I have set up smarthings and logitech harmony, basically because I dont like how the harmony works I want my lights to turn off whenever any activity is turned off (Or the off button on the remote is hit). This is not possible with harmony software to leave my lights alone when i switch activities but turn them off when the off button was hit (it seems to then turn them off when i simply switch activities as well), someone on a different forum said this was possible with a smarthings hub.
Here was just one trigger I setup, I dont get whats wrong or why it wont work.
Also if it helps, here is how i have the trigger setup, I am not sure if “how do you want to trigger the action” A switch being turned on/off is right?
Again i really just want to turn off the lights when I hit the off button on my harmony.
I have two lights in my entertainment center that I have turn on and off with Harmony activities. As long as any activity is on, I want the lights on. Used WebCore for this:
As a side note, I was having delay issues with Harmony switches updating in SmartThings, so set it up for instant updates as detailed in this thread. Not sure if this is still a problem.
That cant be right, i tried it and it didnt work, also the trigger now reads that the lights will turn off when the activity is turned on. I want the lights off when the activity is turned off.
This cant be this hard to achieve without downloading other apps?
So this is working, but it takes many minutes for the smartthings plugin to often notice a power down, making it unusable unfortunately. Unless something else is wrong? Lights respond quickly when i turn them off / on in harmony (and the lights are connected to smartthings) btut it simply seems to take awhile before it recognizes an activity power down, which wont work for me (sometimes 5 minutes and sometimes the smartthings app shows the wrong activity is still on).
Your solution though would be the same thing (for what I want) as using the harmony home hub though.
When you add my power off activity to turn the lights off to an activities end sequence, your back in harmonys world creating the same issue as before.
I want the lights to be left alone and only turn off when i hit the off button, so your solution to speed things up just creates the same problem using smartthings. If i add it to an end sequence, it turns my lights off whenever i switch an activity instead of leaving them alone, but only turning them off when i hit the power off button.
Unless there is another method here im not thinking of.
The combination of the webcore piston I posted above and the fix in the link to get instant status updates does exactly what you are looking for. It’s been working solidly for me for a year and a half.
I will be honest the amount of work and moving parts to do a simple task is getting to be to much, while the code looks simple the idea having another 3rd party moving part, along with all the steps required should i add new devices is to much i feel. I might just go back to my old platform.
So what kind of triggers do you setup then in smarthings to keep updates instant if i want webcore to handle this?
Being 2 days new to smartthings switching from vera, I dont know how this 3rd party webcore integration works with smartthings.
You need to learn. SmartThings with having the ability to do a million things more than Vera could possibly do and in 2 days without even going through the learning curve and doing a little homework, you are conceding defeat and saying you are going back to your old platform? That makes no sense. With SmartThings comes a little bit of homework and necessary reading and following instructions (some which might take some time) and due diligence to be able to accomplish things that other platforms can’t do. Then when you look at it hindsight, you will say, wow that wasn’t too bad and now I know all this?
It is a simple thing and should work in less than 3 seconds. Wheres the holdup? Is harmony not telling smartthings for 5 minutes the activity has ended?
Can you post the example of this piston for me to import. I have spent ages trying to do the same as you have, but I can’t get past “if - any of-”.
I can’t seem to find the correct choice to input any of my harmony’s activities.
Just as an aside… There may be another way to accomplish this same task.
I got a new Z-Wave watt meter last night (for use to notify me of end of cycle on my gas dryer) and I plugged it in to my old plasma TV to see how much current it was drawing. As expected, even when the device is off it pulls a few watts (probably so the infrared works and such). However, when that thing turns on full it really pulls some power.
Anyway, that got me to thinking that you could use a smart watt meter to know when a device is On or Off by how much power it is consuming. TV’s are a good candidate for that since when they are Off it’s minuscule and when they are on it’s going to jump rather immediately. I would imagine even the new LED TV’s are going to draw more power when On than when Off… The same would be true when they power off, the power would have been at the high point, but then drop down below a certain value right away.
So, if you wanted, you could get a smart watt meter and rather than monitor the Harmony activity you could monitor your TV. Then when the power to the TV goes off (meaning reduces below whatever threshold value) then you turn off your lights.
That makes no sense. With SmartThings comes a little bit of homework and necessary reading and following instructions (some which might take some time) and due diligence to be able to accomplish things that other platforms can’t do. Then when you look at it hindsight, you will say, wow that wasn’t too bad and now I know all this?