Teach Your BroadLink Remote

In my apartment, I have control over fifteen devices. Twelve of them are controlled via RF Outlets. I used some dot stickers on the back of my outlets to number them. With that, I paired each outlet with a remote and made a table. I used  different remotes for different uses. One for the living room, one for the bedroom, and a third was used for my fish tank and Christmas Tree. I programmed them this way so I can use the remotes as a backup, in the off chance the system is down.

Aukey Outlet Legend
#	Device	Remote	Button
1	Bedroom Lamp	3	3
2	Bedroom Fan	3	2
3	Bedroom Speaker	3	4
4	Heater (Tank)	2	3
5	Lamp	1	1
6	Entry Lamp	1	2
7	Entry Fan	1	3
8	Living Room Fan	1	4
9	Fish Tank Light	2	1
10	Window Fan	3	1
11	Fish Tank Filter	2	2
12	Christmas Tree	2	4

• After the outlets have been paired with the remotes, you can teach the button codes to the BroadLink.
• Inside the Services section in the Developer Tools area, you will be able to find the “broadlink” domain and the “learn command” service.
• Calling this service will activate the BroadLink’s learning function.

• The orange light should pop on, this means it’s waiting for a signal.
• Push your remote’s button.
• It doesn’t always catch the code on the first go, it may take a couple of tries.
• When the code has been learned, the orange light will shut off.

• Go to your Home Assistant’s States tab and there should be a new card with a long string of numbers and letters. You’ll use this string in the configuration file.
• Double click to select the code, then copy it.
• The code I captured is for turning my living room lamp on.

Open the configuration.yaml file.

	switch:
	– platform: broadlink
	host: IP ADDRESS
	mac: 'MAC_ADDRESS'
	switches:
	lamp:
	friendly_name: "Living Room Lamp"
	command_on: sgo0AAsdCx0LHR4KCx4LHR4KHQsLHR4KCx0LHQsdCx0LHR4KCx0LHQsdCx0eCh4KCx0eCgsAAToAAAAA
	command_off: sgY0AAsdCx0LHR4KCx0LHR4KHQoLHR4KCx0LHQsdCx0KHR4KCx0LHQsdCx0eCh4KCh0LHQoAAToAAAAA

view raw

broadlink_switch

hosted with ❤ by GitHub

• Add the code to your configuration file.
• Repeat this process to capture the “off” function as well.
• When finished, the switch should be set up like this.
• Remember to save!
• Now check the configuration, if it comes back valid, restart Home Assistant.
• You’ve just configured your first switch!

• The process works the same way for IR commands.
• The RF and IR commands will look different.

Now comes the task of inputting all of your remote functions. It’s going to be annoying. It just is. Put on some good music, maybe have a snack easily accessible, and just start plugging away.

Tips for Adding Codes

• Check your configuration and restart after each addition. This will prevent a terrible headache if any of your codes is bad.
• A bad code can cause the Switches card in the front end to disappear.
• You can find out which code is bad by using your “on” code in both the “command_on” and “command_off” places
  • If, after a config check and restart, the Switches card is back, recapture your “off”code.
  • If the Switches card does not come back, it is probably your “on” code causing the problem. Recapture and try again.
• On and Off codes both seem to be required to have a valid configuration. I have some “Off” codes that are never used.
• Everything inputted this way will look like a switch. These entities can be changed or hidden later.
• Sometimes long IR codes can cause issues. It seems people have success by adding one or two “=” at the end of the problem code.
• The RF codes that seem to work best are shorter in length. All of my RF codes are this size: ‘sgk0AAsdCx0eCgsdHgoeCgsdCx0LHQsdCx0eCgsdCx0LHR4KCx0LHQsdCx0eCh4KHgoeCgsAAToAAAAA’
• You can leave comments in YAML files with hashtags #.

Once you’ve got all of your devices configured, you should have a States screen similar to this.

Congrats! You can now control your devices from you computer or phone! It can be reached at http://hassio.local:8123/ or use your Raspberry Pi’s IP number http://YOURIPNUMBER:8123/ Most of the hard work is finished at this point. It will only be accessible from your home network for now. You can add remote access later. After this you will want to organize your devices into groups, then you can make them controllable via the Echo Dot.

Now you’ve got some control of your devices! What devices did you connect to? What devices will be most convenient for you to use this way?

If these guides have been helpful to you , please share them! If you have any questions, please reach out to me in the comments. Thanks for visiting!

Advertisement