So Harmony wants to let us control our home with the remote.
http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/17/logitech-extends-harmony-to-control-your-home
When will we be able to change our lights and other settings by turning on our TV. Would be nice.
So Harmony wants to let us control our home with the remote.
http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/17/logitech-extends-harmony-to-control-your-home
When will we be able to change our lights and other settings by turning on our TV. Would be nice.
There’s a lengthy list of support, too: August, Honeywell, Kwikset, Lutron, Nest, PEQ, Philips, Schlage, SmartThings, Sylvania, Yale and Zuli.
The new Harmony stuff looks really cool! I know a lot of the community has been waiting for more robust AV support so hopefully this is a good start.
That’s the good news. Along with the fact that they have detailed steps on how to connect SmartThings available here (so it must be VERY imminent):
Harmony experience with SmartThings
The perhaps not so good news is they seem to have a new product line - the Harmony Home Hub, Harmony Ultimate Home, etc., which although priced the same as the existing Harmony Ultimate Hub, Harmony Ultimate, etc., appears to be being treated as quite separate products in their support channel.
I’m still trying to work out whether this functionality is going to be available to existing Harmony Ultimate owners, etc. or whether we’re going to be expected to buy new hubs and remotes :-/
The promising thing is they appear to have deprecated the Harmony Ultimate and Harmony Ultimate Hub - I just hope this is just a product renaming to reflect the new functionality and not an attempt to sell us the same hardware again just to access new software functionality.
More promising information here:
This is the upcoming product which will add Zigbee and Z-Wave functionality to the Harmony line - which will probably not be that interesting to SmartThings owners, however…
…scrolling down to the bottom of the page to the Specifications we find:
Required for setup: Harmony Ultimate Home, Harmony Home Control,
Harmony Home Hub, Harmony Ultimate, Harmony Smart Control, Harmony Smart
Keyboard or Harmony Ultimate Hub
Which seems to me to indicate this functionality WILL be available with the older products (Harmony Ultimate, Harmony Ultimate Hub, Harmony Smart Control).
My understanding is that it’s available to existing Harmony Hub owners pending a firmware update.
Hmm…but it looks like it won’t be free…
Harmony experience with SmartThings
It is compatible with Harmony Hub based products
(Requires an in app upgrade purchase. Coming soon)
FYI - Logitech have said v4.0 of the Harmony app for iPhone/iPad is in for approval by Apple, but may be delayed due to the volume of apps going through approval right now due to the iOS 8 release.
Excellent news! I’ll be in for the Home Control for $149 probably. I do have some questions for those more knowledgeable, as I read this it appears the Harmony app and remote will be able to control SmartThings devices, but not the other way around? Also I’m hoping that a second remote can be added, I’d love to have a second one on a bedside table.
Ya, not that useful for me unless I can have my family room ST light switch put my TV and DVR in standby/off mode through harmony. Also would want “TV on” command to keep the room lights on as long as tv is on etc. So until I can see exactly what bidirectional new contol integration this offers, I can’t see how it is worth money. What problems does Harmony + ST integration offer to solve?
Ok - for existing Harmony hub owners, here’s the latest from Logitech:
Hi guys,
I can’t say exactly when the software upgrade will be available for
Ultimate, Smart Control or Ultimate Hub users other than “later this
year”, but I can say it is completely unrelated to the $100 trade-up
program announced today, and won’t be anything like $100. It will be a
pretty modest cost and may even be discounted at first as an incentive
to all the Harmony Ultimate, Smart Control and Ultimate Hub users out
there.
The upgrade program referred to in our announcement allows existing
Harmony owners to trade in their current remote for an immediate $100
credit towards a new Harmony Ultimate Home at any Best Buy store in the
USA. The trade in remote can be any model except Harmony 350 and 650 so
if you’ve got an old 880, 510 or 670, etc, it’ll get you $100 off a new
Harmony Ultimate. It doesn’t even need to work any more to qualify!
Hope this helps,
Ian Crowe
Director, Customer Experience
Logitech Harmony Remotes
According to CNET, the upgrade will be $1.99 for the first 60 days, then go up to $19.99.
“Logitech reps told me that current owners of the Harmony Hub, Harmony Ultimate, Logitech Harmony Smart Control and Logitech Harmony Smart Keyboard will be able to upgrade their software to include the new home control capabilities. The upgrade will cost $1.99 within the first 60 days of upgrade availability, and $19.99 for customers who want to update their devices following that period.”
Well - $1.99 - I can’t complain about that
The v4.0 iPhone/iPad Harmony app is live on Apple’s App Store if you haven’t already updated. I quite like the new interface on the iPad - activities on the left, devices on the right, pertinent buttons, etc. for the current activity or device in the middle.
No sign of an “in-app purchase” option yet, but then I wasn’t really expecting it - the Harmony release notes identify a firmware update for the new Home series hardware but not the older hardware yet.
In any event, I’m still awaiting the arrival of my SmartThings gear - hopefully real soon now (yep - one of the lucky AU/NZ crowd).
Ok guys! Finally tried setting up the ultimate home. I had an older home control hub registered to my account. Trying to add the new ultimate home hub and remote via myHarmony desktop and pair them was a simply a pain in the “neck” and frustrating experience till the time I removed the older one from the desktop app. The myHarmony desktop does nothing but update the firmware on both and sync them. (Don’t skip this step as it will cause you a lot of heartache). Rest of the setup has to be done thru the iOS or android app. It did find the devices connected on the same wireless and adding other devices like the ST hub was easy whereby you have to authorize the harmony hub via ST login and select the devices you want harmony hub to control. This hub will then appear under things on your dashboard and smartthings internal along with your previous iftt.
iOS 8 Harmony app is extremely buggy and crashes several times while setting up simple activities and had to be reinstalled. The activities from your remote is extremely slow and the UI appears to be designed by a 5 yr. old and takes you five years back looks wise. Icon choices are horrible. My basic activities like watch TV and Watch movies always gets to the wrong input and has to be fixed most of the time. I have had frequent remote freezes whereby you connect it to the desktop app to “defrost” it.
The ST devices are appearing under “lights” section and haven’t played much with it. Same goes for philips hue hub and lights. May be today… As of now the way it stands, I will not recommend it. Let’s see my experience with the ST integration. For now keep the 349$ in your wallet.
Update: I at least tried switching on/off couple of z-wave devices such as GE appliance module, Aeon smart meter switch etc. and it did turn it on/off. Will create some activities in the harmony app after work today and see how it goes.
I would not recommend the harmony ultimate home. I set it up today and it’s going back tomorrow.
First of all it’s extremely buggy, the remote constantly freezes up and lags. The smartthings integration is less then ideal.
As far as I can see there is no two way communication, the harmony remote just poorly controls the devices, if that’s what you want
this might be the product for you but I would not recommend it for 350 dollars. Honestly it might do Smartthings/Samsung good to make their own Entertainment/HA remote or ir hub because right now there isn’t much to choose from. To me it seems like no brainer to create a remote that will seamlessly integrate with smartthings and the home entertainment system.
For example being able to turn the tv to the news with a good morning hello home command or when you press the good night button on your remote after watching tv, it turns off your tv and sets your smartthings system to your good night settings. How about waking up to some music on your apple tv for your alarm in the morning? Turning your tv off automatically when no one is home.
Unfortunately I am stuck with it as my old Harmony is prematurely my niece’s property. I was so excited about the new remote, I gave the old one to my niece…
This is a major bummer, and hopefully will improve…
Anyone tried the Android app?, does that work any better?
Minus the bad SD integration, is the thing any good as a media remote?
Just as I suspected. Harmony has always marketed good ideas but disappointed in implementation. Four years ago I learned my lesson.
I think we’ll see better options soon. Certainly bolted on to Samsung products.
At least the only consolation for me is that it is usable and maybe if logitech is wise enough to get the app and firmware updates soon enough.
Just wanted to weigh in on this. I found the integration actually pretty nice. I wish Logitech would use the HTTP interface for some of my devices instead of the IR blaster. Oh well though.
I have ST pushing commands to the Harmony and vice versa. There are a bunch of UI quirks but the functionality is all as expected. Positive feedback from me thus far
Kristopher
Yep, the bidirectional integration announced by ST last Friday makes a big difference. My opinion has officially changed.
Hi…I bought the Harmony Ultimate and downloaded the app…but i only see philips hue under home control…smart things does not show up…all firmware and app is up to date…any ideas?