Hi everybody.
I came across the “Unfolded Circle” project and the RemoteTwo on Kickstarter some time ago. Since I was looking for a replacement for my Harmony remote control, I jumped in straight away. The RemoteTwo was the trigger for me to switch completely to HomeAssistant and turn my back on PhilipsHue.
I’ve been setting up my living room multimedia devices to work with HomeAssistant for some time now. All controlling devices should be kept in sync. In general, I’m looking for the best solution that meets the following criteria:
- Multimedia devices should be controllable via HomeAssistant.
- Multimedia devices should be controllable via the RemoteTwo
- Multimedia devices should be controllable via AppleHome
- The solution should be as clear as possible so that it can be easily maintained.
I would like to present my solution to you and hope that you have found a few other (possibly better) ways of implementing it.
I use the following integrations in HomeAssistant for my implementation:
- hass-unfoldedcircle by JackJPowell
- stateful_scenes by hugobloem
- MushroomCards
My approach is to create different scenes in which the individual multimedia devices are switched on or off.
First I tried to create an automation with lots of switches and buttons to switch the individual devices on/off and somehow track their status. This worked, but was difficult to maintain.
Next I started working with scenes. This was clearer, but had the disadvantage that it was difficult to see which scene was currently active or to only apply the switch-off sequence to the desired devices.
Here the “Stateful Scenes” integration comes into play. It can use a switch to show which scene is currently active.
Finally, my approach looks like this:
Scenes:
In HomeAssistant I created scenes for watching TV, listening to music, etc. This way only the devices that are needed are switched on. In scenes I also switch on the corresponding RemoteTwo-Activity entity.
Stateful Scenes:
The integration shows which scene is currently active. I use this switch to trigger different lighting scenes (separate automation). I also share this switch with the HomeKit integration. This way I can control the scenes from Apple Home.
Unfolded Circle Remote:
As a backup, I also switch the devices to the desired state via IR. But here too I use the Stateful Scenes switch to tell RemoteTwo the status from HomeAssistant (I have all the scenes in an activity group).
HomeAssistant Dashboard:
So that I can also control the scenes via HomeAssistant, I built them into a dashboard. To do this, I use a button for each scene and then activate the Stateful Scenes switch via an automation. This means I can switch on the power strip with a delay if it is off.
The advantage of this solution currently seems to me to be that I really only have to adjust the individual scenes in HomeAssistant if something changes.
The status of which scene is currently on is also kept synchronized across all platforms (HomeAssistaant, RemoteTwo, AppleHome). In addition, I hardly need any other automations. I also have to configure very little in the UnfoldedCircle Remote.
Of course, the light control still needs to be taken into account. With my current solution, I can switch the light scenes on automatically (e.g. depending on the brightness in the room) with the multimedia scenes (using the Stateful Scenes switch as a trigger). But I can also control them independently.
What do you think? How did you solve similar problems?