Freely programmable remote control

Hardware
1

Hello all,

I am looking for a remote control with which I can control various automations, lights and shutters by pressing a button in HA. I had first bought the remote control from HomematicIP with 8 buttons. Unfortunately, can not program the individual buttons for automations or other actions.

Do you know a comparable remote control with which this is possible? I would like to configure the buttons freely and perform various actions in HA with it. I was thinking of a remote control that works via Zigbee, but unfortunately I can’t find anything suitable. Do you have any experience with remote controls?

I use HA with WLAN, LAN and currently Zigbee via the Philips Hue Bridge.

51inO2dadKL.AC_SX679

Thank you.

2

For ZigBee you could use the Philips Hue Dimmer Switch. It has 4 buttons and each button supports long and short press, so 8 different actions.

3

The cheapest alternative would be an old IR remote and an ESP with IR receiver.
That way you get a lot of buttons.
But it´s limited to “one room”.

I don’t have an dedicated remote like this, but I do have buttons performing actions in HA on our amplifier remote and it works well.

Another option is to read RF and use an RF remote, also fairly cheap, but I don’t have any experience of this

4

This is a great one. The middle part can be taken off from the base, making it a tiny 6-button control remote

5

Hey, thanks for all your answers and ideas. There are really helpful tips.

Can I use the Aqara products from Xiaomi without cloud/app from Xiaomi/Aqara or do I need the cloud connection to Xiaomi?! Because data protection is very important to me.

I ordered a Philips Hue switch for testing.

For example, if I use the receiver remote, can I lock the buttons I want to use for HA so that the receiver does not respond at the same time? I use a Denon AVR.

6

The Aqara Zigbee devices work local with Zigbee2mqtt, ZHA or Deconz.

7

We use this remote via ZHA as a general remote to trigger automations and scenes etc

https://www.samotech.co.uk/products/zigbee-remote/

8

Most likely not.
But most remotes has a few buttons that does not do anything in normal modes.
Mine has a radio tuner built in and has buttons to change frequency and predefined channels, those are unused when I look at HDMI input, but they still fire.
If you use everything on your remote/amplifier then it’s probably not going to work for you, unless you aim the remote differently to get different actions. But that is not fail safe.

You could also just buy a spare remote of some other TV and it will most likely not cause issues with your other devices.