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by coda_ 3174 days ago
I used a raspberry pi to control my TV using HDMI-CEC and exposed a subset of the controls through a web API allowing me to turn on/off my TV from my phone or voice controlled from a google home.

I did this because a chromecast will turn on my TV and set it to the correct input, but it wouldn't turn off the TV. Turning the TV off was the only reason I needed to touch my remote control at all. But just recently google added the turning off functionality to chromecasts... so I guess my little project fade away.
4 comments
mrguyorama 3174 days ago
I was going to build a "smart-home" style personal solution using my chromecast, but it turns out building a chromecast app requires a $5 registration. Not a lot of money but it was just enough friction to trigger my laziness and I moved on to other things
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fomojola 3174 days ago
Side note: what TV do you have? I've found that most Samsungs and many other TVs don't respond to the HDMI-CEC off signal. Was quite disappointed.
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coda_ 3173 days ago
Hey, I have a Sony. it supports being turned on and to the correct input by a Chromecast using HDMI-CEC. I think, like the other guy said, there may be a setting to enable it on your Samsung. I know someone with a Samsung that it works for (the turning on works for sure, not sure about the changing input and turning off). It may be called something different in your tv settings though... I'm sure you can google it. Good luck!
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meroje 3174 days ago
You should be able to enable the off signal within the Anynet settings, but then for it to stick you also have to disable auto updates.
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juancampa 3174 days ago
> But just recently google added the turning off

Thanks for posting this. I was thinking about attaching an IR blaster to a Raspberry Pi to do the same thing.

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coda_ 3173 days ago
No problem. ive been thinking of doing the ir blaster recently as well. Id like to be able to change the input on my audio receiver without using the remote.
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oulipo 3174 days ago
Hi, I'm a co-founder of https://snips.ai, we are building a 100% on-device Voice AI platform

If you want to use your Raspberry Pi with voice control without relying on Google, you can use the platform for free! We will open-source the code over time

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