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Does anyone use a Logitech Harmony Hub/Remote with Alexa?

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  • 30-03-2017 2:28pm
    #1
    Zascar
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 12,778 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    I bought a Logitech Harmony Hub for use with Alexa - it works great for turning the tv on and off, but anything more complicated than that is very hit and miss.

    If I ask it to "Turn on BBC News" it will play BBC News on TuneIn Radio. If I ask to change to Discovery Channel, or to turn up the volume etc - it usually wont know what I'm talking about.

    Can anyone give me some tips as to how to make this work better?


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    #2
    bk
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,576 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    You have to say:

    Alexa, ask Harmony to change channel to BBC News
    Alexa, ask Harmony to increase volume

    I'm guessing you are missing the "ask harmony" bit.

    BTW, yes I've both.


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    #3
    B-D-P--
    Registered Users Posts: 1,167 ✭✭✭B-D-P--


    bk wrote: »
    You have to say:

    Alexa, ask Harmony to change channel to BBC News
    Alexa, ask Harmony to increase volume

    I'm guessing you are missing the "ask harmony" bit.

    BTW, yes I've both.

    Its like Alexia is the child between a loveless marriage..
    Alexia, Ask Harmony to pass the marmalade :P


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    #4
    bk
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,576 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    B-D-P-- wrote: »
    Its like Alexia is the child between a loveless marriage..
    Alexia, Ask Harmony to pass the marmalade :P

    I agree, it would be better if Alexa could directly figure it out without you having to say "Ask Harmony"

    Or alternatively another solution would be if you could add a few other wake words. For instance if you could skip the Alexa part and just say:

    "Harmony increase the volume"
    "Hue turn off the lights"
    "Netatmo turn up the heat"

    etc.


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    #5
    Zascar
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 12,778 Mod ✭✭✭✭Zascar


    You can. It depends on which version of the app you use. And that depends on whether you use the US or UK Skill store. Right now I just say "Alexa turn on the TV, but before I had to say "Alexa tell harmony to turn on the TV". Previously when i had to say Harmony it was better - it could mute the tv and also change to Some channels, but very few. And even at that it would get it wrong a good bit.

    It's just really inconsistent - I wish you could 'teach' it exactly what you want to say and it to do.


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    #6
    bk
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,576 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    Zascar wrote: »
    You can. It depends on which version of the app you use. And that depends on whether you use the US or UK Skill store. Right now I just say "Alexa turn on the TV, but before I had to say "Alexa tell harmony to turn on the TV". Previously when i had to say Harmony it was better - it could mute the tv and also change to Some channels, but very few. And even at that it would get it wrong a good bit.

    It's just really inconsistent - I wish you could 'teach' it exactly what you want to say and it to do.

    Actually they have two skills and they do two different things!

    One skill only allows you turn on/off activities, but not control things (volume, channel change, etc.):

    "Alexa turn on TV"
    "Alexa turn off TV"
    "Alexa turn on DVD"

    but that is all.

    The other activity gives you more control, but requires a longer command:

    "Alexa, ask Harmony to change channel to BBC News"
    "Alexa, ask Harmony to increase volume"

    You can have both active at the same time, so that you can turn on/off activities without the "ask harmony" part, but then say "ask harmony" for more advanced steps.

    It works, but far from perfect IMO. Which is why I strongly recommend anyone getting a harmony hub to also get a remote with it.


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    #7
    Zascar
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 12,778 Mod ✭✭✭✭Zascar


    Ahh ok, this I did not know. Will try this tonight.
    bk wrote: »
    It works, but far from perfect IMO. Which is why I strongly recommend anyone getting a harmony hub to also get a remote with it.
    Why? I can just use the remotes I have?


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    #8
    bk
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,576 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    Zascar wrote: »
    Why? I can just use the remotes I have?

    Because it defeats the primary purpose of Harmony, which is to replace all those remotes with one easier to use remote.

    Also the Harmony remote is WAY better then any other remote you have ever used.

    Finally if you do use other remotes, it can cause Harmony to get out of sync and confused and that causes lots of issues.


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    #9
    Zascar
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 12,778 Mod ✭✭✭✭Zascar


    One thing I'd like to be able to do it be able to turn up the volume on my UPC Box. Right now when I ask it to turn up the volume it does it on my Samsung TV. Any way around this do you know?


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    #10
    bk
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,576 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    Zascar wrote: »
    One thing I'd like to be able to do it be able to turn up the volume on my UPC Box. Right now when I ask it to turn up the volume it does it on my Samsung TV. Any way around this do you know?

    Simple, forget about the volume control on the UPC box and just use the volume control of the TV instead.

    The volume control on the UPC box isn't real anyway. It is a virtual volume control. Better to control it on the device actually making the noise.


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    #11
    Zascar
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 12,778 Mod ✭✭✭✭Zascar


    Yeah that's what I'm doing right now but it does not work as well really. TV Takes about 10-15 'clicks' to make any real difference, annoying. With upc it's 2 or 3.


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    #12
    bk
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,576 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    Zascar wrote: »
    Yeah that's what I'm doing right now but it does not work as well really. TV Takes about 10-15 'clicks' to make any real difference, annoying. With upc it's 2 or 3.

    With the harmony remote you just click and hold the volume button. No need to click multiple times.


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    #13
    sharkman
    Registered Users, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 6,515 Mod ✭✭✭✭sharkman


    Its a pain that you cant enable "Harmony - Optimized for Smart Home" Skill .


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    #14
    bk
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,576 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    sharkman wrote: »
    Its a pain that you cant enable "Harmony - Optimized for Smart Home" Skill .

    If you want, you can achieve exactly the same effect as this skill using IFTTT:

    Alexa, turn on TV
    etc.


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    #15
    dam099
    Registered Users Posts: 1,088 ✭✭✭dam099


    bk wrote: »
    If you want, you can achieve exactly the same effect as this skill using IFTTT:

    Alexa, turn on TV
    etc.

    Or Yonomi, and it allows you to set up an on an off routine that work as a pair i.e. Alexa, turn on TV or Alexa, turn off TV


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    #16
    bk
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,576 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    dam099 wrote: »
    Or Yonomi, and it allows you to set up an on an off routine that work as a pair i.e. Alexa, turn on TV or Alexa, turn off TV

    Yup and you could combine it with other controls, such as adjust Hue lights:

    "Alexa, turn on Movie Time":
    - Turn on TV, etc.
    - Adjust the lights: turn off ceiling lights, turn on hue lamp behind TV, etc.


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    #17
    Irish Gunner
    Registered Users Posts: 3,691 ✭✭✭Irish Gunner


    Got Harmony set up with Alexa to turn on TV and open up Rte 1,although recently keeps going to virgin media channel??? Also set up to turn TV off and change channels (favourites) however harmony remote is used more

    https://www.dublinarsenal.com/



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    #18
    sharkman
    Registered Users, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 6,515 Mod ✭✭✭✭sharkman


    Cant get Alexa to select channels , Have Yonomi skill and Harmony Skill enabled .

    What am I missing ?? :confused::confused:


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    #19
    adox
    Registered Users Posts: 19,017 ✭✭✭✭adox


    Sorry to resurrect this thread but I’m having an issue with my harmony trying to set up an activity specific to apps in the Apple TV 4.

    I did just have an activity to turn everything on and then manually select what I wanted with the remote but decided I might as well automate them the whole way and have different activities for “Netflix” “Plex” “BBC iPlayer” etc.

    The problem I’m having is, when I try to set up say Netflix, I add another command to my previous activity for Apple TV of “ok”or “select” so it goes through the normal process of starting everything up and then had one more command “select” to enter on the Netflix app, it being the first one on the homepage when it opens.

    The problem is, the command seems to be too long so it’s acting like a long press on the Apple remote and gett8ng the icon for the app to wobble so you can move it, instead of a short press to enter the app.

    I’ve tried configuring to see if there’s a short button press option in the software, which there seems to be but it hasn’t made any difference. Been at this for a couple of hours and it’s driving me nuts.

    Anyone else got these working with their harmony and ATV4?


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    #20
    Stiofain2006
    Registered Users Posts: 103 ✭✭Stiofain2006


    When I search for the harmony skill in the Alexa app it does not show. It says 4 results but only shows 2 of them. Am I missing something here? See screenshot attached.


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    #21
    Metric Tensor
    Registered Users Posts: 3,724 ✭✭✭Metric Tensor


    It's there for me. See attached:


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    #22
    Metric Tensor
    Registered Users Posts: 3,724 ✭✭✭Metric Tensor


    Actually - what's your location in your Alexa settings?

    If you have a location in Ireland set try switching it to your parcel motel address in the north instead. Then try again!


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    #23
    Stiofain2006
    Registered Users Posts: 103 ✭✭Stiofain2006


    Updated address to NI parcel motel address but still no luck. It's really annoying


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    #24
    Irish Gunner
    Registered Users Posts: 3,691 ✭✭✭Irish Gunner


    Stiofain2006 wrote: »
    Updated address to NI parcel motel address but still no luck. It's really annoying

    I was assigned to. Com address and changed it to UK and address set to Ireland and Harmony not available. Got onto amazon chat changed it back to. Com and Harmony hub skill became available so check with Amazon chat possible they can sort it out and I didn't have to re apply the skills again

    https://www.dublinarsenal.com/



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    #25
    Stiofain2006
    Registered Users Posts: 103 ✭✭Stiofain2006


    Got it sorted. Needed to change it in Amazon account settings on my laptop.


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    #26
    ablelocks
    Registered Users Posts: 4,703 ✭✭✭ablelocks


    i have a harmony one remote control. Is the harmony hub enough to add alexa or do i need to upgrade the remote to a harmony elite too?


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    #27
    iba
    Registered Users Posts: 2,624 ✭✭✭iba


    Hi,
    I think the same thing has happened to me like a poster a few back.
    Alexa all of a sudden lost all of its skills. I was able to reassign TP Link skills but I can't get yeelight or harmony back. When I try to install the harmony skill it says it is blocked because of geographical location.
    Not sure why the yellight skill won't work anymore at all.
    Suggestions on how to fix this problem would be very welcome please.
    Thanks.


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