Hey folks, I wanted to start a discussion because I have spent tons of time researching how to hook my Smarthings to control my TV and other devices. I found out that are a couple devices can help and they are in the range of $90~140ish. And in most cases no direct conection, we need use a bridge like IFTT.
So me and my friends we have decided to build one that will cost around $25. We have created several prototypes and we already give a way few to close friends and the response has been great they really like it. Let me know if you want to know more info
Initially we just wanted to have a way to turn on/off the tv when we were in/out of the house. After getting that done we noticed that we wanted more than that. So we started with turning off combinations of things like tv, dvr, sound system. Then we just kept wanting to more. To the point that we now have extremely custom activities. My personal favorite is the “going to bed” activity.
This is what it does:
Turn off all indoor lights.
Turn off the tv, dvr, and sound bar in the living room.
Hopefully our database will make it easy to for most common remotes and brands. For those that are not in our database we will have web driven solution for this. This will allow you to use a predefined template of a remote or you can create one from scratch. Then using the receiver in the back of the device you will be able to send your IR commands to be attached to the remote you created.
I don’t think there’s a problem with keeping the details to themselves until they launch their kickstarter campaign. Just not sure why they put the announcement in the forum already.
I make a better hardware/software engineer then community magaer .
@celblazer: We are building a very substantial database to include most common devices. Since we can possibly collect them all we have added a receiver to the back of it to learn new remotes. This will be enabled with a web driver wizard. It is not hand held it is usb powered. Prototype Link
@whoismoses: Haven’t finished to website yet but here is some info for you guys: www.remotsy.com. Need to update my message since it doesn’t just work with Alexa.
Feel free to ask me any more question that you may have. I would like to have a collection of q&a for the kickstarter which will launch in a few days. Here are a few more pictures to give you guys more context. Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3 Picture 4 Size comparison (subject to change)
Also, will you seek UL listing? As I’m sure you know, unlike FCC certification, UL listing is voluntary, but without it, you can’t sell the device at places like Home Depot or Best Buy.
Obviously you can do the same thing with an inexpensive android phone, an IR dongle, Tasker, and SharpTools, but it can be nice to have a prepackaged solution.
Yeah I tried a raspberry pi with IR dongle, but it was not cheap. It turned out to be a little under 45 dollars per room and the range for most dongle was pitiful. Instead I decided to opt for 4 awesome LEDS to increase the range.
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