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The Flic Twist can now be pre-ordered!
It supports Sonos control via a hub and can control volume via a rotating dial and a push button for play/pause so should make a nice little controller. 12 additional controls can be added by pushing and twisting the unit so I guess you could add skip/forward/etc there.
https://www.t3.com/news/you-can-now-preorder-the-flic-twist-smart-home-button-and-its-on-sale
Available here, the homepage has links to some bundles with the hub
Expensive, compared to IKEA.
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Not that much.
£98 posted for the Flic Twist starter kit with hub (UK £83 + £15 postage)
£79 for the IKEA Hub and sound remote (UK £60 + £19).
I’d happily pay extra for the rotary dial for volume control. Also, the Flic can be used to trigger way more functionality https://flic.io/applications/
Compare this price to the button Sonos were selling a couple of years back, this is cheap!
You’re perhaps referring to the iPort xPress keypad. That was indeed pricey. I had 4 of them. All now defunct and recycled. Sunk cost! They had good usage in their day though.
I was actually thinking of the older IKEA Tradfri system, but even so with today’s Dirigera kit each additional remote is “only” £19, whereas the marginal cost for each extra Flic control looks like £66. Granted this can be reduced slightly with a multi-pack.
Yes I know I’m not strictly comparing apples with apples, but I’d certainly be put off contemplating replacing my IKEA gizmos of which I have six Sonos remotes and five shortcut buttons.
Expensive, compared to IKEA.
Yes, but ikea is limited to controlling Sonos and ikea smart home related products only. Flic seems to be related to a wider set of devices.
Edit: I should maybe add that I’m not too crazy about either of these as a solution. Not sure what exactly my preferred solution should look like, but I am hoping that Matter will help clear that up...some day.
Expensive, compared to IKEA.
Yes, but ikea is limited to controlling Sonos and ikea smart home related products only. Flic seems to be related to a wider set of devices.
Like I said, not an apples for apples comparison. But this is a Sonos board and if my primary motivation was equipping six rooms with Sonos remotes, plus a handful of 3-function shortcut buttons, I’d be hard pressed to justify the cost.
Expensive, compared to IKEA.
Yes, but ikea is limited to controlling Sonos and ikea smart home related products only. Flic seems to be related to a wider set of devices.
Like I said, not an apples for apples comparison. But this is a Sonos board and if my primary motivation was equipping six rooms with Sonos remotes, plus a handful of 3-function shortcut buttons, I’d be hard pressed to justify the cost.
Yes, you did say that. And I did not see your follow up till after I made my post. It happens.
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Edit: I should maybe add that I’m not too crazy about either of these as a solution. Not sure what exactly my preferred solution should look like,
I’m still dreaming about an updated CR200, unfortunately that will never happen! 😒
Shelly have just released this, an in-wall Android display. It’s too early to say whether you can sideload the Sonos app onto it.
https://www.shelly.com/en-gb/products/product-overview/shelly-wall-display/shelly-wall-display
I like tinkering with new tech so have bought the Flic starter with the 3 extra buttons. My current Sonos control is a Philips Hue ‘Tap dial’ hooked up to Hubitat in order to use it to control Sonos, it’s not perfect. i tried the first iteration of the IKEA button but it didn’t work well for me, kept losing connection to the hub
I’m still dreaming about an updated CR200, unfortunately that will never happen! 😒
There’s actually a lot to be said for just repurposing old phones and using them to do stuff.
I have a couple of Androids -- a quite ancient Nexus 5X (Android 8.1), and a Pixel 3XL (Android 12). Both are registered to a different gmail from my personal one (for security reasons), stripped of anything non-essential and left around unlocked. Pick them up and they wake (though the Nexus needed Tasker for this). Pin the Sonos app if so desired.
In addition a Samsung A3 serves as a music downloader/player for outdoor exertions.
All the above were bought second-hand.
i tried the first iteration of the IKEA button but it didn’t work well for me, kept losing connection to the hub
Just on that, I suspect wireless issues may have been a factor. For Zigbee the usual RF hygiene guidance applies: keep the hub at least 50cm from anything else; try and put all 2.4GHz WiFi on channels 1 or 6; and so forth. In addition I scattered a couple of repeaters around the house.
I like tinkering with new tech so have bought the Flic starter with the 3 extra buttons.
I may be misinterpreting things but https://flic.io/applications/ appears to suggest the Twist needs to work through one’s phone at present to control Sonos. Use via a hub appears to be greyed out. Maybe this is until product release?
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I like tinkering with new tech so have bought the Flic starter with the 3 extra buttons.
I may be misinterpreting things but https://flic.io/applications/ appears to suggest the Twist needs to work through one’s phone at present to control Sonos. Use via a hub appears to be greyed out. Maybe this is until product release?
Yeah it looks like it’s not up to date. The Flic Twist needs a hub
Got three of the Flic Twists last week. They worked great and were easy to setup, until I upgraded the Sonos firmware, now they do not work at all.
The Twists only work with the Flic hub. The issue seems related to the hub firmware not being compatible with the new Sonos firmware. I believe it is the case because even the Flic buttons stopped working with the Sonos speakers, which I used for a few years now. The buttons work fine when they are paired with my phone but not when they are paired with the hub.
I have emailed Flic support and said the would look into it. There are others who posted the same issue on Reddit recently, let's hope it gets attention and they release a firmware upgrade soon or something else that will fix the issue.
The issue seems related to the hub firmware not being compatible with the new Sonos firmware.
This is not unknown. IIRC both IKEA and the iPort xPress have had such hiccups in the past.
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I still haven’t received my order from 15th Sept!
That makes no sense to me. Sonos has its SMAPI, which hasn’t substantially changed, and also has no access to the Flic codebase. How do you expect Sonos to fix issues with the Flic?
SMAPI isn’t a local playback control API. One would imagine these kind of devices use UPnP directly.
You have a point, sorry I used the wrong terminology, I’m pre-coffee. However, to my knowledge, there’s been no change in the interface for devices that ‘work with Sonos’, and no other breaks in other manufacturer’s devices that function with it. Which leads me to think that the issue is on the Flic side of things, and Sonos engineers wouldn’t have any access to Flic’s codebase.
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I don't think anyone is expecting Sonos to fix Flic's issue.
It does worry me that thing's like this happen though, at least IKEA is listed as works with Sonos so you'd think things wouldn't break or at least there would be conversations between them if they did. The fact that Flic isn't listed as a partner is concerning.
I may cancel my Flic order and go with the IKEA option
Of course IKEA is more than just a ‘works with Sonos’ partner, as the IKEA Symfonisk speakers are basically Sonos’s.
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I emailed Flic about my order, a Twist, Hub and 3 buttons. They replied saying that there is no known date for stock to become available and when it does it will go to backers first 😮 Wow, cancelled!!!
Now to decide whether to get a Home Assistant Green box and program my Hue tap dial (currently using Hubitat but it’s not good) or just buy the IKEA hub/button 🤔
If you go with the Dirigera come back and update the thread with how things work out.
I still haven’t received my order from 15th Sept!
Hi Dave. It does. That is the main reason I got the Flic buttons years ago was to control the Sonos speakers.
Flic has cool features to create scenes with a bush of a button, i.e. dim the lights, set the Sonos volume to 15, play Jazz playlist from Spotify (haven't figured out how to make it serve me a glass of wine, ha!).
When the twist came out, I was probably one of the first to fund and waited a year.
They all worked flawlessly the first day, then I made the mistake of upgrading the Sonos firmware :(
I have not heard back from flic. I am positive flic will fix this issue soon, I mean the twist is on pre-order. Imagine people reading about these problems, they would shy away from purchasing. Flic, I hope you are reading this ;)
That makes no sense to me. Sonos has its SMAPI, which hasn’t substantially changed, and also has no access to the Flic codebase. How do you expect Sonos to fix issues with the Flic?
Sonos should not be responsible nor should they be concerned with fixing Flics issue.
Unless they have a partnership or Flic is a crucial partner, then testing before making firmware available to consumers is critical.
That is of course just my personal opinion.
I still haven’t received my order from 15th Sept!
I just realized based on your link that there is an actual works with Sonos thing... the Flic does not seem to be part of it, just has this feature web page https://flic.io/applications/sonos
Flic has cool features to create scenes with a bush of a button, i.e. dim the lights, set the Sonos volume to 15, play Jazz playlist from Spotify
IKEA also has such ‘scenes’. I have many configured into the £6 shortcut buttons spread around the house.
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