Global Caché iTach Flex Wi-Fi

It took a little work to understand how this thing works. On it's own, out of the box, it's not very useful. And it really needs some decent software to learn and control the IR devices. I use Mote for my iPhone and it works flawlessly now that it is setup. Any lags are due to the network and not the device itself as far as I can tell. I think the manufacturer could have provided some of their own software, but it seems they prefer to create the hardware and let others come up with the software side. Even their documentation goes into elaborate detail on the API for writing your own control scripts that the typical user could care less about -- although I plan to take advantage of in the future.One issue I had was in the learning. The device records the IR signal it "sees" and encodes it and passes it along to your software or app. Garbage in produces garbage out I learned as half the time my commands would playback correctly. By placing the remote control right up to the IR receiver on the device while keeping any bright light off of the device, the recordings work much more reliably. The Mote app will let you test each command as they are learned so you can retake a command if it doesn't work reliably on playback.Getting the iTach Flex on the network was fairly straightforward. You can setup port forwarding on your network to the device if you want to control the device from the WAN -- there isn't any security so make sure you are not remote controlling your iron lung or, equally deadly, your wife's ability to watch her favorite Bravo shows.So, for what it's designed to do -- connect to your wi-fi and relay IR pulse codes from network commands to controlled devices -- it works great. Pair it with a decent piece of software and you've got a robust combo for remote control of devices from the internet or local network.

Good little device, does it's job pretty well. Would have been good if it was advertised as not having the IR emitters included - as I presumed these came with it. Having previously purchased the IP2IR unit (which came with emitters) this wasn't such a stretch for me to assume. But currently I am re-using an old wide emitter and it is working well. Very neat too.

At first, I was getting frustrated trying to connect wirelessly to the device for configuration. My suggestion is to NOT hook it up to any computer, just power it up at an outlet. It begins to blink. Then go to a computer that has wireless and search for new wireless networks. It should appear in your listing. Once that is done, follow the directions. Setup is very simple. Download the iLearn, iHelp, and iTest from Global Cache. The iLearn does nothing but record the IR signal from your remote...and you can test it there, but after you save it...you must then use the iTest for anymore testing. Which is strange. They should have put that into one program.Anyway, using VoxCommando or even EventGhost, I was able to send signals to my TV by attaching the IR Blaster for changing the input, volume, mute, etc...all from my computer

This device is very useful for AV use when needing to control IR on a TV without running wires and in general just to use with different Apps on your phone or tablet. You set it up with an IP address on your local lan, connect an IR cable or Blaster to the devices or cabinet and administer it with various apps into an all-in-one remote control. Easy to setup.

Horribly complicate to use. Bring back SQ Remote or put some thought into making this easier to use for human beings.