I have no intention to copy that remote, however one can say that it looks alike. Not really a lot of options to create a simple case with minimal bezels.
My starting point for the remote was a different setup. I already had Home Assistant running on a raspberry pi with lots of zwave, wifi and other devices connected. I had a Harmony hub to control my projector and other devices and used a lot of components to control my PS4 for example. I even wrote a component to control my Bang and Olufsen speakers. So I already had a ‘brain’ and I think most of us in the forum do. I wanted a remote that can connect to this Home Assistant ‘brain’ and just control things with a nice and fluid UI.
What you are describing is a different mindset and setup. I don’t think I’ll go into that direction, because another ‘brain’ would be redundant. But as I am planning to open source this project, people can take it and make it the way they want.
Regarding to low power, I wrote a bit about that above. However this battery ‘issue’ bugs me and I am looking more and more into how I could design a board around this chip:
I’ll definitely get my hands on a discovery board once it’s available and try to explore. Good thing is that as far as I’ve seen it runs Linux and Qt development environment is also listed on ST’s website. That’s great news for me, because I could just run the same software on it as I am running on the raspberry. The only new thing would be a new baseboard PCB. But this is a future project idea, as I am pretty sure it would take me a year at least to understand how these MPUs work and how a board should be designed around them. (I am a graphic designer by trade, so all the hardware work that I do involves a lot of reading and learning before)
Ouch, really can’t help you with the chip, but if you are considering adding a Pi zero as well to the charging station (or make the option to do so) it would be already a step in the right direction since i am not the only one asking. Additionally, as a V3 thingy,you could then have the QT hosting also be done on the charging station which would help the remote with battery, right?
There could be a pi zero sitting in the charging station, but have to figure out the exact use case for it. I won’t have it in the coming version, but you can easily add it.
I don’t know how hosting Qt on that could help. When the program is idle, the load is basically zero. As far as I know it comes down to the zero’s idle power consumption. That’s a bit too high.
charging status can come from the remote if it’s charging it’s not an issue.
Nice design from neeo but still no need to copy
And I agree with marton about the big direction change with your proposal (even if i like some idea)
While some of the ideas with the base station sound nice, I think it would be better to just focus on cleaning up and releasing what is already done.
As I see it, Home Assistant is already the brain/base station and most of the suggested features can already be accomplished with existing solutions connected to HA or with software on the remote. The only improvement that can’t would be the battery life and it just doesn’t seem worth the extra effort to build a new hub just for that. Especially if this goes the wireless charging route, there may not be a need for a base station at all since any compatible wireless charger should suffice.
Personally, I may still prefer the hubless remote anyway. If it can be made compatible with the chargers I already have plugged in for my phones, then it’s essentially one less thing I need to have plugged in.
@bobzer according to the data sheet the STM32 mpu consumes 6 μA in standby mode. If we add the display and other ICs in standby too that’s way less than the zero’s 80mA. But that’s a future project
Right now I am focusing on finishing the design and getting the parts produced for testing.
That’s really great but that’s comparing a whole system against just a chip.
Still i guess the arm of the raspberry is consuming much much more than 6 μA which is kind of nothing.
Anyway looking forward to see what you’ll come up at the end .
And for v2 I’m thinking if the whole board can go whatever under the 1ma would be good enough and if you go under 100μA that’s becoming really interesting.
i mean with a 2500mah battery and a 1ma stand by that’s a lot of juice like more than 3 month of stand by
you’re right don’t lost your track because of our excitement.
And if you need beta or even alpha tester i think there is a few people interested, (me included off curse )
Thanks! Yeah if 3 days are needed than you need approx. 34mA average. That is impossible due to the fact that the screen itself consumes 20mA plus the backlight which on full brightness can be 140mA. I am actually not sure that the 2000mAh battery I am using is really 2000mAh I ordered it from aliexpress and from the 2 batteries 1 died after 2 weeks and I have actually never tested them.
Usually when I order PCBs I order around 5-10, and the same with the aluminium CNC case. So if someone wants to get their hands on the hardware early and some very beta software, we could figure something out
I’m able to solder and assemble mine if you give me some instructions.
about the battery, i do have some experience… bad experience… i wouldn’t save on that particular component … you don’t want the thing to inflate or worst blow up and catch fire when you are at sleep… (order a lot of battery for modelism on internet and can see from the special charger i had, that they often don’t meet the criteria and sometimes are actually dangerous)
Also about the dock if it’s qi compatible i think it’s the best, because like that people can use their wireless charger, specially now that they start to be incorporate in anything even table (thanks ikea)
In that case you don’t even really need a dock (still nice but more a nice to have than really necessary)
Cool. Sure, if you can handle 49 pin FPC connectors
The new design can fit a 2500mAh battery from Adafruit. Those batteries have really good quality and have all the necessary protection circuit. (Though the aliexpress ones had it too). The charging circuit charges at max 1A, so it’s also safe. I’ve been charging these batteries with my own board for many times in the past year. No issues (knock on wood).
I’ve put a Qi coil in the back to test. It fits and it works. I have an ikea charger and it works with that one as well The dock is just charging faster.
there was some interest outside the HA forums as well, so I’ve quickly set up a discord server if you feel like chatting about the remote or sharing your ideas.
it was never my intention to copy the Neeo (i was only referring to the design of the remote) nor to give a different direction with regards to the base. I was only expressing my experience with a similar remote (coming from a harmony before the Neeo) and the things i thought it missed. I was only giving you guys a different angle and maybe look beyond Home Assistant use cases.
Maybe we can ‘split’ the remote and the hub idea for now; it is something that i try to figure out myself together with a lot of Neeo backers since Neeo stopped the project. Since the project is open source anyway, it is the hardware that counts.
So, definately interested in beta testing, writing software etc.
No worries, it’s good that people are pitching in with ideas. I’ll try to incorporate as much as possible, but anybody is welcome to contribute to the project by creating versions!
I’m impressed by what you achieved. I was looking into building something myself and hit some walls along the way. I just built a simple WiFi IR dongle that you may like https://github.com/nklerk/esp8266-wifi-Pronto-IR
I’m looking to build a remote with Athom Homey as it’s brain. I’m wondering if I can assist you in any way.
Thanks!
You’re IR Wi-Fi dongle is cool. Maybe it could be integrated into the dock for the remote?
The remote is based on a raspberry pi so it would be possible to use it with Homey as well. Just need to change the commands.
But this gave me an idea. What if the software is doing the logic on a higher level and there are configuration files for different “brains” like Home Assistant or Homey. And you just switch to that. In this case you could use the remote with whatever system you want. And if there is no support yet, you can just create your own. If you want and have time maybe you could work on the Homey integration?
I am 1-1,5 months away from getting the v2 parts. If you are interested in building or get all the parts let me know. I’ll do a poll here to see if there’s interest in a kit or something. Otherwise the files will be in my github.
The Ir dongle I made is extremely cheap and simple to use with anything. To simplify it I used an existing Ir shield. I’m waiting for a bunch of transistors to arrive so I can build a more powerful Ir version. Combining that in the base of the dock would definitely be a cool idea. I’ve setup this little project so that after flashing the dongle the user is guided through the WiFi setup. Thus making it really easy to use. The dongle uses mDNS so it’s easy for devs to find and use the dongle in a network.
I would love to buy all the parts I need, also would love to help out. I’ve built the intergration between NEEO and Homey. https://apps.athom.com/app/nl.nielsdeklerk.neeo
So I should be able to do it.
Working to a multi purpose solution could potentially get others to join in as well.
e.g. first step would be to expose the charging status of the remote for example?
but that’s comparing a whole system against just a chip.
.
like more than 3 month of stand by 
The dock is just charging faster.