I changed all my bulbs/switches/poweroutlets/… to zigbee devices, connected to zigbee2mqtt and controlled by hass.
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’ve only worked with one of their wall switches in a Hue hub configuration, so I can not speak to how they would integrate into a open zigbee hub setup. That said, you might have a look at a couple of the products here:
Hi David,
Thanx for link.
The thing is: it quitte expensive and has not enough buttons.
I’m not looking for a zigbee remote, more a cheap IR or RF remote to send codes that I can capture with OMG and send them to mqtt. From there I can use hass or node-red to do all the automations
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.
Hi @nickrout
You’re right. That was my first idea also, but… I can not find a handheld zigbee remote with -let’s say- 8 buttons, small formfactor and affordable. That’s why I’m shifting now to other technology.
@francisp, thanx!
That is indeed something I was looking for!
The things I found were more like carkey remotes. I ordered already some, but most of them had only 4 keys.
Don’t forget most zigbee remotes have more than one function per button. This has 5 actions X 6 buttons. And you can detach the remote from the wall mount and carry it around.
very contra-intuïtieve to have longpress for one light, double press for other, etc… It’s hard to explain to family members/guests.
I’m not always happy with the ‘multiple action’ functions: this introduces a latency because the button has always to ‘wait’ a little bit to discover it was a single short press, a double, tripple, long, … . I notice a difference between the IKEA 5 button remote (middle button has only single click action) and other IKEA/Aqara remotes (with multiple actions). It’s noticeable and annoying…
I’m not saying I gonna abandon all my zigbee remotes, not at all. They are fixed to the wall and clearly assigned to a light, just as classic switches would be.
I’m just looking for some useful handheld devices where I can manipulate multiple lights/devices from within my couche or bed…
Anybody experience with that?
I not a programmer, but willing to write some code/configuration.
I can’t find much dummy proof documentation. Anybody experience with this device?
The idea is connecting the M5Paper to my mqtt broker.
I could create a ‘dummy’ MQTT hierarchy to reflect the desired menu structure and have automations in hass that ‘follow’ the actions of the remote.
I.e.
MQTT:
Remote/menu/submenu/location/light/ON
HASS:
Automation that turns my lightgroup to ON if ON is published in the accordingly “remote” topic
