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Infrared range

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  • rob_houwelingrob_houweling Member
    Mesomelas said:
    rob_houweling said:
    I've been doing some testing with IR as well. Using my cellphone's camera I can see that signals are  being sent by homey but they appear to be quite weak in comparison to the original remote of the devices I tested. My homey is approximately 5 meters aways from the devices I want to control with a direct view on them but nothing seems to work.
    Either the signals are to weak or the signals homney learns are being sent out wrong. My devices were not in the database so I had to do a manual addition.


    @rob_houweling an easy way to test if the signal is wrong is to hold Homey in front of the device.
    I have had different results, my projector for example just doesn't seem to recognize the IR signal from Homey.
    My television at the other hand has range issues and only seems to work well when I hold Homey in a range of +/- 2,5 meters or put Homey higher then the television.

    I understand that you want to be able to control your device from a 5 meters range, so do I, but it helps trouble shooting if you just hold it in front.
    I haven't tested it from nearby yet, when I have the possibility to test this I'll post a response here.
  • MarcoWijkMarcoWijk Member
    I,ve got it some-what working. @2 meters it's working-ish. My TV responds, even my upc-horizon is turned on and off. Changing the channel is still a nightmare. Not sure if it's poor reception of IR or a faillure of Homey to reproduce the correct signal quick enough. Channel 1 to 9 works, but 10 and so on, are a problem (except 11 or 111, 22 or 222,  etc.) 

    Anyhow... For my TV and Horizon I had to aim it exactly, one inch to the left and it doesn't work. The beam is too narrow and too weak in my opion. I remember Emile saying that, after they had some problems with production and added the holes for the iR-leds, the range had improved to about 7 meters...  My best guess is that the holes are to small (or the led are not close enough) and blocking the IR some-what.
  • MarcoFMarcoF Member
    edited April 2016
    MarcoWijk said:
    Anyhow... For my TV and Horizon I had to aim it exactly, one inch to the left and it doesn't work. The beam is too narrow and too weak in my opion. I remember Emile saying that, after they had some problems with production and added the holes for the iR-leds, the range had improved to about 7 meters...  My best guess is that the holes are to small (or the led are not close enough) and blocking the IR some-what.
    I can remember I read or Emile said that the 6 beams are that powerfull the bounce through the room and so can reach every device (which is normally reachable).

    I also have the idea the holes are not big enough and/or the led are to far back and/or the LED are not good aligned with the holes. 

    If I'm right since first shipments there's almost no improvement on IR. 

    Very curious IF and HOW Athom can fix this.....
  • BumblezBumblez Member
    edited April 2016
    So we need to put range extenders right in front of the Homey, to make IR useful? That's disappointing!

    And yes, according to this Kickstarter update (and the associated video), IR range should be a lot better!
  • MaRaMaRa Member
    Yesterday I had some troubles of getting homey to learn the IR signals.
    Today I figured out (with the help of this thread ;) ) that for some signals I had to push and hold the button for 3 seconds and wait some time before the signal showed up in the learning menu.
    For other signals, I had to push it multiple times within 3 seconds and wait for the signal to show up.
    Apparently I was not patient enough for the signal to show up in the menu. :s

    The range of the IR is OK here. It's about 5 meters from homey to the tv. But I must say that homey is pretty good aligned to the tv by chance.

    I did notice that homey stutters when he wants to speak, switch lights (433mhz) and sends IR signals at the same time.
    This stuttering was solved by delaying the IR signal for 1 second.

    The last "problem" I had:
    When I want to repeat a signal  (volume up) several times (x5), the tv only receives some of them.
    This was "solved" by putting the "push a buton" card sevaral times in the flow editor with different delays.
    But I still notice that the signals were not learned correctly. Probably because this was one of the buttons where I had to push multiple times within 3 seconds to get it learned by homey.

    But for now, I'm pretty happy with my homey!


  • MesomelasMesomelas Member
    I seem to have some luck as wel.

    Added another device and that seems to work at a range of say 5 meters (didn't test it futher away) so that's nice!
    Interesting thing is that my television only seems to work at a much shorter range, what could be the reason for this? 

    Last but not least I've got my projector which doesn't seem to work regardless of all suggestions in this thread.
    I tried pushing the button a few times in a row, 15 times in 3 seconds, once, just 3 seconds etc. no luck at all.

    Is there anything else I could try to make it recognize the device?
    Is there another way to tell homey which IR command to send?
  • MG11MG11 Member
    Hello guys,

    after several tests with IR range and signal recognition - here are my findings:

    I made tests with simple ON/OFF functionality with 2 different devices: Yamaha Soundbar, Comedes Air Purifier.

    The IR range of Homey is not that bad: with 5 meters distance the signal goes through.
    BUT the huge problem of Homey is the transmission field (and probably the signal strengt) which means:
    Homey and the other device should stand DIRECTLY in front of each other: face to face. The same thing with the position level/height: if Homey's sight angle is steep (f.e. homey stands 2 meters above the floor & device stands ca. 20-40cm above the floor and the distance between them is only 1-2 meters ) - the signal's got lost.   

    So after my tests I would suppose that the main problem is the poor Homey's IR hardware and the construction (which is limiting the sight angle) itself. This is very frustrating and I'm afraid the guys won't be able to fix those problems with software tweaks. :(
  • chrisnashchrisnash Member
    This is disappointing to hear. I was hoping to use the ir functionality predominantly. It's a bit of a deal breaker if the final production units operate like this. 
  • bvdbosbvdbos Member
    It also depends on the IR-protocol. I have a setup with the two meter for Homey and 20 cm for my stereo. They are three meters apart from each other. This works perfectly for my stereo (philips).
  • jjtbsomhorstjjtbsomhorst Member
    MG11 said:
    Hello guys,

    after several tests with IR range and signal recognition - here are my findings:

    I made tests with simple ON/OFF functionality with 2 different devices: Yamaha Soundbar, Comedes Air Purifier.

    The IR range of Homey is not that bad: with 5 meters distance the signal goes through.
    BUT the huge problem of Homey is the transmission field (and probably the signal strengt) which means:
    Homey and the other device should stand DIRECTLY in front of each other: face to face. The same thing with the position level/height: if Homey's sight angle is steep (f.e. homey stands 2 meters above the floor & device stands ca. 20-40cm above the floor and the distance between them is only 1-2 meters ) - the signal's got lost.   

    So after my tests I would suppose that the main problem is the poor Homey's IR hardware and the construction (which is limiting the sight angle) itself. This is very frustrating and I'm afraid the guys won't be able to fix those problems with software tweaks. :(
    I agree on that the IR is not working correctly but I don't agree on your findings. My homey is standing on a 1 meter high cabinet. The UPC media box is right beneath it on bottom shelf. When the sun is down and we have our lights on (thanks to homey) the UPC media box receives the IR commands almost perfectly. As soon as the sun is up and we have lots of reflections on the floor the IR commands travel where no IR command has traveled before.. I guess. So it is not only the angle but also the light / relfections. 
  • MG11MG11 Member
    jjtbsomhorst what if you put your Homey higher? - just try something higher than 1,5 meters. 
    Of course I can't say at what exact angle the connection is broken. My Homey stands on a shelf approx. 1.90 high. The soundbar is standing on the floor (20cm high) close to the shelf. And there is no way to transfer the IR commands. While the normal remote works great from every position and angle.

    I agree with you that the light conditions / reflections could disturb the connection as well. I'll try the same setting at late evening.

    But anyway I have to state that the IR functionality is very poor and extremely disappointing. So I really hope those issues can be fixed by software updates. 
  • WilbertWilbert Member
    I have not got any signal out of my ir. Also when i look with my phonecamera I see no ir light like you see with a normal ir remote. Could one of you with working ir see if you can for me?
  • GeurtDijkerGeurtDijker Member
    ModBreak:
    This post/discussion is deprecated and therefore closed.
    Please search the forum for a recent discussion. 
    For questions or if someone disagrees, please contact me or one of the Community moderators.


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