The harmony integration works, but it’s weird. There’s no way around that, it’s just not very intuitive.
SmartThings cannot control AV devices directly through harmony. The only thing SmartThings can do is trigger a harmony activity.
But, as you noted, you can’t trigger a harmony activity just from a routine.
So you have to go through these 3 steps:
1) ) Create the activity in Harmony. using the harmony app, set up a harmony activity that does exactly what you want done in this particular situation.
2) Create the trigger for that activity in SmartThings, usually a virtual switch. use the SmartThings mobile app to access the “Logitech Harmony trigger” SmartApp and use that to set up whatever conditions you want to trigger the activity from step one.
The following topic explains The details of how to do this:
3) Add Turning on that virtual switch to a routine. if you want to trigger an activity from a routine, the simplest way is to set up the trigger in step two so that it is based on when a specific switch is turned on, and then include turning that switch on in the routine. Fortunately, this can be a “virtual switch” so you don’t have to have an actual physical device.
That way you can put all the restrictions around when the trigger switch is turned on inside the routine, just like usual. So if you only want it to happen when someone leaves home, or you want it to happen at a particular time of day, or you want it to happen only in a particular mode, or some combination of all of that, it works fine. And you can also include control Of other SmartThings devices like the lights, the thermostat, etc.
So: create a Harmony activity. Create a trigger for that activity based on a SmartThings virtual switch. Include turning on that virtual switch in any routine you like.
I can’t say it’s simple, or intuitive, but it is powerful and it does work. 