Hi everyone, i just bought my hubitat and is a novice to home automation.
I have ceiling fan/TV using RF/IR controllers, is it possible to link them to hubitat with a 3rd part device like broadlink etc?
Thanks!
Yep I use a couple of broadlink's to control my projector screen (rf) and a dehumidifier (ir).
I use this app [WITHDRAWN] NATIVE Broadlink RM/RM Pro/RM Mini/SP driver & RC HVAC Manager
I use a bond home controller currently. Don’t love the way I have to learn new/custom devices but it works.
Tried the Harmony integration a while back but didn’t like it for some reason because I disconnected it at some point.
so HE is able to connect with Broadlink?
How does it really work? Using HE to instruct broadlink and broadlink to control the IF/RF devices?
I saw this bond controller, it is able to control all kinds of RF/IF devices thru learning the controllers?
Yes there’s a community-developed driver for a few broadlink RM devices. However if you take a look at the linked thread, the dev withdrew the original links to his code and it is now unsupported. People are still using it AFAIK.
Bond can learn RF/IR signals from an original device remote. And the community dev that created the bond integration is still an active user here.
IMHO, if I hadn’t purchased either device yet, I would stick with the one that has a Hubitat integration that is still being supported by the dev (i.e. Bond).
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Yea so the nice thing abound Bond is being able to point any IR/RF remote at it for learning and once setup on your network I believe the commands from Hubitat to the Bond bridge are sent locally.
The disadvantage is Bond was created to only control ceiling fans, lights, blinds and fireplaces so when you create a new device in Bond and program new signals from an IR/RF remote you have to map them to fan functions and then remember what you programmed each button to do.
For example, if I was using a Fan/light combo to map an IR controlled RGB light then turning the strip on or off might be mapped to light on/off, then changing the color might be brightness up and brightness down, while starting or stopping an animation sequence could be fan speed on/off and animation speed linked to Fan speed…. After the first 4-6 though it starts to get tricky.
Then when you go into Hubitat since you mapped your RGB strip to a fan that is what It shows up as so when you write your automations/rules you have to remember what fan control does what.
That being said, once you get past that initial setup and have everything working it seems pretty solid, at least it has been for me.
I control a few devices in other rooms via RF and it reaches without issue but I assume IR needs line of sight… I’ve never tried controlling an IR device in any other room than my office where the Bond controller is.
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I use the bond hub for my shades and one fan. For the shades it works pretty well. I am not as happy with the fan light integration, but I think it's more an issue with the Fan than the bond hub. I told my wife to get whatever fan she wanted and I didn't realize till it was up how much of an issue the remote part was going to be integrating with HE. It works mostly but it can be contagious at times.
