Lovelace: Firemote Card - Remote controls for Amazon Fire / Android devices

[crdougn (Doug)]

@maurizio53

@crdougn

Selecting any device type will display the remote control that was shipped with that device. Since the Fire Stick 1st Gen did not have app shortcut buttons, they will not be available to use when you configure your card this way. The image and image labels at the top of this thread might help you to understand what I mean by that.

Thanks for the quick reply.
So it means i can disable those options regarding buttons as my fire tv remote doesn’t have those buttons?
I have one fire stick 4k 1st gen and a fire stick first gen.
Which options are the best for these devices?

@maurizio53 - The options for the Fire TV Stick 1st Gen (2014) and the Fire TV Stick 4K 1st Gen (2018) are minimal since their physical remotes are more simple. You are safe to remove the app launch button options in those YAML configs. The button override options will still work no matter which device type you choose.

If you are able to use the UI editor, you might notice that the App Launch Button options will appear and disappear depending on what type of device you are attempting to configure:

With all of that being said, there actually IS a way to choose a different remote style than the one that came with your device, allowing you to have some app launch buttons if you’d like. Keep in mind that configuring your card in this manner might not work 100% of the time.

Here’s an example that might work well for your Fire Stick 4K:

type: custom:firemote-card
entity: media_player.fire_tv_camera_letto
device_type: fire_tv_4_series
compatibility_mode: event4
app_launch_1: prime-video
app_launch_2: netflix
app_launch_3: youtube
app_launch_4: paramount-plus
scale: 85
button_overrides:
  mute-button:
  script: script.panasonic_mute

The important things to note here are the device_type and the compatibility_mode options that have been changed. The Device Type option is what is responsible for changing the remote style to something other than the physical remote style that came with your device. The Compatibility Mode option changes the set of commands that are used when communicating with the device.

To see the proper compatibility mode for any of the supported devices, please find your device in this chart, click on it, and scroll down to “Firemote device specific settings and button overrides” to find “Default Event Setting”. The default event setting you will find in that documentation will tell you which one is recommended to use in your YAML config.

I hope this helps!

[Markus77 (Markus)]

Yes. Sorry for not mentioning that. I just tried from newly installed chrome. Same result.

[crdougn (Doug)]

Interesting. Do any other custom cards that you’ve installed through HACS have the same issues? Have you tried to remove and re-install the Firemote card through HACS yet?

[Markus77 (Markus)]

lets give it a try. I am new to HA. Do you have an example for a custom card?

[Markus77 (Markus)]

Yay! Now it is working… Cheers

[maurizio53 (Maurizio Fabiani)]

@crdougn

To see the proper compatibility mode for any of the supported devices, please find your device in this chart, click on it, and scroll down to “Firemote device specific settings and button overrides” to find “Default Event Setting”. The default event setting you will find in that documentation will tell you which one is recommended to use in your YAML config.

Thanks, this means i can set the power-button to open or close the fire tv with media_player.turn_on or .off service?
Can you give me an example how to set this button with those services?

[crdougn (Doug)]

I suggest writing a script that can determine the current state of your Fire TV Stick, and then choose to turn the media player on or off based on that.

The other option is to use device_type: fire_tv_stick_4k_max which already uses that logic for the power button.

[bjm (Brent (the Other Other Kiwi))]

Hey this is awesome and thank you, I am actually using it with my Mi Boxes and it works great. I am trying to add a couple of quick launch apps for NZ like TVNZ+, copied the correct commands, they work and added them into the .js file, copied the other app buttons but it will not show in the list after reboot, I could add separate buttons underneath like other remotes but just thought I would be clever, even if the commands didn’t work I would have expected he app to show in the list?

const fastappchoices = {
  
  "tvnz-plus": {
      "button": "tvnz+",
      "friendlyName": "TVNZ+",
      "appName": "nz.co.tvnz.ondemand.tv",
      "className": "tvnzPlusButton",
      "androidName": "nz.co.tvnz.ondemand.tv",
      "adbLaunchCommand": "adb shell am start -n nz.co.tvnz.ondemand.tv/nz.co.tvnz.ondemand.MainTVActivity" },

and

          .tvnzPlusButton {
            font-size: calc(var(--sz) * 1rem);
            color: #919191;
            font-weight: bold;
            background: rgb(14 26 90);
          }
          .tvnzPlusButton:active, .tvnzPlusButton.appActive {
            color: #ffffff;
            background: rgb(199 0 0);
            box-shadow: 0 0 calc(var(--sz) * 0.857rem) calc(var(--sz) * 0.142rem) rgb(255 255 255 / 20%);
            text-shadow: 0 0 calc(var(--sz) * 0.2857rem) black;
          }

any ideas?
Chur

[crdougn (Doug)]

Oh yes! I have the distinct privilege of dealing with this specific “feature” all the time while doing development work. There is a very good chance that you’ve done everything 100% correctly, but your home assistant mobile app, or your browser itself is hanging on to some extremely sticky cache.

The easiest way to test this theory is to use your browser first. Do everything you can to clear your cache, and/or even try opening the home assistant UI in incognito/private mode. If that doesn’t work… try it again. No, seriously. Try it again.

If your browser now shows your new item in the list, then that’s the issue and solution. Clearing the companion app cache is a little trickier on mobile, but it is possible. It’s a bit easier on IOS, and I’ve found that on my Samsung Andriod phone, I have to hit the clear button at least twice before it clears. I can offer help if you want it.

If none of that works, it could be possible that you actually have two copies of this card on your system. Perhaps you’ve loaded one via HACS, and another copy into your www directory and attached it as a resource. If that’s the case, you’ll want to remove the one that you didn’t edit, then clear the cache and/or restart your home assistant instance, and take a look.

I hope that helps!

Also, out of curiosity, which remote style do you use? What settings are working for the Mi Box? I don’t own one, so I’ve never tested it.

[bjm (Brent (the Other Other Kiwi))]

thanks for the quick reply. I have done all of that, even removed the other quick apps and rebooted, cleared cache and used incognito and even used a different browser that I have never used before. I will let you know which mappings work, I have been using 4 series 2021.

[crdougn (Doug)]

@bjm - Strange… I’m not sure exactly where your issue might be. Hopefully this can help you.

I’ve just released version 1.10.3 using your JSON data, and a tweaked version of your CSS. (I changed the colors only to match what I found on the TVNZ website) The app shortcut shows up on the list, and when selected, the button appears as expected. I can’t test the functionality since that app is not available in my region.

Please let me know if this update works for you, and if the button launches your app as expected.

For a quick reference, here is a github link to the changes that I made in a side by side diff format: https://github.com/PRProd/HA-Firemote/compare/v1.10.2…v1.10.3?diff=split

I hope that all of this helps! If it doesn’t set you on the right track and/or if you’d like to contribute to the project by requesting official app shortcut support, I’d encourage you to submit an app shortcut request here: https://github.com/PRProd/HA-Firemote/issues/new/choose

[bjm (Brent (the Other Other Kiwi))]

@crdougn OMG OMG and OMG, as soon as I redownloaded 1.10.3 it was there and worked perfectly, you are amazing, thank you soo much for doing this!
Sorry, I am a bit over excited LOL

[crdougn (Doug)]

Hooray! I’m glad I could help! I’m humbled by your excitement as well.

Keep in touch! I really appreciate community involvement.

[Whag]

Great integration

[dfernan5]

Great card! Is it possible to break out the code for the buttons to be used at chips instead of the remote picture?

[crdougn (Doug)]

@dfernan5 - Welcome to the community! It’s good to have you here!

I think I know what you are asking, but please correct me if I’m wrong. Are you asking for scripts that can be tied to normal Home Assistant buttons? If that’s the case, then you’re in luck! That’s actually how this project started. You might be able to find what you are looking for here in my GitHub repository. The scripts are in the file named scripts.yaml.

[dfernan5]

Wow this is great. I am super new to this, thanks for the support.

[muffin44]

I cannot see the remote in my dashboard with firefox. It works with Brave tho. I deleted all cache and cookies in firefox and fully rebooted HA, but it doesn’t help. Does anyone knows what the problem could be?

Error in firefox:

EDIT: After I randomly added another entity card (just another random entitiy i.e. a lamp), it works in firefox too now.

[crdougn (Doug)]

Version 2 has just been released! It includes official support for NVIDIA Shield devices, as well as a few other handy new features! Come chat about it over here: Firemote Card - Amazon Fire, NVIDIA Shield, & other Android device remote control emulator

[e-raser]

Same for me. It just does not show up. Deleted all cookies and cache to.
Other browsers just work fine, Firefox does not display the card at all (not even selectable):

• Firefox:
  

  

• EDGE:
  

  

Any idea how to solve this for Firefox?

---

Update: 5 seconds later I took a look at the NoScript addon in Firefox.

Indeed, unpkg.com has been blocked. unpkg.com: Security and Privacy Info … for which reason this is needed by this card…

Working now.