CONFIG: Android TV / Zank Remote

CONFIG: Android TV / Zank Remote

Overview

Chowmain's Android TV drivers for various home automation platforms utilise Zank Remote to control Google TV / Android TV / Fire TV devices.  All communications between the drivers and the Android device is done via the app.  Note that you must install and setup the application via the steps below before configuring the drivers.

Setup the device to a static IP Address

We recommend putting the Google TV / Android TV / Fire TV device onto a static IP or reserved IP address.

Enabling Developer Mode

The Zank Remote requires the following developer mode settings to be enabled to function properly

Developer Mode

  1. From the Home screen, select Settings >Device Preferences > About


  2. Now scroll down to Build and click on Build several (7x as of writing this manual) times until the message appears, "You are now a developer!"




USB Debugging

  1. From the Home screen select Settings > Device Preferences > Developer Options > USB Debugging and select OK



How do i install Zank Remote

Zank Remote can be downloaded from Google Play store.  You can also manually install Zank Remote by downloading the APK attached to bottom of this knowledgebase article.  Note if you download the APK you must install it by sideloading the APK.  Android Authority has a great article on how to sideload if you require instructions.  Alternatively you can follow the instructions on this Yahoo Hot to Geek article.

Once installed start the app.  It will prompt you to allow for USB debugging..

Disabling Auto Update

We also suggest disabling auto updates. When the device has a pending update is can affect the apps running in the background like Zank.

Troubleshooting a Zank Install on an AndroidTV device

Removing our driver and the control system from the equation, we can test that the Android TV device and the install of the Zank Android Remote app is functioning by using the following tests.

Required Software
Putty (or similar telnet app) https://putty.org/index.html

Using PuTTY

Use the following to configure PuTTY:
Host Name: The IP address of the Android TV device
Port: Must be 1029
Connection type: Telnet

When you click Open PuTTY should open a black window and not disconnect.
If it disconnects then there is an issue with the Zank Android Remote app set up on the Android TV device.

Using Packet Sender


Use the following to configure Packet Sender:
Name: can be anything
ASCII: dpadRight
HEX: (will be auto populated)
Address: The IP address of the Android TV device
Port: 1028
Type: UDP (will default to TCP, please change this via the drop down list)
please note that the port numbers are different for PuTTY and Packet Sender

When you click the Send button, you won't get a response (see below) but the Android TV device should respond to the command

If the Android TV device doesn't react then it is either an issue with the install of Zank Android Remote app or there is a network device (usually an access point) that is dropping broadcast UDP traffic.
This is usually a setting in the network device that you can adjust.

Instructions for specific brands

Nvidia Shield / Generic Android TV

In the nvidia shield or any other generic Android TV device, you can disable auto update by performing the following steps

- Settings
- Device Preferences
- About
- System Upgrade
and turn AutoUpdate to off

FireTV

For the Fire TV, does not need to have auto update disabled.

Help! I am getting text to speech after i install Zank Remote.

On certain Android TV set top boxes this has been seen to happen.  You will need to disable "Google Voice Service Application” on the developer menu.

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