Harmony elite& hub + Broadlink Rm4+ Philips Hue Bridge+ google home

[Ed369]

Dear Stereonet friends

 

I am stuck on one issue about “smart control my motorised projector screen RF signal

try to trigger out from AVR to Motorised screen used mono trigger plug .did not work..don’t know why.

 

currently I am using harmony,it does alright for everything except the RF controlled motorised screen.

 

Smart home hubs I have

 

harmony hub+ Broadlink which controls motorised screen + Philips hue bridge + google home

 

anyone can suggest how I can set them up then everything will turn on and close with one button.including the motorised screen

 

thanks and regards

 

Eddie

 

Edited February 2, 2022 by Ed369

[Lenidude]

Might be a silly question, but you did enable the trigger out in the AVR settings? 

[Ed369]

18 minutes ago, Lenidude said:

Might be a silly question, but you did enable the trigger out in the AVR settings? 

That’s what I did, it was installed already therefore bit of pain to get up and soldering .wanted to try do it in a smart way,but failed

[Tombstone]

I feel Home assistant is a better to get things working.

[GaryT]

Homeassistant is great and has essentially unlimited power, but the learning curve to a beginner is pretty much a vertical wall.

 

I have been using it (slowly) along with Node-Red to tie my video distribution system together and it is getting me what I want, but I'd still love to have something like the Harmony Elite to act as a master controller with physical buttons.

 

I can't stand using a touchscreen as a remote control, a remote should at least have a physical dpad and transport controls (play, pause, FF etc.. do we still call them transport controls?)

 

Personally, while I wait for solutions similar to the yio remote (Unfolded Circle) major updates to Sofabaton or a revival of the Harmony, I've been reprogramming One-For-All remotes using a serial cable to add custom commands and macros that go to my video switcher and to the Node-red controller on my Homeassistant setup. So where the remote has its device select macros it not only sets the remote for that devices Ir codes, it also sends a command to the video matrix to send that source to the room the remote is in. it's not perfect since i'm having to figure all of this out from scratch, but it's working better than trying to teach the family to use a bunch of apps to control everything in every room. 

 

Tieing it in with homeassistant means I can have the lights dim and the curtains close when I hit a button, and if I want to I can have the lights turn off completely when a video actually starts.

 

I'm still trying to make this room aware (the matrix source commands are automatically room aware, but I cant get that data out of their API just yet), so I can use any remote in any room and it just works, controlling the correct devices so i'm considering some kind of bluetooth beacon system to do that based on signal strength or something.

[Snoopy8]

Reviving an old thread...

 

Have been using entry Harmony Remotes for at least 15 years (& bought a spare 650 to keep me going for a few more years).  Activities have been very useful to allow family to use TV and HT setups. What a SHAME Logitech gave all this away !  

 

It looks like Home Assistant and other home automation devices are a long way from replacing the Harmony? Hope someone can provide further thoughts...

 

Being wary of putting too much reliance on the cloud,  have decided not to use a Broadlink IR blaster.  Instead,  a Tuya ZigBee based one.  Yes, it is more likely that the IR database is smaller and there will need for learning the existing remotes.  The Tuya multi mode model also has Bluetooth which opens up the possibility of mixing IR and Bluetooth remotes. 

 

At moment, not likely to automate light switches, air conditioners, garage doors, locks, add sensors.  Have NAS based security cameras which could be a future integration candidate.   No RF remote devices.  

Edited December 2, 2024 by Snoopy8
Typo

[GaryT]

Technically you can replace every function on the harmony with Home Assistant or other DIY Automation platforms with enough work, the missing piece of the puzzle is the handset because using a touchscreen or voice is such bad UX it makes me actively not want to use any of my gear if i have to launch an app or say a command. I want a physical thing in my hand where a physical button has an action, it needs to be always awake, never locked or frozen, never a distraction with other functions I don't want. I don't want something intimidating where you and only you will ever use it due to complexity.

 

Every alternative to the Harmony has compromises, and I've tried several so far, cheap and expensive. They are mostly all flawed in their own ways without some extra brains doing the harder work behind the scenes, or a professional integrator needing to come out and charge you $500 just because you want to plug in a CD player, or you switched out one source with another brand or an updated model.

 

In the last week I've finally found something that I've been able to mangle into working as a solution for my main room (that isn't a multi thousand dollar RTI setup or niche high end UnfoldedCircle remote), and I'm pretty happy with the results, but the amount of extra crap (eg. page 1 of several) I've got to have running in the background to make it function the way I want is depressing.

What I've found is the Sofabaton X1S (a functional but deeply, DEEPLY flawed remote on its own) has some extra functionality that isn't well described, but is more or less what they promised it would originally have years ago albeit in a more DIY form.

I have a custom device configured in the remote that contains a selection of HTTP GET calls to my local, nothing hits the cloud at all, Node-Red server (running within HomeAssistant) that can fire off every automation I need, and they can be mapped to buttons, included in macros, and combined with IR/Wifi/BT and RF remote commands, I only use IR and IP but the rest are there if i need them.

I'm honestly astonished it works and I'm even more baffled that I was able to write actual code to make it do anything other than spray a console with "syntax error", which I'm exceedingly good at.
Yes you could get it to do most things without the extra crap running in the background, but then it would have no integration with my power switches, no lighting control, little to no AC control and weird restrictions on what you can sequence and how you can combine devices into activity groups and which buttons and menu options can do what, it's weirdly and arbitrarily restricted compared to the final gen of app-programmed Logitechs.

 

So now I can select an activity then press one button to watch a movie, and it turns on the media room, sets the inputs to bring up the Zidoo, sets the AC to quiet mode, turns on the subwoofer (on a smart outlet), then fires up the right app on the Zidoo and waits until a film has started to dim the lights. If I switch activities it knows which devices are already on and only switches what is necessary instead of turning everything off then on again because it "forgot" what state one of the devices was in because someone pressed a button on the actual device and confused it, or a HDMI-CEC device did something unexpected.

 

I have a physical button that is always there to dim or raise the lights, I have a physical button to turn the AC on and off, even menu items on the screen to set common modes. but it also controls the app i'm watching, it controls the volume, I can switch in and out of Pure Audio mode on the receiver, I don't have to futz with selecting the right device to have the d-pad and media controls do what i expect them to do on screen. Then i can turn it off with one button press, and it's simple enough that I don't have to explain how it works to people every time.

 

Anyway, I will keep looking for the next perfect remote control solution as a side hobby, but for now, or until someone decides to do better I will use this setup.

 

 

[surprisetech]

On 02/12/2024 at 10:34 PM, GaryT said:

In the last week I've finally found something that I've been able to mangle into working as a solution for my main room (that isn't a multi thousand dollar RTI setup or niche high end UnfoldedCircle remote), and I'm pretty happy with the results, but the amount of extra crap (eg. page 1 of several) I've got to have running in the background to make it function the way I want is depressing.

What I've found is the Sofabaton X1S (a functional but deeply, DEEPLY flawed remote on its own) has some extra functionality that isn't well described, but is more or less what they promised it would originally have years ago albeit in a more DIY form.

 

Wow Gary, I admire your creativity and persistence!  Hope the other members of the household appreciate your efforts.

 

I find it remarkable to think that after all this time, no-one has really come up with something as versatile, cost effective and user-friendly (mostly) as the Harmony.

 

Threads like this continue to reinforce my choice to just keep using my Harmony One and Harmony 1100 and use my hands and feet for the curtains and lights. 

[Snoopy8]

On 02/12/2024 at 10:34 PM, GaryT said:

What I've found is the Sofabaton X1S (a functional but deeply, DEEPLY flawed remote on its own) has some extra functionality that isn't well described, but is more or less what they promised it would originally have years ago albeit in a more DIY form.

The online reviews suggest that X1S has replaced the Harmony ???  Are the flaws related to activities, or integration to Home Assistant or something else? 

 

On 02/12/2024 at 10:34 PM, GaryT said:

I have a custom device configured in the remote that contains a selection of HTTP GET calls to my local, nothing hits the cloud at all, Node-Red server (running within HomeAssistant) that can fire off every automation I need, and they can be mapped to buttons, included in macros, and combined with IR/Wifi/BT and RF remote commands, I only use IR and IP but the rest are there if i need them.

Oh dear, another technology to learn on top of Home Assistant.    Makes me wonder how anyone new can, or should, get into DIY home automation ?    Should I hibernate for a few more years in the hope that things will simplify?  

 

2 hours ago, surprisetech said:

Threads like this continue to reinforce my choice to just keep using my Harmony One and Harmony 1100

Until the time comes when the server is permanently switched off.  Then it means no more changes, updates. 

[The Rock Puppy]

I wonder if this will amount to anything:

 

Might be worth keeping an eye on. Dunno.

[GaryT]

On 05/12/2024 at 3:47 PM, Snoopy8 said:

Should I hibernate for a few more years in the hope that things will simplify

I've tried that before. Everything is still broken and a mess.

 

Unfortunately my brain happens to be wired up in the manner than makes this crap actually enjoyable to tinker with, much to the chagrin of the other members of the house.