[SOLVED] IR devices control

Just a small bit of an update. I finally found a cheap solution to my problems that works better than LIRC on raspberry pi…

YTF IR bridge (or Eachen IR bridge/Tuya IR bridge). They are basically cheap (around 10$ on ebay) ir-wifi bridges using ESP Wifi modules. And they are supported by the Tasmota firmware. So just install sonoff tasmota FW onto them and use MQTT to connect them. They support sending and receiving IR and everything. Really awesome solution.

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sounds cool but can you teach them stuff?
the advantge of somthing like Broadlink is that you can teach it every command

Whenever the receiver detects something it spews out the decoded data (or raw data for unknown protocols - though the majority should be supported). All you need to do is tell it to send that data and it will do just that. So the short answer is yes. Unless that’s not what you meant.

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Well, I am looking currently to use ESP IR blaster. Has anyone used this approach here ?

Basically trying to send commands through MQTT and control IR based gadgets. Planning to put the ESP on a microUSB based card (maybe use nodemcu) and power it through USB.

Since it is running on ESP8266 you could always install Sonoff Tasmota Firmware on it and run that.
Although the above mentioned Eachen/YTF IR bridges run on ESP8266 and come in a nice package. And they are cheaper than that IR blaster. So they would probably be a better choice.

Roli, Thanks for pointing it out. Actually I did run through that earlier, Maybe it already exists only trying to see if there exists some device in a different form factor including a 2.5 mm audio jack. where I can power it through a USB jack and extend the IR emitter where it is required.

Capture

My guess is that you want to stick this into a cabinet or something?
If not - from my experience these blasters are really quite 360° and you won’t have much trouble placing them anywhere really. As long as you have USB for power. If you want to place one inside a cabinet… you could just buy 2 and stick one in the cabinet and the other somewhere else in the room and have them listen to the same MQTT topic (as long as two of them don’t “see” each other). Or if you want more hands on… Desolder the IR LED, and run a wire from there.

Being new to this, I can understand the .items, but what about the .things? Could you include all the necessary script to get your Humax PVR working as you have shown above?

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Well, this might be the easiest ever then.

There isn’t a .things file.

And to my knowledge, I didn’t need to do anything with the udp.cfg or tcp.cfg file.

And there aren’t any scripts as such for the Humax codes.

All I did was add a button widget to HabPanel, point it to the outgoing UDP Item.

And copy the required HEX code into the button payload / “command value”

As shown here :-

This might be of interest…

For anyone that’s interested or needs to convert IR codes check out this link. http://irdb.tk/

Can someone explain how to make it work with YTF IR Bridge?

I realize this thread seems to mostly run it’s course, but another option (for the more DIY inclined) is Open MQTT Gateway. I am using it for 433mhz but it also does RF (and BLE, and some others for that matter).

I like it because it runs on a number of different microcontrollers ($ cheap! :wink:) and has a nicely architected modular nature, so you can include whatever protocols you need (and add others later, if or when needed). This way of learning only one software to handle multiple needs is much more in line with how I value my personal time nowadays. No need to keep re-learning all these different proprietary softwares one after the other, only to eventually bump into some (usually artificial, imposed by the manufacturer) limitation.

Ultimately of course what we are talking about is following principles of Free (as in freedom) / Libre Software. When software (like Open MQTT Gateway) is designed from the beginning (GPL3 licensed) with your freedom of choice in mind, well that is exactly what you will end up with. Lots of options / choice, and no artificial limitations.

If, like me, you have had enough with these type of artificial limitations from manufacturers, you can help out a lot by simply using the term Free (or Libre) Software, instead of the much more common nowadays “Open Source” which (as the link explains) while being mostly about the same things, puts the focus on the wrong ideals (in mine, and many others, humble opinions).

Cheers and happy Friday everyone! :beers:

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Hello,

It is fresh but you can also find now ESP8266 based off the shelf IR gateway like BAKEEY or AVATTO ones and upload them with OpenMQTTGateway:
https://1technophile.blogspot.com/2020/07/avatto-s06-ir-gateway-compatible-with.html

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Thanks @1technophile for that tip!! After seeing your blog post I ordered two of these cheaply from Aliexpress. When they arrived earlier today I followed your instructions and got them both working nicely now. Much better reach with their IR LED blaster array than the single LED one I made myself previously.

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