Just got my R3 - first impressions

General
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Hi ALL,

Got an e-mail a few days ago from FedEx that my R3 was on the way and I just got it today. So I wanted to share my first impressions.

First I was a little surprised that it was overall smaller than the R2. About the same length but quite a bit narrower. But still it felt well built similar to the R2.

Next, during the initial turn on I could not connect to my Wi FI, either 2.5 or 5, after several tries each. My router is nothing special and all my other devices connect to it with no problem. So I had to skip the Wi Fi connection and move on. After finishing the rest of the initial setup and knowing I couldn’t do much until I connect to Wi FI, I tried again and it connected on the first try! Why it failed initially and now worked I have no idea!

Knowing I was getting the R3, I made a backup of my R2 this morning. Then I told the R3 to recover from that backup, and MUCH (MUCH!) to my surprise the R3 was up and running with the same programming that was in the R2! I was a little hesitant to even turn the R3 on as I was worried that it could mess up my R2, which I am now COMPLETELY dependent on. But I was assured that the R2 and the R3 can co-exist without any problems. And they both are now working. I did have to do a little re-mapping of some of the hard buttons but that was trivial, even with the new interface which I have not updated my R2 to.

So, my initial impression is quite positive! I’m going to use it instead of the R2 for a while and decide which to make my daily use remote. Then the other will be powered down and be a backup in case the daily use remote dies for some reason.

My R2 is set up as 100% IR control because when I set it up the integrations were new and not as stable as they should be. And yes, I know the newer integrations will probably work but even with IR control everything works as I want it to about 99% of the time. Sometimes a device misses an IR command but, again, most of the time it works quite well. So, at least for now, I have no intention of updating from IR control.

And I’m still concerned about updating the R2 since one of the versions “bricked” the R2. So, again, if it works I’m not touching it.

Thanks again to many here who helped me get the R2 to work in the first place!
Gerry

P.S. I’m in the US and I fully expected to get some indication that I had to pay a tariff but I never got anything!

3 Likes
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That’s great. They stopped (they = UC Team) the roll of the firmware that bricked the R2. Which was 8.X. Also, the ecosystems of integrations had grown A LOT .. Turst me , i know :winking_face_with_tongue: you should try it out… Discord community is vibrant for this remtoe. enjoy!

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Hi M.a.S.e,

Maybe in the future I’ll try my hand at some integrations. But in addition to “leave well enough alone!” there is another reason I’m hesitant to make any changes. When I first got the R2, I had an EXTREMELY frustrating time getting it to work. Several times I was ready to make a “doorstop” out of it! With the help of a lot of people here I finally got it working after what must have been several months. I’m a retired software engineer and in my past I have worked on many complex systems. But the R2 really gave me a hard time! So, although in theory the newer integrations should be easier to work with I just don’t want to open up a can of worms!

By the way, I just want to congratulate with all of the work you have done in creating a bunch of integrations. As a retired software engineer I know you must have put in a lot of time working on them. Keep up the good work!

Gerry

1 Like
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With all due respect, why would you spend so much money on this nice of a remote if you’re only using it for IR? You’re missing out on 95% of the functionality. Why not just try IP integrations for your devices? If you don’t like them, then roll back.

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I understand.
I’m not retired yet, and I’m not a software developer but I also have my entire components rack outside of my theater room, so IR use for me is the complete opposite from you, only ir would be a deal breaker for me. What I do know is that while it is a learning curve it’s with so many features and potential and custom integrations is what set this apart. At this point, there’s so many custom integrations which work well and so it makes it (imho) a very worth time spent learning. That being said, I acknowledge my setup and preferences differ from others but I do agree with Mike, spending 500$ on a remote to just do IR is kind of crazy :zany_face:

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I forgot to say that I have 100% IR control but only for my home theater (LG TV, Dennon AVR, Frontier DVR, Sammy Blu Ray and a Roku). I did bite the bullet and invest in a Home Assistant Green and tied that into the R2. Through the HA Green I can also control some ceiling fans, lights (on, off and dimming) some Wi Fi thermostats and some window shades to control room lighting. So I do have one integration: Home Assistant.

So I’m really not 100% IR and my R2 is 1000 times better than the Harmony that I used to use.

Gerry

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This is what I did when I first got my R2. I relied on IR as there were very few integrations available.

My suggestion is to make a copy of your existing activity and adapt it to use IP integrations. You can then try it out without destroying your original IR based activity. You can also mix IR, IP and BT commands within an activity. Very powerful.

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Small correction 2.7.0 brigged some R2.

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Hi ALL,

My original post was my initial thoughts on the R3 as soon as I unboxed it and did the initial setup and they were quite positive. So I want to follow up with my thoughts having used it last night watching some TV and again they were very positive. Now my task is to decide whether the R2 or the R3 will be my daily remote as I have no need for two main remotes. So comparing the R2 and the R3 I have to say that the R2 wins hands down! Don’t get me wrong as the R3 is a very capable remote and if it were UC’s only product I would still buy it and use it as my daily remote. But I have to say that the R3 is really a downgrade from the R2. Here’s why.

While the R3 is lighter and narrower than the R2 and thus feels better in my hand, it necessitates a smaller display which, to me is a big negative. And the display is also not as good as the R2’s display. The R2 display I believe is an OLED while the R3 display is some form of LCD. Thus the R3 display’s off angle viewing is very washed out and even at night in a darkened room the black surrounding the text is not really black but a dark (but detectable) gray while the R2’s display is totally black and off angle viewing is fine. Just lightly touching my R2 will turn the blanked display on while the R3 needs a fair bit of jostling to get the display on. The backlighting of the hard buttons is not as bright as on the R2. And there were a few other things on the R3 that bothered me. None of these R3 negatives are deal breakers but, to me, the R2 is just a better device.

One other disappointment, but has nothing to do with the R3 itself, is I was hoping the latest firmware in the R3 would correct a bug that I reported a long time ago but didn’t. Through Home Assistant I can control my home’s 3 Wi Fi thermostats from R2/R3. But there is a bug in the interface which shows the thermostat setting and the room temp. When the setting is lower than the room temp it is blue and if in the cool mode the thermostat is active. If the setting is higher than the room temp it is red and if in heat is active. When the setting is the same as the room temp it is white but the thermostat could still be running or not. The HA interface definitely indicates when the thermostat is active or not even when its setting is the same as the room temp. Unfortunately the latest version does not correct the bug. Its still very useful to control the thermostats from R2/R3 but I was hoping the bug would be corrected.

Lastly, I know this is a long post but I just wanted to comment on me using IR. Again, I was wrong in stating that my R2 is 100% IR, as I am using the HA integration which GREATLY increases the versatility of the R2. My Harmony was never able to do the extra things the HA allows me to do with the R2. With the IR control of my TV and home theater stuff I can do everything I need to do. So if I were to change over to integration control I would not gain any more functionality. Maybe a little better reliability but no other functionality.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Gerry

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I wanted to move away from IR for my R2 because of the poor emitter strength from the dock.

I had to position the dock on the media cabinet so the IR extenders could reach the devices. That was an inconvenient position for charging the remote.

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Hi harvey28,

I did have a lot of problems getting all my devices to work with the IR signals. I initially tried an IR repeater and it helped with some of the devices but not all of them. The IR extenders that came with the dock did work but their cables were way too short. So I found some dual headed extenders on Amazon with 10 foot cables and I was able to position them next to 4 of my devices and they worked very well. For my 5th device I placed the dock on a glass shelf right above the device and the hub’s IR signal worked just fine.

So in the end I was able to get all my devices working pretty reliably with IR. Yes, as a retired software engineer, I would like to do it the better way with integrations BUT it took me SO long to get everything to work the way I want I just can’t bring myself to change anything! Since I now have the R3 and my R2 will remain as my daily remote I might play around with integrations in the R3. We’ll see!

Gerry

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I just received my R3 a few days ago in the U.S. and have to say it was a lot easier to setup than expected. I’m coming from a Harmony Elite and was deciding if it was even worth it to open the R3 since my Harmony was working fine. My biggest headache was reaching the web configurator. Once I got that working it has been pretty smooth. I have a Denon AVR, LG OLED, Apple TV and Home Assistant. I didn’t even know controlling devices over IP was a thing. I am used to IR. Controlling devices over IP is a game changer. I could never go back to slow IR. As soon as I activate the Watch Apple TV activity the LG/Denon/Apple TV instantly turn on. Same with turn everything off. Volume changes via the AVR are instant as well as changes to shows and apps on the Apple TV. I did have to connect my LG to WiFi so I got 2 years worth of update notifications. But blocking the LG domains at the router level solved that.

In summary, the R3 was easier to setup than expected and is working great so far. Don’t be afraid to try controlling your entities via IP. It is a game changer and provides very responsive commands.

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I think its a good remote to customize to any persons preference. There is a lot of IP bigotry, but Im happy to mix IR and integrations or whatever because it works. One room is all IR and there isnt battery anxiety or delays. One room is mostly IP based on great custom integrations in addition to the great help. Until recently, there it was a real hassle to copy over one remote to another with any custom integrations, like the R2 to R3 example.

If I was all IR all the time, I may have done an X2 for that room, but it is easier to manage R2s and R3s together now vs yet another vendor unique learning/changing.