Broadlink doesn’t seem to be ideal because it only receives in learning mode
I have a bunch of tuya remotes flashed with tasmota & the one suggested by @francisp using ir receive to trigger automation in ha. There’s also a diy option with d1 mini + lolin ir shield.
Just needed to use the same tv remote for everything else in the room without having to reach the phone.
Yes, I’ve been using it from back before it was called ‘SmartIR’, but that is only the software side of things. The OP is looking for hardware.
Yes, that’s exactly my use case, use the same TV remote (actually a universal programmable remote, ARRX18G) to control all my IR devices, and also control my lights.
Right now, for my home theater, it goes through:
ARRX18G → X10 IR543 → powerline carrier (same room) → X10 XPS3 light switches (no HAOS involved in this path)
And the response is instant.
It could also go through :
ARRX18G → X10 IR543 → powerline carrier (to a different room) → X10 CM11A → RS232 → HAOS → Z-Wave or Wifi switch
I haven’t tested this path, but suspect it will be a lot slower and less reliable.
In my home office, I also have one X10 light switch. No IR need for this one.
I tested this path
X10 RW724 (RF remote) → X10 RF/IR transceiver → PLC → X10 CM11A → RS232 → HAOS → Z-Wave or Wifi switch
It has a 2-3 second delay compared to
X10 RW724 (RF remote) → X10 RF/IR transceiver → PLC → X10 XPS3 switch
I’m looking to eliminate X10 completely to get rid of PLC reliability issues and delays.
@francisp,
I would much prefer to use something off-the-shelf, but that doesn’t seem to exist.
The learning curve for ESPHome/Tasmota/MQTT seems high.
I have so many questions about those devices, both hardware and software.
- HW: is there a case I can buy for those IR receivers ?
- HW: what PSU do you buy ?
- SW : how do you enter the SSID password for Wifi connectivity ?
- SW : which integration do I use with HAOS that provides IR triggers with these devices ?
- SW: does the integration support multiple of these devices ? (I need one per room)
- SW : how do you learn IR codes (for the sole purpose of recognizing external input commands, not to send them out afterwards)
- SW: do I need custom firmware, or is there something usable out of the box ?
And that’s just off the top of my head.
@sparkydave,
This looks good, but not clear if it provides the ability to receive IR signals. I know the table says it does, but it also says that for the RM4 Mini, and we know that’s not true.
When I follow the link to the integration at GitHub - ale1800/ESP-360-REMOTE: An all-in-one remote based on the ESP32-WROOM-32E , under “Receiving signals”, it only mentions receiving RF signals, not receiving IR signals.
For me, it was this setup
Tv remote → tasmota ir remote → ha automation/node red → any smart devices in the room
Instant response, i also have the remote to dim the lights (can’t afford to have 3 second delay for that obviously)
It’s not that difficult
Mqtt integration with tasmota
Once you press button the remote, you will see the ir protocol in tasmota console. Note that down and you can use that with smartir integration or the ha automation.
Just the tasmota-ir bin firmware (not the default tasmota)
@francisp,
Found it on Amazon at for a little more ($15 for 2 pieces).
Any idea where to get the PSU for it ? What about a case ?
Seems like it requires some special kind of cable for flashing the firmware also ?
I came across “Remote home assistant” add-on in HACS.
Looks like this should allow me to do what I want with proxying IR receiver devices.
I would need one Pi running HAOS for each room, though. And one FLIRC USB IR receiver dongle.
I happen to have a spare Pi 3B and have two FLIRC in the house already, so I’ll be testing this.
I got my additional Pi with FLIRC running in my home theater. It receives IR through the keyboard_remote integration successfully ! I used a guide from Controlling Home Assistant with an Old Remote – The Helpful Idiot to do it.
It took entirely too long to get to this point - turns out the X10 IR codes I was previously using don’t learn well into FLIRC. I reprogrammed my ARRX18G remote to a set of IR codes for a Daewoo air conditioner, and learned them into FLIRC. Phew.
Now, I’m left with sorting out the proxy part, with the Home Assistant remote add-on. My 2 HAOS nodes are connected to each other, but somehow no entities are being shared. And with the keyboard_remote integration, there are no entities anyway, just events … I may have to wait until tomorrow to deal with this.
I hadn’t completely setup the Remote Home assistant proxy. I needed to hit “configure” to expose events. And presto, everything worked with the remote setup, exactly as if the FLIRC was attached locally to my main HAOS node ! I have a couple more FLIRC on order as a result. Will be buying a few more Pi also.
That sounds complicated 
Are you running a Pi (with micro SD card + OS) just for the sake of receiving IR commands? Sounds just a tiny little bit over sized/complicated 
Easiest (no code) solution obviously would be just to use a ESP with IR reciever (pre-made for less than $5 or self build for maybe $2 
) and install esphome on it. And thank’s to the native api it just works 
Pre-flashed(freed) devices also exist, this one for example comes with tasmota but can be asily converted (OTA 
) to esphome if one wants to avoid mqtt and make use of the (superior) native api instead 
Thanks for your response.
Yes, I’m running a remote Pi (3B+ running HAOS as a proxy node) + FLIRC just for the sake of receiving IR commands. I know it’s oversized & the setup was complicated to figure out the first time, but I had a spare Pi 3B on hand to try it, and I was able to get it to work without flashing any firmware and without ordering any parts. I did repurpose the FLIRC from my Fire stick 4K, which I do need to replace.
For the additional 3 rooms, the cost of additional Pi 3B+ SD card + PSU + FLIRC is not negligible indeed.
I’m open to using an ESPHome solution for those rooms, but I’ll almost positively need more help with the flashing & HA configuration process. Thanks for the links. The preflashed Athom unit looks good, comes with a case, and at least it’s clear that it needs USB-C PSU unlike the other DIY options.
Here you can find a ready made esphome “template” (yaml) for the Athom IR Controller 
And for the rest it’s mostly just dive in 
The docs on www.esphome.io are quite extensive and the official forum to ask question is convinetly located directly here
Also with over 25k members it’s typically very trivial to get quick help in the esphome discrod channel 
@orange-assistant
I ordered 4 of those Athom IR receivers/controllers. Not sure when I will receive them.
Thanks for the links. Seems like I first need to install the ESPHome add-on for HA, then flash ESPHome firmware to each controller, then I can directly use them in HA ?
In a nutshell 
@orange-assistant,
I’m stuck as the second step. The ESPHome add-on does not see the Tasmota device on my network, so I can’t flash the ESPHome firmware. Looks like the add-on wants to flash over USB. I tried to connect the device via USB, however Virtualbox won’t pass it through to my VM which is running Home Assistant. Is there any other way to flash the ESPHome firmware ?
Attached it to my Raspberry PI 3B+ directly. ESPHome now sees it . But it can’t prepare it for first use.
I have tried holding the only button on the device (at the bottom), but not sure how long exactly to do it. An LED flashes after I hold it.
I ordered Alessandro’s ESP360 on CrowdSupply today. Says available for immediate shipping. ESP 360 Remote
Sounds like one stop solution. Hoping to use it to enable support of some of my sun-visor remote buttons in my home vehicles. Would be great to get some home automations running upon entering the driveway with a button press. Presence detection still a step too far for my family members…
Hello, @madbrain! I know this reply arrives quite late, but the ESP 360 remote also receives IR signals. It’s not a learning mode or something similar. If you missed it, during the campaign I published this update where I showed some automations. One of them is made receiving a particular IR signal from my TV remote. Hope it could be useful!