Let me first introduce me. I’m an independant software developer from The Netherlands. And I like tinkering a lot, accompanied by lots of music.
Lately I developed some NodeJS app for my Athom Homey. (https://www.athom.com/). To be able to control Roon. The Homey is a real cool device. It has several radio antennas, an infrared receiver/transmitter. Basically it allows you to control everything in and around your house. It runs the latest version of NodeJs internally. So perfect match for the Roon api.
The app is currently in beta mode: https://github.com/mebrein/node-homey-roon. Of course you need to own a Homey device. The app now implements some basic functions like pausing/starting a zone. And the ability turning on some lights when Roon starts/stops. It can handle multiple zones. Once the app is accepted in the app store, it will be available to all Homey users. I’m really excited about it, although I have no clue how many Roon users actually have a Homey
Coming weeks I will keep adding more and more features to make it feature complete. Till now I had lots of fun developing this. And many thanks @Roonlabs thanks for making the api available on the NodeJS platform!!! I really enjoyed using it.
Looks like you have hit a milestone (I just checked their app store…)
There is no easy way to manually add an extension. Best is to do what you did: ask the developer if he wants to include it in the extension repository. But If I understood it correctly, this extension only runs on the Athom device and this device already has a distribution channel via its own app store. @MvM, please correct me if I’m wrong.
The other way around may make more sense, i.e. have the extension manager available as an app in the Homey store in order to run other Roon extensions on the device. (Don’t know how feasible this is, just thinking out loud)
Yes, the first beta was indeed accepted very quickly. (yay )
I guess the best place for the extension manager is on the Roon core itself. The Homey app runs on the Homey itself, as a positive side affect it will have minimal performance impact on Roon.
Some elaboration on use cases. Homey is built for home automation with no programming involved from the end-users… So the following should be feasible right out-of-the-box. Sending the title of the current song to twitter. When a specific output turns on, the Philips Hue light, or IKEA lamp next to the output also will be turned on/dimmed. And only then when it’s dark inside the room. Because Homey knows whether it is day or night. Or Homey could turn on some other devices. Homey has an infrared transmitter, which can learn the signal of other remotes. A lot of high-end devices have infrared controls… Maybe Homey can learn those and be the single remote control. You also can connect your Alexa to Homey. Currently I use it to control the volume of my LS-50.
Coming days I will add more functionality. Like the settings page, and the prev/next controls. But basic functionality (pairing), and a stable connection to Roon, is already there.
Bump this thread, yes.
I too would like to tie at least the basic Roon controls (play/pause, forward, volume up/down) to my Homey ecosystem. I would like to include Roon playback in my automation flows and maybe use Roon playlists.
BluOS is integrated in Homey quite well, for instance. There is no listing for Roon under ‘devices’ in Homey, however. Does anybody know what the current state of Roon/Homey integration is?
Bump. If I wasn’t such a mediocre developer I would take up this project. Alas, after getting the Homey Pro 2023, I would really like to have some control over Roon, like I have with Sonos, Spotify or even a lot of my stereo appliances (Homey have a nice infrared control library).
As an interim solution, and an excellent one with a bit of work, I installed the Roon integration into Home Assistant and then added the Roon end-points using the Home Assistant Community Homey App (the official one works too, but not as well). Once this is done, you have full media player control of Roon in Homey!
HA is pretty easy to install on a Raspberry Pi, so have used this solution for a few other integrations that don’t yet exist for Homey but are available in HA, effectively just using HA as a bridge, which has been very stable so far.
Today, I submitted a new version of my Roon app for approval to the Homey App Store!
This update lets you manage Roon directly from Homey by selecting a Zone (for grouped devices) and/or an Output (for managing a single output). It includes essential features like starting, stopping, and adjusting the volume. Additionally, it displays the current song, artist, and album in labels, which you can use in other Homey flows. The artwork is also visible within the Homey app.
For the Output device, you can set the volume to a specific percentage via a flow or adjust it using a slider. However, I plan to remove the slider in a future update to prevent the risk of setting the volume to 100%, which could potentially damage audio equipment. While the code respects Roon’s soft volume limit, it’s always better to be cautious. (Please note: as a developer, I cannot be held responsible for any equipment damage, as this is free and open-source software.)
With the Zone device, you can adjust the volume for all outputs together using the + and - buttons, which increase or decrease the volume in steps of 1.
Once the app is approved, it will be available to everyone. And I will post an update here. Fingers crossed!
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Guess the Roon for Homey app needs some love… I’ll try to give it a look when I can.
