Is anybody working on reverse engineering forkbeard bluetooth for home assistant integration of schiit audio gear?
https://www.schiit.com/forkbeard
When they release their syn replacement surround amp it will likely have forkbeard support and being able to integrate will get home assistant actually good sound gear support, so would be pretty sweet…
Watching this thread. I’ve been looking for the same thing with my current setup.
Watching as well. I’m an Android guy. Schiit keeps saying they’ll release an Android version of their Forkbeard iOS app, but it never comes. It’d be awesome if someone made an integration for HA.
Same situation. iOS app came out November 2024. So close to 11 months. I’ve seen Schiit post that they want to get the iOS “perfect” before even starting Android. I don’t think they really get mobile software (or computer software in general). It’s NEVER perfect, especially if you get a large user base. Even then it’s not like that just ports to Android with minimal work.
I got one with my Mimir DAC and it’s essentially useless. From what I can tell it appears to be an ESP32 with a UART connection. If not an ESP32 some very cheap microcontroller as it’s just sending commands or receiving data. They have a cover over the chip. I’m thinking about removing it although backwards engineering is not something I could do personally. It would be perfect in HA with BT proxies. Even if Schiit gets the iOS app perfect, Apple.or Google will eventually release an update that requires changes to the code. Same for HA but they would have people willingly to contribute and maintain the code, so less work for them. If it is an ESP32 then ESPHome is a possibility although I’m sure Schiit wouldn’t be happy. I understand it’s a one time cost and most is to cover software development but it can’t be more then 5 to 8 dollars in hardware and that’s not buying in bulk… Highly cropped image from YouTube so hard to make out what the 4 pins say bit I’m betting it’s 3.3V, Gnd, TX and RX.
Hey thanks for the info. Reverse engineering is above my pay grade too. I’ve sent emails to them and for awhile they were saying end of summer 2025. Now they’re just saying “soon”. I really, really don’t want to buy an iPad just for my Schiit gear…
I wish they would just publish the spec. For sure someone would make an esp32 alternative to plug in and integrate with everything if the spec was widely available. What these guys don’t get is they don’t need to make their ecosystem perfect. They need to make their gear perfect and have a reasonable open interface for things like this and us nerds will handle the rest. They ended up losing my business for the home theatre. I went with the kef xio soundbar for 3k instead of spending a bunch more money on a schiit setup with better speakers just because it seemed more likely I could integrate that with my home automation ( to be verified, the bar is in the basement 90% setup right now, will probably be another 3 weeks to fully configured because of some external factors).
Some good news (hopefully). Schiit is now saying end of November for Android v1.0.
Yeah, soon it will be January. I hope to be proven wrong but no update on release date for Android.
So, after discussing this in head-fi it seems most don’t want this because to hey don’t want Home Assistant collecting data which just shows they have zero idea of why HA exists in the first place. I have 47 integrations, 4 need internet. Spotify, OpenWeatherMap, Speedtest and Google Places from HACs and it’s obvious why they need it.
I will soon be getting an unfolded remote 3, should already have it but waiting until tariffs aren’t 200 more. Guess I’m crazy for wanting one physical remote to control my sound system. Still no Android app. Anyone know anything about Bluetooth sniffers and capturing data. I’m through waiting and also wonder if the actual module can be backwards engineered using an ESP32 with a UART connection using ESPHome. I’m just sick of this Schiit and their excuses. It’s been well over a year since the iOS app was released.
Going to reach out on discord, any help would be appreciated.
EDIT: apparently the app will only work on Android 15 or above. Android 14 and below is out of luck.
Well, got some info from the nrf connect mobile app but not enough… Decided to spend 10 dollars on a nRF52 PCA10059 USB dongle which has a Bluetooth plug-in for Wireshark. According to others on various forum Schiit has no plans to support any other platforms. I have also seen some open source stuff for the esp32-c6 and I have a spare so going to mess around with that . Apparently everyone on head-fi doesn’t want a remote and prefers their phones. I’ll never understand you that. Even controlling HA can get tedious having to constantly pull your phone out. Already have a Zigbee remote that can run scripts or automations as it just needs to send the correct BLE command.
