explaingit

dhruvb14/hacs

18PythonAudience · generalComplexity · 3/5Setup · hard

TLDR

A collection of custom Home Assistant integrations, starting with one that turns any infrared remote into a smart home trigger, installed through the HACS community add-on manager.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((hacs))
    IR Remote Buttons
      Infrared learning
      Double click support
      Automation triggers
    Hardware
      ESP32 support
      ESP8266 support
      Timing config
    Installation
      HACS add-on manager
      Custom repository
      Home Assistant
    Tech Stack
      Python
      ESPHome firmware
Click or tap to explore — scroll the page freely

Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Repurpose any old TV or stereo infrared remote to trigger Home Assistant automations without buying new smart devices.

USE CASE 2

Configure double-click detection so a single remote button can fire two different automations depending on press speed.

USE CASE 3

Flash an ESP32 or ESP8266 board as an infrared receiver and fine-tune its timing settings to reliably learn remote button signals.

Tech stack

PythonHome AssistantHACSESP32ESP8266ESPHome

Getting it running

Difficulty · hard Time to first run · 1day+

Requires a physical ESP32 or ESP8266 microcontroller wired as an infrared receiver, plus Home Assistant with HACS already installed.

No license information is provided in this repository.

In plain English

This repository is a collection of custom integrations for Home Assistant, the open-source home automation platform. It is distributed via HACS, which is an add-on manager for Home Assistant that lets users install community-made integrations that are not part of the official release. The project was built by one person with AI assistance and is described as early-stage software at version 0.4.0. The first integration included is called IR Remote Buttons. It is designed to let you use any ordinary infrared remote control, the kind that comes with a TV or stereo, as a trigger for Home Assistant automations. The idea is that you point the remote at an infrared receiver connected to your Home Assistant setup, teach the system what each button looks like by pressing it twice in a learning flow, and then use those button presses to trigger whatever automations you want. The integration also supports double-click detection, so a single button can trigger two different actions depending on whether you press it once or twice quickly. Installation goes through HACS by adding the repository URL as a custom source, then searching for the integration by name and downloading it. Once installed and restarted, you add it through the Home Assistant settings screen, select your infrared receiver, name your remote, and start teaching it buttons one at a time. Each button you add becomes available as a trigger inside automations. The README includes a section on hardware configuration for users running an ESP32 or ESP8266 microcontroller as the infrared receiver. It goes into detail about three timing settings that control how the receiver captures button signals, and explains how getting these wrong causes buttons to fail to learn or fire inconsistently. The guidance is technical but practical, covering idle timeout, signal buffer size, and timing tolerance, with recommended starting values for each. The project also includes ready-to-flash firmware configuration files for both ESP32 and ESP8266 boards, along with a template for storing credentials separately from the configuration.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I have an old TV remote and an ESP32. Help me set the idle timeout, signal buffer size, and timing tolerance values in dhruvb14/hacs so the IR Remote Buttons integration can reliably learn my remote's buttons.
Prompt 2
I installed the IR Remote Buttons integration from dhruvb14/hacs via HACS but buttons fire inconsistently. What timing settings should I check first and what are the recommended starting values?
Prompt 3
Walk me through adding a newly learned infrared button in dhruvb14/hacs and wiring it up as a trigger in a Home Assistant automation blueprint.
Prompt 4
I want to use double-click detection in dhruvb14/hacs so pressing my remote's power button once turns off lights and pressing it twice triggers a scene. How do I set that up?
Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

← dhruvb14 on gitmyhub — every repo by this author, as a profile.

Verify against the repo before relying on details.