I was looking for a handheld remote to control Roon more compfortable like with a smartphone. Now I found a quite interesting DIY project: https://www.yio-remote.com/.
It is a beautiful device intended for smart home and media player control. I decided to participate to the project and implement a Roon control extension.
I wanted to find out if there is some more interest on this solution to decide if I implement a solution just for me or a solution suited for a broader user community.
I would use an iPhone or Android. I see they are soliciting contributions.
The type of remote that I’d love to work with Roon is this one: https://www.senic.com/en/nuimo-control
Essentially, a version of what Devialet does with their remote. I had contacted Scenic a while ago about building in Roon compatibility but so far they haven’t done it.
I took a look to the NUIMO control. Looks nice, but how can you browse your music albums without a display ?
Ok, but unlocking it constantly ? Starting some app ? I think it should be as easy as using a TV remote.
Maybe the smartphone is beeing charged right now.
Nobody uses a smartphone to control a TV. Simple TV remotes do not have a display. In my opinion a dedicated small remote with a display for browsing is the optimum for music player control.
There are solutions from Crestron or Control4. But running on tablet like, typically wall mounted devices. No room for it at the living room table. It makes no sense without buying their whole smart home universe.
I totally disagree, but that’s OK.
Same here. For browsing purposes, selecting or building playlists etc, nothing beats a phone or tablet app (you could dedicate a cheap tablet as Roon remote and switch off automatic locking of the display.
Really the only thing “I” am missing is a remote for when music already plays. Volume, mute, skip, stop. That’s it. And for the a Senic Integration would be nice.
OSMC remote will work with Ropieee and can control one zone but functionally is maybe limited to play/pause fwd/back - not sure if Harry got Volume in there yet.
It is quite nice having a remote to skip tracks, pause when the phone rings, change the volume etc. In my main system the Naim Atom has a remote which works with Roon.
Well, of course, you can’t browse your albums without a display, but as far as I’m concerned, there’s still a use case for a simple remote for play controls only. Like @Thorsten_Vieth, I also contacted Senic to see if there was interest in doing an Nuimo integration with Roon. I had a reply back (in July) saying that they had “quite a few” requests for Roon support and that I should stay tuned…
Having said that, the Yio also looks very interesting, and with the addition of the touchscreen, the range of use cases becomes much wider. It’s not clear to me how the Yio would communicate with the wider world though; IR, WiFi, Z-wave, ZigBee?
Yio is not only intended for media player control. It is also a smart home control device supporting smarthome hubs like homey, home assistant, openhab. It also supports Infrared control (including learning).
Yup, that’s what I meant by “the range of use cases becomes much wider”. As a user of Domoticz myself, I’ll at least be keeping an eye on this project.
Paired with any Harmony remote you might have or like
I just seen this on Kickstarter and decided to back it. I have no experience with these sort of projects but I’m willing to give it a go. The roon integration is the only reason I bought it. Thanks @Christian_Riedl
@Christian_Riedl - Just been looking at the YIO forum, and I see that you’re active there, and developing an integration with Roon. Are you making use of the Roon APIs, or are you rolling your own?
@Christian_Riedl - further reading of the YIO forum has turned up a message that indicates that you are no longer doing work for the project, although you will continue to work on your own. A pity, and clearly a blow to the possibility that the YIO remote will have an integration with Roon.
@Geoff_Coupe :
I will use the YIO remote mainly for the ROON integration. I hope that Marton and his team will finish the YIO core / UI software in a way that it fits to the ROON requirements. Maybe one of this guys will complete my ROON integration. If not, I will do it and make it available to the YIO team.
Assume that you will get the ROON integration when the YIO kit will be available.
“Ok, but unlocking it constantly ? Starting some app ? I think it should be as easy as using a TV remote.
Maybe the smartphone is beeing charged right now.”
@Christian_Riedl Use a dedicated smartphone or even better a tablet for Roon. Apple devices have the “Guided Access Mode” which runs a single app (Roon in this case), prevents you from switching to other apps and disables the lock screen. I’m sure Android devices have a similar feature. You can configure configure Roon to prevent the phone/tablet from sleeping. The only requirement is to have the “remote” plugged into a charger, at least when it is not being used.
It’s not quite plug and play but hey, we’re in the Tinkering section: I bought a cheapo USB remote from Aliexpress (currently USD 4.29), connected it to a Raspberry Pi and wrote a Roon extension (see GitHub) that controls Roon based on key presses from the remote.
It’s perfect for when I just want to play, pause, change volume or skip tracks. Also, since it’s so cheap, no need to worry about it being dropped or chewed on by pets or toddlers.
