Hello all, second time Groovy slinger here. Recently had DirecTV installed and found out that there is an API for controlling your receiver! This SmartApp allows you to control the power of your DirecTV receiver using a virtual switch.
You only need to enter the “MAC (Use w/Genie)” field when using the application with a wireless Genie. For the “IP Address” field, it should always be your primary receiver.
Just posted an update that should be able to handle the Genie. You’ll need to enter the MAC address of your Genie, without colons, when installing. The IP address field should (I’m pretty sure) be for your primary.
I haven’t tested it yet though, so let me know how it goes!
Just updated the original version, should allow you to use a thermostat’s setpoint to control the channel. I’ve tested it to work on my primary receiver.
Naturally you’ll want to use a simulated thermostat.
Love this setup. But I can’t seem to get it to work with my DirectTV box. I have used both a Simulated switch and a simulated thermostat but, can’t get it to channel up/down or power off.
I have verified the IP addy I’m using is the Main DVR box and not any of the Satellite boxes.
hmmm… actually, my DirectTV box is on my wireless network, and my Hub is on my wired network. Both, however, are being used by the same router. the Router supports a wireless and wired network simultaneously and all my devices are on the same subnet.
I got it working the cool up and down tile changes the channel. But how do I go to a specific channel? And can the number in the setpoint show the actual channel if a use a remote to change the channel? Maybe a refresh button? Also. I tried using a routine with this. Simple one to set thermostat to 10 (as in channel 10). Doesn’t work.Maybe the simulated thermostat device won’t allow a specific number but allows scrolling up or down?
I didn’t really anticipate people using this to control the receivers on a day to day basis. Moreso for hooking into routines to do stuff like, tune to the news in the morning.
I did find an issue the other night where some devices will send “88.0” for “channel” 88, which messed up my logic. Should be a fairly easy fix. Can you get the logs for the application when it failed to tune for you? Might be the same problem.
As for the polling to receive the current channel and update the thermostat, it can probably be done. It would have to be on a timer so there would be some lag for sure.