IR receivers in multiple rooms? IR triggers

Hardware
21

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)

22

@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 ?

23

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.

24

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.

25

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.

26

That sounds complicated :joy:

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 :pinching_hand:

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 :man_factory_worker:) and install esphome on it. And thank’s to the native api it just works :raised_hands:

Pre-flashed(freed) devices also exist, this one for example comes with tasmota but can be asily converted (OTA :signal_strength:) to esphome if one wants to avoid mqtt and make use of the (superior) native api instead :rocket:

27

@orange-assistant

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.

28

Here you can find a ready made esphome “template” (yaml) for the Athom IR Controller :point_down:

And for the rest it’s mostly just dive in :diving_mask:

The docs on www.esphome.io are quite extensive and the official forum to ask question is convinetly located directly here :point_down:

Also with over 25k members it’s typically very trivial to get quick help in the esphome discrod channel :left_speech_bubble:

29

@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 ?

30

In a nutshell :coconut:

31

@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 ?

32

Attached it to my Raspberry PI 3B+ directly. ESPHome now sees it . But it can’t prepare it for first use.

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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.

33

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…

34

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!