new to HA not new to embedded development…
Id like to ask what is the predominate way to integrate various RF remote controls into HA…
I have the random rf remote that controls various fan/light or such devices.
In the past Id use some sort of mcu and connect each button to a port configured as a N channel open drain, or put a buffer or optical isolator in between then build some sort of networking protocol between the device and the automation system…
But things have evolved, there must be a better way with an all inclusive RF bridge?
Well, maybe!
A RF remote use a certain frequency and not all is that well supported.
433MHz is pretty well covered, 868/900MHz is harder and 2.4GHz is even hard yet.
You should be able to see the frequency on the device or through the FCC application number on it.
Also some remotes use rolling codes as a security feature, which means the code for a button press will change each time it is pressed. Both the sender and receiver have the same algorithm to calculate the next value for a button press, so in order to get those to work you need the algorithm and that requires an electronic wizard to extract.
Well it would be nice but im not in a place where there the FCC is a thing… though seeing how i have another cheap Asian device which is 433 and easily affected by the remote that i want to emulate, it leads me to believe its 433.
Seems i can get either of your recommendations bridge but the RM4 is 4x more expensive, is it worth it?
You might find OpenMQTTGateway(OMG) easier than esphome for receiving RF signals. For RF I find Tasmota easier than Esphome. Don’t get me wrong Esphome is great for a number of things but I found it difficult for RF stuff. OMG site.
I started with Tasmota on the Sonoff and it was easy, but I had delays if I made rapid actions, like when you turning on the light in the bedroom and just as you click the button you realize your better half is already sleeping in the bed, so you try to turn it off again.
In those cases it had a delay of 2-3 seconds.
When I switched to ESPHome on the Sonoff it just worked and the ESPHome site have the YAML config listed already, so it is almost just copy and paste to get it up and running.
They are easy to open and the connections on the board are easy to find and use.
As for sending signals, then the link you post where a user receiver different codes, then it is quite normal for RF signals to vary a bit from each transmit.
You just take the average or the one number present most often.
Open and reflashing is the easy part.
What the situation seems to be is that now that these sonoffs have long been updated that the latest versions need have traces cut, components added, and other hacks…
As you recommended i got myself a sonoff RF2 bridge, flashed it with esphome in minutes, but it doesn’t work.
v2.2 has been out for about 4 years now, and they haven’t worked ‘easily’ in a while
I had two Sonoff RF bridge 433 (the first one, which is black).
One died like 6 months ago and I replaced it with the a Sonoff RF bridge V2 (the white one).
No idea if it was a 2.0, 2.1 or 2.2 though.
I just flashed it with ESPHome and it worked right away.
The lack of Portisch on the newer models means some remotes will not work, but it is few.
Alright, so its worth noting for who ever comes along here, they are not likely going to have an easy time with sonoff stuff that is available today. wish i saved the original firmware, now i own a small brick
I will check my version when I get home, but I thi k it is the newest one and I use it with a wide range of remotes and RF devices.
I have yet to find a RF device that do not work on the Sonoff RF bridge V2, which work on Sonoff RF bridge 433.
I have only seen devices that did not work on any of them, which was probably due to rolling codes, which is a security feature to prevent imitation of codes, so that makes sense.