So, Ive been looking for a solution to replace my harmony elite based remote. Its great, works with home assistant, gives me a app to use to control devices and a hardware based remote to control items with buttons. The problem however is that in my theater room it does not have great signal strength. I have all my media devices in a server rack in a storage room in the basement but the remote sometimes has issues sending commands to the hub. If the remote was wifi based like the hub it wouldnt be a issue but its not. So im looking to see if anyone knows of a wifi based hardware remote that can be integrated into homeassistant. I could still use the harmony hub through homeassistant to control devices. I havent been able to really find anything like this tho.
could you not move your hub in to your theater room and then run some IR mini blasters down to your basement?
I thought about that and tried it but some devices like the nvidia shield use bluetooth… so its gotta be close by the hub to control it.
Assume you’ve tried finding a position somewhere between the two that gives good RF for the remote and bluetooth for your devices, even in the ceiling perhaps?
Even if you find a wifi remote you’re unlikely to find one as good as the 950.
Perhaps you good try putting an external antenna on the hub, even just a length of wire to test it.
There is one remote that ive found that could possibly work… but im not sure if anyone has found a api or sdk for them… URC Wifi Based remote… https://www.universalremote.com/product/trc-820/ They also have other touch screen remotes that are pretty nice. I wouldnt mind buying something like this if home assistant can integrate with it.