I added a Samsung SmartThings Hub and a Zigbee plug. This is known to SmartThings as “HiFi Power”.
I linked the Harmony App to the SmartThings App and can see the HiFi Power smart plug listed in devices under “Plugs”
All I want to do is add this device to some of my Harmony Activities so that I can power on the HiFi amplifiers when I need them and turn them off as needed.
However, when I try to add a device to an activity such as “Play CDs” the SmartThings “HiFi Power” device is NOT listed so I cannot add it.
Would @lmullineux Harmony Bridge help? I can see a bunch of activities with names like HB 18591958 Watch a DVD, so at least the Harmony activities are known :).
How all I need to do (I think) is to turn on “HiFi Power” at the start of activities that need it, and turn off “HiFi Power” at the start of activities that don’t need it. Is that correct?
Harmony bridge can’t help you with adding the plug to an activity inside Harmony.
By what you can do is setup harmony bridge, turn on activity devices..
That should create you a virtual device inside smartthings for each harmony activity you have.
These virtual devices will automatically turn on and off whenever the activity turns on and off.
You can then create an automation in smarthings that says when the virtual activity device turns on, turn on the smart plug, when it turns off, do the opposite etc etc.
If you have multiple activities that you want to have the plug on for… you might need to set it up like so - ensuring you select “when any condition is met”
@lmullineux think I have it mostly working. My problem is that I send commands to the devices that the plug powers on to set inputs etc. They aren’t acted upon because the devices haven’t finished powering on before the commands are sent by the Harmony Hub.
I don’t see an option to choose when an activity is starting as a condition for the routines.
No… you will have to setup automations that will also turn them off.. there are different approaches to how you might do this…
The simplest is probably to create a routine like the ones above - list all of your activities that use the plug set it to off, but this time use ‘when all conditions below are met’
You will have to setup automations that will also turn them off..
I did as you suggested and it works very well.
I still need to solve problem of devices not ready b4 Harmony sends commands. Do you have any suggestions? How do I hook the Activity Starting to turn on the plug?
@lmullineux The plug in question provides power to an Audiolab 8000Q preamp, an Audiolab 8000P power amp, and a Sony Tuner.
When I use (for example) the Harmony remote to start the Harmony activity “Listen to Radio” (which triggers turning the plug on), the Harmony hub sends “Input Tuner” to the preamp, and “Band FM” followed by “6” (to select preset 6) to the tuner.
The problem is that the commands are sent by the Harmony hub before the pre-amp and tuner have finished powering up so they aren’t processed.
Earlier in this thread you suggested it was possible to detect that a Harmony activity was starting (as distinct from being fully active). I thought that might solve the problem nicely, but I couldn’t see how to do that on the SmartThings side …
Do something like this… it will mean the plug will turn on when the activity is first starting rather than when it is finished starting. This should also allow you to add delays to the device commands in the activity within Harmony without delaying the plug turn on
