OMOTE - Open Universal Remote

Overview

OMOTE is an ESP32 based open source universal remote. Its capacitive 2.8” touchscreen provides an intuitive and snappy user interface for switching devices and settings. No hub or docking station is required as the remote features infrared, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. With its well optimized power consumption, OMOTE can run for months on a charge. And since the design files are open source, you can fully customize them to your devices and needs.

Features

• 2.8” 320x240px capacitive touchscreen
• Ergonomic, fully 3D printed case
• Responsive LVGL user interface
• Built in infrared, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
• Press any button or simply lift the remote to wake it up
• Up to 6 months of battery life using a 2000 mAh Li-Po battery

The state of this project

Hardware

The hardware for OMOTE is designed to be easily replicated, using 3D-printed parts, a 2-layer PCB and commonly available components. The mechanical and PCB design can be considered mostly complete. Still, there might be areas for improvement, for example the IR range could be further optimized.

Software

The software can be adjusted to your needs. You can add your own amplifier, TV and media player. Smart home devices can be controlled with MQTT. The software is an example made up of:

• a TV and an amplifier controlled with infrared
• a Fire TV media player controlled with BLE (bluetooth keyboard)
• some smart home devices controlled with MQTT
• an IR receiver for decoding the IR codes from your remote

Please see the wiki on how to understand and modify the software.

You need to have PlatformIO running, and you need to know how to compile and flash your own firmware with PlatformIO. There is no prebuild firmware.

The remote can be charged and programmed via its USB-C port. Open the PlatformIO project to compile and upload the code to the ESP32.

As a long term goal, maybe a prebuild firmware will be published, where you can configure your OMOTE via a web interface.

LVGL GUI simulator for Windows and Linux

A simulator for running the LVGL UI on your local Windows or Linux machine will be released soon. You can run the simulator in Visual Studio Code with PlatformIO. No need for any other compiler or development environment (no Visual Studio needed as often done in other LVGL simulators).

Building the hardware

The central component of OMOTE is its PCB. If you want to build the PCB yourself, you will need SMT-reflow tools like a hot plate or a hot-air station. The 2-layered board and a solder paste stencil can be ordered from any PCB manufacturer using the KiCad files. Manufacturers like OSHPARK or Aisler will accept these files directly. For JLCPCB or PCBWay, you can use their plugin to export the optimized Gerber files. A zip archive with theses Gerber files is also included in this repository.

I sourced the electrical parts from LCSC, but most of them should be available from the usual suppliers like Digikey or Mouser as well. You can check out the BOM for all the necessary components.

The project uses a 2000mAh Li-Ion battery with a JST-PHR-2 connector. Any 3.7V Li-Ion battery that fits into the 50x34x10mm dimensions should work alright. Please make sure to choose a battery with integrated undervoltage protection (usually visible as a small PCB under Kapton tape between the battery cables).

The 2.8" capacitive touchscreen can be sourced from Adafruit (2770). If you look for the part number CH280QV10-CT, you can also buy this display directly from the manufacturer via Alibaba. Shipping from China is expensive, so this only makes sense if you order multiple displays. In general, the cost for a single OMOTE is quite high. Check out the buy-sell page on the Discord to see if you can share the cost of the PCBs and components with others.

The housing and buttons can be printed using PLA or PETG. I sliced the models with PrusaSlicer with a layer height of 0.25mm and printed them using ColorFabb PETG. It is important that the case part is printed with its flat side towards the print bed using lots of support structures. If your printer is well calibrated, the cover plate will snap onto the case.

To Dos for software

Short term goals

• simulator for creating pages in Windows, WSL2 and Linux
• scene selector page as start page
• available gui pages based on the currently active scene. Hide pages not needed in a scene
• make gui actions context sensitive for the currently active scene

Long term goals (not yet scheduled)

• Easier configuration
  • Document the current process of customization
  • Store the configuration in Flash (e.g. as a editable json file)
  • Add an interface for graphically editing the configuration

See the open issues and discussions for a full list of proposed features (and known issues).

Contributing

If you have a suggestion for an improvement, please fork the repo and create a pull request. You can also simply open an issue or for more general feature requests, head over to the discussions.

License

Distributed under the GPL v3 License. See LICENSE for more information.

Contact

Join the OMOTE Discord: https://discord.gg/5PnYFAsKsG

Maximilian Kern - kernm.de

Project Page on Hackaday.io: https://hackaday.io/project/191752-omote-diy-universal-remote