I have a ceiling light that is controlled with a IR remote. I’m able to control it with Logitech Harmony, but the only problem is SmartThings can only control Harmony’s “activities”, which means that turning the light on shuts off whatever activity I’m currently using. Not exactly what I want. Through the “devices” section of the Harmony app it’s possible to turn the light on and off without shutting down the current activity. Though as I already said, SmartThings can’t control “devices”.
Does anyone have any suggestions to solve this problem? My ultimate goal is to make the light controllable with Alexa.
There is gate way that does what your looking for it made by RESOLUTION PRODUCTS it is a 3G GSM Communicator, ZWave RE927X there is little fee you pay per month to use it but it well worth it and it does work with Alexa and it also works with your alarm depending on the model.
A Broadlink Mini3 will do what you want, costs aroud £18 from your favourite online retailer. It’s a little bit involved to get it to work. Do a search on here and you’ll find lots of information. You’ll need an old Android device to use as a bridge using an App called RM Tasker which costs about £6, or £3 a year on subscription. I have a couple of Broadlink devices, and they are both working well. The Android bridge App also has a facility to interface with Alexa.
I appreciate the suggestions, but I seems kind of ridiculous that both of them require subscriptions just to do what Harmony can already do! Is there a way of modifying the light to give it zigbee/z-wave abilities and forgetting about IR altogether perhaps?
You can get RM Tasker in two ways. One is a one off payment, and the other is an annual subscription. If you don’t like the subscription, just purchase it outright for £6.
Yeah, but I also need an Android device too. It seems kinda insane that there’s not something similar to the Harmony but geared towards controlling one device.
Take a look at the z-wave-to-IR extenders made by remotec. The zxt-120 is somewhat popular among community members but it’s meant to control air conditioners and the z-wave side of the device shows up as a thermostat so that’s no good.
However they have other models that I believe are meant to control AV equipment. I know that the extender for a/c’s can learn IR codes from your current remote, so you should check those other models and see if they might meet your needs. The zxt-120 has a working device handler so it can be controlled with ST; I have no idea if any other remotec devices have a device handler developed by the community.
Also, there’s this. If I understand correctly, it can be setup to control individual devices through your harmony. It requires a raspberry pi or other server running on your LAN though, so it may not be super straightforward, depending on your level of tech know-how.
The zxt-310 is the one for controlling AV equipment. I use it to control my TV, Audio Receiver, and Blu-ray player. It can be used as 6 devices each with 9 buttons.
It’s not fully compatible with SmartThings so you can’t automatically download the codes, but it can learn keys from any remote.
It can be done just with harmony activities, but it’s sort of the reverse of how you might imagine it.
This method is detailed in a new how to article in the community – created wiki on how to use SmartThings to control an IOT device that has an IR remote. See option 2 in that article. You don’t need any additional devices, but you do need to set up multiple activities.
Aw man! That Remotec ZXT-310 seems like just what I need! A shame it’s kinda expensive, I’m thinking I’d rather gut a $30 Philips hue bulb and solder in it’s control board like I did to the kitchen light!