FYI…
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Can the virtual switch be used to turn off the TV that’s also included in a group of things? For instance, I have Hue Light Bulbs, Lutron shades, and TV all added to one Activity on the Harmony Hub. I have that configured as a group on the Amazon Echo, “Tower TV”. So when I say, Alexa, turn on the Tower TV, she does. I tried adding a virtual switch “Power” to the start sequence of the Harmony activity. It’s been authorized. The switch is set to ON in the start sequence. When I start the activity, the switch does get turned on. When I end the sequence, from the harmony app, the switch goes off. All devices turn on and turn off as they should, using the harmony app. When I tell Alexa to “Turn off the Tower TV” The lights turn off but then back on and nothing else turns off. Everything stays on.
Is there something I’m missing? I should be able to say, Alexa, turn the Tower TV off, and everything should shut off, right? The end sequence doesn’t seem to be initiating.
OK. So I think I have the Alexa, “Turn off the TV” thing down. I created another activity that ends all the devices, using the simulated switch in the IDE. Then used the Harmony Trigger app and assigned it the simulated switch and to turn on the end all devices activity. So with Alexa, I had to create two groups, one for TV and one for Television. I say, Turn on TV and all the devices turn on in that group. I then say, Turn off Television and all those devices in that group are turned off. Just so Im clear … If I tell Alexa to turn on the TV, i cant use the same command to turn them off? I can’t also say, Turn off the TV? I have to create another group called Television?
so now with ST & Harmony integration do we still have to use IFTTT or can we bypass that all together?
Depends on what you want to achieve. If that is to start a Harmony activity with your voice then you won’t need IF.
Can bypass it altogether. @pd_ assuming you’re talking echo integration. In that case still don’t need IFTTT, Echo controls virtual switch via SmartThings integration, virtual switch controls harmony via Trigger Harmony Activity SmartApp.
I am using echo along with ST and Harmony. Will give this a shot tonight. Thanks guys!
It looks like you’ve got SmartThings hooked to Harmony via the Activity Trigger which is what you want, but then do you have something in your activity that hits the SmartThings Live TV Switch? You only want the switch to trigger the harmony activity. Nothing in Harmony should interact with the SmartThings virtual switch.
I guess I am missing the correct way to add an activity for changing to a specific channel. When I create an activity, I use the custom setting in the Harmony App. I select the direct tv device and name the activity ESPN. After I save the activity, I can go in an edit the settings and add and extra step to change the channel to 206. When I save the activity, it still has a power on and power off settings. So whenever I try to run the ESPN activity, it turns off my Receiver, Projector and Satellite box. Can you explain to me the steps you use in creating an activity for each channel?
Creating a harmony activity that will turn on your entertainment center to the desired channel is part of harmony, so if you can’t get it to work you may need to check with the harmony forums or their customer support. Once you have it set up in harmony, then you can use a virtual switch to trigger it from SmartThings, and then echo can use that virtual switch.
The exact set up will vary slightly depending on how you have your entertainment center set up. But it is a basic harmony principle that a device which is needed for the next activity will not get turned off when the current activity is ended. So when you change from your DVD player to your satellite input, your TV should stay on well the change is being made.
If your TV turns off and then on again, then that has to do with your harmony set up, and again, you need to talk to harmony for help with that.
I can show you exactly how I have mine set up, but yours will not match mine exactly. I have a cable set top box from Xfinity, A TV, DVD player, and Roku. Input channels are controlled by the TV. TV channels are controlled by a the set-top box. I do not have a sound bar or a separate receiver. The TV is the master device and all of the others are slaved to it except for the set-top box. So when my TV turns off, the DVD player and the Roku also turn off, but the set-top box stays on.
So for my set up, to create an activity to watch ESPN via the cable box, I need to have the TV, the cable box, and a virtual switch called power included. (The virtual switch is a binary switch, not a momentary switch, as discussed in the variations in the first post in this thread. But that’s what allows me to say “turn off the TV” no matter what activity I am in.)
So the first step is just to add a new activity that will include the three devices in the starting sequence. Again, because of the basic harmony principle, if the TV is already on when this activity starts it just stays on.
For my ending sequence I only include two of the devices, the TV and the cable box. Note that even though the ending sequence says “power off” these two devices will not be powered off if they are needed by the next activity. So if I’m just changing the channel between ESPN and HBO, The devices will not power off between one activity and the next.
Once I have The devices assigned to the start and end sequences for the activity, I want to add the step to switch to ESPN TV. So I choose “edit entertainment devices”. Note that I am not doing this by specifying “starting channel” on the first screen, because of the problems other people have reported. Instead I’m going to do this as a step in the starting sequence.
I begin by choosing the device, which for me will be the set-top box, because that’s how I control the channel inputs for the TV.
Now I just specify the channel number:
Once that is saved by clicking on the right arrow in the top right, I just continue saving until I’m done with settings.
Then I sync the remote again.
Now I have a harmony activity that will take me directly to that specified channel. If the TV is off, it will turn the TV on and change to that channel. If the TV is using Roku as input, the TV will stay on but the input will change to the set-top box and it will change to that channel. If the TV is on but viewing a different channel, the TV will stay on and just the channel will change.
So once the activity is set up, I can then trigger it from a virtual switch, and use echo to turn on the virtual switch.
I hope that was clear. Again your set up may be a little different than mine. So that’s why you have to start from the harmony side and get the activity set up there based on the exact a/v devices you have and how you have them all hooked together.
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That was a perfect walk-thru. Thank you very much. I needed to add the other devices in order to make sure they were not powered off during the activity to change the channel. I now have 20 custom channels setup to respond to Alexa now.
I am still somewhat confused by the virtual switch for the power off to be added to each activity. I understand it in principal, but I am not quite sure how to create the virtual switch and then add it to the activity. I created a “Power Off” button in Smartthings, but not sure about the next step. Should I create an IFTTT to launch a certain harmony activity? It appears that IFTTT can only launch harmony activities and not a single button push.
Again any help is appreciated. Everything seems to be working fine, but I have not added any outside control like using the remote to turn something on or off. I assume this is what can confuse the system.
J
I’m lost in this step of eliminating IFTT . I set up all my virtual momentary buttons and IFTT recipes,( Tivo, TV Surround, Movie, etc ) and they are all working through IFTT. " Alexa turn on Tivo" and The "watch TV " activity in Harmony turns on TV and Tivo etc.
I have the Harmony control app and the Logitech Harmony Hub device type loaded from Github and both are showing in app and API. When I open the Harmony control smartapp all I get is a screen to discover a hub , it lists living room hub , I click done and it exits out. Under my things Harmony hub shows, no Smartapps available.
I don’t see any way to edit my virtual buttons to control Harmony Hub directly . Or to be honest do anything at all with either the hub or the app in ST directly.
I know I must have missed a step along the way here somewhere.
@RLDreams Did you look under Marketplace->SmartApps->More->Logitech Harmony Trigger?
That must be what I’m missing, but the only things I have in my marketplace are Water Valves and Maker for Arduino shield
Make sure you’re in the SmartApps tab under Marketplace, and not the Things tab. The items you mentioned sound like Things.
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Okay I found it under entertainment. Now I have 3 Harmony hubs listed SMH . The one in the marketplace is not the same one I installed from API. This one is the C2C and I had installed the direct (?) control from github
Okay back to playing when I should be working
Ya, those little tabs screw me up all the time
Okay one last ( for now) stupid rookie question. I don’t see an option to add a new automation ( like in smart lighting) in the Harmony trigger app . So I am assuming I need to install another copy of Harmony C2C app for every button and activity. Just like I had made 6 different IFTT recipes.
On the bright side, I was able to safely remove 2 of the Harmony Hubs listed in ST and don’t seem to be suffering any ill effects.