BroadLink Wi-Fi Smart Remote Hub with Sensor Cable, IR RF All in One Automation Learning Universal Remote Control, With a Mini Smart Plug, Compatible with Alexa, Google Home, IFTTT （RM4proS+SP4M)

NA

Tried several items took forever and could only rarely get a single button or function to work

Wanted to have it control my bed frame and ceiling fan, which both appear to be RF devices. Since it didn’t respond to the IR learning. Both appliances I don’t have manual for anymore, and both was able to detect the frequency and claimed it learned, but couldn’t actually control after. Tried many times over, couldn’t get it to work. Thought it was defective until I tried it with a tower fan and TV. Those worked just fine. However, the tower fan control lacked Alexa swivel and speed control. Only on/off, which a cheap plug variant would have handled…. Only on/off makes it pretty useless with Alexa.

I bought this product to remotely control a TV and possibly some other devices for a handicapped person. Heres what I found: 1) it works over the same wifi network to provide a local wifi remote for a Roku TV. Great. But one cant use that remote over the internet. This is of course possible, the Alex Roku skill will control the TV from anywhere as long as there is an Alexa set up on the local wifi network. I can for example tell Alexa in my house to turn on the TV in the other persons house, set the input, etc. The Broadlink device clearly CAN communicate over the internet since I can use it remotely to control IR devices in the other house. However I suspect that the RM4 doesnt actually do wifi remotes, that is a function of the app. 2) When setting up IR remotes, NONE of the devices I had were pre configured. So 100% not matched despite the claim of 95% match. 3) The RM4 didnt come with a USB power adapter. Obviously one is likely to want to plug it into a power source. 4) It didnt work with the XFinity remote. Seems like a frequency issue. The particular frequency of that remote is not supported. For my use case Alexa worked and this didnt. Also Comcast has an app that works remotely (over the internet) to control the Xfinity box. Too bad I dont have some automated curtains I need to control. The only thing Im using this for now is to monitor temperature. In Celsius.

I purchased this product after reading some blog posts from others that had used it to control non-smart devices. Im a fairly technical person and was excited about using this with Homebridge to add to my Home Kit ecosystem. I tried multiple times to setup the device in the Broadlink app but couldnt figure it out until today (over a month after purchase). Once setup, the basics were easy. The app prompted to update the firmware, which worked as expected. Over a month after purchase I finally got to try learning a remote. Broadlink doesnt have a partnership with my ceiling fan manufacturer (Stile) so I tried to manually add my remote (they also dont have a ceiling fan category so I had do this as a UserDefine appliance). The device was able to detect the RF frequency of my remote (which is not the same frequency as documented from the manufacturer) but when I try to learn a button it never sees my input. Im only leaving this review because Im past the point of return, literally. I cant return this item. Do not buy this. Their app is horrible (I didnt even mention how scrolling the list of appliances to add is not intuitive) and the hub itself just doesnt work.

I had a fairly easy time setting it up. It is compact and comes with a mounting plate. However, the integration with Alexa for devices like TV and Set-top boxes is limited to the point that it really can just turn devices on and off. Integration with Alexa routines is limited. Comes with a sensor cable to report temperature and humidity. Even that isnt supported in an Alexa routine. I would consider keeping it as a learning remote that is accessible via my phone. However, the phone app for button layout is also limited. You cant have a single layout on the phone with buttons that combine TV and the set-top box. The button layouts are static and not configurable; you cant move change the layout nor add/remove buttons. Unused buttons are still displayed. If you touch the unassigned buttons it requests that you assign a IR code to them. You can only assign IR codes to them. You cannot assign a series of IR codes to a single button to let say turn on the TV and set-top box together. As such, even as a configurable learning remote it falls seriously short.

I returned mine because I was missing my return window with Amazon... its not there yet. I had issues with my smart shades after the Shade Store decided to remove the app from the Play Store for their first gen hubs. I was able to control the shades and it automatically discovered up or raising of the shades but not lowering them. Another issue I had was with my X-finity receiver. It discovered the receiver correctly (you have multiple templates to choose from) and I chose the one that had everything including the channel numbers but were greyed out. The channel numbers which were grayed out indicating that they may or may not work and recommendation is to manually add them. The funny thing is, manual adding failed for the greyed out channel numbers worked perfectly! I could not use the greyed out numbers through Alexa etc.

This doesnt work, wish I would have returned it immediately, now its too late after trying to get support on the product and all they said was try setting it up again. It basically works when you set it up, then its like it goes to sleep by the next morning and it wont wake up until you try it several times if you are lucky. Bought a Bond bridge and it works EVERY time. Also works with my ceiling fan and Broadlink NEVER worked with my ceiling fan. Save yourselves time and just go for the Bond bridge. Bonds support is far better as well and responds same day.

It took me a little while to get it working only because Im not that savvy with the hubs. But eventually, I got it. I havent had time to get it programmed for the IR remotes yet.

There a lot of things that Alexa or Google can do but adding this device extends their ability to control the IR (TV remotes etc) and the RF (radio frequency devices) that you have had in your home for years. It allows you to control these devices via voice and does so reliability and easily. I have been more than impressed by this device. As a note for RF, make the unit you are buying supports both 315MHz & 433MHz.