Thought I’d plug my IR code for anyone who was interested in integrating TV remote control to their smartthings. I wrote this because when watching TV it can be a significant effort to figure out where my phone is. This requires a SmartThings shield, and an ir reciever (you can get them online or at radio shack for a few bucks). Requires basically no electronics experience: the IR reciever has three pins, one goes to 5v, one goes to ground, and one goes to pin 5. That’s it.
Currently, it’s hard-coded to use the four colored buttons on a TiVo primere remote (because that’s what I have lying around, and I wanted to use something that didn’t do anything). Someone could easily modify the code to allow you to save arbitrary commands, but that’s not really needed for my setup so I haven’t bothered at this point.
I have it set up so that red and green turn a group of switches on and off. Blue and Yellow are left as the test switches I was using for virtual devices in testing: this is because in my actual version these control a beer vending fridge that uses http commands via iobridge, and I’d rather not expose the url that allows anyone to start throwing cans around my apartment. The code’s pretty simple, but feel free to ask any questions.
Just to make sure I understand this correctly: your project is to use a stock IR remote (specifically TiVo here) to operate things in your house, e.g. lights? So the idea is that you could link up any buttons you want to these tasks, then point the remote you’re using for your TV at the IR receiver and get those functions without needing your phone?
That’s correct. All of the functions you add to the app are controlled by the tv remote, and you never need to use the smartthings app once it’s installed.
Ken, it really does look interesting. It would be interesting to hear the different ways people can think to use this. One that comes to mind could be to have the bedroom TV power off button function as a Goodnight trigger that ensures all lights are off, doors locked, security on etc - assuming it is triggered after a certain time. Just thinking out loud here…
@kaulet
Could you repost this link? The new forum isn’t linking to your instructions.
I would like to have a scene that when I turn my TV power on (Logitech harmony 650), it turns off the fan lights and dims the kitchen. So far, the only elegant solution is using an IR to Insteon device with insteon switches. I would rather not go that route since I already have z-wave in the house.