Logitech Harmony Ultimate Remote Control

wonski

The high horse brigade wrote: »

I now have 2 harmony ultimate remotes with hubs. One in the sitting room the other in the kitchen. I'd like to swap remotes as the sitting room remote has a slightly sticking menu button which I need to double press often with a Nvidia shield. Can I just pair the remotes with the other hubs? The Logitech guide says only re-pair remotes with their original hub but as they're identical hardware I can't see that being a problem. Has anyone tried this?

I can't see any issues. Worst case scenario is to move both the remote and the hub to the kitchen.

Use pc or laptop to transfer the settings and this shouldn't take more than few minutes.

The high horse brigade

wonski wrote: »

I can't see any issues. Worst case scenario is to move both the remote and the hub to the kitchen.

Use pc or laptop to transfer the settings and this shouldn't take more than few minutes.

Yeah I was just hoping for the easiest route

The high horse brigade

wonski wrote: »

I can't see any issues. Worst case scenario is to move both the remote and the hub to the kitchen.

Use pc or laptop to transfer the settings and this shouldn't take more than few minutes.

Went ahead and tried but it was a bad move and refused to pair, i ended up with an error on the screen of both remotes. I ended up re-pairing remotes to their original hubs then factory resetting both and applying the settings of the other hub after. I had some trouble getting the Shield to Bluetooth pair with the new hub but got it in the end by deleting the Shield and adding it as a device using the mobile phone app instead of laptop.

wonski

I guess I was wrong...

I thought it was more straightforward tbh.

Glad to see you solved it yourself.

I generally use a laptop when things go wrong as it gives more options, especially with Hue lights setup etc.

The high horse brigade

wonski wrote: »

I generally use a laptop when things go wrong as it gives more options, especially with Hue lights setup etc.

In this case I had more options with the android app and had the option to pair with the Shield

The high horse brigade

I've just found out Google assistant is only able to link with one harmony hub, fcuk it. This is annoying and part of the reason for my investment

edit: Stringify is a good workaround. I've created flows for the activities on the other hub

jones

The high horse brigade wrote:

I've just found out Google assistant is only able to link with one harmony hub, fcuk it. This is annoying and part of the reason for my investment

I didn't know this either cheers

irelandrover

Hopefully someone here can help. I am trying to add my Hue lights to activities. IN the desktop app they do not show up as a device so i cannot add them to the activities. In the app it keeps telling me i need to be on the same wifi network, i have checked and i am. The hue bulbs show up as devices on the remote itself. The main reason i bought the control was for the hue lights so this is very frustrating.

Really not impressed with the remote so far.

The high horse brigade

irelandrover wrote: »

Hopefully someone here can help. I am trying to add my Hue lights to activities. IN the desktop app they do not show up as a device so i cannot add them to the activities. In the app it keeps telling me i need to be on the same wifi network, i have checked and i am. The hue bulbs show up as devices on the remote itself. The main reason i bought the control was for the hue lights so this is very frustrating.

Really not impressed with the remote so far.

Add the hue hub as a home automation device in the desktop app then use the phone app to make groups and activities.

If you're not impressed you mustn't have configured many activities. How many devices have you? I have at least 4 devices added to each of my hubs and have 4 activities in the kitchen, watch TV, watch Plex, watch Chromecast and listen to music. I haven't got round to adding my hue lights yet (later today). Add favourite TV channels which will add colour icons so you can one click to your most watched channels.

awec

I have a TV, Xbox One, Sky Q box and a Yamaha AV Receiver through which all of these are wired in my living room.

My issue is the AV receiver is at the back of the room while everything else is at the front. At the moment this means we need to point the AV remote at the back of the room to use it and it's quite annoying as you naturally just keep pointing at the TV.

Is this a problem the Harmony can help with?

The high horse brigade

awec wrote: »

I have a TV, Xbox One, Sky Q box and a Yamaha AV Receiver through which all of these are wired in my living room.

My issue is the AV receiver is at the back of the room while everything else is at the front. At the moment this means we need to point the AV remote at the back of the room to use it and it's quite annoying as you naturally just keep pointing at the TV.

Is this a problem the Harmony can help with?

Yes. If you buy with the hub it comes with IR blasters which you can point at your devices. You create an activity like watch TV, it changes all the sources to suit your devices and controls the volume on the device you select.

awec

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Yes. If you buy with the hub it comes with IR blasters which you can point at your devices. You create an activity like watch TV, it changes all the sources to suit your devices and controls the volume on the device you select.

I see!

So I'd put the IR blaster in front of the AV as it doesn't have line of sight. Do you have any idea how long the cable is on the blasters? I'd estimate I'd need about 6 or 7 metres to go around the outside of the room.

The high horse brigade

awec wrote: »

I see!

So I'd put the IR blaster in front of the AV as it doesn't have line of sight. Do you have any idea how long the cable is on the blasters? I'd estimate I'd need about 6 or 7 metres to go around the outside of the room.

The IR blaster connects to the hub and has a cable a few meters. It points across the room at your device. Pick a location for your hub where the blasters connected point at your devices

awec

The high horse brigade wrote: »

The IR blaster connects to the hub and has a cable a few meters. It points across the room at your device. Pick a location for your hub where the blasters connected point at your devices

I can have the IR blast come directly from the remote too, right (for the devices that I have line of sight on)?

So I would have the Harmony Hub straight in front too, under the tv on top of my sky box, and the IR blaster running around the side of the room to sit in front of the AV receiver at the back of the room.

Then everything should work when I point at the front, right?

Or am I misunderstanding how this works?

The high horse brigade

awec wrote: »

I can have the IR blast come directly from the remote too, right (for the devices that I have line of sight on)?

So I would have the Harmony Hub straight in front too, under the tv on top of my sky box, and the IR blaster running around the side of the room to sit in front of the AV receiver at the back of the room.

Then everything should work when I point at the front, right?

Or am I misunderstanding how this works?

The remote will work without pointing. It has IR but talks to the hub through WiFi (which then sends out IR through blasters). This way the Logitech harmony works with devices hidden in a press or out of view

wonski

awec wrote: »

I can have the IR blast come directly from the remote too, right (for the devices that I have line of sight on)?

So I would have the Harmony Hub straight in front too, under the tv on top of my sky box, and the IR blaster running around the side of the room to sit in front of the AV receiver at the back of the room.

Then everything should work when I point at the front, right?

Or am I misunderstanding how this works?

The hub is firing IR all over the place so no need to use remote's IR blaster, however it is possible to enable it on the remote.

The hub has a really good range and even devices at very tight angles are reached without any problems.

awec

wonski wrote: »

The hub is firing IR all over the place so no need to use remote's IR blaster, however it is possible to enable it on the remote.

The hub has a really good range and even devices at very tight angles are reached without any problems.

So does the hub need to be placed somewhere it has direct line of sight on the IR receiver for every device it needs to control?

The high horse brigade

awec wrote: »

So does the hub need to be placed somewhere it has direct line of sight on the IR receiver for every device it needs to control?

Yes, or else you can extend its range with blasters

bk

awec wrote: »

I see!

So I'd put the IR blaster in front of the AV as it doesn't have line of sight. Do you have any idea how long the cable is on the blasters? I'd estimate I'd need about 6 or 7 metres to go around the outside of the room.

Note, with a bit of fiddling with adaptors, you can greatly lengthen the cable of the blasters. I've one blaster on the end of a 30 meter extension cable.

awec wrote: »

So does the hub need to be placed somewhere it has direct line of sight on the IR receiver for every device it needs to control?

Note the hub and IR blasters are very powerful. The hub doesn't have to be pointing directly at the device, my hub is actually sitting on top of the devices it controls and the IR signal is likely bouncing off the wall on the opposite side of the room to control the device.

BTW while it is possible to activate the IR on the remote itself, it is a better if you can control all the devices either with the hub or the IR blaster extenders. By doing that you then have more freedom with the remote. You don't have to point the remote at anything to control it, which is surprisingly nice and much more user friendly then traditional remotes. It helps make the control more reliable.

THE ALM

Still waiting on mine to arrive. Was due yesterday but the latest update on UPS website says that it couldn't be delivered yesterday because the location was remote, I'm in Athlone :eek:

illdoit2morrow

I got mine last night and started on it late last night.

It requires a bit of patience and reading up is what I've learnt so far.

I've a combi box with a terrestrial and satellite tuners for saorview and freesat. My channels are organised a bit uniquely, I'll have to see if there is a way to 'get the ordering' from the combi box to the remote.

It picked up the Chromecast on he first scan, but after some reading i found out i can't use the remote for Netflix via the CC, I'd still have to launch Netflix on my phone before being able to use it on the remote.

Sonos speakers, my Nest and Hue lights were also picked up in the wifi scan.

I've to play around with them yet to see how useful the remote is when it comes to using them.

I got it working with my raspberry pi which is running kodi.

At this point, i kinda miss all my remote controls because i was used to them and find myself reaching for them out of frustration.

THE ALM

illdoit2morrow wrote: »

I got mine last night and started on it late last night.

It requires a bit of patience and reading up is what I've learnt so far.

I've a combi box with a terrestrial and satellite tuners for saorview and freesat. My channels are organised a bit uniquely, I'll have to see if there is a way to 'get the ordering' from the combi box to the remote.

It picked up the Chromecast on he first scan, but after some reading i found out i can't use the remote for Netflix via the CC, I'd still have to launch Netflix on my phone before being able to use it on the remote.

Sonos speakers, my Nest and Hue lights were also picked up in the wifi scan.

I've to play around with them yet to see how useful the remote is when it comes to using them.

I got it working with my raspberry pi which is running kodi.

At this point, i kinda miss all my remote controls because i was used to them and find myself reaching for them out of frustration.

Looking forward to receiving mine, hopefully tomorrow. Similar to yourself I have an enigma2 combi box which is listed as working with the remote so will be interested on seeing how adding favourites will work.

Also have a rpi3 which I added an ir sensor to and programmed with the cheap multi remote I have and lirc, will be interesting to see how this works. Can always learn with the existing remote I'd imagine.

wonski

THE ALM wrote: »

Looking forward to receiving mine, hopefully tomorrow. Similar to yourself I have an enigma2 combi box which is listed as working with the remote so will be interested on seeing how adding favourites will work.

Also have a rpi3 which I added an ir sensor to and programmed with the cheap multi remote I have and lirc, will be interesting to see how this works. Can always learn with the existing remote I'd imagine.

There are spare buttons on the remote that you can use for any option whatever your box is. I have a Sagem satellite receiver and had to reconfigure some of the buttons to have access to certain options. Overall happy, but have a few pints ready for the set up. Once it's done it's done, though.

Bear in mind that if you have a family or housemates living with you, you will need to teach them how to use it, but this applies to all remotes and devices, so shouldn't be such a big issue. Once it's done it's done, too

THE ALM

Morning all.

Got the remote and spent a bit of time setting it up with a few devices and activities and looking some advice although what I want to do doesn't seem possible.

Currently our setup involves an OS3+, rpi3 running kodi and bluray player all connected to a denon avr with an hdmi from avr to tv. At present we would normally just watch the tv using the OS3+ with audio and video passing through avr so the denon remains on standby. For movies we would switch to the rpi3 with the avr also handling the audio etc.

Currently have an activity for watch tv which will power on the tv and os3+, no problem with that. If I switch to watch kodi it will power on the tv, rpi3 and denon which will then switch inputs, again no problem with that either. My issue is now if I switch back to watch tv it will turn off the amp which now has the input set for the rpi3 and not the os3+ and therefore no picture viewable on the tv.

Is it possible to add a step when switching from watch kodi to watch tv that will set the correct input on the denon before powering it off. I could add a step in the watch tv activity to use the denon but for normal day to day tv we would normally leave the denon on standby.

Hope that makes sense and thanks for any help.

bk

Yes, on the desktop app, there are "Activity Shutdown commands" where you could switch the AV input before shutdown/change of activity.

However I don't think it is necessary. I've a very similar setup to yours, with a Denon AV and when the Denon AV is off, it always defaults to passing through the audio of my sat box, without needing to first switch to that source. I think it is probably a setting somewhere in the Denon settings, sorry I'm not exactly sure where, it has been a long time since I fiddled with it.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

THE ALM

bk wrote: »

Yes, on the desktop app, there are "Activity Shutdown commands" where you could switch the AV input before shutdown/change of activity.

However I don't think it is necessary. I've a very similar setup to yours, with a Denon AV and when the Denon AV is off, it always defaults to passing through the audio of my sat box, without needing to first switch to that source. I think it is probably a setting somewhere in the Denon settings, sorry I'm not exactly sure where, it has been a long time since I fiddled with it.

I see the activity shutdown commands but it appears these are only used when you end an activity, no way that I can see to incorporate them into a 'live' activity e.g. watch tv - turn on tv, turn on amp, switch amp source, turn off amp, turn on os3+.

Will have a look at the amp settings as this would be an easy way to do it alright, I just assumed that it would stay on the source when it went on to standby.

It is actually the video source that will need passed through and assume the same will apply regarding the amp.

bk

THE ALM wrote: »

I see the activity shutdown commands but it appears these are only used when you end an activity, no way that I can see to incorporate them into a 'live' activity e.g. watch tv - turn on tv, turn on amp, switch amp source, turn off amp, turn on os3+.

Err... so the "Activity Startup commands" section instead?

BTW you can add delays, etc. in both of these sections which might be necessary sometimes.

THE ALM wrote: »

Will have a look at the amp settings as this would be an easy way to do it alright, I just assumed that it would stay on the source when it went on to standby.

It is actually the video source that will need passed through and assume the same will apply regarding the amp.

Yes, sorry I meant HDMI Pass-through, which passes both audio and video through when the AV is "off".

Again I think this is all best fixed at the AV level, not Harmony.

jones

So folks i'm having a weird problem with my harmony one ultimate that i cannot get to the bottom of. Has anyone ever come across this before (i posted about this previously but never got to the bottom of it)

To give some background i have harmony one ultimate linked in with nest and philips hue lights so getting a nice bit of automation going in the house. All three systems are somewhat interlinked. Camera see's movement can trigger lights etc.

A few month ago i noticed that when i came in of an evening my tv would turn on just as i came in the door. I thought it was some weird bug or something to do with the nest state changing from away to home. At the time i had a hue iris lamp that was next to my tv that was set to turn on when i came in so i assumed it was something triggering that. I also have a link between the nest and hue lights that turns on certain light if it sees someone outside I removed the iris from trigger but my tv still turns on randomly.

The weird thing is it only does it sometimes so it's hard to tie down what is triggering it. Some days it doesn't do anything when i get in. I have started unplugging the harmony hub when i leave the house and it never turns on then so the command is obviously coming from harmony but apart from deleting all my automation and starting again i'm running out of idea. I have reset the hub and it doesn't seem to have done anything.

The only other thing i can think of is removing the link between the Hue/Nest and harmony.

Any idea's??

THE ALM

bk wrote: »

Err... so the "Activity Startup commands" section instead?

thanks bk , will check when home but I don't think I had the option of 'turn off' in the activity startup commands, maybe I missed it.

Googling denon it would look like I can set pass through to 'last' being the last source used I assume or to pick a source, this will probably sort my problem.