Not from what people much smarter/more experienced than me have posted. If you look at my prior post the " TV" momentary button executes the " End activity/ power down " sequence in Harmony.
So just like the buttons on my Harmony are " Tivo" , “Amazon Prime” , “Netflix”, “Movie” and TV Surround" . I have those same 5 momentary buttons in ST. Then I added a 6th momentary button " TV " and attached it to the “Off/power” button on the Harmony remote.
So commands are " Alexa turn on Tivo" and " Alexa turn off TV ". I don’t have a watch TV function in Harmony , since signal is always through 1 of the STBs.
Not really…
As I was trying to explain above (perhaps not very well), only way to use the same simulated switch Thing to both turn on and off an activity is to open yourself up for synchronization issues if activities are ever managed outside of SmartThings (aka using the remote).
What you’ve setup with the two momentary buttons one whose on action is used only to begin activities and one whose off action is used only to end any running activity is the best practice in order to support activity management outside of SmartThings.
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I am totally frustrated… 
I cannot get a simple task to work… The momentary buttons are created and directed towards harmony activities.When I say “Alexa Turn on the TV” the buttons just keep going “Off” or "On sate accordingly and nothing happens.
Also,I have virtual buttons in two place the room and the things,not sure why that happened.
Harmony Home Control Hub,Smartthings Hub V2,Echo
Can anyone direct me towards the right direction?
Without more information as to just what your setup is, it is hard to diagnose. My only explanation of how you ended up with multiple instances of the same buttons is that you created them more than once and didn’t give them each distinctive names .
The one thing I see is that you said you have the same button for on and off. It has been said over and over that using the same button of on and off will cause sync issues and problems. It can be done, but not with a momentary switch. You need to do it with a binary switch and make sure you put something in the activity to keep it in sync.
You need one distinctly named momentary button for each Harmony “on” activity and then another distinct button that turns everything off. Then you need a separate install of the Logitech Harmony Trigger app for each button. That way you can turn on your TV + STB with Echo, then watch some TV, switch over and watch Netflix , toss in a blu-ray all with the Harmony remote. Then say Alexa turn off ( your off button) " and Harmony will end whatever activity is running, just as if you hit the power button on the remote.
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I’m sure this is very frustrating for you. This stuff can drive you crazy until you get a pattern that works and that you can then replicate. But the good news is this is working for a lot of people, so let’s see if we can just break it down into smaller pieces that we can find that pattern for you.
ALL THINGS APPEAR ON THE THINGS LIST
All things show up in two places: the things list in the rooms view and inside an individual room. So that sounds fine.
LET’S GET ONE SWITCH WORKING
Now let’s see if we can get just one switch working for you.
Choose one and only one activity that you want to start with. Doesn’t matter what it is. Just pick one and then tell us what you picked.
Next, decide whether you want it to work by using IFTTT or by using the “Logitech Harmony trigger smartApp”. Just pick one of those for now. It doesn’t matter which one, whichever one you’re more comfortable with.
So tell us what the name of your virtual switch will be, what the name of the harmony activity will be, what the harmony activity is going to do, and do you want to control it using IFTTT or The “Logitech Harmony triggers” Smartapp.
Once you tell us that we can move onto the next step.
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I use only one momentary switch to turn the TV on/off with Alexa. Works perfect and can’t get out of sync no matter if the TV is turned off/on manually or with a different remote.
I described how further up in this thread.
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Yes, but is they are having a hard time actually getting buttons to work at all, I don’t think they need to start trying to write custom commands into Harmony to flip a virtual switch 10 seconds after every command.
An " off button" is much simpler
Rooms-> Virtual Devices-> TV,Satellite (momentary capability).I tried button also.
Things-> TV,Satellite,Lamp,Motion Sensor,HarmonyPorche Light.
SmartApps->Amazon Echo,Logitech Harmony(Connect),Logitech Harmony Hub Control,Notify Me,Smart Lightning
I would like to pick (Watch TV) activity with the harmony triggers.
Edit Start Sequence
TV,STB,Samsung TV,Satellite
Edit End Sequence-All Off
TV,STB,Samsung TV,Satellite
Customize Remote
Schedule
Sensor Trigger(1). This was configured earlier and works before I integrated Alexa
Starting Channel -Works
CNBC-
Keyboard
Actually it’s just having harmony turn on the TV when the virtual switch is on then exit the activity when the switch turns off. I just have to do it using smartthings harmony app and not ifttt, (virtual switch turns on/off to fast for ifttt).
Much more natural saying “Alexa, turn the TV on” or “Alexa, turn the TV off” then using two separate switches.
I agree they have to get the connection working first.
OK, on rereading I understand you going to use the "Logitech Harmony trigger " smart app.
Also forget anything else you’ve done in the past, we’re just going to follow the general instructions from post one of this thread. So the device type for the virtual switch that you’re going to use for this will be “momentary button tile”
Not button, not momentary, not anything else. The specific type is “momentary button tile.”
Pick one virtual switch, give it that device type, and tell us what you named it.
I am going to use Logitech Harmony Trigger" Smartapp. I had used motion sensor earlier to turn my TV on and start the news channel.Afer I integrated Alexa i turned the motion downwards so no motion is detected.
TV,Satellite changed to Momentary Button Tile
I choose TV,
Name-Samsung TV
Label- TV
Zigbee Id-
Device Name-SAM01
Type-Momentary Button Tile
Verion-Publised
Location-XYZ
Hub-XYZ
Group virtual devices
Might also take a look at the harmony triggers FAQ and see if it helps at all. It doesn’t say anything about Alexa but it does tell you how to set up a switch and SmartThings is to control a activity in harmony. So then the only thing left is connecting echo to that switch.
Anyway, I just got a call and I’m going to be off-line for a few days but hopefully other people will be able to continue helping you with this.
BTW, i’m dependent on text-to-speech software so I’m having a really hard time following the information that’s in your posts. I’m sure it’s good information, it’s just not in a format that I can use.
But if I understand what you just said, you used to use a motion sensor to trigger the activity to go on and off. The old way of doing it was to add those motion sensors through the harmony mobile app right into the activity you were trying to control.
But what we do with Alexa control is completely different. we’re going to set it all up from the smartthings side, using the SmartThings mobile app. We will not be putting the virtual switches into the harmony activities for the most part.
So it sounds like maybe you just tried to replace the motion sensor names in the harmony activities with the virtual switch names and if that’s what you tried, that’s not going to work at all.
Instead, read the harmony trigger FAQ and you’ll see how you have to set things up from the smartthings side to be able to have the virtual switch trigger the harmony activity.
Then, again from the smartthings side, you’re going to authorize echo to turn on that switch.
I apologize if I’m way off base here, but just in case, that may be where the confusion is. The old method used to add the sensor names into harmony mobile app. But the new method uses “harmony logitech trigger smart app” and adds the virtual switch names in through the smart things mobile app instead.
Again, other people here should be able to help while I’m gone. Good luck!
I apologize the information was not in your format.But I appreciate all the efforts you are trying to resolve my issue.I am going off for tonight the better half has taken over the TV 
I will check the information you sent.Please keep the thread going
Again Thanks…
I re-installed Smartapps -Harmony Home Control and Harmony Triggers.Authorizing ST to Harmony worked fine.Harmony to ST I get a message Sorry we are not able to retrieve devices from your Smartthings account.
What does this indicate? Any ideas
I tried the simulated switch to turn off and on and it just didn’t work. It would turn on, but turning it off would do weird things. Now I just use momentary button tiles. It works.
Yes given that the phrase “turn off” seems to work fine to activate a momentary button, I agree its the simplest and best approach.
Eureka! I think I finally got it work.Thanks to @JDRoberts and everybody else in this thread.
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I am trying to add a logic switch for the TV, but every time I try to add it to the start sequence of an activity in the harmony app so I can change its state to 1 I get an error message “Failed to retrieve state of TV Power”.
Nevermind. I got it. I just had to refresh the smartthings devices through the harmony app.
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