Adding Home Assistant to the chain of command introduces lag and another point of failure.
Yes, indeed. Suggestions?
Personally, I’m waiting for reliable IP and Bluetooth integrations. But, it could be a long wait.
I’ve tried the Home Assistant route, which required writing dozens of scripts. It was unsatisfactory due to the lag and lack of keypress repeats (volume control, scrolling etc).
In the meantime, I’m still using my Harmony Elite as the family are au fait with it. However, it is starting to show its age and the remote keeps wanting to re-pair to the hub. It’s probably on the way out…
I’m also using a Sofabaton X1. This works really well as it has a very strong IR blaster in the hub. I’ve also created a IR receiver using a ESP32 communicating to Home Assistant via ESPHome. This addition allows me to control all my lights and IOT devices through the Activities and Device controls in the X1. As soon as I’m sure it’s family friendly, I’ll retire the Harmony and use it whilst waiting for the R2 to mature.
1.5m with direct line of sight without an angle should be possible even with the UC dock. There are some ir code formats that are currently not supported. I guess this could be the problem. here. It was mentioned by a developer that they plan to support raw ir codes in the future so it doesn’t matter what format the codes are in.
Alternatively, there is also a DIY dock for the Remote Two based on an ESP32: GitHub - petchmakes/ESP32-IRBlaster-UCR2: An ESP32 IR blaster implementing the UCR2 dock websocket API.
1.5m won’t cut it for me as I’d have to trail wires to the coffee table which will not be tolerated by the wife.
I need it to be at the back of the room next to our sofa. 3m range would probably be safe.
The hub of my Sofabaton X1 is there and works brilliantly.
Without adequate IR coverage, or better yet - IP and Bluetooth integrations, the R2 is useless in my household.
I won’t give up on it, though. I really want it to be my daily driver.
This looks interesting. Could solve my blasting to projector issue (in a simpler way than currently). I am just recently learning about the ESP32 microcontrollers. I guess that’s why the UC dock is displayed as “ESP32” on my router.
The schematic is as simple as can be, but it’s the code that makes it work. The way the parallel combination of 5 IR LED’s is drawn is pretty bizarre though (I had to trace each individual path to verify that’s what it is). I guess it’s a function of the drawing program used. My main concern would be it apparently won’t sync with UC firmware updates. That could probably be addressed in the code, but not by me with my current knowledge.
But if all it takes to drive 5-SFH4546 IR LED’s in parallel is a common NPN junction transistor with no limiting resistor, operating at 5V, I may try just building something to plug into the UC dock (without having to modify its innards) first.