i am searching for a universal hub that takes my 433 remotes signals and repeats them 433mhz or converts them into bluetooth, wifi, IR, z-wave etc…basically into all the other signals.
it should have an app to configurate, maybe a learning function as well
i belive the homey pro can do that but it costs like 400$ …right?
but anyway, best thing would be if it would be a cheap “china” product that works like that for at least 433 into IR, bluetooth, wifi, and again 433mhz .
there are so many chinaproducts and i cant figure out which can do which trick !/
its not a hub but a “bridge” functionality your searching for and you need to stick several “products” together. you pay 400$ for a lot less headache
Below you will find a “starter” and china products you need to combine
See it as technic lego just add the desired blocks to reach your goal … there are many roads to walk on and each comes with its own hurdle(s) to overcome. PS having multiple blocks because you wrecked one comes with the learing curve
A 433mhz weather station only sends data, a cheap US-SDR or Here a mqtt to 433 mhz “bridge” as example OpenMQTTGateway Connects Many Things to Your Home Automation - YouTube the last one can also send data. (he has more nice explainations of 433mhz stuff and HA /ESP related stuff
Going from there you go into a rabbit hole that can go deep quickly … lucky for us there are a lot of shortcuts (aka tools and information ) that can prevent you from building your own “wheel”…
In order to make it easier just take 1 “lego block” aka HA to IR blaster and build it on ESPHome project board (send and recieve)
then:
do that for the next communication and so on.
I would setup a seperate HA machine + node-red + esphome as “testing” before intergration into your home setup.
arduino “kits” + esp32-s2 (usb-c) and a cheap soldering / hot air station and flux + watching on youtube the channels of “great-scott, andriess spiess, digiblur” to name a few have a lot of great overviews and examples to prime you …
the mqtt gateway link + building your own IR thingy are both great (seperatly) great starts to advance from there to a next level …
It would be good if you could find 2 Sonoff RF Bridge 433 (The black ones) and flash them with Portisch and ESPHome.
Then you have what you want by using WiFi to transfer the signal.
You might be able to set up ESPHome to do the transfer directly, but it would probably be a lot easier to just use HA, since the functionality to capture a signal on the event bus is there already and then it is just using that capture to make a service call.
The newer Sonoff RF Bridge R2 might be able to do it too, but it can’t be flashed with Portisch so it is a little more limited on the signals it can receive and transmit.
thing i forgot to mention is that am working on a project that should be ready to use for dump customers… so no rabbit holes here !)
what i need is one thing to rule them all, but cheaper then 400 bucks and at least capable to transform 433 into bluetooth, IR, wifi and repeat 433mhz. (btw. is that homey pro what i need?? am not sure i got it right)
the idea of having multible devices is actually kinda interesting, but then again, it would need to be costumer ready and also from same brand and designwise alike …what would be cool though i dont think anyone ever got into this approach . (like various tiny little same looking devices, combinable, each with its own ability…that would be awesome, though not really ökological nor ökonomical if you know what i mean - but awesome!!D )
so again, one cheap device that can at least do some of those things?
@mookee converting A (IR signal) to something else also lets you control from great distance …
What is the added benifit, IR is used when the device is intended for operating withing visual range. why should i want to control the TV in home from my place of work ??? I am not home so TV should be turned of or someone else is using it … and might not like you changing the channel (funny as it is) also TV has no feedback via IR only via visual input on the screen.
imagine a 433mhz sockets etc. remote turned into an universal remote by a bridge/hub that can then also controll everything non 433mhz like tv, hifi, PC, wifi-stuff via wifi IR bluetooth etc.
thats the idea behind: basically updating a 433mhz remote into a MEGAuniversal remote via a HUB…
kinda cool, and the main topic of my project…but for dump customers and cheap
And this may be possible, but you need an intelligent hub with specific setup.
A 433MHz RF remote might give you an event code = 00515151
Another 433MHz RF remote might give you an event code = 004ec0a9
The first event code can be decoded to 0051 being the specific remote and 5151 as button 3 being pressed.
The second one can be decoded to 004ec0a being the remote and 9 being the button 4 being pressed.
You would only know this if you pressed each button and decoded the signals of the different buttons of each remote type.
Lets say you then choose to go with the first one, so you now know that button 3 have been pressed.
What is then going to happen?
Is that going to set the fan speed to level 3 on the heat pump?
Is that going to set the heating to level 3 on the heat pump?
Is that going to set the exhaust fins to position 3 on the heat pump?
Or is it going to set the fan speed to level 3 on the ceiling fan?
Or is it going to set the heating to level 3 on the electric radiator?
Each of these settings might go over InfraRed and have a code that make no sense to you, to the RF code received earlier and to each other, so you can not by looking at the code determine what action is going to happen.
You need an intelligent hub here to link the specific incoming signals with outgoing ones and it has to be set up specific for each link.
This is in fact what HA does.
Actually there is a “standard” for IR and RF kinda
For 433 you got a RTL_433 (github) binary that can decode a lot of messages recieved based on protocols and such, of course per company/product it will vary but seeing it work on my RTL-SDR stick it was nice to see that ppl opened there garage or recieving weather stations from neighbours. all using different protocols and such
IR generaly consists of “group/device” +“toggle” +“command” otherwise you could use your remote in a media shop to turn up the volume of every media device present … (tv/stereo for example) or have wierd effects when you change volume at home and your airco is set to -15 since that is not happening (in general)
however the protocol used between devices wil differ as well (the way IR is send)
same goes for other “protocols” that send “open” data over the air there is some way to filter if multiple device(s) are near each other… althoug results still vary depending on the type of remote/device
RTL_433 is not a standard.
It is a library of a few device specific codes and you still end up with code that you need to link to your action.
What you describe is actually the case.
I have worked at a Radio/TV shop and the remotes could wreak havoc because different models and brands reacted to a remote for another device.
RF and IR devices have become better than in the past, but it is mainly the more expensive devices that have evolved.
There are several issue with RF and IR.
A lot of devices share the same spectrum, so you need a signal that is long enough to make sure that the device part of the signal is unique, but longer signals are prone to more errors and there are a lot of possibilities for errors, like
the transmitting of the signal will introduce small errors, like not getting the exact amplitude or not holding it the correct length of time or other factors.
the signal will be influence “in flight” from other lights in IR cases, like sun light and artificial lights and radio interference in RF cases, like power lines, microwave, DECT phones, wireless doorbells and so on.
the receiving of the signal that have to interpret of the amplitude is actually 2 or 3 when the value measured is coming out at 2.5.
This means that longer signals might make your signal unique, but also more “unreadable”.
You could add checksums into the signal, but this again increase the signal length.
So you are limited in the signal length and that means there will now and then be overlaps of signals.
Anyway the RTL_433 is indeed not a “Standard” but its a bit of code that allows one to decode different messages/protocols that exsist by plugging in a USB SDR dongle and firing up the binary resulting in messages recieved in a human readable format.
It was more intended as a “show & tell” kind of thing there are standards although a lot co-exist on the same communication medium (RF/IR and prob others) in some form(at) or another.
To say there is one unified thing …you know already its not.
your and my example of “media/tv/radio shop” might differ a bit in time frame lets say 20 years guessing I also myself was the “remote” before IR was a thing and needed to walk to the set to change channel.
but yeah the rest of your post explains our “different” (not so different in the end by the way) approach of the matter(s)
I think diving in to the nitty gritty (aka the specific issues of IR) or RF are a whole different subject …
I done a lot of development in that area IR related in those days …
IF we get back on track,
Our point is more → IR signal from a specific TV remote to a code that is usable to be translated into a action on something else → start the dishwasher via a wifi signal for example or RF
that’s a lot of IR/RF remote(s) in the world to be reconized and translated into something “Actionable”
for @mookee I would recommend to start with a “arduino” kit that has IR/RF/BT/wifi and such and connect it via Node-Red to a “lamp” or “button” and do some back and forth testing if you can hook up A device to send a command resulting in a visual action/indication or recieving said command on the other side via a different medium
just take 2 IR remote(s) from home and try to have the same led to blink via such a way…
and in my case btw. i use intertechno remotes… so the intertechnoprotokol…
they made a device(s) intertechno.at that can do some of the tricks am talking about, but those morons didnt inklude IR which makes the whole thing useless more or less… -.- also its not cheap , around 250-300$
so i was looking for a device which has IR included and found the homey pro…but ridiculously expensive
so i searched for universal hub or bridge with IR, blue… and found some decent looking cheap china thingys, but cant figure out if they do or can what i need or are for smartphones , idknow…
so i wrote here, hoping you know more about those thingys ! /
and it has to be ready to use. am a poor freelance designer and entrepreneur and cant effort whatever…and the people i want to offer those devices too are simple customers (and not necessarily rich). so i need a cheap and already working device.
maybe a reprograming of a chinadevice would be possible and a good thought btw, thanks!, but actually i dont know the first thing of how nor how to pay someone to program it, nor the app that is probably necessary then too ( though you might could use the app of someone else and just make a firmware update…!? sounds like a rabit hole even with a budget )
so many thanks for all your detailed answers but if you might have some more of your time to focus on those already existing cheap endproducts that can do IDK what, it might be very helpful hopefully to me.
I looked at Intertechno.at and it is a closed ecosystem, so you IR, RF, BT devices only work with intertechno’s own devices.
You can get thirdparty connections, like Alexa, through its hub called MasterGate.
The Homey system you also looked at is a competing product to HA and does the same.
The user experience might be a bit more polished, which is what you pay home, but that also means the flexibility of the product is lesser than HA.
sorry , i get it now