Kincony KC868-AG ESP32 WiFi IR RF. Wish they sold just an IR version. They also have a Pro version with Zigbee, ESP32, and a tasmota chip. Still don’t understand why it has both. Can be setup is ESPHome but there built in software is nice. It can connect to an MQTT broker and can be a http/https server to send IR commands via http_request commands.
If you’re that worried about WiFi and smart home devices, setup a VLAN, put all your iOT/smart home devices on it and only allow traffic from your HA server on your main LAN, that way if something does happen all it could do is talk to one machine on your network. They would have to hack or brute force to get into your HA server and I find that practically impossible if you use 2FA. If you don’t want to mess with your router settings, or your router doesn’t have VLAN settings then don’t complain about security there are so many free options that require a maybe 100 dollar PC, just needs 2 NICs. Then install Pfsense or OPNsense. Honestly, just doing that will help you security wise.
Mesh setups are convenient but they tend to poor in the features and capability department, sometimes the security department also. I still remember when some script kiddies hacked a bunch of routers and sent DDOS attacks that brought down Xbox live and PSN. Mostly sent from compromised routers granted that was a while ago but one thing remains the same. Router makers suck at security patches and updates because they already sold you the hardware. hardwire when it has a NIC but mostly due to speed and reliability but there is an extra layer of security to some degree depending on how you
configure your network.
Brand: GlobalCache Model: iTach Flex wired model with IR Blaster cable Link to exact product:https://www.globalcache.com/files/docs/ds_Flex_print.pdf Protocol: HA Integration: Yes In use since: 2013 (2018 with HA) Number of this item in use: Two originally, now one. Positive:
Easy to use with free supplied software utilities.
Works reliably. Negative:
It’s still stateless IR. I have upgraded all but one of my devices to Ethernet control. My rating (1-5, 1 being bad, 5 being super):
5/5 for the device 0/5 for using stateless IR. Comment:
I had these set up to control my cinema and lounge AV and climate before starting with HA (using PC batch scripts). They transitioned over to HA well but I got sick of not being able to tell the current state of anything and using workarounds to track this. So I upgraded my AV and climate equipment to devices able to be controlled over Ethernet that work with HA. Now I just have the one GC Flex with one command to turn on my TV (once it is on I can control it over Ethernet).
