After getting annoyed with having to switch between so many different remotes for my AV equipment, I ended up investing in a Logitech Harmony Hub and the Harmony Companion remote. I was able to replace all my existing remotes with just a single remote. Sadly, Logitech stopped making these products, and after mine broke, I was forced to find an alternative option.
My Harmony remote died
For a long time, I had a Logitech Harmony Hub and its accompanying Companion remote. The Harmony Hub could communicate with devices using infrared (IR), Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. This meant that it could replace the IR remotes of my surround system and my TV, as well as the remotes for my Apple TV and Roku streaming stick.
There were some frustrations, such as a limit on the number of devices you could control. There were also four smart home buttons that would have been very useful for other purposes, but had very limited customization options. Even so, it was far superior to switching back and forth between remotes.
Then the unthinkable happened. The “OK” button on the remote stopped working. I already had every other button assigned to another task, and a different button would have made the remote too awkward to use anyway. Unfortunately, Logitech had stopped making universal remotes by this point, and with this one having died, I wasn’t willing to buy another one second-hand that might do the same.
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Finding a usable smart remote was hard
Since I use Home Assistant to automate my smart home, I figured I’d try to replace my Harmony remote with my own version. I assumed that there must be plenty of cheap smart remote controls that I could connect to Home Assistant. I’d then be able to set up automations to determine the actions associated with each button.
I was shocked to find that it was a real challenge to find a remote control that had all the typical buttons that a TV remote has. There are plenty of Wi-Fi and Zigbee smart home remotes available, but most of them have very few buttons, and those that have typical media player controls just don’t have enough other buttons for my needs.
After far too much searching, I eventually found a wireless air mouse remote that looked enough like a TV remote and had enough additional buttons to meet my needs. It’s not the prettiest remote in the world, but it does its job. The remote is no longer for sale on Amazon, but there are similar remotes for as little as $10.
Creating the automation was a lot of work
This was when the hard work really started. The native Keyboard Remote integration in Home Assistant lets you use keyboards as remote controls, and as the remote has a keyboard on the back, I was able to detect all button presses on the remote in Home Assistant using an event listener. Once I knew the key code for each button on the remote, I could start to build my automation.
I had so many buttons to configure and so many different actions to perform that I knew creating the automation in the standard automation editor would be almost impossible. This is where Node-RED, a flow-based automation editor, comes into its own. Using Node-RED, I was able to build a visual flow of each button press and the different actions that each button would perform.
The outcome is (almost) everything I ever wanted
Creating the automation took me some time, but the beauty was that, unlike with the Harmony Hub, I wasn’t tied down by any restrictions or limitations. I could make each button do whatever I wanted, and even change what each button did depending on different conditions. For example, when I’m watching my set-top box, the “play/pause” button sends the play/pause IR signal to the set-top box from an IR blaster. If I’m using a smart TV app, however, the same button sends the “play/pause” command to my smart TV instead.
By building my own automation, I was able to get my remote to do things that weren’t possible with the Harmony remote. For example, I have a button that enters the PIN code for my different accounts. When I want to log into my Netflix account (which my kids are locked out of), I can press one of the keyboard keys on the back to enter the code.
The button sends the appropriate code for whatever app is currently open, and it makes logging into accounts much quicker. There’s also a single subtitles button that turns on subtitles no matter which streaming service I’m using. Another button fast forwards for a set number of seconds, which is perfect for skipping the ads when I’m watching recorded TV shows.
I even added an Aqara cube into the mix. When I want to watch a particular streaming service, I flip the cube to the relevant side, and it automatically opens on my TV, and the remote switches to the relevant controls for that app.
The one flaw is that if you haven’t used the remote for a while, the first time you press a button, sometimes nothing will happen. You need to press the button a second time for the command to register. This is probably due to the Wi-Fi remote needing to wake up, and it happens rarely enough that it’s a price worth paying.
Despite struggling to find a suitable remote and having to create the complex automation, it only took a couple of days to get the entire thing set up. Now I finally have one remote to rule them all, and the other pile of remotes has been consigned to the cupboard. I’ve ended up with something that’s even more powerful than my Harmony remote, and for a fraction of the price.
