IR commands to Smartthings. Possible? (ex:use TV remote to turn off lights)

Hello,

I know it is possible to do the opposite (use smartthings to control IR devices through IR blasters), but my search fell short when I looked for IR controls of Smartthings devices/scenes.

Is it possible for example: to use the TV remote to turn on/off lights/scenes.
It’d be great if when I turn on the TV, the hue lights changed to movie mode for example.

Is this possible?
I’m guessing the logitech harmony would be my best bet, but I couldn’t find a support article for it. Is it possible with the hub only (keep my current TV remote and buy the harmony hub) ?

thank you!

I would like to see this include ceiling fan controls, so I can keep the same remote but still have voice command through Alexa.

Harmony allows control of your SmartThing devices. For example:
Activity Start TV
The harmony will go through its normal process of turning off the TV and at the end of that activity, you can select which SmartThings device to control such as turning on or off or set brightness or even set the thermostat to a certain temperature.

I love the Harmony Remotes!

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thanks ron! would the harmony hub work with my samsung remote?

The Harmony Hub can only be paired with compatible Harmony remotes.

I have
Harmony Ultimate One
Harmony Companion
Harmony Home

Check out this compatibility list.

https://support.myharmony.com/en-us/compatibility

You can put your TV on a smartplug and have a smartapp that, when it detects power above the sleeping consumption, triggers the HUE action. A smartapp you ca derivate to do that is: Energy Save SmartThings SmartApp https://github.com/philippeportesppo/SmartThingsPublic/blob/master/smartapps/smartthings/energy-saver.src/energy-saver.groovy

The Harmony hub works with the Harmony remotes they come with. The Harmony hub would not work with your Samsung remote, and you should not need it. I have two Harmony hubs with remotes, for my two TVs, and do not use the original remotes 99% of the time.

Added bonus, the Harmony hub also gets you control of your entertainment system via voice if you have a Google Home or Alexa.

One example of a Harmony Hub/Remote combo…there are several different remote/hub combos (same hub, varying types of remotes). Search on Amazon for Harmony Hub.

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Harmony-Smart-Control-Black/dp/B00BQ5RYI4/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1510121586&sr=1-4&keywords=harmony+hub&dpID=41j6l4ud8nL&preST=SX300_QL70&dpSrc=srch

I am currently working on this setup using a raspberry Pi 3, an IR receiver, LIRC and webCore.

Basically using an old remote for a device I no longer have, I record the commands sent out by that device with LIRC. I then map an HTTP call for each command to a Piston within webCore. Then when I send the IR command to the Raspberry Pi, it sends the HTTP Call to webCore to run the piston.

You could then create macros within your harmony remote that do things like Pause TV and brighten room, then when you play it again, dim the lights back down. The problem with the harmony - smartThings integration is that you can only trigger things from an activity.

I haven’t had much time to work on the final product but everything is there to make this work theoretically.

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I dont have a remote, so I dont know how much you can customize it… but I know the Harmony hub lets you control your Smartthings devices if you import them, so you should be able to configure the remote to control them.

If it does not work directly, you may have to create activities.

Ive been wondering how you set this up myself.

Currently my setup is:
Alexa / ST app
Harmony with companion remote, Linked to Alexa
ST Hub with Fibaro Dimmers on my lights

I have little to no programming experience so Ive been hesitant to play with WebCORE etc because I have a system that is mostly working and Im scared that fiddling with break it completely :smiley:

Can anyone give me a walkthrough on this so that I could effectively go “Start Movie mode” and the harmony hub would take care of switch on the TV, Amp, Xbox etc and at the same time the ST hub would dim the lights to 10%?

It’s as easy as:

In the native Harmony App, add device, SmartThings
You will then be given a screen to allow access to your Smarthings devices
Once you do this, your SmartThings devices will be selectable in the Harmony app.

You will only be able to control SmartThings devices at the end of your Harmony activity.

Thanks Rontalley,
I didnt realise that it was supported via harmony. I thought at best it was going to be a routine you setup via ST.

Works perfectly, Now I just need to find a way to link the lights to the pause button :slight_smile:

Unless harmony updated their firmware, the only way to trigger something in smartThings within the Hamony remote/app is at the activity layer. You can not map anything to the button layer.

Do you have an update on this? Its exactly what i want to achieve.

You can run KuKu’s harmony api on a raspberry pi to achieve that. I have it set up to pause the tv when the doorbell is rang. Dim lights if a movie is played, brighten lights between the tv room and kitchen when a movie is paused. Possibilitys are endless once you expose harmonys api.

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Sorry. I don’t. I’ve been busy with work and stuff.

No worries. I’m gonna have a go at this soon. What I want to happen is whenever I use play/pause/stop on my harmony remote, as well as doing the actual command, it also sets lighting scenes. I’m doing it with plex already but want it to happen with netflix, and live TV sometimes.