My first impressions and questions!

General
1

I have played with the remote the last couple of days, and these are my first impressions and questions. I have been using and programming Philips Pronto remotes for years, and still use the TSU9800 including the RS232 extender in my HT.

The Pronto was actually quite good en very flexible and customizable. Also their base idea makes things simple: You can create a device, say what communication protocol it uses (IR/RS232) and you can create it + add the codes for every function. These devices can be connected to every screen you designed in a project. So on one screen you can add buttons from different devices.

The Remote 2 is missing this basic functionality as far as I can see now.

I managed to create IR devices after some IR bulk import issues using the pronto codes I have. Also added the Apple TV & Hue integration.

However, adding an IP controlled device is not working as I would expect according to this topic: IP remote configuration

Sending a WOL: I would expect that this would be possible in the remote software itself. Unfortunately not according to this post: Wake-on-LAN signal possible?

Missing option for selecting Hue scenes. Without this this integration is pretty un-useful for me.

RS232 support would be fantastic, since it is still used in lot’s of Home theatres as it is rock solid.

Regarding the layout of the screen: I’m missing the be able to change the text size and use 2 rows in one button. An Eject icon would also be nice to have.

I realize it is a startup, and lot’s of development is needed. But some things look unnecessary complex to me comped to my really oldskool Pronto, which is besides lacking IP control support still my benchmark.

1 Like
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Much of your call-outs are valid.

I am not quite clear on the issue you’re having adding an IP controlled device. Can you give an example (equipment, use-case, expected behavior, problem)?

In regards to the screen, it does not appear there is a way to change text size or enable line wrapping at the moment - I’ve been meaning to file a feature request for that! I noticed the issue when I set up buttons for live TV: the channel numbers were relatively small compared to the icon for the TV guide!

I have been using two sources for icons, both found through the discord/the forum:

https://icons8.com/ - a myriad of styles, many are transparent .PNGs, the download tool makes it easy to set background color/transparency and size (these icons need to be 90 x 90 to load).

Material Design Icons - Icon Library - Pictogrammers - material design icons, good for activities, devices, etc. Once again, the download tool makes it easy to set icon color, background transparency, and size.

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Thanks for you response! Thanks for the icon tips, I will look into that.

About IP control: I would expect to be able to create a device and tell R2 t’s an IR or IP device. That’s not possible directly in R2 if I’m correct. How can I add a device for controlling my Trinnov Altitude using IP? I don’t get it.
These are the protocols: https://drive.google.com/file/d/105MJTus2Yu5IqqN27aDZ0w1dkIOhi8JC/view

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I still use my Pronto TSU9400 and RFX9600 after all these years… The Pronto does have IP support using the Philips http library. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I’ve been able to keep the remote up to date. I use IP to communicate (2-way) with my madVR Envy (and the Pronto can send WOL to wake the madVR), Kaleidescape, communications with HomeSeer (and would also be able to do getHTTP calls to Home Assistant). And, as you said, RS-232 is very useful (I still use RS232 with my projector and processor).

I’m keeping my eye out on the Unfolded remote. It seems promising, but I would really like IP support. It seems really nice that it can integrate with Home Assistant, but IMO, it should be a feature, and not a requirement (and in its current state, it seems that HA integration really needs to be used).

I’m curious how press-and-hold buttons work if done over HA integration. For example, if you keep the volume control button pressed, or a cursor key pressed, does the command repeat?

Anyway, Teejo, keep us up to date on your later impressions of how this remote compares to Pronto as this remote evolves.

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Hi,

what basic functionality are you missing? In the first sentence you describe an activity like used by UC and a lot of other universl remotes not only Harmony. You add 2 or more devices, here called entities, to the activity then you can all commands of these devices on the different pages of the GUI.

Ralf

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To be honest I haven’t done anything with it yet due to lack of time. And time is what you need to get this working. But I totally agree that it has to be able to support IP control by itself. RS232 is still a good and bomb proof protocol.

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What I’m missing is exactly what I describe. I don’t mean an activity, but in one screen let’s say the control buttuns of my UHD player, but also the force 21:9 button for my Envy video processor.

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This is exactly the use of activities. Commands of all devices added to an activity could be put on a button or on the display. The Pronto did not use activities therefore you are a bit new to activities I think.

Ralf

2 Likes
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You can absolutely do this. As long as the Envy is included in the activity you can assign commands from all included devices to hard or soft buttons as you see fit.

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Thank you, indeed I don’t have any experience with activities. I just assumed the an activity means a sequence of actions like watching movie: Amp powers up, switches to blu-ray player, projector power on etc.

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This is part of the activity, but it’s more than that. Think of the activity as more than simply a script to power things on, it’s creating a custom remote control for that specific activity. It turns everything on, selects the correct inputs, and then includes a custom remote control that provides exactly what you want to have access to during that specific activity. You can create multiple screens for each activity for levels and layers of commands.

Once you’ve created a complete activity, you should never have the need to move to a device’s remote, because all your needed functionality should be easy to access within the activity, and it’s not cluttered with all the devices that aren’t in use.

Example, I have an activity for each media device in my system that powers everything up and preps it for using that device. Inside those activities, in addition to the device I’m using, I’m able to create various screens that have commands for other devices that I may want to access while in that activity.

So in my Kaleidescape activity, the physical buttons control the Kaleidescape, but I have also created a couple extra screens that give me direct access to lighting and the Lumagen in case I need to override an animation or make an adjustment to the Lumagen settings. There’s also a screen with access to the setup menus in my Anthem AV processor, but I haven’t used that yet.

If I decide I want to watch something on the AppleTV while I’m in the Kaleidescape activity, I simply launch the AppleTV activity. The R2 knows what’s in use, what needs to be added/changed, and what can be powered down, and then it switches to the custom AppleTV activity remote settings, so all the physical buttons control the AppleTV now. All my activities share mostly the same secondary screens for access to the Lumagen, the lighting, the processor, but again, the remote is completely customized for the activity I’m using at any given time.

When I’m done, I hit the power button and everything that’s on is powered down.

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A little addition: All activities which belong to one system/room must be in an activity group so that the R2 knows that TV 1 is in Room 1 when you change the activity for instance in Room 2.