universal or learning ir/rf remote recommendations?

JimS

Senior Member
I did the jp1 remotes for years for IR.  They were cheap and worked well.  Never got around to doing the diy computer interface for programming as the learning function did everything I needed.
 
Now I have several RF devices (firestick, airtv mini, not sure what else off hand) and the number of remotes are building up.  Looking for recommendations on universal or learning remotes that can do both ir and rf.
 
Have seen some info on generating the rf signals with an arduino or similar so could roll my own ir to rf box I suppose but would rather not.  Might do it if there was a complete project and didn't have to hack together from several other projects.
 
Get a Harmony Hub while you still can. It's just been announced they are discontinuing the remotes, but you should still be able to find them at retailers.
 
I especially like the remote with the added touch screen (I think it is called the "Elite").  It makes it really easy to add functions or buttons that aren't one of the physical remote buttons.  It's obviously more expensive than the regular remote (without touch screen), but it's totally worth it to have everything labeled on the remote so that anyone can use it.  With other remotes you might have to program buttons to do functions other than what they are labeled for.  (Pressing the "red" button to get your list of recorded shows displayed, etc).
 
I will probably be backing the Kickstarter for YIO remote two https://www.yio-remote.com/ when it comes out, I have 8 URC  remotes but the newer Total Control remotes use a different programming software that end users can't get. URC will not see another dollar from me now.
 
I have seen warnings, in multiple places that the Latest URC CCP update will require a Dealer Login to run. The remote control options are really drying up for DIY users.
 
URC's are workhorses - highly recommend. The pre-dealer login software should work for a long while. I got a stack of 850s from ebay that never let me down.
 
Everyone else is risky/experimental/weak or flaking out. I wouldn't trust something that's already sunsetted or a kickstarter. We appear to be in a valley of death between the starvation of the truly innovative companies (Harmony pre logitech, HAI/Omnipro pre Leviton, etc) and the emergence of Matter to simplify this and make it cheaper for manufacturers to play ball. I'm particularly salty at Logitech buying and killing both Harmony and Squeezebox. 
 
I doubt many people will read this but I received my Remote 2 remote from Unfolded Circle, it was formerly the YIO Remote 2. It has a few quirks right now but it is still being developed, it can do things my URC remotes can't, like integrate with Home Assistant for an example. I also plan on replacing my In-wall URC KP-4000 remotes with POE, In-wall Android touchscreens running Home Assistant GUI. The days of me giving money to consumer unfriendly companies are over, I have the URC CCP software but I am done buying their remotes.
 
I doubt many people will read this but I received my Remote 2 remote from Unfolded Circle, it was formerly the YIO Remote 2. It has a few quirks right now but it is still being developed, it can do things my URC remotes can't, like integrate with Home Assistant for an example. I also plan on replacing my In-wall URC KP-4000 remotes with POE, In-wall Android touchscreens running Home Assistant GUI. The days of me giving money to consumer unfriendly companies are over, I have the URC CCP software but I am done buying their remotes.
What Android touchscreens are you looking at? Did you find anything which doesn't have a battery?
 
I'm glad to know that there are companies still interested in the IR remote "game". With the discontinuation of the Harmony Hub, there hasn't been a lot of options. A lot of the URC stuff looks extremely "clunky" and complex. The Remote 2 looks incredible.
 
What Android touchscreens are you looking at? Did you find anything which doesn't have a battery?
I am not sure what ones I will go with, they are not normal consumer items so finding lists of available models is harder.
I am thinking about contacting this site https://geekland.co/?gad_source=5 to make sure the POE models don't have a battery, right now I am working on some other projects so I am not in a big hurry.
 
I'm glad to know that there are companies still interested in the IR remote "game". With the discontinuation of the Harmony Hub, there hasn't been a lot of options. A lot of the URC stuff looks extremely "clunky" and complex. The Remote 2 looks incredible.
I have been using URC remotes for a very long time, they are not too hard to program but the world is passing by IR only type remotes, they have some newer models but I am no longer interested. I have a couple of the URC MX-6000 remotes with wifi but the screens are low resolution and the two-way drivers are very limited and not so great. My URC In-wall touchscreens are way too small and suffer the same problems with lack of two-way drivers. The remote 2 is not fully sorted yet but has great potential, the screen looks great also. The remote 2 Home Assistant Integration is pretty nice.
 
Related to Home Assistant....

In 2022 I tested a couple of the Axis-TV-1000p room signage POE powered kiosk displays. Used and very reasonably priced. Custom bios and custom touchscreen with an 800 X 600 display. Worked well with Home Assistant. A bit large foot print and no battery. Thinking I got these for $50 each.


Also tested the Asus AIO which was much thinner and meant to be used as a POS screen.

On a much smaller screen format and working with POE (wireless) tested the rooted NS Panel Pro (Android) and it worked fine except it was a tad small.
 
The URC KP-4000 touchscreens I have now are even smaller than the NS Panel Pro, they do have Hard buttons surrounding the screen though. I am looking for an around 10"- 12" screen that sets in flush with the wall. I see people recommending Fully Kiosk to run on Android for automation use.
 
While looking on Youtube for In-wall touchscreens I saw a video on someone using a Crestron TSS-1060 B S touchscreen for Home Assistant. I found someone selling them on Ebay for $45 with the surface mount mounting bracket, I order a couple to play with and they came yesterday, it seems to be rather slow and to get into the settings to display the Home Assistant web page was a bit tricky.

In case anyone wants to try one here is what I did with mine, there is a small reset button on the back side, plug in the POE cable and hit the reset button every time the Crestron logo shows up for 10 or 11 times, wait a long time and when the settings screen comes up do a factory reset, wait a long time. When the touchscreen comes back up, open a web browser with the touchscreens IP address on a computer, from there you can change the startup app, I chose EMS and put in my Home Assistant IP address. The touchscreen will then need to be rebooted and when it restarts your HA web page will show up.

The touchscreen seems quite slow and not everything was working, my IP cameras would not show a live stream for one thing. From searching on the web I saw some people hint at the possibility of installing Linux on some models of Crestron touchscreens that run Android, from my searching I believe these are running Android 5. I thought some people who like to tinker may want to try playing with one since they are so cheap. The seller I bought mine from had a lot of these, the seller was meko9273.

Edit: Corrected Model number.
 
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You could tack on a small footprint "TV Box" to the back of a touchscreen. These typically come with Android and it is easy to convert them to Linux.

Found a POE wall mounted Android tablet on Ebay (there are a few of these of different sizes - a bit overpriced).

High-quality YC-102P 10'' Wall Mount Android POE Tablet Advertising Display
 
You could tack on a small footprint "TV Box" to the back of a touchscreen. These typically come with Android and it is easy to convert them to Linux.

I saw where some people were using a Raspberry Pi with a POE hat, I did install one of the Crestron panels today, it was an easy swap for my old URC touchscreen.
 
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