Thrillcat
This was pure speculation on my part given the economics. I figured the team could not support themselves for the 3-4 years of development otherwise.
Then please state as such.
Markus Zehnder (Head of Software) is indeed full-time!
See here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markuszehnder/
Head of Hardware also full-time: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lutz-harder-03a84813/
Marton and a Frontend Developer (one-year contract) are freelancers.
So its definitely not like a side project for them.
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I did state this in my original post from Feb 22, 2024.
While Markus seems to be dedicated and full time., which raises additional questions about the timeliness of updates. .
[
Lutz Harder
](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lutz-harder-03a84813/overlay/about-this-profile/) is founder and CEO of two other companies, so not full-time for sure. However, given the hardware is complete and only a few issues are hardware related, you could say his work is laregly done and does not require full time work.
It appears the new firmware has made plenty of progress. Still not sure if the most critical bugs are truly fixed, but they seem less buggy which is definitely good.
If these are fixed, my criticism of the lack of acknowledgement from UC still stands, but I appreciate that these are actually being addressed which is a good thing.
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Thank you @marton and @zehnm ⌠youâve made a huge leap forward in fixing bugs. The remote is now usable and thatâs awesome.
I still think UC has to do more to communicate with the user base about the bugs that they are addressing, timelines, and general updates. The silence remains frustrating and lessens the user experience, but the work on the product is first rate and very much appreciated.
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Another aspect of communications is knowledge and training. There effectively three groups users, 1) Advance users who are paving the way and asking bug fixes, new features and functionality, 2) Middle of the road users who have basic functionality for their systems, but have not put together enough information to get to the Advance user level, 3) Basic user that is extremely frustrated, with little or no knowledge to get even the basic level of functionality and usability. Not sure what the distribution of the 1200+ community, but it would be well received to get everyone to the middle group.
To the founders, can you develop a set of âhow toâ videos? Maybe a high-level over video on the overall approach, verbally explaining the concepts of integrations, entities, pagesâŚetc. the fundamentals . A second video on the basic set-up of the remote, Dock. A third video going through several use cases - IP | IR Remote setup for a basic system, mid-level, and advance system with what does good look like, how does it functional and how to set up for optimum performance. Finally, a Advance system use that includes all the bells and whistles seen on your website marketing material. How to set up eachâŚlights, fans, âŚetc. Each video would include, what equipment is needed, what does the environment look like, step by step instructions that covers, concept, mechanics and application. I think something videos like these would bring the entry-level to the middle and the middle closer to the advance group.
I would argue the lack of sufficient documented knowledge and training is a âcritical bugâ and should be on the Git Hub Bug Report. Thoughts?
How can we put knowledge videos on the Roadmap?
I think Iâm in the second group. Iâm pretty happy with the device (other than its appalling fragility), but my wife very, very much isnât. Some of that has to do with a lot of changes in basic functionality, while some has to do with me basically having to create a UI from parts, without fully understanding the capabilities of the UI elementsâsome sort of âopinionatedâ base setup would have been an absolutely more positive place to start than a completely blank slate.
To be clear, Iâm glad to have the blank slate available. I can even have multiple setups for âsimpleâ and âfiguring things out playgroundâ. But my wife wants to hit a button to turn on the Apple TV and watch things and itâs still too frustrating an experience for her.
The weird thing is that, to ME, itâs almost the same as our dear, departed Harmony, and that was by design. She never had any issues with it. But this remote? No luck converting her.
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flkiwi - Welcome to the community.
Been lurking for a while. This is not the thread I really wanted to jump in on, yâknow? But I need to express some level of frustration while also expressing my support for the overall product and direction.
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Iâm unusure how you have the remote setup, but that should be possible. I donât have an apple tv, but use a chromecast and achieve the same result from pressing one button on the main screen.
Tapping the button will switch on the TV and soundbar via IR, change tv input to the relevant hdmi for chromecast and then using the remote I can navigate around the chromecast (with the google integration). I also have the volume buttons mapped to control the soundbar within that activity. I assume you could achieve the same function using the apple integration?
Once youâve activated the Activity, do you have to change screens on the remote before you can control volume etc.?
This is what Iâve been experiencing, but maybe I havenât set it up correctly. It is very confusing especially without a user guide.
You can map every command from every included entity in an activity to a button as short or long press action and also create soft buttons for the touchscreen.
There is a very detailed guide in the official knowledge database about creating activities: https://support.unfoldedcircle.com/hc/en-us/articles/13269248303516-How-to-create-an-activity
