Check out the Roku component. I’m using it and it works well. Only downside is that you cannot dim with the rocker switch the same way as you can with native hue or smartthings dimmers
1 Like
I thought I read that the Roku component doesn’t work with the Harmony Home Companion Model’s Home Control Buttons.
Do you have this model?
The solution I just came up with isn’t bad. I created 4 input_boolean and assigned them to the harmony buttons. Then I can do everything else in automation’s. So alexa did get 4 new commands “Turn on Harmony Button 1” … thru 4 but that’s not too bad.
Hmm, I had that remote, now have the ultimate, but same set up. I have a zwave switch set up using one of the home control buttons. I assigned a roku command to the button, and then an automation for that button. It has been a long time since I set it up, but it works perfectly. I actually have a lot of hue bulbs, so I use the native hue integration for 3 of the 4 buttons, and the 4th button is the emulated roku to zwave.
I just looked. You can change what a home control button does in the configuration for the activity. Dont go into home control settings in the Harmony App. go to the activity. Make sure the emulated ROKU is assigned to all activities. I guess the only downside is the buttons would not be active unless you were in an activity.
One of my 4 things I am setting up is hue and I didn’t even think of just using the hue directly, haha. So focused on HA right now.
Maybe it would work with roku I just read that it didn’t work for the home control buttons unless you had the newer or better models. So I didn’t even try.
Thanks for your input. I may give it a try if I have any issues with my current plan. At first input_boolean wasn’t getting discovered but I found that adding them to the include_entities: list in the emulated hue config wasn’t working. I found a thread with instruction on adding config to customize.yaml and that worked.
Definitely look more into the roku.I think you’ll find it much easier in the long run. 
1 Like
Here is the post I found that says it doesn’t work with my remote.
1 Like
Launching apps is more about starting netflix, etc on a roku, etc. Anyway, if you add the emulated Roku to an activity like “Watch TV” you can then assign ROKU buttons (play, pause, skip, etc) to the home control buttons. Then use automations based on the roku buttons. I’m 99% sure that will work just fine. What you cannot do is go into the Home control section of the harmony app and assign roku button.
1 Like
Is there a way to have the Home Control Button always do the same function regardless of whether an activity is running or not? For example, I’d like to have one of the colored home control buttons controls some lights even if there isn’t a harmony activity currently running.
Emulated Hue is what I’m currently using. Of course real hue works too, if you only control hue lights
I’m controlling three hue lights, and one zwave switch using the emulated hue
I have emulated hue setup and all the components/groups/scripts etc are showing up in the harmony app. I just don’t see a way to map one of the colored home control buttons to an emulated hue item. What am I missing here?
Hmm, I’m not sure I understand. Have to added the “emulated Hue” to your Harmony using the iOS/Android App?
Once you add the Hue to Harmony the “hue” devices will be availble to map to the buttons. If it’s a dimmable light you can even dim it via the remote.
Edit:
In the app
Harmony Setup --> add/edit devices/activity --> Remote and Hub --> Click on your remote name --> Click on Homwe control buttons.
Yes I have added the “emulated hue” to the Harmony using the Android app. I can see my Home Assistant devices in the Harmony App which is a good sign.
In the android app I go through the following menus which differ slightly from your sequence of menus (I don’t have the same options where we deviate)
Harmony Setup --> add/edit devices/activity --> Remote and Hub --> Harmony Smart Control --> Activity Control Buttons.
Once I am in the Activity Control Buttons section, it only lists the 6 activities associated with the long and short presses of the 3 Activity Buttons (the ones with music/tv/movie icons).
Not Activty Control buttons, you should select “Home Control Buttons”. If you dont have that, I then you dont have a “Smart Home Control” remote.
If that’s the case, I misunderstood. I dont believe you can map 'Smart control" items to non smart control remotes and expect them to work if no activty is active
Yeah, That one will not do what you want. As in it does not have dedicated buttons that work “outside” of activities. This is the cheapest one that does what you want. There are others that do that as well.
You could use the emulated roku to add HA stuff to Activities, which is what I used to do, but it still requires an activity to be running.
Thank you for the help. This will save me a lot of time banging my head against a problem with no solution.
Does anyone know if the Hue Emulator will allow you to add emulated lights as well, or is it only the bridge that can be emulated? My goal is to have the Harmony home control buttons trigger a HomeKit scene. If I could create a fake emulated Hue light, that I can use the Harmony to turn on and off, I could create a HomeKit automation on that light to trigger a scene.
Yes, you can add Hue lights to the emulated hue. I currently have 6 hue lights, and one zwave switch added to my emulated hue. The emulated hue is connected to my harmony and I am able to control them all with the hue home control buttons. I do have a apple tv and I do use homekit (barely), but I have a question. I see a lot of posts about creating homekit automations and triggering them via HA, my question is why? Why would you not just do it in HA? Really just curious, maybe i’m missing out.
ok, question
how can you link an harmony hub to an hue (emulated)?
i always though to use smart zigbee devices with a harmony, you need an harmony remote 950 , or somekind of extension to the hub itself to control zigbee
so where is now the link then between hub and other stuff?
Sorry, you do need a harmony home control or better. Basically a remote with the dedicated home control buttons. At least you need that to be able to control HA devices without having to tie it to a harmony activity.
If you do have a home control, you just add the emulated hue hub with the harmony app, discover devices, and it finds the emulated hub, and any devices you’ve set up with the emulated hub, and them you map the devices to the home control buttons.
If you dont have a home control, I recommend you use the emulated roku, you then add the roku as a device to every activity, and map the buttons as you need. Only downside is that you have to have an activity running to be able to control the HA devices