Good, But Not Great - Using the Sofabaton U2 "Smart" Remote Control to Control my Home Automation

[@camerongray1515]

Buy on Amazon (Affiliate): geni.us/PoGWln

[@garytill]

My answer (currently) to the issue of multi room control with a HDMI distribution setup was to get the cheap one-for-all remotes and load custom codes onto them via their secret serial ports. Since I have 8 zones, 8 sources and 4 users (3 main users plus the occasional guest), buying higher end remotes would be extremely expensive unless they have the ability to switch between rooms or better yet, users and thus get away with 4 remotes, one per user rather than one per room, which most smart remotes don't allow for. Any of the 8 sources can be selected in any of the 8 zones, but naturally certain users almost always use the same 2 or 3 sources and tend to stick to the same rooms most of the time. So I have 8 URC1210 ultra cheap remotes which are intended to be the most basic single tv controller replacement remote, but internally they support 8 device pages and macros to switch between them, so I have them programmed to use the colour buttons (which are seldom needed these days) to send the input switching codes, then the remote switches to the device page for that source, which includes a mix of ir codes for the TV itself, a sound system if that zone has one, and the source device itself which goes through the IR distribution built into the matrix. Since those remotes are so cheap (I get them for $12AUD) I have 8 of them, each programmed up for that rooms 4 most used sources, and the final 4 sources are under a 'shift' layer that can be accessed if needed. Since I know which sources are most used in each zone I can map them to suit. but it still leads to confusion in shared zones like the living room, retreat and alfresco, since the red button wont bring up their nvidia shield. The downside to this is if User A is in their bedroom, the remotes RED button can bring up their personal Nvidia shield, but if they go to another room the red button might be set to another users shield and they have to now remember that their shield is on shift-green or something convoluted. I do like the idea of using the device list on the sofabaton the way you have here, I could use that as my matrix has room agnostic switching codes that I could map to each device and it would work.. might try that in the future. On the Hisense MQTT controls, a recent software update seems to have locked that down entirely, I was using it to control my main TV from homeassistant and nodered since it doesnt seem to have a descrete power-off ir code making it difficult to sequence with other automated stuff, have to move over to detecting when the Tv is on by its power use and set its stat with that.. My nodered setup looks a lot like yours too, but my matrix has some functions built in so I dont need to do much ir management in there thankfully.

[@camerongray1515]

Sounds like a cool setup! Interesting to know about Oneforall remotes having a hidden serial port, might need to give that a go at some point!

[@JessicaFEREM]

Back when I first got the U1 it didn't actually require an account, that's something they added after the fact, and they've limited what you could do with the macro. I'm a bit peeved but it still does what I want.

[@JessicaFEREM]

the PS4/5 supports bluetooth keyboards, so it's possible to program your sofabaton to be a media remote for them. there are workarounds that basically turns your sofabaton into a programmable keyboard and certain keys like PS and such use specific keys.

[@lhamil64]

For the app login issue, I wonder how feasable it would be to reverse engineer the Bluetooth communications betweem the remote and the app. And boy is this setup complicated, but I kind of love it. It's hilarious how many pieces are involved just to turn off a device using a remote. At least it's all local so you can still control your stuff if the internet goes out :). And the lighting example really showed the power of it. Like you could expand that to do crazy stuff like changing the thermostat temp or controlling the security system.

[@MiggyManMike]

So I'm currently working on using an irblaster (and athom one, love their kit) with esphome (for direct pronto support) but for the control side of things I've got sunton esp32 board with a 4.3" display running open hasp (and some additional logic in node red), not quite finished yet but the combination is working well as far a customising it to my needs (i have a prototype battery pack for the board on it's way from jlcpcb), I may make a video on it once it's done.

[@camerongray1515]

Sounds like a good project, I used to use OpenHASP touch panels and they worked really well! Thanks for putting me onto the idea of the Athom IR blasters - I'd seen their stuff before but had never seen the IR blasters - I kept meaning to get a few more Tasmota IR blasters but needing to desolder and replace the module with an ESP8266 meant I never got around to it, those Athom ones will save a tonne of time!

[@MiggyManMike]

@@camerongray1515 The really nice part with the athom kit is that it comes supported out of the box under most of the common "diy" automation technologies (and they come preinstalled :D), I do actually have a cheaper ir blaster that i go after seeing your conversion video a while back since i have a glut of esp-12 modules lying around but the lack of a serial option was begining to get annoying, it came with tasmota but converting it to esphome was trivial because the "base" supported hardware between the two projects is pretty much the same and esphome's ir support is better for this with the proto code option :)

[@setgood5006]

How do I get the ps5 to turn on with the remote ​@@camerongray1515

[@kbhasi]

(13:32) I remember the Logitech Harmony software did require an account, but at least on the app for their older models that were configured over USB, it's used to store configuration data, so I think the Sofabaton account requirement was done for a similar reason.

[@camerongray1515]

As far as I'm aware, the config for the Sofabaton remotes is only stored on the remote itself so at least the U series shouldn't need an account.

[@puppet-head]

Still hanging onto my harmony, works great with HA integration. Logitech still supports everything, but i wonder why they dont sell it off to a smaller player.

[@JessicaFEREM]

I have a few U1's and the only issue I have is that the U1 doesn't like rechargable batteries at all, it just refuses to run, which may mean that it doesn't really drain the batteries all that much. may be worth getting some lithiums for it.

[@fodos]

Thank you for this highly detailed review! One for All came out with the Smart Control Pro 6 a few months ago, did you see/try it? Can that be a good alternative? It has Activities for example.

[@jespencer7805]

Quick question. When you change the batteries do you have to reprogram the remote. This might seem a silly question but previously I had a One for all remote and it used to gobble batteries and require reprogramming every time the batteries needed replacing? I junked this remote!

[@camerongray1515]

Not as far as I can tell - I haven't left the batteries out for an extended period of time but the programming can easily survive having the batteries changed. I suspect it's using some sort of non-volatile flash storage.

[@advandeven9683]

I look forward to every Friday. New video every week. I like them a lot.

[@camerongray1515]

Thanks! Although the weekly videos will probably scale back in the new year to 1-2 a month. Currently pushing out one a week while the ad revenue is high in the runup to Christmas before it absolutely plummets in January but at the expense of basically all my free time! That said, it'll allow me to focus on more complex videos that require more prep work and research since I can spend longer on each one.

[@joedry1774]

Nice touch including the Christmas tree in the lighting scenes :P

[@camerongray1515]

Video on that coming up soon 😉

[@unicodefox]

with the Apple TV, does pressing the TV button work to turn it on? That works with the official remote so I wonder if it works with this

[@WndSks]

I've done it with my RM4 blaster so it does work. Turning it off again is a nasty macro.

[@stevendavidson8515]

curious if the X1 accomplish the same result with the hub replacing your tasmota IR blaster? as i would love to do this along with homekit intergration, but the hub you use is out of stock every where i look

[@mihumono]

Did you consider flirc skip 1s. 38 quid on thepihut. I am considering it as my sat receiver remote is starting to fail.

[@camerongray1515]

I hadn't seen that before but it looks pretty good! For me, the main reason for the Sofabaton was the screen to make it easy to have a clear list of devices which the Flirc doesn't have, but if all you need is an app configurable remote and don't care about having a screen, it looks like a good option.

[@mihumono]

@@camerongray1515 Yeah the screen is nice. Flirc skip seems to be a bit limited but the dev is active on Reddit from what i've seen. The next version might be better.

[@memeson5143]

@@camerongray1515 I have 2 skips 1s's. It seems to address most of your concerns; no login required, import/export configs, common buttons. but yeah as you've said you don't get a nice screen. For home automation: It has a shift button that enables you to assign buttons to a led colour on the road, IE you can config the button-red led can be set as remote command that you can then set to turn your lights off. If I had to find a flaw; it seems to go through batteries quickly, so if you are considering it - make sure to pick up some rechargeables

[@gabrield8902]

I really appreciated your video, congratulation on it and thank you. It was very complete, although I have some questions in order to decide buying: 1. What if my device has more buttons than the Sofabaton? Should I go with Dummy like you did or additional buttons appear in the screen like Harmony? 2. Is it a baklight key remote? 3. Do you see PS3 in the app?

[@CX23882]

Great review! This looked so nice and I was worried this was going to be yet another Cameron-induced impulse buy for me, right up until the moment you talked about the app login dependency. That's a complete showstopper for me, having being burned by other products in the past. So sorry Sofabaton, you've lost another potential sale due to that. I really hope that they reconsider because the product looks like a great replacement for my disintegrating Harmony remote.

[@Lostinspace1983]

Another great review! I’ve been toying with these for a while to replace my Harmony set up, might have to give one a try now! Love the Christmas tree too btw! 🎄

[@camerongray1515]

Thanks! Video on the Christmas tree coming soon - WiFi "smart" lights where the app requires an unnecessary user account so as a matter of principle, I've decided to set them up entirely using a reverse engineered API to integrate them with Home Assistant without touching the official app.

[@miroslav1845]

What ir blaster do you use exactly? Thanks!

[@jaggermanning5477]

Thanks for making another great video! your videos have helped me so much!

[@jonjohnson2844]

What is it with that font on devices made in the far east, even going to the effort to digitise it into an LCD matrix lol

[@s8wc3]

Hisense does sell totally different TVs with the same model number in different countries. Massively annoying as an aussie reading a US review of a TV that's glowing but it turns out the local model is hardly alike.

[@blackcoalboy]

When you said you setup sky did you mean SKY-Q ,Thanks

[@Ni5ei]

Why do devices still use IR? It feels so stupid having to point a remote towards a device. And in many cases the IR receiver isn't in lign of sight with the remote and macros get messed up because not all the devices received the signal. Can't they change to RF?

[@AudiophileTommy]

If Caavo hadn’t abandoned its fantastic universal remote system they would have ate Sofabaton alive !!!!

[@pcislocked]

oh my pkcell

[@CockpitScenes]

Would have been a good video, but I just couldn't understand what he was saying most of the time.

[@dallase1]

Logitech sucked because all their remotes were Way to expensive, even the most basic remote refurbished was 60 bucks and was a battery eater on only had a small text only black and white screen.

[@TradieTrev]

I never understood why your videos are so dry... Most of the time you just waffle on.... Must be an English thing.

[@camerongray1515]

Then feel free to watch another channel... If you want highly scripted, overly enthusiastic videos about tech topics that gloss over any actual technical details, then there are plenty other channels out there... It's a video about a remote control, how exciting do you expect it to be!

[@TradieTrev]

@@camerongray1515 Super dry and I'd compare your content compared to John Ward. Must be a British thing, waffle waffle; Get to the point mate lol!

[@travisash8180]

@@camerongray1515 Maybe you could use your remote control to flush your Japanese toilet ?

[@chrisdavis6045]

Typical Aussie. Too much info for you and you get confused. 😂

[@TradieTrev]

You should note how he repeated himself throughout the video. It made me fell a bit dumbed downed!

[@mrq332]

too expensive

[@camerongray1515]

Value is subjective. If all you need is a basic remote then a cheap £20 one would probably be fine, but for my setup, I get enough benefit out of these to justify the cost.