I changed all my bulbs/switches/poweroutlets/… to zigbee devices, connected to zigbee2mqtt and controlled by homeassistant.
What I miss now are some “universal” remotes where I can control a lot of devices.
Right now, I ordered some electronic parts for sending/receiving RF and IR in the hope I just can use a cheap TV-remote and assign a number to one of my devices to toggle on/off and hopefully to use volume control to dim the device. (I will try to use OpenMqttGateway to connect things together)
I will go to a yard sale or a second hand shop and take a look to the different IR remote. Usually they have a bunch of them. And you can choose directly a good fit like this.
It should be cheap
But after everything is setup and (hopefully) working, I would like to convince my wife with a more ‘sexy’ stylish device. Just wondering if they exist….
I think this is a big hole in the market.
My other devices are more or less acceptable (ikea, philips, aqara) in terms of design, but from my couche I would like to control my devices without the need of my smartphone. Same for the bedroom were I abandoned smartphones. I use now the “flamingo SF-501” remotes, which were extremely cheap (10eur for 1 remote and 3 poweroutlets), but I want to switch to smart dimmable lights and trow away the power outlets. The only thing that now stands in the way is the lack of a decent remote. If I read the documentation correctly, the SF-501 remote is probably not compatible with OMG, so I have to look for something else. Finally I need 8 remotes. Preferably on RF otherwise I have to install an OMG receiver on every room.
Personally, I went with Amazon Alexa’s everywhere for controlling my devices. the family finds them easier than remotes or other options. The other one I keep playing with is a tablet control panel, but it hasn’t really taken off for usage.
Also wouldn’t an app on your phone fill a similar gap ? I’m an iPhone house, so we use the Home app as well
Alexa, google, siri, …… maybe they can fit the gap, but my whole project is trying to be internet independent. Maybe I’m to stubborn on this, but for now I want to keep it this way.
Smartphone/ipad etc… : no long autonomy and to complex for guests/elder people.
Meanwhile I found some acceptable RF remotes, i.e. https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOqhkdN
Not as stylish as I hoped for, but worth giving it a try.
If I can place one of two of them in every room and connect them to OMG —> MQTT —> HomeAssistant, that will be a very nice extension to all my fixed (zigbee) wall switches.
I purchased “Avatto S07 IR Remote”, reflashed with ESPHome (and additionally added a touch-sensor for some manual commands like turn on a light in a living room, near the tv/receiver), and purchased an Aqara Magic Cube, and configured HA to do:
when I throw up the cube - turn on HTPC, TV, receiver and (if late) light, or turn that off (depending on HTPC state)
rotate cube left, right - tune the volume on receiver (but have to say that this has slow response, much faster via HA UI)
hit twice on the table - mute/unmute the receiver
“scroll” to specific side of the cube - select input (HTPC, Chromecast or radio), but this is used rarely
The “wireless keypad” was NOT a good choice .
I was hoping that I could use the keypad to send all kind of (numeric) commands, but the keypad can only send few commands:
you have to enter the correct user code (this code is NOT sended over RF)
