I have many of my amplifiers and other equipment in my house that use IR as a remote control setup on HomeKit vi the Home Bridge extension, so I never need to look for a remote control but just pull out my iPhone (or any iOS devices in the house) that is usually handy.
The actually IR transceiver I use is one of the Chinese BroadLink devices that you can pickup on eBay for <$20. Rather than use the BroadLink (dodgy) app, you can just control (and learn IR) via TCP transactions (from HomeKit).
What I’m wondering is if via some extension mechanism in Roon, if I can control the volume and ON/OFF status of an amplifier directly from the Roon interface (see above).
I would imagine this could be via the Device Setup options:
Rather than using fixed Volume or being able to change the volume of the EndPoint digitally, there would be an “IR Remote” option. You could then load the following details via a text configuration file:
IP address of IR transceiver
IR function: (ON/OFF/Up/Down)
IR Code
You could have other options such as number of times to repeat code, delay, etc. This would then create the +/- volume buttons and some On/Off button under volume control for the zone. Then rather than have control the IR volume separately you can do it all within Roon. The issue with digital is that you need to pre-set the amplifier volume quite high to get the dynamic range. If then someone else switches the AMP to another source like TV, you could get excessive volume. Classic digital remote volume problem.
There are a couple of ‘projects’ that use Extensions. One that uses Logitech Harmony wifi hub and another that also works with Harmony and can set absolute volume on some AVRs.
Hi Larry,
thanks, I did see a few of those posts after posting this. Still need to get my head around what Roon provides in terms of customisation of the native interface.
Also to be clear:
I don’t wish to control Roon via IR, but permit Roon to control an external device via IR. The simplicity is that there is no need to build a custom interface to an IR emitter. You just need to create a an HTTP or TCP transaction and point it at a transceiver that is sitting on your LAN and ideally within line of sight of your equipment. So this plugin could exist anywhere on your network, co-located with the Core or on a seperate box.
This post looks very close to the mark. I’ll get in touch when I have time.
My preference for the BroadLink is you can setup the entire automation for just a few bucks!
Understood. I use the Deep Harmony extension but I already had the Harmony hub-based remote.
Roon has an Extension/API interface of sorts, I’m afraid I don’t know anymore than this…and this may not be technically correct. There are some very smart people in the Tinkering section that will be able to enlighten as to what is possible.
