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Comment by wil421 | Hacker News Reader

Why on earth would you do that? An IR blaster costs $25 and will connect to Homebirdge so you have it in Apple Home (or Android whatever). I made 2 dehumidifiers and 2 floor fans “smart” by buying the cheapest possible smart plugs on Amazon, an Amazon branded smart plug cost me $1 during a sale.

BroadLink RM4 Mini IR Universal Remote Control, Smart Home Automation Wi-Fi Infrared Blaster https://a.co/d/8GnOVRU

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That covers the floor fan. Now I need a radio blaster to control the ceiling fan and treadmill. So two extra devices, plus having to set up new automation integrations. This all sounds WAY more complicated than just cloning the remotes like I've done. Would it be more flexible/powerful? Absolutely. Do I need any of that? Absolutely not.

Then you pay $15 more for the IR/RF blaster combo and a $35 raspberry pi 3. If you can copy an image to an SD card you can install homebridge (or home assistant). You already saved money over the $169 cost of a flipper zero and your fans/treadmill can come over whenever you enter the room or at a certain time of day.

If you can play with a flipper zero you can setup automation.

I honestly don't know what point you are trying to make.

Of course I can set up automation. I have Home Assistant running in my house already.

I also happen to own a Flipper that does a great job at controlling these devices.

Why would I introduce complexity where simplicity is working great?

I'm done with this conversation, I'd say it's been fun, but..

OP said only one device was infrared and you don't know how their other devices behave when just turned off and on. Also, smart plugs can only turn things off and on., whereas OP cloned the whole remote.

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