I wasn't quite sure where to post this on the forums, but I've been playing with Home Assistant as a wrapper around Engen for about 6 weeks or so. I like it quite a bit. I have a Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant, separate from my IdPi. One of the things that I tripped across was making a "fake roku" appear on my home network. At first, I thought, this is cool, I can set it up with Engen so that when I start watching TV, I can hit a button on my remote to turn the lights on or off. It took a bit of manipulating/ learning, but I got it to work with the Engen API. That was basically all I was using my IdPi for (Engen).
Then I moved my IdPi to my receiver so I could plug in the HDMI and play it through my living room stereo. I setup a second fake roku, which was tied to the MCWS port of the IdPi. I now have bound the play button on my harmony remote to play a smartlist I created, as well as basic stuff like pause, next and previous.
I can try to write up a how-to, but for now these are the resources that I used:
https://gitlab.com/mindig.marton/ha-emulated_rokuhttps://sdkdocs.roku.com/display/sdkdoc/External+Control+API#ExternalControlAPI-KeypressKeyValuesExcerpts from the various files I have are:
configurations.yaml:
rest_command:
engen_api:
url: http://<internal_ip_of_IdPi>:52125/api/v1/nodes/{{ node }}/{{ path }}
method: POST
headers:
content-type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
payload: '{{ value }}'
mcws_api:
url: http:///<internal_ip_of_IdPi>:52199/MCWS/v1/{{ category }}/{{ command }}?{{ value }}
method: GET
emulated_roku:
host_ip: <internal_ip_of_home_assistant>
listen_ports:
- 8124
- 8125
#8124 is the engen port for the roku, and 8125 is the MCWS port. You can setup as many as you want and may need to because the list of buttons available is short.
automations.yaml
- id: engen_fwd
alias: Engen - Fwd - Left
trigger:
- event_data:
key: Fwd
roku_usn: <from host_ip:8124>
type: keypress
event_type: roku_command
platform: event
action:
- service: rest_command.engen_api
data_template:
node: 14
path: switch_binary/value
value: >
{% if is_state('sensor.living_room_left_status','False') %}
1
{% else %}
0
{% endif %}
.......
# Roku for MCWS
- id: mcws_play
alias: MCWS - Play
trigger:
- event_data:
key: Play
roku_usn: <from host_ip:8125>
type: keypress
event_type: roku_command
platform: event
action:
- service: rest_command.mcws_api
data_template:
category: Playback
command: PlayPlaylist
value: Zone=0&ZoneType=ID&Playlist=534914664&PlaylistType=ID
- id: mcws_play_pause
alias: MCWS - PlayPause
trigger:
- event_data:
key: InstantReplay
roku_usn: <from host_ip:8125>
type: keypress
event_type: roku_command
platform: event
action:
- service: rest_command.mcws_api
data_template:
category: Playback
command: PlayPause
value: Zone=0&ZoneType=ID
- id: mcws_next
alias: MCWS - Next
trigger:
- event_data:
key: Fwd
roku_usn: <from host_ip:8125>
type: keypress
event_type: roku_command
platform: event
action:
- service: rest_command.mcws_api
data_template:
category: Playback
command: Next
value: Zone=0&ZoneType=ID
- id: mcws_previous
alias: MCWS - Previous
trigger:
- event_data:
key: Rev
roku_usn: <from host_ip:8125>
type: keypress
event_type: roku_command
platform: event
action:
- service: rest_command.mcws_api
data_template:
category: Playback
command: Previous
value: Zone=0&ZoneType=ID
A few short notes, some of the Roku commands didn't work for me that I saw listed in the Harmony app, but all of the ones listed on that page worked. For example, there's a Pause setting in the Harmony app. When I set up "Pause" in the automations.yaml I could test it with curl -d '' http://<raspberry pi hosting Home Assistant>:8125/keypress/Pause, but when I put it into the app, it acted like I was hitting Play.
I'm using a GET on the MCWS because it was quick and dirty. I assume a POST would work if I figured out all of the info I need to format, like I did with the Engen POST.
Once you've done that, you go to the Harmony app, find a device on your wifi, and it'll find a "Roku 4" for each port you've listed in configurations.yaml. I renamed them Engen and MCWS to keep them straight. You then customize the buttons in the Harmony app and map each physical key to one of these items.
