote: Send Command” to a specific device ID and command name. I don’t recall now how, but know I had to get the device IDs and commands from a config file in HA. Do I need to do the same for the Remote 3 docks, or follow some other process?
There is some pretty good documentation here - GitHub - JackJPowell/hass-unfoldedcircle: Home Assistant Integration for the Unfolded Circle line of remotes
From my understanding this integration always uses the remote to send IR to the dock(s). Docks have their own websocket API (no HTTP API). I use Node-RED (because of the websocket possibilities) in HA to send IR directly to a dock.
Thank you both for the above. Looking into both of these and will come back with any questions.
I have reviewed the documentation on GitHub and found I had missed an important distinction between sending commands to Remote 3 (incl. dock) and my Harmony Hubs. The difference is with the Harmony you use the Remote/ Send Command action but I now understand with the Remote 3 you have to use the Unfolded Circle/ Send IR Commands option (which I had not noticed before - much further down list).
Using the above command allows you to send IR command from remote and/ or docks and I have successfully tested using my Oppo player, which uses a known code dataset that is recognised by Unfolded Circle (so I selected Manufacturer “Oppo”, Codeset “Generic Blu-ray 1” and Command “POWER_ON” for example). However, what I really want to get working is a command to lower my projector screen, but the device manufacturer (Pure Theatre) is not in the Unfolded Circle database. Whilst I have successfully learned the code to lower the projector on my Remote 3 (Hex code 3;0xFFE01F;32;0) and can send when manually using the remote, I cannot seem to send via Home Assistant. I suspect I have missed a setting to specify it is a Hex command, but cannot see what settings/ values I need to use. I currently left Manufacturer and Codeset blank and simply selected the entity I wanted to send command (dock) and entered the IR command (3;0xFFE01F;32;0). Home Assistant is happy with the settings but nothing happens (i.e. screen does not lower).
The manufacture for learned codes is named „Custom - learned IR codes“
I did try the above, also then adding in the name of the device that I have assigned to it and then the name I have assigned to the IR command, but that still did not work. I’m not at home at the moment to try other combinations that are now occurring to me (such as leaving codeset name blank instead of device name and then adding in the Hex command in the IR command instead of the name). Any further input to clarify what is needed would help, as this does not seem to be detailed in the instructions for custom commands. I have also reached out to Unfolded Circle to request that the codesets are added to their database.
Please post the api command that’s not working for you
I used Unfolded Circle/ Send IR Commands with Manufacturer “Custom - learned IR codes”, Codset “Pure Theatre Screen” (matching name in my system) and IR Command “Down” (the name of the assigned command in that codeset in my system).
And you can also find this codeset with this name when you try to create a new ir entity with the remote?
Yes, just tested and I can see “Custom - learned IR codes” / '“Pure Theatre Screen” / “Down” when I create a new entity. FYI, also tested the command with and without codeset name and with IR Command using hex code, but no combination worked. Now stumped as to what to do.
I’ve been testing this further and have made an important discovery, but still not solved the ultimate issue of not being able to lower my projector screen from Home Assistant.
Firstly, let me explain my UC setup a little further. I have 2 docks and remote 3 currently in use (plus a powered remote 2 sitting in its own dock, but not currently in use). One dock (without charging base) is located in my cupboard, where most of my home cinema kit resides (e.g. Oppo Blu Ray player, Apple TV, processors, etc). The other dock (with charging base) and Remote 3 are located in my lounge along with projector, screen and speakers.. The screen and speakers are both controlled via IR and I have manually learned commands for them into Remote 3, as they were not in the UC database. They are configured to emit IR signals from the remote and this works when using the remote in normal use. I want to send commands using a Home Assistant script that will send an IR signal from the Lounge dock to lower the projector screen and turn on the speakers, having previously done this successfully in the past using Home Assistant to control Harmony Hub.
As per earlier posts I had thought that there was a problem with the commands coming from my lounge hub. What I have discovered today is that all the commands I am sending from Home Assistant are being sent to my cupboard dock and not to the lounge dock, even though I am selecting the lounge dock device as the target for the command (also goes to cupboard dock when I select the Remote 3 as the target).
I found the above as today I tried sending commands to the Oppo player via the remote and lounge dock and each time the player responded, despite only being available to the cupboard dock via IR.
I have subsequently looked at the UC integration in Home Assistant and confirmed that if I select Identify for lounge dock, it does successfully trigger an identification on the lounge dock, so I do not understand what is going wrong. Does anyone have any ideas of what may be the issue, or anything else I can try?
FYI, I have tried changing the Infrared Output Device setting for the Oppo player in the UC configurator, which I know should be completely separate to what I am doing from Home Assistant. I made no difference if I changed output to longe devices and still triggered respoonse from Oppo player in cupboard.
I don’t use HA but the readme mentioned that if you don’t specify a dock name the command is sed through all docks. I’m not sure if this is even possible as at least with the remote itself you can only set a single output emitter. Did you set the lounge dock in HA as the dock name?
I’m away for a few days so can’t test at the moment, but I want to say it did not let me choose no device, but I have tested individually by selecting each dock (and the remote) individually via the integration GUI as the target to be used for the IR signal. I tried each individually and together. but output was always from the cupboard dock, no matter which device I set as target.
Just to update this thread, I can confirm that I decided to log as an issue on the Github page for the HA integration. Issue was successfully identified and fixed by Jack Powell in v1.0.7 of the integration today.