Fakeroku Emulator

This adapter makes ioBroker look like one or more Roku streaming devices on your local network. A remote that speaks Roku's protocol — a Logitech Harmony hub or a Sofabaton X1/X2 — finds the emulated device, and every button you press on it becomes a datapoint in ioBroker that your scripts and visualisations can react to.

It is the input counterpart to the Logitech Harmony adapter: instead of ioBroker controlling a device, a device controls ioBroker.

The official Roku mobile app does not work with this adapter. The app talks to real Rokus over Roku's proprietary, undocumented ECP-2 WebSocket channel, which this emulator does not implement. Use a Harmony hub or a Sofabaton — those speak the open protocol this adapter serves.

Requirements

• Node.js 22 or newer
• js-controller 7.2.2 or newer
• admin 8.0.14 or newer
• A remote or hub on the same local network as your ioBroker host

Setting it up

1. Create the instance

Install the adapter and create one instance. A new instance starts switched off: check the settings below, then switch it on. It comes with one emulated Roku already configured, named "Roku" on port 8060.

2. Choose the network interface (usually: don't)

Leave Network interface on "all interfaces". The adapter then serves every network your ioBroker host sits in, and answers a remote in each of them with the host's own address in that network — a remote in a separate VLAN gets the address it can reach.

Pick a specific address only if the emulated Rokus should exist in one network only. Then everything stays in that network: only remotes from it are answered, and nothing is offered on the others. If that address does not exist on the host when the instance starts, the adapter waits up to two minutes for it (a network that comes up after ioBroker), then says so in the log and starts nothing — it never falls back to another network.

3. Add or edit the emulated Rokus

Each card under Emulated Roku devices is one Roku your remote can find.

• Name — the name of the device in ioBroker and in the device information the emulated Roku gives out. Whether a remote shows it depends on the remote: a Harmony names the device itself. Pick something you will recognise, for example the room. Renaming a card later keeps its datapoints — the folder in the object tree, its room and function assignments and its history settings stay where they are; only the displayed name changes.
• ECP port — the network port this Roku answers on. 8060 is the port a real Roku uses. Each emulated Roku needs its own port; the dialog pre-selects a free one and does not let you confirm a port that is already taken. A Harmony or Sofabaton reads the port from the discovery.
• Type
  • Player (a streaming box) offers the 16 standard navigation and playback keys.
  • TV offers those plus volume, power, channel and input keys (VolumeUp, PowerOn, PowerOff, Power, Sleep, ChannelUp, InputTuner, InputHDMI1 …). Choose it only if you actually want those extra buttons as triggers in ioBroker.

4. Teach your remote

Logitech Harmony: add a device in the Harmony app, choose Roku as the manufacturer, and point it at your ioBroker host. The hub finds the emulated Roku on its own and reads the port from the announcement — you do not have to enter it.

Sofabaton X1/X2: add a Roku device in the Sofabaton app while the app is on the same network; it finds the emulated Roku through discovery.

What you get in the object tree

At instance level:

For each emulated Roku, below fakeroku.0.<name>:

Typing on the remote's keyboard (Lit_a) and app launches appear in command only — they do not get datapoints of their own. An app button of a remote that sends app launches (a Sofabaton) arrives as launch:<id>, with its parameters if it carries any (launch:12?contentId=…). Key names are read in any case: home and HOME are the key Home.

Using it in a script

The usual way is to react to a key becoming true:

on({ id: "fakeroku.0.Living_room.keys.Play", val: true }, () => {
  // your action
});

Or watch command if you want to handle several buttons in one place:

on({ id: "fakeroku.0.Living_room.command" }, obj => {
  log("Remote sent: " + obj.state.val);
});

The key datapoints are reset to false every time the adapter starts, so a key that was left pressed when ioBroker stopped cannot block your rule afterwards. Releasing a key you are actually holding is never dropped, not even while the adapter is shedding a flood of commands — otherwise the flood protection would be the thing that left a key stuck.

Ports the adapter uses

• TCP 8060 (one per emulated Roku, configurable) — the control protocol. Your remote sends its key presses here.
• UDP 1900 (multicast) — device discovery, so the remote finds the emulated Rokus. This port is fixed by the standard and shared by all of them.

Only devices in one of the ioBroker host's own networks are answered — with a chosen network interface only devices in that interface's network. A request from anywhere else (the internet, another VLAN, a VPN) is refused, and a discovery search from there is ignored.

When you stop the instance, the emulated Rokus announce their departure. A controller that keeps its device list from discovery drops them instead of keeping them for up to an hour; a Harmony, which remembers a paired device by itself, is not affected.

You can run more than one instance on the same machine — give each one its own ECP ports. They share UDP 1900: the adapter opens it with address reuse, so every instance receives the discovery searches and answers for its own devices. Only if some other program holds that port exclusively does an instance start without discovery — it says so in the log, and remotes already paired with it still get through.

The adapter also runs in ioBroker's compact mode, where several adapters share one process instead of each starting their own. On a small box that saves memory and startup time. You switch it on in the instance settings; nothing here needs changing.

Troubleshooting

The remote does not find any device. Check that the hub and the ioBroker host are on the same network and that no firewall blocks UDP port 1900. On a host with several network cards, select the right one under Network interface. If discovery is unavailable the adapter says so in the log, shows yellow, keeps working for remotes that were already paired and starts discovery again every minute.

The remote finds nothing, and ioBroker runs in Docker. In Docker's default bridge network the container only has an internal address no remote can reach, and discovery searches from your home network never arrive. Run the ioBroker container with network_mode: host, or give it an address in your home network with a macvlan network.

The log says "Address … does not exist on this host — listening on all addresses". The address chosen in the settings is not on the host any more — a new network card, a changed DHCP address, a restored backup on other hardware. The emulated Rokus keep working on all addresses meanwhile, and the instance shows yellow. Choose the current address (or "all interfaces") and save; the instance restarts.

The instance stays yellow. Something does not run, and the log says what, once. The Roku's card in the device manager shows which one it is (offline, with the reason), and so does its info.error; info.devicesOnline says how many run. Most often a configured Roku could not start because its port is already used by something else (including another emulated Roku with the same port) — give it a free port. The adapter keeps trying such a Roku once a minute, also one whose server stopped while running, and says so in the log when it comes up, so a port that was still held by the previous process after a restart sorts itself out without you doing anything. With no Roku configured at all, the log asks you to add one in the instance settings.

I press a button and nothing happens in ioBroker. Set the instance log level to debug for a moment. Every command the adapter applied is logged with the address it came from and, for a key, the key name (launch, input and search log what was launched or typed instead). If the line appears, the command arrived and the problem is in the script reading the datapoint.

If nothing appears, look for a warning about more than 25 commands per second first: commands dropped by that cap are not logged individually, so an overly chatty remote looks exactly like one that is not reaching the adapter at all. Without such a warning, the remote really is not getting through — check the network and the ECP port.

Play and pause do the same thing. That is the Roku protocol, not the adapter: the remote sends the same command for play and for pause, so the two cannot be told apart here.

The app buttons on my Harmony do nothing. A Harmony Hub did not send its app buttons (Netflix, YouTube …) to the emulated Roku — they are bound to Harmony activities, so the adapter never sees them. Remotes that do send app launches (a Sofabaton) show them in command as launch:<id>.

Privacy

The adapter talks only to devices in your own networks.

Error reporting via Sentry is active by default; what it sends and how to switch it off is described in the Sentry section of the main README.

Changelog

1.10.0 (2026-10-03)

• (krobipd) New: every emulated Roku shows whether it runs and, if not, why — a green or grey symbol in the object tree, online or offline on its card with the reason.
• (krobipd) New: three datapoints count the emulated Rokus — how many are configured, how many run, and whether all of them run.
• (krobipd) Fixed: the connection datapoint's description says what green means — every Roku listening, discovery answering and the chosen address present.

1.9.0 (2026-10-03)

• (krobipd) Changed: the emulated Roku answers only what a Harmony or Sofabaton reads — Home Assistant and openHAB can no longer set it up.
• (krobipd) Changed: the instance shows green only while every Roku and discovery run, and yellow otherwise.
• (krobipd) Changed: a Roku whose server stopped while running and a discovery that failed start again within a minute instead of waiting for a restart.
• (krobipd) Changed: with no Roku configured or none running, the instance stays up so the device manager works, and asks you to add a Roku.
• (krobipd) Changed: a chosen address that is missing on the host no longer leaves the Rokus off — they listen on all addresses until you choose another.
• (krobipd) Changed: requests from the ioBroker host itself or from self-assigned addresses outside the host's networks are refused.
• (krobipd) Changed: the datapoint with the kind of the last command is gone — the last command itself still arrives as before; existing installations drop it on the next start.

1.8.2 (2026-10-02)

• (krobipd) Changed: a new instance starts switched off — check the settings, then switch it on.
• (krobipd) Fixed: the README and the user documentation name admin 8.0.14, the version the adapter actually requires.
• (krobipd) Fixed: the device manager answers right after a restart instead of failing until the translations are loaded.
• (krobipd) Improved: the type of the last command shows a readable label in the language you set instead of a protocol word.
• (krobipd) Improved: a start writes only datapoints that changed and reads the key states in one request — no needless updates for history adapters.
• (krobipd) Improved: the README links the detailed user documentation in English and German.

1.8.1 (2026-09-27)

• (krobipd) Improved: the note the Admin shows before an update from 0.x is short now: the apps folder is removed, app launches arrive as launch: in command.

1.8.0 (2026-09-25)

• (krobipd) Fixed: Home Assistant and openHAB can set up the emulated Roku again — it now answers the active-app, media-player and TV-channel queries they send.
• (krobipd) Fixed: keys sent in any upper or lower case (home, POWERON) press the right button, and spaces typed in Home Assistant arrive as spaces.
• (krobipd) Fixed: an upgrade from the old adapter keeps every object tree with its rooms and history, also for names with an umlaut, a bracket or a double space.
• (krobipd) Fixed: renaming a device only changes its displayed name; its datapoints and scripts pointing at them stay where they are.
• (krobipd) Fixed: an instance started before the network is up starts its devices and adds discovery as soon as the host has an address.
• (krobipd) Fixed: the device dialog greys out OK for a taken name or port and says why.
• (krobipd) Changed: only devices in the host's own networks are answered; a chosen network interface keeps everything in its network and is never swapped for another.
• (krobipd) Changed: a chosen network interface that does not exist is waited for up to two minutes at start, then reported, instead of being replaced.
• (krobipd) New: the TV profile adds the PowerOn, Power, Sleep and InputTuner keys and announces itself the way real Roku TVs do.
• (krobipd) New: every new emulated Roku gets its own network identity instead of one every installation with the same name would share.

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2017-2023 Pmant patrickmo@gmx.de
Copyright (c) 2023-2026 iobroker-community-adapters iobroker-community-adapters@gmx.de
Copyright (c) 2026 krobi krobi@power-dreams.com

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.