r/SofaBaton

I received my remote yesterday!

was pretty easy to setup both devices and macros.

just a few issues I’m having though:

1: was trying to set the top power button to run my watch tv macro which turns on all the devices and brings me to the DTV control on short press and then run the power down macro which turns off all the macros on long press. When I save it, the short press function is blank but the long press macro remains. Tried fixing it several times but the same thing happens.

2: one of my devices was not in the database so I learned all the commands (IR), and it works fine. But after I wake it up the buttons n longer work and I have to relearn all of them. Oddly some still work while others don’t.

3: I really wish you could rename some of the commands. When on my AVR screen I setup some favorites for the various inputs so I can easily switch devices without having to go to the macro screen. The one listed are the default names assigned to the AVR but in the AVR, I renamed the inputs to the names of the devices connected… like AUX 1 is renamed to Apple TV. would love to rename then for the Safabaton too.

other than that I’m pretty happy with it!!!

I ordered my u3 on May 27 and haven't heard anything. I paid a company called Furrykid Technology. I wrote Sofabaton an email the other day and still haven't heard anything from them. Is this normal for this company?

I’ve noticed when connected to Bluetooth the remote doesn’t go to sleep and uses a lot of battery. Idle Bluetooth is set to sleep. If I press restart I’m able to disconnect Bluetooth. Is there another way to disconnect?

I’ve also noticed the remote doesn’t lowlier when lifted despite me selecting that option. I have to press a key to wake.

Thoughts appreciated.

hi I have a setup: Epson qb1000, Yamaha a6a, Apple TV, nvidia shield, Panasonic ub420,fire tv, Xbox and the hub is on top of the Panasonic player. all my activities and devices are based on hub ir . many times the activities are a hit and miss. when I hit listen to net radio, my Yamaha doesn’t turn on. or if I change an activity from watch Apple TV to listen music my Yamaha turned off and doesnt turn on .. with my harmony ultimate I never had problem. probably is gonna go back. I really wanted to like it but is unreliable. any thoughts?

I really dreaded the day I'd have to get one of these after Harmony but I am really surprised. I have a simple setup now. 3 streamers, DVD, TV and Sonos Arc. It all set up fine and works perfectly so far. I have a U2 with a U3 on delivery today. The only thing I have to get use to is the wake up timing when wanting to press a button. Usually takes 2 presses and it wakes up. Is there a way to speed that up? Make it more sensitive? Anyway, I'm a pretty happy camper right now.

I'm having some major and minor issues with the U3 app. Not only do painstakingly made IR/BT profiles sometimes magically disappear after doing a remote restart, but the whole app just doesn't feel 'finished'.

Enumerating the available buttons sometimes takes a disproportionate amount of time. When you'll need to adjust or add something, it takes ages for the button list to appear. And when buttons do appear, they are in random order with no means at all to sort them.

I must note that it does vary sometimes. Not quite sure what’s causing this. Maybe the number of devices you’ve already set, or some (connection) error that’s lingering in the background that's causing lag. Sometimes it takes ages for buttons to appear, sometimes it’s instant.

At the cost of sounding negative, I do have list of issues/improvement/suggestions, just from the very short period I've used the app. Maybe other users recognize some of it.

Customize Remote buttons
Device > Customize Remote buttons > Pick Button > Normal keys.
Have the software pick the current profile/device it’s on. Now, it picks the top one. If you have lot of devices, you’ll need to scroll and pick the right one.

Add or fix commands
When entering this section (or Customize Remote buttons > Pick Button > Normal keys), the user is presented with numerous available buttons, in no particular order.
Have the option to at least sort them chronologically, or have them shown in groups (numerical, navigation, specific TV functions, user added, etc.). This would enhance the overview of available buttons and make for a far better user experience.

Repeat delay
This is not really an annoyance, but more a feature request.
I’ve noticed that using the original remotes, the response time is slightly faster, especially when a button needs repeating (like scrolling). When using the U3, this wait time-out is longer, making it feel bit more ‘sluggish’ when in daily use, compared to the original remotes.
Have the option to adjust a (global) key repeat delay (the time it takes for a button to repeat itself after long-pressing it)

Continuous scrolling on the remote display
If you have a lot of devices paired with the remote, the list can become quite long. Have the wheel scroll back to the top when it reaches the end of the list (and vice versa).

Bluetooth Air-mouse issues
This is one of the main reasons I’ve bought the remote. This very handy feature should make navigating apps like browsers on Android (TV), that don’t really support a remote, a lot easier.

And initially it does. However when navigating in a browser, it’s sometimes necessary to use the navigating buttons or pgup/down to get or scroll to another point on a page. However, the moment you use those buttons, the air mouse function disables instantly and needs to be activated again via the side button. This makes the air mouse function quite a hassle and a bit useless

Save/export user made IR/BT profiles
It can take a LOT of time correctly configuring your devices, especially because of the long time it takes to enumerate available buttons each time you’ll need to add or adjust. It is very, very frustrating to find that when finally done, the whole profile has disappeared for some reason ( I’ve had that twice). This may be due to my own experience with the app, but it also happened when I just restarted the remote.
Have the option to either save your IR/BT profile to a location or export it somewhere for safe keeping. This would certainly prevent a lot of work.

BT/IR profile inconsistencies Don’t really know who made these in-app profiles but some are very inconsistent or confusing. For instance, any given BT profile contains surplus duplicate entries for number keys like ‘8’ or ‘6’, but not for the other numbers, and the number your looking for is not there ...why? The naming is also not consistent; you’ve got ‘Arrowdown, ‘Down arrow’ and ‘Arrowdown2’. As if these were entered by different developers. And what does ‘Eksel’ mean?

Translation errors While learning my remote (which doesn’t seem to work properly), I found some unnecessary translation errors, like ‘volume dowm’ or Paly/Pause. Also, the command to learn IR codes is ‘Learn’ not ‘To learn’.

Space between buttons
This a minor one but, nonetheless. Why the rather huge space between the available buttons in the app? On any given page only 10 entries are displayed. Decreasing the space between them would show a lot more, and less need for scrolling. (especially because buttons can’t be sorted)

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Finally, I do hope the Bluetooth profiles evolve into more brand specific commands OR have the ability to learn from their original BT remotes. Using v4.11, the different BT profiles are basically the same (just some F-keys behave differently) and have rather generic commands (and a LOT of duplicate entries). Not really tailored for your device.

If you want to control your (newer) TV via BT, you’re stuck with some basic entries. Specific commands for any given TV brand (like menu, ch up/down, guide, settings, TV, input, etc.) just aren’t there, don't work, or do something complete different. Sadly, those that are missing or don't work properly, cannot be BT learned to make them work. You can always add IR commands, but that defeats the purpose.

In short, you can't control the TV solely using BT. You can perhaps control its underlying OS, like Android/Google TV, but specific TV commands are just not present.

It would be nice if the developers also to take notice of the mentioned issues. and hopefully improve the app with coming updates.

Update: in a hilarious twist of irony - not even 12 hours after making this post, the USPS tracking updated and saying a scheduled delivery of (today) lol. Should be enjoying the new remote here in about 8 hours :)

So I got the shipping notification for my u3+free base about a week ago. USPS Tracking number, cool!

I know it usually takes 24 hours or more for tracking info to populate once the package stars moving. Problem is, it's been almost a whole week and it's simply showing "Shipping label created" usps waiting on package.

So did they create a label and are just waiting for it to arrive from China or something? Or did they drop it behind a bin and just forgot about it?

Got my new remote yesterday wondering if anyone else experiencing this due I’m having to press buttons twice for it to complete the command?

Hi - and thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

I just got a U2 remote and I set up my Samsung TV, Sony AV Receiver, Sony Blueray DVD Player and Roku. All work as expected.

I want to have a button dedicated to turning on the TV and AVR together - the Roku is always on.

I tried creating a macro under the TV Power button at the top, but no dice. Then, I tried creating a test device that I could rename and move to the top of the list that will essentially trigger the TV and AVR power button. If successful, I could just choose that renamed device, press the power button and both devices will respond.

When I try this, the TV works perfectly, but I just can't get the AVR to respond, even though I have it programmed properly in the macro.

Is there a different way to accomplish this seemingly simple task? Is there something I can do to make that macro work for the AVR?

Again, TIA!

Are there any plans to add more Philips Hue upgrades to the X2?

i.e. more percentage brightness increase steps instead of just 10, 50 and 80%.

Maybe using the volume up/down to increase/decrease brightness in incremental steps (5 or 10%).

Or controls to start/stop Sync Box syncing etc?

Thanks.

I currently have an x1 remote and with the scroll wheel crappiness (I need to take it apart and clean it as sometimes when I scroll it goes in the opposite directions) and my battery not lasting a full week anymore, I'm thinking of getting a replacement.

I want a remote with number buttons on the bottom. I miss being able to enter pins with the remote number buttons. I wish I could get a U3 remote with the IP functionality of the X line.

Does anyone know if there are plans on an X line remote with the number buttons?

Although I'm still able to program my Logitech Harmony One, I'm afraid that Logitech will remove support one day completely. Furthermore, the newer Logitech software also lacks some basic functionality like ordering your activities (only possible in the app for Harmonies with a hub which I don't have).

So I decided to go for a new universal remote to control my HTPC, PS5, amplifier, tv, etc. After searching for a long time, I decided to go for the Sofabaton X2. The Unfolded Circle also looked interesting, but it was unclear when it would actually be available.

Setting up the remote was relatively straightforward. Below are some remarks and issues I’ve encountered.

• App works fine although syncing is not that fast especially with devices that have a lot of keys (like a Microsoft MCE Keyboard). Perhaps an option to not always automatically synchronise would be an idea.
• I bought the X2 because the remote itself has an IR transmitter. In comparison to the Logitech Harmony, it seems a bit weaker. I have to aim more precisely at the device (e.g my Rotel RC-1580 amplifier). I’ve tried increasing the number of repeats to amplify the signal, but that doesn’t seem to help. 
• The database of devices is understandably smaller than the one of Logitech, but you have the ability to learn IR-commands. That worked fine for the devices I have. I did have to adjust quite some existing configurations, because they were not completely correct. It seems possible to upload newly created configurations to Sofabaton, but I haven’t figured out yet how to do that (perhaps just mail support?)

I have a Linak TV lift which is controlled by an ESP32 with a simple webserver. A very nice feature of the remote is to also call API’s. This way, I can now also control the TV lift with the remote.

Controlling my PS5 with the remote also works fine, although you can’t switch it on with the remote. But that’s a limitation of the PS5 itself.

The button layout of the remote is nice. I like the fact there’s a separate submenu for the numbers on the touch screen. The back button is also located on a much better place than on the X1S. Personally, I would have used icons for the lower three buttons instead of A,B and C. The dimensions and weight of the remote are perfect for me.

The Sofabaton software of the remote works well. The touch screen is responsive. I do have some small remarks.

• Personally, I would have placed the Activities button to the top left of the screen.
• Starting an activity is done by enabling the slider. Just pressing it would have been fine with me as well.
• When you grab the remote after charging, the battery indicator still shows the initial capacity when you started charging it. Just pressing a button on the touch screen solves that. Seems like a small bug.

All in all, I'm very happy with the remote. The remote has a sleek design and the app works well. There are some issues which could be improved, but I'm sure Sofabaton will work on that.

Just got my new U3 SofaBaton from Amazon today, and I can’t get it to pair with my iPhone or iPad to program it. I’ve deleted the app from my iPhone and reinstalled it from the App Store, but no change. I’ve toggled Bluetooth off and on with no effect. If I go into Settings > Bluetooth on the iPhone, I can manually add the U3 device, but the SofaBaton app doesn’t appear to recognize it if not paired through the App.

I never had any problems pairing my U2, fwiw.

Anybody else been able pair a U3 with an iPhone?

Anyone received their presale U3 from Sofabaton yet. I’ve received notification of shipping and a tracking code but the USPS tracking hasn’t been activated yet.

Just downloaded the new update of the Sofabaton Android app! They added U3 Remote Control support!