No problem like that here…
No problem here either, this driver and Zigbee devices are running in perfect harmony 
… 
Has anyone been able to get the command to trigger an automation? I set it up based on the device list/commands but the automation doesn’t trigger.
Mine has been working great no issue at all. Until support team said that it maybe causing my Zigbee devices to go offline. 
V2 of the driver here. First, this is FANTASTIC. I had all but given up on Smartthings recently because all of my integrations with Alexa and my Harmony hub via virtual switches had stopped working when ST changed to generic drivers.
I’m firing off Alexa routines to start Spotify channels during specific times of the day when my Harmony music activity is started which is great!
One question though, I’m not able to add a command in the settings to work with the momentary button. It says to paste the command there but no amount of clicking reveals a text input box!
Yes, that is a known fault
The momentary Vuitton is only really used for testing commands, what was you hoping to do with it?
I was hoping to test with it although I was also considering using it as an easy “power off” option I could call up without copying and pasting commands into multiple routines? Maybe I’m overthinking it?
In practice, if I open the Harmony Bridge Device and plug my copied text into the “Harmony Command” that essentially “tests” the command too but like others, I also get a “network or server error occurred” message. I tried turning off my piHole server (ad blocking) but this didn’t change things. The command works, even with the error message.
To add an idea to simplify integrations, could the main activity devices also create a contact switch device that mirrors the on/off converted to open/close of the activity? This would eliminate having to create additional virtual devices to manage and allow for Alexa awareness. Just a thought, what I have working now is fine too but just gets complicated to keep track of the extra virtual devices that need to be created and Smart lighting routines to mirror the Harmony Activity to the Alexa aware virtual switch/contact sensor.
You should already have a ‘power off’ activity that will stop whichever activity is running.
I don’t currently have plans to add Alexa switches to the driver, however it’s fairly trivial to add virtual switches that can already do this.
The intention of the routines approach is to allow maximum flexibility, with a minimum amount of codebase for me to maintain. The command box will allow you to send any device command to any device on your harmony setup, for most people this is thousands of commands. I can’t create a device or button for each of them automatically - it’s not practical. So moving virtual devices into this driver would just complicate the driver, and but make it any easier to use.
I have considered building a generic ‘remote control’ style device, where each button can be configured to execute a harmony command, but it’s still on the ‘to do’ list and will probably be some time until I get around to it.
I’ll consider adding contact for Alexa, next time I work on the driver - it should already be possible with virtual Alexa switches though
Louis
Putting a test command works for me but I can get it to work in a routine. Is there A trick for getting it to work?
DM me a screenshot of your routine, and let me know how it is not working and I’ll take a look
I’m not suggesting an Alexa contact for every function, only for the Activity Power ST devices that are added to Smartthings automatically by your edge driver.
Yes, it works with Virtual devices but I also have to create a Smart Lighting routine to mirror the Alexa Virtual Switch with the Harmony Activity Power device.
Having a paired contact switch (or adding contact capabilities to the existing Activity Power devices although these don’t seem as reliable as a contact only device with Alexa) would really simplify the integration of using Alexa and your edge driver.
To give you and others ideas on my use cases a few of them are as follows:
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Use Alexa virtual contact to run an Alexa routine to “Play some music” (in my Alexa this will start Spotify on whatever it was playing last although I have separate Alexa routines that are time based for different music in the morning vs. Afternoon). This allows music to automatically begin playing when the Harmony Activity is started that switches my receiver input to the Line in from and Echo dot. Works brilliantly, been doing this for probably 5 years using the original ST/Harmony integration that offered ST switches for all activities.
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Create a ST routine to send the Harmony button control for turning on Zone 2 on my receiver as well as turning on the Alexa Music Control switch that begins playing music (see point 1). This allows some 2 to turn on without actually starting the Harmony activity which is advantageous because now I can play music outside without interrupting the Main Zone activity that is likely running from Harmony. I have another routine that turns off zone 2 power, flips the music control virtual device the other way and Alexa routines stops music so Spotify doesn’t stream continuously without an audio connection (since it’s analog, it plays but nothing amplifies it).
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I use the main Harmony Power off Activity in ST as a condition/precondition for my auto transition of my location mode to “Night” which arms my alarm home and shuts off certain lights and devices. If my entire entertainment system is off, chances are we are done for the night (no music playing, no movies or TV etc).
Since yesterday I can finally see my Harmony activities again thanks to this SHB.
And I also managed to use device actions in routines.
But maybe next level and thing I’m missing is a screen behind an activity with at least some major buttons (Volume Up/Down, Mute, Program Up/Down etc.)
When I compare it with eg TheHomeRemote app then THR looks complete with all actions.
Can we expect this feature in future ?
Sorry I don’t know what SHB means ?
I haven’t used The Home Remote before - so I don’t understand the reference to your question.
I have experimented with remote control layouts before but have always struggled and the profiles created by st seemed buggy. I have no plans to implement this at the moment.
I’m theory if another developer created a virtual remote control device - you could map the buttons to device controls using this driver - just like you already can with other virtual devices.
Simple Harmony Bridge?
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Oops, that makes sense
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Simple Harmony Bridge has been working well so far!
I have a request and I’m not sure what others think about this.
Would it be possible to add an additional optional label/comment field so that we can describe what the Harmony command field is doing? The Harmony commands typically can have activity and device codes that aren’t obvious when you’re reviewing the commands later.
Example:
Harmony Command: {“activityId”:“51442148”,“action”:“startActivity”}
Harmony Command Description: Turn on Roku
If we did this, would both fields be accessible when creating routines with Harmony actions?
I have 3 different ways which will make it more obvious what a device command does…
- Name your routine with a meaningful name so you remember what it does
- Encapsulate the device command in a scene, that way you can name the scene, then call the scene from a routine (i think scenes have been renamed ‘manually run routines’ in the latest version of the app.
- I haven’t tried this but it should work… just be careful of making them too long because of field length limits on ST
{“activityId”:“51442148”,“action”:“startActivity”,"description":"Turn on Roku"}
I haven’t tried number 3 - so consider it experimental
Edit: I didn’t think of this at first but an even better way for the example you provided would be to turn on activity devices, and instead of sending the command just turn on the activity device with a routine - that way the device label it is performing action on will be visible - this wont work for direct device commands, but would work for the example you provided
Yes, I meant Simple Harmony Bridge, And it would be nice if capabilities of Edge drivers work together for full integration options. Recently I have set up a TV and AV Reciever device for the capabilities in de vEdge virtual device. But now I got the answer it won’t be implemented I disconnected my ST Hub and put it on sale and going to take my chance with Home Assistant where I can find all my devices and also all logitech remote commands and statusses of all my sensors.
A pitty that ST and community doesn’t compete with HA for full functionallity.
I said I have no plans to create virtual devices in this driver. If you have virtual devices from another driver you’ll be able to make them work together using routines
@lmullineux Thanks for your suggestions about methods to “label” Harmony commands.
1. Name your routine with a meaningful name so you remember what it does.
Yes, I’ve been doing this but what I found out is that it’s better to let the Harmony command creation create the routine automatically as opposed to manually creating a routine.
2. Encapsulate the device command in a scene, that way you can name the scene, then call the scene from a routine (i think scenes have been renamed ‘manually run routines’ in the latest version of the app.
Scenes have been removed from SmartThings and replaced by Routines now. You also can’t call manually created routines directly from other routines. Try it and see. You need to create a virtual device instead as an intermediary.
3. I haven’t tried this but it should work… just be careful of making them too long because of field length limits on ST {“activityId”:“51442148”,“action”:“startActivity”,"description":"Turn on Roku"}
This is interesting! I’ll look into this one to see if it works.
My current solution now is the following for now:
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Use vEdge Creator to create a virtual momentary push button device with a meaningful name for the Harmony action. When pressed, the virtual push button executes the Harmony command (using this driver). When adding the Harmony command to the virtual push button, it will also generate it’s own corresponding Routine to run for this. Here you can also name the automatically generated Routine with a meaningful name.
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Now wherever you need to execute that Harmony action, use the virtual push button. The virtual button can be used in any action, including other Routines. This overcomes the limitations with the inability to call Routines from other Routines. It also avoids creating multiple duplicate auto generated Routines with the same Harmony action.
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