The first stage of making the Media center remote is setting up a basic ESPHome configuration to receive and decode infrared signals.

The goals of this stage are to:

• Get the ESP8266 to connect to a WiFi network.
• Get the infrared receiver wired up to receive and log incoming infrared signals.
• Correlate the remote controller button presses to the resulting signals.

ESPHome configuration

media-center-remote.yaml

esphome:
  name: media-center-remote
  platform: ESP8266
  board: esp01_1m

api:
  password: !secret media_center_remote_ota_password

logger:
  baud_rate: 0

ota:
  password: !secret media_center_remote_ota_password

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password
  # Skip searching for available networks first
  fast_connect: true
  # Connecting is faster and more reliable if you don't wait for DHCP.
  # Just make sure the router is also configured to reserve this address for your device.
  manual_ip: 
    static_ip: !secret media_center_remote_wifi_manual_ip_static_ip
    gateway: !secret media_center_remote_wifi_manual_ip_gateway
    subnet: !secret media_center_remote_wifi_manual_ip_subnet

remote_receiver:
  pin:
    number: GPIO2
    inverted: true
  # The Car MP3 remote controller signals can be interpreted as LG codes,
  # so let's just pretend it's an LG remote controller.
  dump:
  - lg

Log output

Powering up the device and pressing buttons on the remote controller yields logs similar to the following:

...
[17:48:34][C][remote_receiver.esp8266:059]: Remote Receiver:
[17:48:34][C][remote_receiver.esp8266:060]:   Pin: GPIO2 (Mode: INPUT, INVERTED)
[17:48:34][C][remote_receiver.esp8266:065]:   Buffer Size: 1000
[17:48:34][C][remote_receiver.esp8266:066]:   Tolerance: 25%
[17:48:34][C][remote_receiver.esp8266:067]:   Filter out pulses shorter than: 50 us
[17:48:34][C][remote_receiver.esp8266:068]:   Signal is done after 10000 us of no changes
...
[17:48:47][D][remote.lg:053]: Received LG: data=0x00FFA25D, nbits=32
[17:48:49][D][remote.lg:053]: Received LG: data=0x00FF629D, nbits=32
[17:48:50][D][remote.lg:053]: Received LG: data=0x00FFE21D, nbits=32

Next steps

With the infrared receiver working, it's time to react to these signals in Stage 2: Media center remote: Kodi integration.

This article is part of the Media center remote set.

If you have feedback or questions about this article, let's catch up via email.

• All articles
• About Sinclair Studios