Forgot I had a spare SR 250 Control4 remote laying around. Factory reset it, paired it, and viola it’s sending catchall commands I can parse.
So, ladies and gentlemen, I present you the best zigbee remote you can find used on E-bay…
Anyway, time to map all these buttons to something… I really need to figure out how to send text to the display 
Ok, so I can write a devicetype to get the button presses and releases for the 48 buttons on this remote, but how in the world did SmartThings ever plan to map a normal remote control to functions within Smartthings?
Maybe I will need to wait to see how the logitech harmony integration happens…
Simple use case, I want to use this remote to control sonos… I’m totally shocked at how difficult it will be to make this happen.
@urman, any plans for a remote control device capabilities with 1-N buttons?
Feels like I’m talking to myself in this one…
Well, after taking the direction from the SmartApp Button Control and the Aeon Minimote devicetype, I’ve got a simple SmartApp set up to map the Sonos commands to the SR-250 device.
So, if you hit the play, pause, next, back buttons on the sonos it controls the chosen sonos player.
I’m also wiring up specific buttons like the red button to turn on the lights in the room and the room off button to make sure all devices in the room are off.
Honestly, this is probably the most fun I’ve had in ST so far. Being able to use 48 buttons to trigger different things is pretty cool.
Creating the UI for customizing 48 button actions, not so much… Will have to think through that one a bit.
The nice thing is you can get these SR-250 zigbee remotes off ebay for under $100 bucks. I’m sure the cheaper SR-150 can function the same, just harder to find those out there…
Any interest out there in seeing this thing fleshed out?
How is a Zigbee remote control different from any ordinary remote control?
It runs on Zigbee, it has a list menu, has 48 programmable buttons a smartapp can use to trigger things…
Eventually I’ll figure out how to use the display on it… That will be a big advantage.
Outside control4 it’s pretty much useless but I am hoping to get a full working devicetype and smartapp to control it.
Hi Patrick - I’ve been reading for awhile, as I just bought a home with a good number of control4 devices (dimmers, thermostats, etc.). I don’t want to use C4, and, like you, bought a SmartThings hub. I also picked up a couple of the new Harmony Ultimate Home. None of it quite integrates like I’d like (I’d really like C4 UI and flexibility I can program myself, which is what I think you’re after too).
I picked up a Dropcam Pro and a Nest, neither of which really integrate as well as I’d like into ST (ST can only make DC take a snapshot rather than stream video for example), and the ST interface leaves a lot to be desired when you look at how a well set up C4 system looks and behaves.
I have a few more pieces on order (trying to decide which locks to go with, and have ordered some different wireless bulbs to see what works best) to keep trying to expand the utility of the platform. Personal opinion, there’s a real market here for someone to create a C4 like platform with customer programmability.
The Harmony system and ST have a relatively limited integration so far (at least as much as I’ve been able to get to so far), but hoping there’s more robust capability I’ll get to once I have some time to dig in!
Waiting on hub v2 to see if I can allow ST to fully integrate with C4. I am doing it now with a custom driver I wrote to handle inbound requests. But since ST can’t parse large responses, I need a better device discovery process to add C4 devices into ST.
ST has a LONG way to go before it is remotely competitive with C4 and others in the dealer HA space.
Good news, is the C4 zigbee devices can work with ST. Bad news is the control surfaces in ST leave a ton to be desired to use any of the devices.
Ultimately, I want to be able to have ST see all my C4 devices, let the C4 hub just be a relay, trigger events from ST to C4 and poll for status of devices, etc.
Just no way I could put all my zigbee devices from C4 into ST, C4 is just miles ahead of ST in terms of media, cameras, apps, etc.
Hoping to see some significant improvements soon with Hub v2. But I’m not holding my breath. The fundamental flaw with C4 is the dealer model vs DIY. C4 will be passed up eventually by ST and the others, or absorbed by a big player (MS, Google, Apple, etc.)
I really want the best of both worlds, but to get that, I’d have to write middleware to connect ST and C4 together and that seems like a lot of work, with almost no real upside for me.
Patrick, not sure if you’ve looked at the Harmony Ultimate Home Hub and Remote. I picked it up and it integrates seamlessly with ST. So I’ve configured devices (including non-standard devices) in ST, and the Harmony can now control them through its interface, which I find to be more than adequate for Home Theater/Media, and also great for the HA aspects such as lighting and thermostats - much better than the ST interface itself. If (like you suggest) I can really add more of the Control4 devices I have to ST (Really hoping to get their thermostats working), I’ll be in great shape!
As long as you have a control4 hub, integration will be possible.
Hub v2 might be able to do direct interaction via the unofficial soapapi on the c4 hub.
Otherwise the only way is through a custom driver to be installed.
As for c4 ZigBee devices, they do pair up to ST but it is limited functionality because c4 uses the large network device extension to do all the advanced features.
This means reversing out the commands and clusters manually. I have put on hold further integration until I see the hub v2.
Aha. No Control4 hub. I’m willing to live with those devices in ST/Harmony, but still haven’t been able to get them paired successfully - ST can’t see them even in pairing mode.
What’s ETA on hub v2?
ETA on v2 is when its ready. Who really knows…
Without a hub, you will be “on your own”. I’m hoping to find some time to start logging the pairing process more and the initial clusters reported by ST during the pairing process for more devices.
C4 does seem to follow the HA profile for Zigbee for pairing and basic functionality, but the advanced stuff like setting led colors, etc. are all done in the large network clusters that I can’t seem to figure out if ST even supports these custom clusters in Zigbee, let alone how to interface with them.
Anyway, try the pairing process with a live logging session in the IDE and try to capture any unknown activities that happen when trying to pair. If it paired, you should get an “unknown” device in the IDE. Then you can have the IDE hook up to this unknown device and try sending discover packets or other zigbee commands and see what it responds with.
I’m just now stumbling on this thread. I’m finding it amazing that I can’t do the most simple things with a single remote. I really want to be able to use a single remote to do nothing more than this:
Surprisingly, this doesn’t seem possible with a single remote without building something ridiculous looking with the shield.
This thread seems to come the closest. I’m very interested to know if this C4 remote has a device type that suites these cases. Of course, I have no interest in actually deploying a C4 system, but the remote seems useful.
BTW, I do have the Harmony Hub. It only turns on/off lights with activities, not with pause commands. So this is not viable for the above.
@pstuart I’m curious as to the progress you made with the device type code. I can probably assist here if needed.
Was able to get this working and could route button presses to a smartapp for assigning actions. Used it for controlling my sonos. However, when the battery died, the device lost its firmware and had to repair it up to control4 to push the firmware out. So this is just not a viable solution at the moment.
Is the device type code usable yet by others willing to buy the remote and try it out?
I think you missed my point. Unless you know how to restore the firmware without being a dealer for control4, this remote will not work as a standalone device.
It will only work until the batteries die and that is assuming you have the right firmware in the remote to begin with.
Yes I indeed did miss your point. Thanks for the clarification. Well what a bummer.