The media center remote is a home automation integration device for receiving signals from an infrared remote controller and dispatching commands to multiple devices through direct serial connections and webservice calls. This project uses the ESPHome framework, which has made it so much easier to develop, debug and monitor standalone IoT devices.

Switching HDMI devices and interacting with Kodi

Using an ESP8266, an infrared receiver module, and a RS-232 to TTL UART converter module, this integration device is able to:

A breadboard diagram showing an ESP8266 connected to an infrared receiver module and RS-232 to TTL UART converter module
Breadboard diagram
An ESP8266 wired up to an infrared receiver module and RS-232 to TTL UART converter module
Wired up prototype
An ESP8266 and RS-232 to TTL UART converter module in a simple 3D-printed case
A simple case to hold it all together
A generic 21-button remote controller
"Car MP3" remote controller
A Home Assistant dashboard panel, with controls to turn the television on and off, and to change the HDMI input.
Exposing television controls to Home Assistant

In addition to the individual articles below, the full ESPHome configuratio is available in my media-center-remote gist on GitHub.

Stage 1: Infrared receiver

Setting up a basic ESPHome configuration to receive and decode infrared signals

Stage 2: Kodi integration

Automations for reacting to infrared signals by dispatching JSON-RPC calls to Kodi

Stage 3: Television integration

Automations for reacting to infrared signals by sending RS-232 control codes to a television

Next steps

The Car MP3 remote controller works, but the grid of identical buttons makes it difficult to use without looking at it. The next step will be to either replace it with another remote controller, or to build a new body around the existing one with a different button layout.

If you have any feedback or questions related to this article, please reply to my post on Twitter.