The state of IR ... solid or flaky?

C

cinoh2000

New Member
When I started thinking about HA + home theater automation for the house we're designing, I pictured IR as a sort of commodity technology that would be a no-brainer: connect sensors and blinkers in appropriate rooms and configure them in the HA software. Bingo. Remote control button presses could be triggers for HA actions, and actions could generate flashes to control stuff. Simple, right?? But the more I research here and on other sites, it seems it's not as universal as I assumed. I'm not talking about complexity of configuration or one HA product vs. another... I'd just like to hear from the troops here if you're even able to include *reliable* IR control in your HA solutions at all! Any thoughts? Any product families that you can always count on, or ones that you avoid like the plague??? Thanks!
 
IR is still very common in HA systems when it comes to controlling AV gear. I have 5 rooms of AV gear controlled by my Elan g! system. There are 2/3 devices in each location that still rely on IR. While it would be nice if everything came with two-way control via a network connection that is not (yet) the case.
 
i have tried various IP2IR devices from GC and even dropped some coin on iRule to make layouts. I found the whole process very complicated, from the very limited IR DB, getting the device to record the IR commands, having to send the entire string for the IR code to xmit, and the complicated program to build layouts. I don't have the time or patience. I switched to Thinkflood RedEye units which have native iOS and Android apps, built in layouts and customization directly within the app or thru a web interface. They added a REST API to the RedEye controllers for easy integration with automation systems made it so easy. They even have a RedEye Pro rack mounted unit for whole house IR and serial control.

I was able to use the REST API and SiriProxy to control my AV equipment using voice commands from my iPhone.


RECOMMENDED
ThinkFlood RedEye - IR DB (but not as good as Harmony) - learns - stores - supports all modern IR code formats - public REST API - Native mobile device apps (free) - custom layouts - activities - program guide.

AVOID
Smarthome IRTrans - only supports older IR codes
IRTach or any GC unit - does not store codes - you have to send a long string to get the unit to send an IR command - so last century.
iRule layout software - expensive - complicated - so 1980's tech.
Logitech Link - like the plague - no public API - rushed to market after failed Google TV product and in response to RedEye devices.
 
I control my lighting and tstats along with the usual components (tv, avr, etc) with 100% reliability. I use a Harmony remote and added a Yamaha av receiver to it just to use the codes for HA. I have GC-100's connected to Elve to actually 'fire' the events.
Never missed.
 
+1 on the harmony remote for code learning. Pick a used one off eBay for cheap and to gain access to codes that aren't even on some remotes. Like discreet on and off codes, extremely useful in home automation scenes. I got 4 global caches units controlled through Elve. Its probably my favorite part of my setup due to the complexity of my scenes and the reliability of the install (100%).
 
+1 on the global cache solutions.  Both iTach and GC-100 work great for reliable IR.  I'm using a free home automation software too (called Premise), so I am only out the cost of the iTach device.  The iTach device I use is the WIFI2IR.  It works great, but be sure to update the firmware if you get old stock!
 
Edit PS:  Global Cache is fine in Premise.  You only paste the IR code once when you initially create the module using a wizard.  There's a video on how to do it in my signature.
 
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