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 âhow toâ for others to followâŚ
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 âquiet listingâ 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
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U1 IR Range update
I received a replacement IR transmit led earlier this week.
After hacking my remote the range of my U1 sofabaton has greatly improved, and Ive even noticed much better âoff axisâ performance.
Your milage may vary, but so far I have had absolutely no issues with my equipment missing signals when running macros and other commands. It definitely feels more snappy.
If you are handy with a soldering iron and want to take the plunge, here is the thread that I followed with instructions.
The LED is .55 on digikey..
Some of my personal notes:
1: If you are picky, you may be able to carefully dremel out a cavity in the front of the remote case to seat the new LED as shown in the AVS formum thread.
I DIDNT BOTHER. I just dremeled out the front cover surrounding both the transmit LED and the receiver LED (used for learning codes). It still looks cool (kind of cyberpunkish) and more importantly IT WORKS.
2: I carefully used copper braid to desolder the existing LED. I DONT recommend a solder sucker - you might pull the pad of the PCB and ruin the connection. If you dont know what copper desoldering braid and a solder sucker is, than you probably shouldnât be replacing this IR led. Get a techie friend who has a quality Weller soldering iron with fine tip to do it for you.
3: Pulling the case apart is a finicky process. Your milage may vary. There is a tab on the battery end of the unit. Be patient.
Happy Macros!
I just wanted to resurrect this thread. I bought a Sofabaton U2 the other day, and I have to say it's fantastic and works incredibly well with Channels DVR and Apple TV.
I'm not sure why it gets such bad reviews on Amazon, but it's a really great device, super easy to program with the app on Android, and just really just works with everything. It's also really nice to tune by channel number rather than scrolling through the guide.
I use a U2 at my house in italy with Channels (remote node) and Google Streamer. Works well and consolidates control of my AVR.
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FYI - I finally broke down and gave up on my U1 and got a U2 about a year ago. Huge difference in range, performance and battery life. U2 is the way to go.
Yeah, the U2 is great. A little clunky to program, sure, but once you get it setup it works great. I use it. My wife uses it. My mother-in-law uses it. No complaints, which is rare.
One thing I would suggest though... Buy yourself one of the cheap rubber protective sleeves from Amazon. It will save you if your remote ever gets dropped on a hard surface. I learned from experience with my U1.
It's also really nice that I can program functions for my TV while selecting to my Apple TV.
For example, I set the red button to turn off the display on my OLED. Then I set the green button to turn it back on. Just with a macro. I turned grabbing another remote and three button presses into one remote and one button press.
I just thought I'd mention here, avoid the U3 like the plague. It is a pile of garbage. I pre-ordered mine, and the battery is draining, like, ridiculously fast. The support has been unable to fix all the code issues with the Apple TV and Shield. It's just a hot pile of garbage. It's really the worst product I think I've ever owned in my life. Not to mention the Android app asks for precise location permissions all of a sudden, which is creepy.
Also promises to share that with third parties. Support has been attentive, but they have not gotten it completely resolved, and I am just sick of it. So I am going back to the Apple Siri remote and my Shield remote and just forget this damn thing.
Edit: Now, SofaBaton is telling me that the battery issues are firmware related. So maybe if you're planning on getting one of these, just give it like a couple of months, or I will be happy to report here once it's finally working. If they don't get it working, I'm going to return the thing, and they promised I can return it if they don't resolve all the issues.
Knowing SofaBaton, they will fix the firmware issues... when they release U4. I generally like their products, but I hate their business model where they continue to release new versions of products instead of updating the existing ones.
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Well, the U3 is brand new. It just came out, so I probably should have known before buying one of their products early.
tnx for heads up...
you can pry my Logitech Harmony Elite out of my cold dead hands.
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They've actually been pretty responsive. I have to give them credit for that; they've been responsive both over chat and via email, so I have a feeling they will get it fixed. It's just frustrating to get a new product and for it to not work when you have been waiting for it for a while.
They escalated my case at least. I just complained and threatened to go to Pay Pal.
I mean this thing is like so broken I see even reports on reddit complaining of the same things I am random reboots excessive battery drain I'm finding codes that just aren't working at all that power button on the Apple TV doesn't work it's impossible to download any codes for the Nvidia shield
I think that worked. Out of nowhere, I got a full r e f u n d for my order, but no return label or anything. I guess they kind of acknowledged that they botched this launch. Also, they would probably rather me not initiate a chargeback, so much safer to just r e f u n d and have a happy repeat customer than someone that is going to go on social media and complain like I threatened to.
When I say this is like the worst piece of electronics I have ever purchased, this is the worst electronic device I have ever purchased. It is really just horrific. I am hoping it gets better with firmware updates, but right now it is bad.
Edit:
They sent me this last night. At least they're trying to do the right thing given they sent me a completely broken remote from a software perspective.
Update!!!:
They came out with a new app update and new firmware for the U3.
It actually fixes pretty much every issue, although I had to reset my remote for it to actually not act weird. I think the firmware that was on there previously really broke things. So far it's been pretty stable in my immediate testing, although I will have to see long-term how the battery holds up, although I do have a charging station.
Once I see how the battery holds up, I can definitely give this remote a recommendation. It's definitely an upgrade over the U2 for sure, now that they fixed most of the issues. The problem was they released it with horribly buggy firmware and basically just sent it out for beta testing instead of actually their own testing or maybe doing a beta program and having users do some sort of UAT before actually moving it into mass production.
Deja vu. That happened to me when I bought the U2, and in addition to allowing me to keep it the rep urged me to watch for updates that might make it useful for me. I don't remember how long I waited, probably well into the U3 release, but at that point I'd moved on.