Best IR hardware + Plugin

Other Devices & Integrations Home Theater & Smart Speakers
1

Dear Forum,

I was always reluctant to buy any IR transmitter/receiver because I was flooded with so many manufacturer/plugins and their related bugs ( global cache, USB_UIRT, SQBlaster,etc…,etc…)

is there any unanimous agreement over the “Best” IR transmitter?

(can be intergrated with scenes, works well with most manufacturers, learns new comands, works with sqremote, reliable over distances, stable plugin)

your opinion really counts

Thanks

2

SQ blaster has worked great for my home theater. It can be controlled by Vera and/or its own iphone/ipad app. Very reliable in my situation. They have promised Vera control will be easier to program in the future when MCV creates a better interface with the blaster. They have been saying that for some time however. I would still recommend the product highly.

3

I’m very happy with the SQblaster. It has worked perfectly for me. However I only control it with SQremote (which has also worked great).

4

I have both a USB-UIRT and and a SQBlaster and the SQBlaster “blasts” the USB-UIRT into oblivion :slight_smile:

The SQBlaster plugin works well enough with the inbuilt IR plugins, and its not too difficult to generate your own either using the tool @guessed’s wrote to parse saved SQRemote configs.

Also the SQblaster has support for multiple key repeat sequences and held buttons etc when used stand-alone with the SQRemote app, the USB-UIRT on the other hand cant do this with Vera and SQRemote app! Things like volume changed etc require multiple taps etc.

5

Great help, SQblaster it is then! thanks

6

how to implement it?

7

You have to start by installing the the Plugin for it from here:
http://code.mios.com/trac/mios_sqblaster

8

The SQ-blaster is 200usd. Isn’t that very very expensive for an IR-transmitter? Are there no cheaper alternatives that works almost as well? How can there be any big difference?

9

It is a bit more money than something like a USB-UIRT, but considering the built in WiFi, flexibility of being able to place it anywhere, along with the extensive IR databases built in, and the excellent stand-alone support when used with an iDevice, its worth it!

10

@Strangely, I have been in the same boat as @achalhoub.

Since I have multiple racks of A/V to control and already over budget (cough… wife… cough) will the USB-UIRT work as long as I don’t mind the multiple taps for volume control? Does it support Macros when built in the SQ Remote app?

11

Yes the USB-UIRT will work, but plug-in support is sketchy and you’ll have to build a lot of them yourself!

I believe Macros are supported by SQ remote through Vera, (although they weren’t at one stage), and although I haven’t tested this in a while, the way I used to do it was by creating a scene In Vera (using the advanced scene tab) that was essentially the individual Macro steps in Vera, and have SQ remote call that scene as part of the SQ remote Macro.

I really cant emphasize how much better the SQ blaster/puck is at doing this stuff compared to Vera and a USB-UIRT or GC100/iTach. The Blaster still also has its own Vera Plugin (thanks to @guessed), and using that, and the blaster backups, its relatively easy to create plugins for your AV gear in Vera also for things that you may wish to automate on timers etc… which is something that the blaster and SQ remote cant accomplish alone at the moment with the “present” hardware.

12

is square blaster worth it too for those of us without an idevice? Does vera along do everything or do i need an idevice to program it and the like?