Android based Universal remote: Haptique RS90

Mobile Apps
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Hello HA Community,

I am Willis, the founder of Cantata. I have been following HA since I conceptualized a Harmony replacement—a physical remote for AV enthusiasts to control their multimedia. Unfortunately, Harmony was never available in India.

As an AV professional, my journey took me to Shenzhen, where I met a team with a beautiful piece of hardware called iRemote. I invested my time and money to bring forth what is now Haptique RS90. From industrial design to software, it has evolved well into an IoT device. We are running an Android-based app. Our app has two parts: one runs on our hardware, optimized to work as a frontend and API ecosystem, and the other is a configuration app available on smartphones. We are using native Android APIs such as Infrared, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Fingerprint. Our app is written in Kotlin to leverage maximum interoperability with Android OS. Our hardware uses a Mediatek ARM with a proprietary Android version provided by the OEM, which we plan to replace with a custom ROM in the near future.

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Home Assistant integration is something we initially deemed less critical for AV users, so we delayed it. However, we do have Home Assistant integration in our app, currently importing entities such as Sensors, Media Players, and Switches. This functionality will expand as we learn more from communities like this one.

Haptique RS90 features an onboard infrared blaster and a database of over 5,300 brands, which we are continually expanding to become the best in the business. As of now, we are working on IP integrations with Philips Hue, Sonos, and Denon, and we will continue to develop these further.

We invite developers interested in contributing to help us grow our list of IP integrations. We have established a cloud system on AWS for managing user credentials, the IR database, user configurations, and third-party authentication.

Additionally, we are developing IR accessories over Wi-Fi for use with devices in different rooms and RF accessories for projector screens, curtains, blinds, etc.

As we aim for a system that works locally and independently of the cloud, we could not fully achieve this with Android. Thus, we plan to develop a smart hub that will be completely open-source from the beginning.

We have two variants of remotes: Haptique RS90 and RS90x. One is under production and going through certifications soon, and the latter will be released post-Kickstarter, which we are launching this week.

I hope to connect with like-minded people here and improve our offering with maximum support.

Thank you,

Willis Desai
Founder
Cantata Communication Solutions
France

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Welcome Willis, and Im super happy to see your post here in our community… I love your vision !

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Thank you for your kind words.

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Watched the video!! Damn this looks great! Wondering how HA can integrated in this remote… I have a Logitech Harmony now… Will spend 260,- if I know what it can do with HA.

Does it have same idea as Harmony? Create scenes, activities etc… Sort of automation to turn on devices on correct inputs and volume control etc etc…

:grinning:

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What is the difference between both?

When will there a ios app available?

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I would LOVE to be able to do similar functionality to what I can do in my HA remote app - or at least most of it. Is this kind of stuff supported or planned?

  1. Buttons that can trigger automations/scripts and display binary sensor states, without requiring entities.
  2. Ways to display sensor and counter values, for things like current volume and gain levels, input format, etc.
  3. Links to native Android apps, if possible.
  4. Ability to display HA camera URL images. I’m using that to display Bass EQ profiles.

Thanks!

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We have created a integration in our play store app, you can try with IP and long lived token .

We currently support light, switch entities, working on media player and sensors

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Seems very much possible, we will bring our developer here for discussion.

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iOS app is under development and should be out by July end.

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Will it become available in Test Flight?

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Hi Willis,

Definitely looking forward to trying out the hardware! In the meantime, I’ve started messing with the config app, and have some early feedback:

The Home Assistant integration’s “Select Devices” menu:

  1. Needs a text filter
  2. Is missing device name

#1 would be a nice QoL improvement, but #2 is a show-stopper. I have >100 devices, and most show up in the list as e.g. “On/Off Switch”, rather than the custom names they have in HA:

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There’s just no way to find a particular device in that.

(BTW, if there’s a better channel for reporting feedback, let me know and I’ll redirect to there.)

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Hello Scott,

Thanks for highlighting this, consider it is done in the next update, our devs are learning about HA and this will be huge insight from community. Thanks again. we can connect over our subReddit r/cantatacs

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Why use two different versions of obsolete Android?

Google isn’t releasing security patches for those old versions. Lots of cheap Chinese devices and phones use obsolete versions of android too, and they are problems as well.

I would never stick a device with such known security issues on my home network. It’s too bad because it looks like such a nice product.

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I have to agree @fresnoboy . I really wonder why an old Android is being used. The timeline on Kickstarter also surprised me a bit; I think it’s almost impossible to get such a great product ready for series production in such a short time. How did you manage that?

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When we started we found a Chinese company selling Tuya remote and we asked them to give us a similar solution but our approach was different. So we mutually agreed to use their platform and build an app on that. The difference between a stock os and this one is it is supported by the chip manufacturer. Security updates are big part but we have disabled Google services for that.

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Our EMS partner is such a good scale factory doing only remotes in China for various others brands. They have production capacity of 10k per month for this ID. Currently we are in a final stage of firmware tweaking and already first batch of 200 units have started.

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If you see our approach it is more like an aftermarket Android automobile multimedia head units. They use AOSP Android which is customised to their needs and lives forever. They don’t use Google services either.

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Willis, thanks for the note. Head units aren’t attached to the Internet and especially not home networks on the inside of the firewall. The issue isn’t Google services, it’s deal with bugs in the core AOSP. Those older versions are not kept up to date for bug fixes, and as a software manager, my experience tells me two very different OS baselines in a single product line is going to be a bear to support, especially for security fixes.

Why in the world would you start with not just one but two obsolete Android versions? Sure, a Chinese ODM would spec that out, but their security standards are pathetic, code quality is abysmal, and their devices often ship with malware inadvertently (or possibly deliberately) embedded.

Sure, we all may use cheap chinese zigbee sensors, etc… But they aren’t talking to our internal IP networks, much less being given credentials to access Android devices etc…

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I have to agree, especially with the drastic differences in Android versions, both being older, probably never get an update. Now that the R3 was announced, the price, it just would be hard to justify, even the R3 would be. It’s running a custom Linux distro, 8GB of RAM, and all completely local configured through a web browser. No account ever needs to be created. With that said, they had a rough roll out of their R2 kick starter. The R3 runs same custom OS as R2, so porting it to slightly different hardware should be easier then writing the OS from scratch. With a POE dock, works with Android TV, Apple, among other with native integrations like Spotify and Sonos but you sign into HA and tell it what entities you want, including sensors. Quad core CPU although I don’t know the model of ARM chip in it but it’s a little less of an issue with a custom Linux distro. 32GB of storage, everything runs on the remote, hub isn’t even required unless you need RS232. Open API for devs. ESP32 built in for ESPHome for a local voice assistant with built in mic and speaker. The RS90x is the same price as R3 with no dock.

I do like the idea, and how more players are entering this type of market, granted through kickstarters. Not a fan of the curved front, would have to hold it in my hand to know for sure. But I know better then to buy older outdated versions of AOSP. That and it relies on a mobile app. That is one of the things I hated about the Logitech remotes. Their older models with PC software were much easier to use and had more configuration options.

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Do you need to sign in with a Google account? If so, what happens if you have services like Spotify tied to your Google account? The reason I ask is from I have read about aftermarket Android head units is they are typically safe but to not sign in with your main Google account and create a specific one just for the head unit. At the same time, if you have services tied to your main Google account those accounts can’t be used. It is just a concern because some have even been pre-loaded with malware without the manufacturers knowledge. Just someone (or group) slipping it in that works on the assembly line. While rare, it has happened and I think that is some of the concern that has been brought up. If it doesn’t use Google Services, then how do you install apps/integrations? Lastly, does the smartphone app require an account of any kind to use and if so, what kind (Google or something else)? From the below from the kickstarter it sounds like it’s an Android app running on AOSP, but the app handles most everything.

Haptique is an Android app running on specially designed hardware in form of a smartphone with buttons. It supports every internet protocol for IP integrations and you can see we have a long list of integration and few of them are already performing.