First reviews of 2019 coming up… starting with the Eachen WIFI-IR Universal Remote (touted as Sonoff but it isn’t Sonoff).
This inexpensive unit needs USB power to run and comes with it’s own microUSB cable – the assumption being that you have spare USB supplied lying around (not a good start). The cable in fact was too short for testing (pointless testing it in the office so I took it into the living room where the TV sits – and hence the remote controls it has to emulate).
I got off to a good start as the unit recognised my Android 9-powered Pocophone F1 almost immediately and paired with it using the freely-downloadable “Smart Life” app. As recommended I added the Smart IR unit, paired it to my phone (easily) and began adding IR remotes to it. Incidentally, at this point I should say the unit claims compatibility with Alexa, Google and IFTTT.
I’m comparing this to my everyday “One For All” remotes which seem to learn just about anything.
Despite having storage for countless TVs and TV boxes including Medion devices, the Eachen remote would not acknowledge my Medion TV remote – completely ignored it. The remote is able to handle various Medion models according to the booklet but it would not take mine. I resolved to using the DIY learning option and the remote accepted the keys I gave it, no problem.
Next hurdle, my TV box – the H96 Max Plus I reviewed earlier – https://tech.scargill.net/h96-max-plus-usb-3-tv-box/
At this point, things went downhill. As I wrote at the time I did not like the simple remote that came with the H96 (missing functionality) and went out and bought a better one. All standard 38Khz stuff. I tried BOTH of these nameless remotes on the Eachen “Universal” Remote to no avail, it simply would not acknowledge them in DIY mode. As, for me, the point of a universal remote is to replace existing remotes, the unit fails my usability test. As the second was purchased independently of the H96, it is clearly operating on standard 38Khz frequencies. However, the Eachen was not having either.
Also, on the buttons to my TV which did work, there is no haptic feedback built into the APP and hence it becomes impossible to watch TV and press buttons at the same time. What WERE the designers thinking of?
I’m pretty sure that people with different remote controls will have a different, possibly better experience but for me, this was a (granted inexpensive) failure.
I think I’ll stick with the “ONE FOR ALL”.
It works, thank you! I had to remove the outer case to increase the range, this thing is not engineered very well, I barely get 4 meters of range…
Hello, I noticed that there is a precompiled binary dedicated to IR devices, that one seems to perfectly understand the commands sent from my daikin remote! I’m still trying to understand HOW to send the commands, however… This is a lot of fun, thanks for your help!
copy the json you get when you press the AC key from tasmota console, and send it back using the IRSEND command
Oh, sorry – I said “somewhere here” then forgot to include the link – still – looks like it is all sorted.
I used gitpod to compile 8.1.0.9 and it works!
Thank you!
did you need special features missing in stock binaries? Look at the BUILDS.md file on tasmota site to see what’s included in each of them… it’s very rare you need to compile a bin file yourself, these days… i had to do to add a capacitive touch keypad mpr121, recently, but other than that, very few other times…
Hi DrFragle I´m looking for examples cause I want to implement MPR121 as multiple buttons to toggle relays on other Tasmota device. I mean tasmota1 with MPR121 and Tasmota2 with 8 relays, I can´t find how to implement that, nodered? rules?
something like this (which uses nothing else than ip addresses, of course they have to be fixed or reserverd in dhcp…):
rule1 on MPR121A#button11=1 do websend [192.168.1.7] power1 toggle endon
beware, you need to have a very basic tasmota bin file to have the keyboard send out signals quickly… i tried the Platinum version (as NONE of the basic bin files contain the mpr121 sensor) and it was veeeeeeeeeeeery slow, while compiling a very basic setup with just what i need (home assistant, alexa, mqtt, the sensor itself and not much more) the signals are pretty much instantaneus now
how? gitpod is your friend, info on tasmota site
to just try, here the addon tasmota binaries: https://github.com/tasmota/binaries
Hello,
where can I download a binary of tasmota 8.1.0.3?
Thanks!
scrolling down in this page: http://thehackbox.org/tasmota/archive/
You will need to ask the Tasmota guys where to get that – the current version of Tasmota is 8.1.0.9 – strangely I have a couple of units that point blank refuse to upgrade from 8..0.3 – I have no idea why. Somewhere here perhaps?
Hi Peter,
apart from Tasmota-lite, all other firmwares are too big to be upgraded in a single shot and you need to go through tasmota-minimal.
If you upgrade OTA from the hackbox this is transparent.
If you upgrade OTA from you own web server, you must have tasmota-minimal.bin in the same folder as the new firmware you want to upgrade and it will be transparent too.
If you upgrade through the web GUI you must manually upgrade to minimal then upgrade to your final firmware.
Hope this helps.
AFAIK dev versions are not archived, only releases + latest dev.
If you need a specific version you need to pull the right code and recompile it by yourself. There are some easy ways to do so using one of:
– Jason’s Portable VSC+platformIO
– Blakadder’s docker-tasmota
– gitpod
But there are little reasons to get a specific version. Get the latest and you will get latest version of IR library
all previous builds are on the thehackbox ARCHIVE link i gave in an other comment down here
and for IR, there’s a specific binary with addon features, always on thehackbox site
Sorry I missed that detail
AAAAAAAAND, an other one bites the dust! Tasmotized this one, too, using Tuya-Convert (latest 2.3 version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt5-iZc4_qU ), then once put in my network i moved from stock tasmota in tuya convert folder to thehackbox minimal and the finally to tasmota-IR.bin file, ad hoc firmware for infrared devices… works good, i’m happy
template: https://templates.blakadder.com/eachen-IR-DC6.html
latest tasmota 8.1.0.3 has update IR libs (“Update IRremoteESP8266 lib updated to v2.7.2”), too: https://github.com/arendst/Tasmota/blob/development/tasmota/CHANGELOG.md#8103-20200106
Having followed your home automation with “TheScript” and Node Red, I also follow DrZzs (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7G4tLa4Kt6A9e3hJ-HO8ng). And he uses the broadlink RM mini – https://goo.gl/3V7MtR which might be another alternative? He mentions the app on the phone is not rated good, but then again he used “Home Automation” and Tasmota, whereas you use primarily Node-Red, and TheScript. However, maybe you can take a look and see if it can be adapted to your needs?