After many many failed attempts to add 433.92 MHz RF remote commands to both HA and the Broadlink app (which btw isn’t exactly intuitive), I finally successfully learned the remote commands on the app. It appears I also need to learn these commands separately in the HA app, is that right? In other words, it appears that HA has its own separate set of commands for the Broadlink and uses its own set of learned signals? I see the instructions for getting the learned commands from the app, but it looks like it’s simpler just to get these directly into HA.
I have seen maybe 10 variations of instructions on how to successfully add a 433.92 RF command to the HA Broadlink integration, but none of the 8 I’ve tried has worked yet. Can someone recommend a current (mid-2025) definitive guide on how this should work? The latest instructions I’ve seen recommend starting the Broadlink app learning first with a frequency specification and only then switching over to Developer Tools to finish the learn in HA. But I’m open to any suggestion at this point.
What I did for a Broadlink RM4 Pro RF to control some blinds is to just use Developer Tools to learn the codes into HA without using the Broadlink app at all.
After having learned the codes into HA through Developer Tools go into
/usr/share/hassio/homeassistant/.storage/
If you did the learning successfully you will find two files within that direcory named:
There may be more than one way to do it. I use the remote.learn_command service in the Developer Tools screen to learn IR codes. After learning, HA will keep the codes in the .storage hidden folder in a file named broadlink_remote_[xyz]_codes.
These codes will not be added to the Broadlink app. I bought my RM4s solely for use in HA, so I don’t use the app and I don’t care that the codes are not saved there.
Thanks, I was just able to successfully learn “on” in HA and indeed this is what I observe.
The issue I’m having is with the process of the learn in HA. The Broadlink seems fussy about learning RF, and maybe that’s the entire issue. But when I follow the HA instructions in the notifications as written, it does not work for me. That is, the first notification tells me to hold down the desired button, the second notification says to press it again (which I take to mean once this second time). The only way I got a successful learn was to hold down the desired button both for the first notification and for the second, and Broadlink nearly timed out even when it was successful. There have been many other unsuccessful attempts in HA before and since. So I am confused what process others are using that is working for RF, and maybe it’s just the particular combination of this RF device remote with Broadlink that is causing this to be so painful.
It has been years since I did the above procedure thus I forgot how exactly I learned the codes. What I remember is that it took quite a few attempts to get it right. It is certainly a fiddly thing to do. Take care about how you point the manual remote to the Broadlink RM4 Pro (distance, angle) and keep it as good as possible in that position for each command to learn.
At the current rate of 1 command learned every 4 hours, I should be done with the 10 keys of this remote sometime Tuesday.
It appears it is not possible (or maybe I should say nearly impossible) to learn a remote key that only sends a single pulse? I tried pressing it many times, but it just seems to time out.
Many times I have gotten the green check from Developer Tools only to find there have been no updates to the broadlink_xxx_codes file. So one best practice I’ve learned is to not even bother testing the allegedly learned command unless broadlink_xxx_codes has been updated.
I will give this a little more effort tomorrow but with RF on and off learned, I think I may give up on the remaining keys. I have a Flipper Zero and it has no trouble learning any of these keys at 433.92MHz with AM650 modulation. An experiment I thought to try next is using the Flipper’s learned version of the signals with the Broadlink rather than the original RF remote. The Flipper may be able to send the single pulse keys continuously.
Wondering why sending a single pulse it is not working for you.
Here it works just fine. I.e. to open or close the shades of the blinds to/from 50% I need 7 pulses with a hold of 5 seconds (after some trials and errors to get it right):
Thanks for this tip, which works very well and your instructions at the link were excellent. Unfortunately, my remote is a royal PITA and I get similar results with this approach to what I did in HA, but at very least I and others will obtain results much faster by being able to specify a known frequency. That’s an essential upgrade to the HA integration and I upvoted the issue. I encourage others who think they might want to learn RF remote commands to do the same.
Fortunately with much teeth-gnashing and many false starts I was eventually able to learn 5 commands in HA and those are all I really needed anyway.
I found out this occurred because the various room keys on this DLARF remote do not send any RF signal at all, they serve as “shift” keys for the common keys (volume and mute), which causes the volume up key for instance to send a signal unique to the room key pressed. If I press Living Room for example, that sends a unique Living Room volume up signal, different from the volume up signal for Kitchen. FYI to anyone else who notices some keys are not sending any signal at all.