I was able to get the Sofabaton U1 to operate much like a Harmony remote (using the advice from the Amazon review) for 3 "activities"- watching the Nvidia Shield, FireTV or Blu-Ray player - a couple of things I noticed:
(1) you can't use bluetooth remote commands in macros
(2) The IR emitter is a big problem - tight beam and limited range; by comparison the Harmony IR remotes are way better
Programming issues aside, this remote might actually be usable except for the IR problem.
I was able to disassemble the remote and noticed the IR emitter was not at the ideal angle for transmission, so I bent it, but that didn't help - a possible next step would be to drill a hole for the IR emitter in case the plastic is somehow impairing the signal - or replace it with another emitter - any technical people out there tried anything to improve this?
(There doesn't seem to be a lot of info on the internet about this remote)
Has anyone purchased the Sofa Baton X1 yet? Reviews and opinions?
I ordered one with the Kickstarter deal. Have not received it yet
Same, one on order but have not received it yet.
Yes, this is the biggest problem I have. Otherwise, the remote does everything I need it to do. The IR actually works ok for me when the batteries are brand new, but after several weeks it is noticeably degraded and can barely adjust the volume on my TV from 15 ft away.
Wow, I'm surprised you Kickstarter backers still haven't received your X1's. I have been looking forward to trying one, but I missed out on the Kickstarter. Originally I was told the remotes would be available to order from Amazon in January. The latest word was they will now be available in March, but I didn't realize not all the Kickstarter orders have even been fulfilled yet.
Am i reading this correctly that it's going to be almost $200?
I just got mine also. 
I got mine too. Very disappointing to say the least. Bad first impressions
Why bad impression. Tell me. What's bad/good with it
Activities do not work most of the time. Example: fails to change the inputs in my Denon receiver
Battery life is very bad. Needs charging every day
Screen is useless. Very low resolution and no custom icons (just some generic ones)
Very slow to react on anything. Creating activities, adding devices, anything
The hub loses connection to my Wifi daily. Everytime I want to use it, prompts me to connect to WiFi again, and again, and again.
I still have a Harmony Touch from many years ago, that still works much better in every possible regard. I was hoping this was going to be a replacement long term, but I don't think so now.
This mirrors my experience from this afternoon.
I cannot for the life of me program the directional buttons(I have the U1 and an Amazon Fire Toshiba tv), I e tried using my olde remote to program it and sleep
Selecting the command in the app but no luck. Any suggestions? You seem to have it pretty well figured out!
For those looking into the sofabaton I got burned a little bit this week. I picked up a U1 with the assumption that there would be bluetooth control of volume when paired to the apple tv.
It turns out that the volume buttons need to be IR when using the built in “apple tv” Bluetooth device.
This only really matters if you desire to control volume of airpods when they are paired to the apple tv for “quiet listening” mode..
I think you might be able to solve this by connecting the remote as a “keyboard”.
With the harmony remotes you can add a Mac/windows computer as a Bluetooth device and when it makes the pairing - you pair it with the Apple TV instead of a computer of course.
And then with abit of help from the channels website and trial and error you can work out what the keys on the “keyboard” control on the Apple TV.
Another plus to this solution is you can then use the number pad to change channels as CDVR will recognise keyboard number inputs(as well as a number of other inputs).
I had a similar problem with my receiver connected to my ATV. My solution was to add 2 ATV devices to my U1, one device with bluetooth and the other with IR. Then I remapped the volume buttons and mute on the U1 for the bluetooth device, replacing those buttons with the volume and mute buttons from the IR device.
Thank you
The issues isnt getting channels to work.
That works perfectly with the sofabaton.
Edit:
Sofabaton updated their software on ios. It appears they added bluetooth volume control 3 days ago.
I tried your suggestion of using a Bluetooth keyboard assignment, and with some fiddling i noticed alternate volume controls (named differently) When I switched over-to those, I could adjust my airpods volume.
After more playing around i noticed that sofabaton had fixed an issue with pairing the sofabaton to the ios app. I guess they fixed the Bluetooth commands as well. After deleting my origional Bluetooth apple tv remote and re adding it. The new one now supports bluetooth volume control.
So im a happy camper!
FYI - There is a U2 model now that is nearly identical to the U1 in form and function, but most importantly it does have improved IR signals. If you're ordering one of these now, make sure to get the U2.
Hey folks,
Revisiting sofabaton. And adding more info to the thread for those interested.
Ive been using the U1 model for about 9 months now, but the IR led that sofabaton chose, as others have pointed out, is flawed and has a very short range.
I even dremel tooled the front the front of case about 4 months ago to expose the IR transmit LED and it slightly increased the IR range. However this is still driving me NUTS.
Does anyone have a U2 model they are looking to sell for around $30. Otherwise I may try purchasing a different transmit LED and see if that can increase the range.
EDIT: I have ordered a replacement IR LED. Once it arrives here Ill detail my results, and if it increases the transmit range, ill publish a “how to” for others to follow…
For everyones info, I inquired with sofabaton about buying the LED that they use on the U2 model from them. They were extremely unhelpful, and suggested I use an IR extender from Amazon. (A dumb fix, because I would have to suspend the IR extender in free space three feet from my face in the middle of my living room to get any benefit. )
Has anyone else found another remote @Fofer that has both IR and Bluetooth capabilities?
The sofabaton U1 works fantastic for this, but it effectively has about a 4ft IR range for everything else. Lol
BTW : im still using my trusty old harmony 650 universal remote, and it does everything I need, except for the one case where for “quiet listing” I need to send Bluetooth volume commands to the apple tv in order to control my airpods volume.
Im not interested at this point in getting a harmony hub type of solution if I dont have too. Id like to move forward with modern supported devices, if that makes sense.
I think the U2 would probably do it, but its a hard pill to swallow investing another $50-60 bucks for one of those, where I could put that towards upgrading my mac mini to an M1 or M2 unit.
Cheers