Logitech Harmony Ultimate Remote Control

mossym · 11-02-2017 01:57PM

clintondaly wrote: »

Question

Can I connect Tp-Link plug(a tall corner light/lamp) to Harmony elite as an activity etc, ?,I have it already running with Alexa ?
Do I go down the ITTT route

harmony doesn't support the tp link plugs last time i checked

Irish Gunner · 11-02-2017 06:57PM

mossym wrote: »

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Set up favourites in Harmony App and tried to change channels using Alexa but getting nowhere

Also can change TV with harmony remote but I can't increase volume with harmony remote?

are the favourites working with the remote control if you press the icons? if so unpair and repair your hub with alexa, she may need to reimport them.

for the volume, in the activity setup, did you tell it what device you use to control volume?

out of the country at the moment but downloaded 2nd Harmony App and got channels to change.

Have favorites on remote but volume does not work on remote.

Try more when I get home

bk · 12-02-2017 11:25AM

Just FYI, I'm having no problems turning up and down the volume with Alexa and Harmony Hub, the commands are:

Alexa, ask Harmony to turn up the volume.
Alexa, ask Harmony to turn down the volume.

Zascar · 12-02-2017 01:14PM

bk wrote: »

Just FYI, I'm having no problems turning up and down the volume with Alexa and Harmony Hub, the commands are:

Alexa, ask Harmony to turn up the volume.
Alexa, ask Harmony to turn down the volume.

I can get Alexa to tell Harmony to turn up and down the volume on the TV - but most of the time I use the volume on my UPC/Virgin box - but I can't figure out how to do that. Does anyone know?

setanta1984 · 12-02-2017 02:08PM

Zascar wrote: »

I can get Alexa to tell Harmony to turn up and down the volume on the TV - but most of the time I use the volume on my UPC/Virgin box - but I can't figure out how to do that. Does anyone know?

That should be determined by how you have your active Activity set up. What device have you set to control the audio on in your Activity? The alexa voice command should adjust the volume by whatever means the volume buttons on your harmony remote does, depending on Activity.

bk · 12-02-2017 03:39PM

Zascar wrote: »

I can get Alexa to tell Harmony to turn up and down the volume on the TV - but most of the time I use the volume on my UPC/Virgin box - but I can't figure out how to do that. Does anyone know?

Why use the volume on the Virgin box? Just set it to 50% and instead use the TV's volume.

Irish Gunner · 12-02-2017 03:57PM

was looking at ordering the below to work with Minix and Harmony

https://flirc.tv/more/flirc-usb

Anyone tried this?

bk · 12-02-2017 04:40PM

Irish Gunner wrote: »

was looking at ordering the below to work with Minix and Harmony

https://flirc.tv/more/flirc-usb

Anyone tried this?

Yes, I've one that I use with my mac mini, as I managed to damage the IR port on the mini when I was putting a SSD in

Works fine.

clintondaly · 12-02-2017 07:03PM

bk wrote: »

Just FYI, I'm having no problems turning up and down the volume with Alexa and Harmony Hub, the commands are:

Alexa, ask Harmony to turn up the volume.
Alexa, ask Harmony to turn down the volume.

I have to say "Tell" rather than "Ask" and she turns down when asked to turn up and no reaction to turn down

eddiem74 · 12-02-2017 08:58PM

clintondaly wrote: »

I have to say "Tell" rather than "Ask" and she turns down when asked to turn up and no reaction to turn down

Try Increase or decrease instead of up/down.

Zascar · 12-02-2017 11:37PM

setanta1984 wrote: »

That should be determined by how you have your active Activity set up. What device have you set to control the audio on in your Activity? The alexa voice command should adjust the volume by whatever means the volume buttons on your harmony remote does, depending on Activity.

Can anyone spell out how I can get this working? I do have an activity for the UPC box named DVR - but asking harmony to Turn up the Volume on the DVR, it just changed the TV volume again..

bk · 13-02-2017 01:33AM

Zascar wrote: »

Can anyone spell out how I can get this working? I do have an activity for the UPC box named DVR - but asking harmony to Turn up the Volume on the DVR, it just changed the TV volume again..

But doesn't that just turn up the volume anyway?

Most people just set the volume of their DVR to 50% and instead use their TV volume to control the volume, there is no advantage to using the DVR's built in volume control. Honestly I'm not sure why they even bother to include it.

mossym · 13-02-2017 10:01AM

Zascar wrote: »

Can anyone spell out how I can get this working? I do have an activity for the UPC box named DVR - but asking harmony to Turn up the Volume on the DVR, it just changed the TV volume again..

when you set up the activity, it took you through a number of steps. one was selecting what equipment was used, one what input everything had to be on, and one was what device controlled the volume. you must have selected the tv.

if you want it to change the dvr volume and not the tv, then you need to redo the setup. where it asks what you want to control the volume, select the dvr, not the tv. if you click on the activity one of the options is to edit the activity, and you cna redo the setup.

however, i think it's a daft way of doing things. presumably you have more than one activity, and you can only use the dvr volume for one. the issue with using sources to control volume is that the item that is common to all activities, i.e. the tv isn't in use, so that if you switch from one activiy to another you can get wildy swinging volume levels.

mossym · 13-02-2017 10:08AM

there is a very common theme running through this thread, people seem to expect alexa to have funtionality on top of what their harmony remote/hub has. in reality, the hub isn't changing anything on the remote or hub, it's replacing the physical activity of pressing buttons. it doesn't bring extra commands, or allow you to do anything you can't do with a button on the remote.

so if your remote setup isn't right in the first place, alex won't fix it. if you don't have your activites setup correctly, alexa won't fillin missing steps. and if you don't have a button that works for a task on your remote then alexa definitely magically find it for you. when you press a button on the remote a small script runs that sends an IR/IP command to the devices. all alexa does when you use voice command is cause the exact same script to run, same as if you pressed a button .

so a lot of the issues in here can be resolved in the same way. get the remote working exactly how you want it first. forget alexa. then when it's working as you want, link alexa to your harmony and get that last bit setup. most of the issues are related to the remote not being setup in the first place, then say alexa isn't doing this or that.

bit of time spent getting the remote working and understanding how it does things and the alexa bit is easy after that

Bluefoam · 13-02-2017 10:09AM

mossym wrote: »

if you want it to change the dvr volume and not the tv, then you need to redo the setup. where it asks what you want to control the volume, select the dvr, not the tv. if you click on the activity one of the options is to edit the activity, and you can redo the setup.

Mine doesnt allow me to do this... I get to chose which devices get turned on/off but that is all... There is an option to add a delay, but it doesn't refer to any particular device etc...

bk · 13-02-2017 10:32AM

Bluefoam wrote: »

Mine doesnt allow me to do this... I get to chose which devices get turned on/off but that is all... There is an option to add a delay, but it doesn't refer to any particular device etc...

Those are the settings you have available to you AFTER the initial setup.

Selecting which device controls the volume is done during the initial setup, yours is definitely the same. If you want to change which device changes the volume, then you have to delete the activity and start over again.

mossym · 13-02-2017 10:38AM

Bluefoam wrote: »

Mine doesnt allow me to do this... I get to chose which devices get turned on/off but that is all... There is an option to add a delay, but it doesn't refer to any particular device etc...

no offence, but from your thread i was pretty sure you had it setup wrong, so that does't come as a surprise.

harmony app on the desktop. click on an activity you have set up, you should get this screen
first%20screen_zpsrhdy3mfa.png

clicking on changing your settings takes you through the setup screens again, and 3 or 4 screens in is this one

as it's per activity, you can set to use different volume controls for different activites, which would seem to be what zascar is trying to do

mossym · 13-02-2017 10:40AM

bk wrote: »

Those are the settings you have available to you AFTER the initial setup.

Selecting which device controls the volume is done during the initial setup, yours is definitely the same. If you want to change which device changes the volume, then you have to delete the activity and start over again.

you have all the settings available to you after an initial setup. you don't have to delete, you can edit as i posted above, those screenshots i took just before posting on one of my own activities from my account

Bluefoam · 13-02-2017 11:45AM

I'm working with the android app... don't keep a PC anymore. Definitely don't have the options above.

mossym · 13-02-2017 11:48AM

i can't check from work if you can do it with the app, needs to be on the same wifi network as my hub to edit activites, so i'll have a look tonight.

Bluefoam · 13-02-2017 11:50AM

mossym wrote: »

i can't check from work if you can do it with the app, needs to be on the same wifi network as my hub to edit activites, so i'll have a look tonight.

I'm very confident I don't have those options! I have explored thoroughly. But thanks.

bk · 13-02-2017 12:35PM

Bluefoam wrote: »

I'm very confident I don't have those options! I have explored thoroughly. But thanks.

You can do it on the app too, but you may need to create a new activity, here it is on the app during setup, the third screen:

bk · 13-02-2017 12:37PM

Actually I think you can do it by editing an existing activity by doing "Re-run Activity":

https://support.myharmony.com/en-us/how-to-edit-your-activity

Bluefoam · 13-02-2017 12:59PM

mossym wrote: »

no offence, but from your thread i was pretty sure you had it setup wrong, so that doesn't come as a surprise.

Thank you all for trying to prove me wrong... Let it go! I'm not looking for advice here... just letting you know that those options are not available to me on the Android app...

It could be for a number of reasons, but its not unusual for apps to be fully blocked where I live have component parts and features disabled or have content blocked, it's possible also that app versions are not up to date here... that can be for a number of reasons...

For instance, Uber for a long time was limited in its functionality compared to other regions; Google Play does not function properly in this region; maps is lacking in function; even today I tried to find the Vizio Casting app and discovered that it was blocked... Content too... many youtube channels lambasting Trump for his racist policies are also geo-limited here, because as anti Trump as they are, they are still afraid of sharing their content in this region... Even if these factors are not to blame, I can confidently say that the options you mention above are not applicable to me. I have however managed the system to achieve what I want from it (for now).

Truth is, I don't know why my Android app doesn't show all the options, but I don't care for ignorant attitudes.

mossym, you comment above is just obnoxious. Leave your superiority complex behind and behave appropriately. You are wrong on all counts.

bk · 13-02-2017 01:58PM

Bluefoam, read my last two posts, you can absolutely do it with the android app.

mossym · 13-02-2017 02:10PM

bk wrote: »

Actually I think you can do it by editing an existing activity by doing "Re-run Activity":

https://support.myharmony.com/en-us/how-to-edit-your-activity

i suspected you could, tried to do it from the android app this morning but won't work unless you're on the same network. cheers for finding it, being able to edit the setup without deleting/readding the whole thing was in the very first incarnation of the harmony software 15 years ago so i'd have been very surprised if it wasn't there

bk · 13-02-2017 02:15PM

mossym wrote: »

i suspected you could, tried to do it from the android app this morning but won't work unless you're on the same network. cheers for finding it, being able to edit the setup without deleting/readding the whole thing was in the very first incarnation of the harmony software 15 years ago so i'd have been very surprised if it wasn't there

I find that the iPhone app is easier for initial setup, I find the desktop client is still superior for advanced features and tweaking.

mossym · 14-02-2017 10:13AM

bk wrote: »

I find that the iPhone app is easier for initial setup, I find the desktop client is still superior for advanced features and tweaking.

can't check the iphone app, but had a quick look at ti on android this morning, and as you said, it's easily done. click edit activities at the bottom of the list, pick the activity you want to modify, click rerun activity and it takes you through the exact same steps as the desktop app, the 2nd or third of which is select which device controls volume.

zascar, should be pretty straightforward for you to set a different volume control for your DVR than other activities if you try that

Zascar · 14-02-2017 11:59AM

I gave it a quick try last night and was able to get it to change the volume of the UPC when I asked to "turn down the volume of the DVR" - so great that works, but then when I ask the TV to change,it still adjusts the volume of the DVR. Will have to have another go at it

mossym · 14-02-2017 12:15PM

Zascar wrote: »

I gave it a quick try last night and was able to get it to change the volume of the UPC when I asked to "turn down the volume of the DVR" - so great that works, but then when I ask the TV to change,it still adjusts the volume of the DVR. Will have to have another go at it

are you trying to change the volume of both inside the same activity? not sure that 1) that will work, 2) why you would do it

each activity controls one thing for volume, using the volume button on the remote. you can have the volume button control different things in each activity by setting up the controlled device using the method i mentioned above, and alexa should control whatever the selected device for that activity is.

if you really want to adjsut the volume of two different units inside the same activity, you may need to use the remote, use the main volume buttons for one of them, and either add custom buttons to the screen of the remote to control the second unit, or on the remote click the devices button, go into the other unit you want to control, and use the volume button then. You’ll need to go back to current activity after that to control the other volume/all the main functions. I don’t think alexa can be used to implement either of these methods though so if you are trying to control two volume levels inside a single activity it’s likely going to be remote only for one of them

Logitech Harmony Ultimate Remote Control

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