Colour-coded TV Buttons for Someone with Dementia

This guide assumes Home Assistant is already up and running at your relative's home, on the same Wi-Fi as the TV. If it's not:

• Easiest path: an HA Green on Ethernet — see the voice guide hardware section and the first two setup steps there.
• Existing HA on a Pi / NUC / NAS works equally; it just needs to be reachable from the same LAN as the TV and dongle.

Once you can open Home Assistant in a browser and you're logged in as admin, come back here.

1. Plug the Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus into a free USB port on the Home Assistant host.
2. In HA: Settings → Devices & Services → + Add Integration → ZHA (Zigbee Home Automation).
3. HA usually auto-detects the dongle on a serial port like /dev/ttyUSB0. Confirm it.
4. Choose Recommended setup. Wait around 50 seconds for the Zigbee network to form.
5. The ZHA integration will appear with no devices yet — that's the next step.

If the dongle isn't auto-detected

Some HA hosts need a USB extension cable to keep the dongle out of the host's RF noise. Try plugging it into a USB extension if pairing later turns out to be flaky.

Pair each button one at a time — easier to know which is which. For each:

1. In HA: Settings → Devices & Services → ZHA → + Add Device.
2. Long-press the button for at least 5 seconds, until the LED flashes rapidly.
3. HA should discover the button within 30 seconds. Name it as you pair it ("Off — Red", "Radio — Blue", etc.) so you can tell them apart later.
4. Repeat for the other five buttons.

If a button won't pair on long-press

Some Third Reality firmware versions need 5 quick taps instead of one long press to enter pairing mode. Try that if long-press doesn't work after a couple of tries.

Note each button's device ID

When you import the blueprints, you'll pick each button by name from a dropdown. So as long as the names are distinct ("Off — Red" not "button 1"), you don't need to record device IDs by hand.

Physical setup

1. Plug the Google TV dongle into a free HDMI port on the LG TV. Use the TV's USB-A port for power if possible — that way the dongle stays powered when the TV is on.
2. Run through the on-screen Google TV setup with the included remote (one-time only).
3. Install YouTube from the Play Store on the dongle. (Other apps optional.)

Enable SIMPLINK on the LG TV

1. On the LG: Settings → General → External Devices → SIMPLINK (HDMI-CEC) → On.
2. Settings → General → Devices → External Devices → TV On With Mobile → Wi-Fi. (Allows CEC wake from the dongle.)

Add the Google Cast integration in HA

1. Settings → Devices & Services → + Add Integration → Google Cast.
2. HA auto-discovers the dongle. Confirm. A media_player entity appears (e.g. media_player.living_room_tv).

Add the Android TV Remote integration

1. + Add Integration → Android TV Remote.
2. Enter the dongle's IP address (find it on the dongle: Settings → Network → MAC and IP).
3. Accept the PIN that appears on the TV. A remote.living_room_tv entity is created.

Add the WebOS TV integration

1. + Add Integration → WebOS TV.
2. Enter the LG's IP. Accept the pairing prompt on the TV. A media_player.lg_webos_tv_* entity appears.

Note the entity IDs

You now have three TV-related entities in HA:

• Google Cast media player (Cast/audio/YouTube target)
• WebOS TV media player (LG power, source, channels)
• Android TV Remote (CEC wake)

These three are inputs in every TV blueprint. Note them down or just remember roughly what they're called — the dropdowns in the blueprint UI make picking easy.

The YouTube blueprints reference helpers HA doesn't ship — you create them yourself, once.

The current_show input_select

1. Settings → Devices & Services → Helpers → + Create Helper → Dropdown.
2. Name: current_show (entity ID becomes input_select.current_show).
3. Add one option per YouTube show button — short, lowercase, no spaces. For Ruth's setup that's doc_martin, mr_bean, bgt. Use whatever your relative actually watches.
4. Initial option: pick any.

One input_number per show

These store the rotating index into each show's playlist. Repeat per show:

1. + Create Helper → Number.
2. Name: doc_martin_playlist_index (or whatever matches the show option above).
3. Minimum: 0. Maximum: 50 (or larger than your longest playlist). Step: 1. No unit.
4. Initial value: 0.

Repeat once per YouTube show button. Three white buttons → three input_numbers.

For the full Ruth setup (Off + Radio + News + 3 YouTube shows + auto-advance), you'd import:

• tv-off-button — once
• tv-stream-button — once (for Radio)
• tv-live-channel-button — once (for News)
• tv-youtube-show-button — three times (one per white show button)
• tv-youtube-auto-advance — three times (one per show)

Total: 9 automation instances from 5 blueprints. Importing a blueprint is a one-click action; configuring each instance is the next step.

If you only want a subset (e.g. just Off + Radio), only import those blueprints and skip the rest.

After importing a blueprint, in HA: Settings → Automations & Scenes → + Create Automation → From a Blueprint → pick the blueprint → fill in the inputs → save with a name like "TV Off (Red)" or "TV Radio (Blue)".

Inputs that are the same across most blueprints

• Cast media_player: the Google Cast entity (one per setup).
• WebOS TV media_player: the LG entity (one per setup).
• Android TV Remote: the CEC wake entity (one per setup).
• HDMI source name: the LG's name for the dongle's HDMI port. Default "Living room TV" works for many; check the LG's input list if unsure.
• Live TV source name: usually just "Live TV" on LG.

Inputs that vary per blueprint

• tv-stream-button: the stream URL (e.g. https://media-ice.musicradio.com/ClassicFMMP3 for Classic FM).
• tv-live-channel-button: the channel number (e.g. 231 for BBC News).
• tv-youtube-show-button: this show's input_number, this show's option in input_select (e.g. doc_martin), and the playlist of YouTube video IDs (one per line).
• tv-youtube-auto-advance: same playlist + index + option as the matching show button.

Building a YouTube playlist for a show button

Each white button plays through a curated list of YouTube videos. The playlist lives directly in the blueprint's configuration — no separate playlist file, no HA dashboard to edit.

1. Find the video on youtube.com. The URL looks like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-2uplNrPzE.
2. Copy the video ID — the bit after v=. In the example: s-2uplNrPzE. Always 11 characters; letters, numbers, hyphens, underscores.
3. Paste each ID on its own line in the blueprint's "Playlist of YouTube video IDs" input. Blank lines are ignored.

How the playlist plays

• The blueprint plays videos top-to-bottom, then loops back to the start.
• The matching input_number tracks the position. Each press of the white button advances by one (wrapping at the end of the list).
• The auto-advance blueprint plays the next video when the current one ends — same playlist, same wrapping logic.

Critical: keep show button and auto-advance in sync

The show-button blueprint and its matching auto-advance blueprint each hold their own copy of the playlist. If you update one, you must update the other, or the buttons will drift out of sync after the next video ends.

(A future revision of this blueprint pack might share the list from a single source — for now, paste it in both.)

Updating a playlist later

1. Settings → Automations & Scenes → click the show-button automation → Re-configure.
2. Edit the playlist text. Save.
3. Repeat for the matching auto-advance automation. Don't skip this step.
4. If you've added videos beyond the input_number's current max range, bump the helper's max to match.

1. With the TV off, press Radio. The TV should wake (CEC), switch to the dongle's HDMI input, and start the stream within ~10 seconds.
2. Press Off. Stream pauses and TV turns off.
3. Press News. TV wakes, switches to Live TV, tunes the channel.
4. Press Off, then a White show button. TV wakes, casts a YouTube video.
5. Wait for the video to finish. Auto-advance should kick in and play the next.
6. Press Off, wait for the TV to power off, then press the same White button. The next episode in that show's playlist should start. (By design — we deliberately skip rather than try a fragile mid-video resume.)

If something doesn't work

Each automation has a Traces tab in the HA UI showing what happened on each press. Settings → Automations → click the automation → Traces. Look for red errors.

Common issues:

• YouTube cast does nothing. Likely a stale Cast session. The blueprints close the Cast session before the next play; if you've manually paused YouTube and then pressed a show button, give it 5 seconds.
• YouTube goes to a black screen. The dongle's HDMI source isn't selected. Check the "HDMI source name" input matches the LG's source list exactly (case-sensitive).
• News tunes the wrong channel. Channel digits sent too fast for the LG to register. Increase the inter-digit delay in the blueprint (currently 0.5s).
• Off doesn't turn the TV off. SIMPLINK isn't enabled. Re-check the LG's settings.

The aim: zero cognitive load. Your relative shouldn't have to read anything to use the buttons. Suggestions that worked for us:

• A tray on the side table next to the chair, with the six buttons arranged in a clear grid.
• A printed key card in big text — "Red = OFF", "Blue = RADIO", etc. — laminated and placed next to the tray. Useful for the first few weeks; less important once muscle memory takes over.
• Don't mount the buttons to the wall on day one. Move them around the first week, see where your relative actually reaches for them, then settle on the spot.

Battery life on Third Reality buttons is roughly a year of normal use, so changing them isn't a frequent chore — but keep a small note of the install date so you don't get caught out.