Anyone have any experience with creating a scene (or maybe automation?) where I can push a button on a dashboard and have it turn on lights and also turn on our TV (which includes a stereo receiver) that is set up through Logitech Harmony? The lights work but the TV wont turn on. It’s like I can’t get it to set the correct activity - the activity is defaulted to Power Off. Even if I select something different, that option isnt saved. I’d love to hear other ways of solving this. Thanks,
If changing that is not working, there is something wrong with your Harmony integration. On mine when I change that drop down it sticks and the activity is run.
Yes I have it working fine - I have this for a number of buttons on the dashboard which then trigger a scene and a harmony activity.
I did this using a script which has turn on hue sync, turn on subwoofer, turn on TV as harmony activity (TV , av receiver etc etc) turn on light in some areas, and off in other
Interesting. I restarted HA as well as removed and re-added Harmony. Whatever is listed in that drop down is the current state of Harmony. For example, the Apple TV is currently on. When I open that screen, and hit the drop down, Apple TV is selected. It seems like thats a current state not a desired state?
Would you find sharing the script so I can get an idea of how it’s laid out? I might try this instead of a scene.
I don’t think the Harmony will work in a scene. Of course, I’ve never been able to get scenes to work correctly for anything, so I don’t really know much about them. Here’s a script I have to turn the TV on. I really only use it for voice activation. Most of the rest of the stuff I have reacts when the Hub turns on from the remote.
alias: Turn on TV
sequence:
- type: turn_on
device_id: c0899bdf3d254c586c9c2ba603ec7c85
entity_id: remote.harmony_hub
domain: remote
- device_id: c0899bdf3d254c586c9c2ba603ec7c85
domain: select
entity_id: select.harmony_hub_activities
type: select_option
option: Watch Vero 4K+
mode: single
icon: mdi:television
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All your pre defined activities on your harmony hub should be exposed as switches.
For example:
switch.harmony_hub_watch_tv
switch.harmony_hub_firestick
switch.harmony_hub_firestick_projector
….
So to activate a specific activity simply call the switch turn on for what ever activity you want to activate.
If you want to change the activity from one to the other it’s exactly the same, simply call the switch turn on for the new activity and you will note a few seconds later the currently activated switch will turn off.
Similarly if you want to switch the system off completely then simply call the switch turn off.
Something wonky has to be going on with my Harmony hub and/or Harmony remote control. It’s like home assistant and the remote are conflicting with eachother, meaning whenever I issue a command from HA, it executes but then almost instantly after, the state goes back to whatever the remote is at. Example:
TV is turned on to network TV via the Harmony remote
I execute a command to the Harmony hub via HA to turn system off
TV and receiver are all turned off
Immediately, TV and receiver are turned back on to network TV
I’ll do more digging but the remote seems to be causing a conflict.
HA is removing the switch function in a few more updates… by end of year 2024
thoughts on calling these scenes via activities etc… rather than through switch controls?
Calling them via select for me does not work.
I have a home cinema and for me using switches is the fundament of my system I have setup and expanded as time has gone on.
I have many automations, scripts, template sensors, groups set up to manage the system. Lights, projector screen, blinds, heating, multiple Shelley’s etc. The whole system was built on the foundation of switches.
Yet someone decided we no longer needed these switches so they are simply going to remove them. Research on GitHub and asking questions as to if there was a technical reason why they needed to go now or in the near future have all been fruitless, so I am left assuming.
The only real option for me was to create a new template switch for all 22 of my activities and have them all named exactly the same entity id’s as the original switches exposed by the harmony integration. I then renamed and disabled the original switch entities from harmony.
That way the other hundreds of lines of yaml don’t need changing.
Here’s what I use in my scripts to call Harmony activities:
sequence:
- device_id: c0899bdf3d254c586c9c2ba603ec7c85
domain: select
entity_id: select.harmony_hub_activities
type: select_option
option: Watch AppleTV
I got further I created my node in Node-Red with the call Service element but it hangs when injecting it saying “sending…”
You don’t need to use a device action. Use a normal service call without specifying the device.
- service: select.select_option
target:
entity_id: select.harmony_hub_activities
data:
option: Watch AppleTV
Yea, sorry about that. I made that in the GUI, and if you select the device the device ID just gets populated. The GUI option for the action is DEVICE. I picked the Harmony, then there’s a drop down of a bunch of actions you can take. Copying and pasting the YAML was probably of limited value in this case. Here’s what the GUI screen looks like after setting it up:
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