the battery cover just pops off. I put a flat blade scretriver in slot and twist. 1 The macro command is pretty simple. First, add a set of related devices (in my case, an LG TV and a ROKU stick). Then pick any button whose action you want to change. For instance, change the power on/off on the Roku to be the TV power on/off. Made the change by
- open the App and sync with the Sofabaton you want to change
- chose Roku,
- click "remote Keys"
- click on the power button,
- click on "add (or edit) macro for this key"
- On the next screen click on the TV (it comes up on Roku) and then pick the power button (that is, make the power button work to turn on/off the TV regardless of whether the remote is set to TV or Roku)
- click save (that downloads a completely new updated profile from the App into the Sofabaton - the time it takes depends on how complex the whole profile is, not how big a change you made.) The same process can be followed for any sequence of button-pushes from any devices you have added to the Sofabaton remote.
- The only commands that can be used are those that are represented as single buttons on a remote. For instance, my TV has an IR code that means "switch to HDMI input 2". But there is no single button push that means the same thing. The input-choice process using the orginal TV remote depends on which input is currently active. In my case, I wanted to program each of four "soft keys" to directly pick one of the current 4 inputs. I finally did that (on my LG TV) with
- a set of 5 button pushes that put the TV in a "known" state
- then more clicks that put it in the desired input. Awkward and slow, but it works. Your ability to do something similar depends on your devices. My old Logitech Harmony remote allows the user to pick an IR code other than those represented by a single button push (such as "switch to HDMI 2 Input"). The SofaBatton does not make available any IR codes other than those that are directly on the original remote's buttons. On the other hand, choosing codes from the other device is much more straight forward than with the Logitech device.
- The app does not understand that someone may want to use more than one Sofabaton remote (I use 3). To program an additional Sofabaton, pop the batteries from the first (or first two) and then program the keys on the new Sofabatonn. Then put the batteries back in the original Sofabatons. Without doing this, the app will insist on linking with the older Sofabaton. Likewise, if you want to modify one or more of the remotes, you must disable all but the one you want to change.
- Nevertheless, I am impressed with the Sofabaton hardware and app. I think all these awkward aspects and limitations could be resolved by software changes in the app and a broader database of IR codes.
