Full transcript
0:00[Music]
0:02Remember the Logitech Harmony remote? A
0:04single wand to rule the living room.
0:07Casting commands to anything with an IR
0:09sensor. TV, Blu-ray, amplifier, set top
0:12box, all at your fingertips. With a
0:15press, entire rituals unfolded. The
0:18screen flickered to life. The lights
0:19dimmed. The amp hummed to attention.
0:22Futuristic, elegant, and wildly
0:25overengineered in the best possible way.
0:27It was the crown jewel of the true home
0:30theater enthusiast. Or maybe just a
0:33lifeline for those tired of explaining
0:35the sacred startup sequence. But in
0:372021, Logitech quietly let it
0:43go. The world had moved on to
0:46smartphones and voice assistants, to
0:49casting and to apps. And with it, the
0:52dream of the perfect remote faded,
0:54replaced by sound bars smart enough to
0:56switch themselves on and dumb enough to
0:58forget what made that magic of the
1:00Harmony so
1:05special. Lately, my Samsung TV remote's
1:08been giving up the ghost. The super
1:10capacitors that once seemed super clever
1:12now leave me with a dead remote every
1:14other day. I thought about replacing the
1:16caps or maybe modding in a battery, but
1:18where's the fun in that? Instead, I
1:20decided to just build a new remote from
1:22scratch because I have a problem. And
1:26for this project, I've done a complete
1:28tutorial so you can do it all yourself,
1:30too. I'll take you through the design
1:32decisions and show you what it can do.
1:33And if you're interested, you can find a
1:35link down in the description to the
1:37tutorial. Step one was to figure out
1:39what features I wanted. So, I grabbed a
1:41couple of remotes and figured out which
1:42features I liked best. Most modern
1:45interfaces require a directional pad of
1:47some kind to navigate the UI, so that
1:50was not optional. I'd also need a back
1:52button, a home button, and a settings
1:54button. I like having a specific mute
1:57button, so we'll include that one as
1:59well. There's also the obvious one to
2:00your media controls, play, pause,
2:03volume, and channel up and down. I also
2:06like these shortcut buttons on the
2:08Samsung remote. They allow you to open
2:10an app instantly, which is really handy
2:12if you use any of those apps, which I do
2:15not. So, I'll include some shortcut keys
2:17that I can configure however I want. I
2:21also wanted excellent battery life, no
2:23daily charging. This meant having room
2:25for a decentiz battery in the shell.
2:28Since this is something you physically
2:30interact with, I started with the shell.
2:32I designed a shape that looked like it
2:34felt good in the hand, hollowed it out,
2:36and sketched the outline for the PCB to
2:38match. The heart of the build is one of
2:40my favorite microcontrollers, a Lolin or
2:42Wimos ESP32 dev board with built-in
2:45charging. Great for portable projects
2:47like this, and only a few bucks on
2:49AliExpress. I have a bunch in a drawer
2:51for projects like this. I sketched out
2:54some possible button layouts, played
2:55around with some alternate
2:57configurations, and decided on what I
2:58was going for. I laid out all my tactile
3:01switches on the PCB with the eventual
3:04button layout in mind and added a couple
3:06of pull-up resistors. The ESP32 has
3:09internal pull-up resistors for most
3:11pins, which we'll use where possible,
3:13but there are a few that don't have
3:15internal pull-ups. So, we require some
3:17external ones for those pins. Once the
3:19PCB was laid out and wired, I generated
3:21a 3D model of it, imported it back into
3:24the enclosure design, and made the
3:26buttons. Each button has a flange to
3:29keep it in place and is held in place by
3:30the pressure between the enclosure lid
3:32and the tactile button. I played around
3:36with the button sizes and shapes and
3:38decided on the layout. Then I added
3:40icons to each of them. To print these
3:43icons on the button, I'll be using
3:44multimaterial printing. By combining two
3:47colors of filament and a tiny nozzle on
3:49our printer, we can create quite
3:51detailed designs that are printed
3:53directly into our
3:55parts. Before ordering the final PCB, I
3:58printed a few
3:59prototypes. For anything handheld, this
4:02step isn't optional in my book. You can
4:05spend hours in CAD, but until you hold
4:07it, you really don't know what it feels
4:09like, and it's super easy to lose
4:10perspective. A few tweaks later, I had
4:13something I was genuinely happy with.
4:15So, I sent off the order to today's
4:17sponsor, PCB Way.
4:21PCB Way offers a fantastic PCB
4:23production service that I've been using
4:25for many years, even before YouTube. You
4:27can upload your manufacturing files,
4:29select from a list of options, and have
4:31your very own custom PCB design shipped
4:33to your door in a matter of days, ready
4:35to use. They can also assemble your PCB
4:38for you, so you don't have to mess
4:39around with solder masks and microscopes
4:41to assemble your own complex projects.
4:43They also offer CNC and 3D printing
4:46services. So, if you don't have a
4:48printer or have a design your printer
4:50isn't able to print, you can have it
4:52printed on one of their high-end SLS or
4:54SLA machines and shipped right to your
4:56door. They can do everything from CNC
4:59machined aluminium to 3D printed
5:02stainless steel, all for reasonable
5:04prices and with tight turnaround times.
5:06It's the perfect way to expand your own
5:08manufacturing and making capabilities
5:10without having to spend tens of
5:12thousands on tools, machines, and
5:14equipment for your home workshop or
5:16business. You can prototype your part at
5:18home with 3D printing, then send it off
5:20to PCB Way for machining. And with the
5:22PCB Way community, you can buy designs
5:25from other makers direct from PCB Way
5:27and support them in the process,
5:29including the PCB for this project.
5:32Thanks again to PCB Way for sponsoring
5:34this video.
5:35[Music]
5:37While waiting for my new PCBs to arrive,
5:39I kept iterating on the enclosure. I
5:42figured out how the two halves would
5:44clip together and refined the USBC port
5:46area for charging. I went with a couple
5:49clips near the bottom and two M2 screws
5:51near the top to lock it down securely
5:53and added internal stiffness for some
5:55strength. A pro tip, for bolt holes with
5:58tricky overhangs, I add a one layer roof
6:01the printer can bridge. Once printed,
6:04you just poke through the thin membrane
6:05with your screw. No messy supports.
6:08After a few days, my PCBs arrived from
6:10PCB way and they look great. You might
6:13notice I've gone with all through hole
6:15components for this design and I'll
6:17explain why. These days, most consumer
6:19electronics use surface mount components
6:21wherever possible. There's a few reasons
6:23for this. They're smaller, cheaper, and
6:26most importantly, much easier for robots
6:28to place and solder in. Unfortunately,
6:31they are quite difficult for humans to
6:33solder, especially when compared with
6:35what's called throughhole components. As
6:37the name suggests, through hole
6:39components physically poke through a
6:41hole in the PCB, and you solder them
6:43onto the board on the reverse side,
6:45holding them in place. This is worlds
6:48easier to do by hand, even if it's a
6:50little bit of an older technique. The
6:52whole project is designed so you can do
6:54it yourself at home. If you have a 3D
6:56printer, a soldering iron in a few
6:58hours, you can print the enclosure,
7:00assemble the PCB, and program the
7:02microcontroller yourself, even with no
7:04experience. I've done a whole fulllength
7:06tutorial you can follow. You'll find the
7:08link down in the description. You can
7:10get your own PCB from PCB Way and all
7:13the components for only a few dollars.
7:15It's a really great introduction to the
7:17world of electronics and is a truly
7:19useful end result, which I find much
7:21more interesting than a lot of
7:23alternatives. I'm using ESP Home to run
7:25this remote for easy compatibility with
7:27Home Assistant. The tutorial includes a
7:30full walkthrough for programming your
7:32microcontroller. Even if you're new to
7:33this, you'll be fine. And if you hate
7:36software, you can just borrow my YAML. I
7:39won't tell. Putting it all together was
7:40dead simple. There's just 21 tactile
7:43switches, two pull-up resistors, and the
7:45microcontroller, which is installed
7:47upside down on the bottom of the board
7:49to save a bit of Z height for the final
7:51product. Once I had everything working,
7:53I desoldered the battery connector and
7:55soldered the leads directly to the
7:57board. Not ideal, but it saved space and
8:00made the final build a lot tidier. I
8:02printed all my buttons on my Bamboo Lab
8:04X1C's using the AMS to print the icons a
8:07different color. Cuz they're quite
8:09intricate. It sometimes took a couple of
8:11tries due to bed adhesion issues with
8:13very small pieces of filament. I wasn't
8:15happy with the results from my4 mil
8:17nozzle, so I purchased this tiny 2m
8:20nozzle instead. This gave me much higher
8:22resolution and detail for the
8:25icons. Once I was happy with my buttons,
8:28I ran off a new top and bottom shell in
8:30this late8s electronics vintage scheme
8:33of gray and other gray. Then, for the
8:36last time, I assembled the remote. I
8:39dropped my buttons into the appropriate
8:41slots in the top of the shell.
8:45I dropped the battery into the case and
8:47secured it with some double-sided
8:50[Music]
8:56tape. Then I installed the PCB and
8:59screwed it in over top of the
9:04battery. Then I snapped the bottom of
9:07the shell into place before installing
9:09the two M2 screws to hold it all closed.
9:14[Music]
9:15And here it is, my everything
9:18[Music]
9:28remote. Great. But what does it do? It
9:30does whatever I want it to. Each button
9:32on the remote outputs events separately
9:34for both short and long presses in Home
9:36Assistant. So they can be set up to
9:38drive any automations we want. lights,
9:41air conditioning, my TV, anything
9:44connected to my smartome. For my
9:46shortcut keys, I went with a Plex
9:48shortcut, a YouTube shortcut, a resume
9:51shortcut, and a random movie shortcut
9:53key. The Plex and YouTube shortcuts are
9:56using this Tyizen Samsung TV integration
9:58to open the apps when triggered. The
10:00resume shortcut will play whichever show
10:03we have configured in Home Assistant.
10:05[Music]
10:08The random movie button will do exactly
10:11as the name implies. In the background,
10:14it just plays a randomized playlist of
10:15unwatched movies in Plex. If the TV
10:18isn't on, it'll switch everything on
10:20first for each of those shortcuts, too.
10:22So, you can go from TV off to your
10:25favorite shows in absolutely no time.
10:27The buttons at the bottom will increase
10:29or decrease the brightness of the lights
10:30in the room with each button press.
10:32Holding up will go full brightness.
10:34Holding down will turn them off
10:36entirely. With B presence detecting, I
10:39could even make the remote contextaware.
10:42Different rooms, different automations.
10:45The potential here is huge. You could
10:47make a simplified version for an older
10:49family member who can never find the
10:51Netflix app or a kids safe version that
10:55won't let the volume get too high and
10:57only allows them to play preapproved
10:59shows.
11:00I've provided the step files for a blank
11:02version of the remote face plate
11:04complete with a simplified PCB so you
11:06can design your own buttons for whatever
11:08application you might think up. You can
11:11also just use my buttons and add your
11:13own icons. The tutorial video includes a
11:15guide on doing this yourself in your
11:17slicer. This has become a handy addition
11:19to our smartome. It's really nice to be
11:21rid of that failing Samsung remote and
11:24the stupid shortcut buttons we only ever
11:26hit by accident. I even find myself
11:28using a spare remote to test other
11:29automations in a convenient handheld
11:31form factor. As we add more smart
11:34features to our home, I'm sure it'll
11:35become even more useful as we find more
11:38applications for it. Now, does it do
11:40everything the old Harmony Remote does?
11:43Well, as long as you can get your device
11:45into Home Assistant somehow, yes. There
11:48are limitations. It doesn't have an IR
11:50emitter, so it won't work with your old
11:52infrared components. But the nice thing
11:54about this is it's nowhere near as
11:56limited as the Logitech Harmony was. You
11:58can control a lot more than just your
12:00home theater. It's entirely up to what
12:02you're willing to put the time into. I
12:04hope you like this video. This was a
12:06really fun project to put together, and
12:08I hope some of you are able to put this
12:09together yourself and find your own
12:12unique layouts and uses for it. If you
12:15have any ideas for alternative uses,
12:17leave them down in the comments. I'd
12:18love to hear about them and how you
12:20might find it helpful in your home.
12:22Thanks heaps for watching. And if you'd
12:24like to build one of these for yourself,
12:26it's a fantastic first foray into the
12:28world of electronics and
12:30microcontrollers. Plus, if you already
12:32have a printer and all the tools, it'll
12:34only cost you 20 or 30 bucks to do this
12:36project yourself. All the links are in
12:39the description of the video or on the
12:41website. I'll catch you next time.
12:51[Music]
12:58la. Hey.