IR and Home Automation

#1

Can anyone point me towards how I can either hack some existing IR devices like the RM Pro or create one like that. And also a database to populate IR codes.

I have tried hacking the rm pro 3 to work with HA or OpenHab or for that matter MQTT, but havent had much of a success. There is ZMote however it runs on Zigbee and is ot availble to buy.

#2

No expert with IR myself, but does this help at all? Sorry if you’ve already dug through this one. :expressionless: Looks like there is a binding for OH for use with the Broadlink hardware.

#3

Hey, this actually helps. I think building my own with a node mcu would be easier than four reverse engineering an existing device. I think i will build my own that can connect to my mqtt server take mqqt messages and send IR signals. Also a way to query my database and download a device specific codes and store it for use.

On boot connects to my server and waits for mqqt messages like /channel/devicename/ircode and sends back confirmation like /channel/devicename/ircode/1 or 0. Also on the IP of the ESP i can see a config page to configure MQTT broker address Wifi Settings and Devices to control. Depending on memory of ESP atleast 20 device should be able to save in the memory.

#4

Awesome! I’m glad that helped. Seems like a neat way to bridge in IR. :slight_smile:

#5

Been thinking about doing something similar for a while. Thanks for the link @coffeehedake, LIRC is awesome!

#6

How’d you make out with this? I’m curious about it myself, and I’d be very happy to retire/extend my cloud-based Harmony remote.

#7

I got one of them but still have not used it. Like to know how you all went with it.

#8

You can use LIRC, it works with openhab.

#9

LIRC definitely works. Its a project thats been around for quiteeee sometime now. However it needs a pi to run at the least and needs booting and stuffs running and doesn’t sound like a product that can be scaled. For hobbiest its awesome but can you make it work at a consumer level making sure its fail safe? And cost effective ofcourse. For what seems like a very basic task, a tech that has been around fir several decades now, this seems like a over kill. I am pretty sure an Esp32 woth a bunch of IR leds can do the task just fine we just need to build it in an openish manner so everyone can atleast tinker with the config file.

  1. Use a library to handle sebding IR codes
  2. A config file to input all devices to be controlled, wifi config and server configs.
  3. A module to learn new remotes if that is not listed in the database.
  4. If possible reply saying if the command was executed or not.
#10

I have tested in this is the way to go!!

#11

Thanks for the link I have RM-Broadlink Pro and now have installed this OpenHAB - fbacker/broadlink-mqtt-bridge.
Works great with openhab2 .