RepairGuyDK · Homey App

Set up SofaBaton X2 on Homey

Follow these steps in order and your remote will be talking to Homey in about 15 minutes.

⏱️ ~15 minutes 🧩 Beginner friendly 📶 Same Wi-Fi for all

Before you start, you need:

Set up the “post office”

Homey and your SofaBaton send messages to each other through a little middleman called an MQTT broker. Think of it as a post office they both drop letters at. The easiest way is to run one right on your Homey — use this exact app:

Install this broker MQTT Broker — by Menno van Grinsven ↗
  1. Open the link above and tap Install App (or in the Homey app: Apps → search “MQTT Broker” → the one by Menno van Grinsven).
  2. Open the MQTT Broker app’s settings and set it up so your hub can connect:
    • Tick “Also allow unsecure connections”.
    • Create a Username & Password. Write them down — you’ll enter the same ones on the device in step 4.
    • Leave “Disable password hashing” and “Enable secure connections” unticked.
  3. Press “Start Broker”, then check it now says “Broker is Running”. 🟢 Easy to forget — and nothing connects until it’s running!
  4. Note the port — it’s usually 1883.
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Odd but important: set a username & password even if “Disable user authentication” is ticked. In testing, the hub simply refused to connect until a real user existed — so don’t skip this.
⚠️
Also running MQTT on Home Assistant? Then set this Homey broker to a port other than 1883 (e.g. 1884) so the two don’t clash — and use that same port everywhere below.
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Already have a broker? If you run Mosquitto on a Raspberry Pi or NAS, you can use that instead — just remember its address and port.

Tell your SofaBaton where the post office is

Now point your remote’s hub at that same broker, so it starts dropping its messages there.

  1. On your phone, open the SofaBaton app.
  2. Go to your hub’s settings → MQTT / Home Assistant.
  3. Type in the broker’s address (your Homey’s IP) and port 1883.
  4. Tap Save.
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Where’s my Homey’s IP? Homey app → More → Settings → General (or look in the MQTT Broker app). It looks like 192.168.1.42.

Install the app on Homey

The app is in the Homey App Store. Open this link on your phone or computer, sign in to your Homey, and install:

Homey App Store homey.app/a/com.repairguydk.sofabatonx2/ ↗
  1. Open the link above.
  2. Log in to your Homey account.
  3. Tap Install. That’s it — the app is on your Homey. 🎉

Add your SofaBaton to Homey

  1. In the Homey app: Devices → ＋ Add device → SofaBaton X2 → SofaBaton Hub.
  2. Homey looks for your hub. When “X2 HUB — …” pops up, pick it — the hub’s ID fills in by itself. ✨
    • Don’t see it? Choose “SofaBaton X2 (manual setup)” instead.
  3. Un-tick the extra option. The list starts with both the found hub and “SofaBaton X2 (manual setup)” ticked. If your hub was found automatically, un-tick “manual setup” so only the real hub stays ticked — otherwise you add an empty second device.
    SofaBaton X2 ✕ New devices found Select the devices you want to add Deselect all (2) X2 HUB — F09E9E7FD9… SofaBaton X2 (manual… Un-tick this one Continue
    The New devices found screen — both cards start ticked. Tap the ✓ on SofaBaton X2 (manual…) to un-tick it, leaving only the real hub.
  4. Open the new device’s Settings (the ⚙️ gear) and check:
    • Broker address — already set to your Homey’s IP 👍
    • Port — set it to match your broker (1883)
    • Username / Password — enter the same ones you created in the MQTT Broker (step 1)
  5. Tap Save. The device turns on and connects. 🎉

Load your devices and buttons

On the SofaBaton device card in Homey, tap “Refresh devicelist”. After a few seconds your real devices and keys (TV, fan, and so on) show up in the app’s dropdowns.

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Names showing as “Device 3 / Key 5”? The hub’s list was asleep. Unplug the hub for about 10 seconds, plug it back in, wait a minute, then tap Refresh again.

Try it out!

You’re ready. Here are the two things you can do — both from the Flow editor (a full card-by-card overview follows below):

Remote → Homey

When a SofaBaton button is pressed → Then do anything in Homey. Press a new MQTT button once so it appears in the list.

Homey → your gear

A Then action: On [device]: press [key] — for example, turn your fan on straight from Homey.

Where to find the Flow cards

A Homey Flow is built from three columns — When, And and Then. Here is everything this app adds, and where each card is hiding.

When

A specific button was pressedAny button was pressed

These live under the SofaBaton X2 app itself — not under the hub device. Tap + in the When column and type “pressed”, or scroll down the list to the app’s own icon. Both cards hand you the tags Device, Key, Device ID and Key ID to use later in the Flow.

And

The hub connection is / is not pausedThe last pressed button was / was not …

Pick the SofaBaton hub device in the And column. Handy for “only do this if the connection isn’t paused”, or for reacting differently depending on which button was pressed last.

Then

On [device], press [key]

Pick the SofaBaton hub device in the Then column, then choose which of your devices and which key to fire — infrared, RF or Bluetooth, whatever the hub can reach.

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Only seeing “Then” cards? That is the usual surprise. Only the action card belongs to the device — the two When cards belong to the app, because the hub speaks to Homey as one unit. So start the When column from the app, not from the device.
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Nothing in the dropdowns yet? Only buttons on the SofaBaton “MQTT” device reach Homey. Add that device in the SofaBaton app and press a key once — it then appears here with its real name.

If something isn’t right

→ The device stays grey / “cannot reach broker”
Make sure the MQTT Broker app shows “Broker is Running” (press Start Broker if not). Double-check the broker address and port, and that the SofaBaton app points at the same broker. If it still won’t connect, create a username & password in the broker and enter the same ones on the device — the hub often refuses to connect without a real login, even with “Disable user authentication” on.
→ I can only find “Then” cards in the Flow editor
The When cards sit under the app, not under the device. In the When column tap + and type “pressed”, or look for the SofaBaton X2 icon in the list. See Where to find the Flow cards above.
→ My button presses don’t reach Homey
Only buttons on the SofaBaton “MQTT” device are sent to Homey. In the SofaBaton app, map the buttons you want to that device.
→ Device names won’t load
Power-cycle the hub (unplug ~10 s), wait a minute, then tap Refresh devicelist on the device card.
→ The hub stops responding after a lot of tinkering
The SofaBaton X2 hub is a small, modestly-powered device. After a lot of back-and-forth (in the SofaBaton app or in Homey) it can get overwhelmed and turn hit-and-miss — sometimes it answers, sometimes it doesn’t. A hard reboot almost always sorts it out: unplug the hub for ~10 seconds, plug it back in, and give it a minute to come fully back online before carrying on.
→ The SofaBaton phone app feels slow while Homey is connected
Tap Pause hub connection on the device, make your edits in the SofaBaton app, then tap it again to reconnect. (The hub allows only one controller at a time.)