I need an IR blaster for my Mother. She can’t get on with our smart TV so I need to enable an automation to fire a series of commands at the TV. I was reading this thread…
…which made me believe that it was a well covered issue within HA. So I bought myself one of these… https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004664709868.html
…but when I started to dig deeper, I’m not finding what add ons I need to make this work.
I’d be grateful for guidance and links to pages to enable me to get this wifi blaster paired with HA and be able to train it please.
You get the Tuya badge on wi-fi and Zigbee devices - the one you link to is wi-fi.
There are two integrations you might try:
and “LocalTuya” which you can find in HACS.
I have to say that Tuya wi-fi devices can be tricky, and depend on the internet. Also, a quick scan of the docs doesn’t show any mention of IR blasters being supported. You might be better off cutting your losses and trying something else.
Broadlink are local, connecting with HA over your wi-fi. A bit fiddly to set up, but very reliable once they’re going.
Alternatively, if you’ve already got Zigbee, I have a couple of Moes devices which are working well.
These also have the Tuya badge but you don’t need a special integration - they should pair with your existing Zigbee network.
Edit: Is there an integration for your smart TV? You might not need a remote.
You bought the wifi version?
You’ll need setup scenes for the remote in the tuya app and they’ll show up in HA scene with tuya integration
Or just flash it with esphome for local control
The TV is seen in HA, but only to the point of on/off and volume. The precise issue is that reception is poor. Bad weather can knock it out. When that happens, I need to start the BBC or ITV applications to switch to internet TV (which then has an impact on the poor broadband we receive and also switching between the two is not a simple press of the button either.) so I don’t believe an integration would maybe go as far as controlling the third party apps.
I do have zigbee2mqtt configured and running. However, my experience with sonoff, aqara and tuya devices so far have left me with concerns about version numbers and the ability to change settings. I’ve had version warnings, “route error indirect transaction expiry” errors when trying to configure, and I’m not as sure about device updates either. As a result I have more faith in wifi and ESP32 solutions. (I’m currently trying to program a rain sensor)
However, for this purpose I know that an IR Blaster would take quite a bit more learning and the need is starting to become pressing as my mother is slipping and not as capable as she was… to put the situation in short terms… hence I’m looking for an already working solution with either little learning curve, or documentation that I can run with, as I am still very much a newcomer to HA.
I don’t actually have access to the Tuya app either; I run a Sailfish phone (the company, Jolla, was started by Nokia engineers who were made redundant when Microsoft bought the Nokia phone department to start their Microsoft Phone project) and as a result I don’t have the ability to run many of the apps because, despite Sailfish having a dalvik to run java apps… a lot of them just won’t work. (including the Philips Hue which I ended up needing to reset the bulbs… had to use someone elses phone)
From what I understand of what you’ve written, given my situation as I’ve outlined… I believe that my best way forward is to flash with ESPHome and somehow take control locally? I presume there is already a project for IR blasting? One that learns sequences, etc.?
Firstly, the “home” button has to be pressed. Then a number of presses to be sure the “cursor” is at a known position in the menu. Then a few right presses to get to the BBC app, and select to launch. Delay for the app to start, then “select” to confirm my account. Then “left” to get into the side menu and “down” to the live broadcast. Then “right” to get in to the channel list, then “down” to the BBC channel she needs, and then “select” to trigger it.
It’s a similar rigmarole to get ITVx to work as well.
For this I think you’ll need button remapper and tasker installed. Then configure all those sequence in tasker, add shortcut then assign to a button on the remote.
Assuming you’re using android tv
Thanks. If you’ve got any links to the tools I’ll need for this, I’d be grateful. I’ve got no clue as to which remapper and tasker… unless those are the names they go under?