Harmony Hub?

Hi I have been somewhat lucky in my new install in that most of my devices appear to have been detected. Home Assistant even detected my Harmony Hub, but unfortunately none of the devices associated with my hub appear to be present in Home Assistant. Has anyone gor any ideas about what is going on? Thanks.

The Harmony integration doesn’t expose devices directly. You can use the remote.send_command to control a device directly from an automation or script though.

OK, thanks. I’ll look into that.

Erm … Could we possibly just back up a bit? I’m a non-programmer. I knew there would be some learning involved and I was OK with that. Apprehensive, but OK with it. But first the page you pointed me to says that I can access the setting for my Harmony Hub via Configuration >> Integrations in the UI, click the button with + sign and from the list of integrations select Logitech Harmony Hub .

Which is what I did. But if I do this I am presented with only a very limited set of options?

Here I can specify the ‘amount of time to wait before sending commands and the default activity to run when none is specified’. All my activities (although there are only 4 of these) are present in the associated drop down list.

But that’s it. If I select one of these, I still can’t see or run the activity from the main Home Assistant interface? So the question is, in layman’s terms how do I actually trigger the activity from within Home Assistant in a step by step way?

The advice then goes on at length about editing the config file. But (again for a layman) where it seems to fall a bit flat, is that it seems to make no effort at all to explain where or how to access the config file, or what the purpose of doing so is?
It just assumes somehow you will know this?

As I said, I did expect there to be some learning involved. But I am to use a colloquial British term ‘somewhat flummoxed’ at the first hurdle.

Could someone please explain in plain English in a step by step way, for someone with no prior experience of programming or Home Assistant, how I add my Harmony Hub activities and devices to the main Home Assistant interface, in a way that makes them easy to use and easy to integrate into routines? (AKA in a similar way to IFTTT?)

If I have an activity called 'Watch TV 1" for example (which I do), how exactly step by step do I integrate this into the Home assistant main interface, then how do I trigger this activity, then how do I integrate this into a simple routine, as in if I do this, then this happens, then this happens and this, etc.

I promise I’ll use this as an example I can apply to other things I want to do going forward, lol.

Thanks in advance and sorry if this has all been asked before. One thing I have found though is that Home Assistant is constantly changing, so even if I can read something, often this advice seems to quickly become out of date. So hopefully it isn’t too annoying to seek the most current advice on the forum.

Thanks again.

I can not help you with all that stuff because i am not doing so complicated stuff with my harmony integration :smiley:

We we can start with something simple if you want. And after a start most stuff gets easy.

Go to configuration -> Scripts and start a new script.

Give it a name and as sequence something like this:

So choose “Call Service” as Action type and remote.turn_on as Service.
Then you should be able to select you harmony integration as entity.

after service data -> “acitvity” use a activity of your Hub.

Then simple execute the script from the script page and see if your activity starts.

You can set an event trigger for harmony to carry out actions when you select an activity on your remote.
For example when I click on Listen to Music on my harmony remote, harmony turns on my amp, then home assistant sends music to the Chromecast plugged into the amp.

Or sometimes I am listening to music on my phone then decide to stream it to my speakers, home assistant detects the Chromecast turning on and tells harmony to activate listen to music. Harmony then turns on my amp.

I’ve found the key to enjoyable automation is to think what steps are unnecessary or time wasting, then work on those. Or ones that make the system easier for non techy users.

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Hi Jebus2504 i had same issue (i am new too). All I wanted was a simple card that let me turn activities on and off. I have no intention of using hass as a remote. I have a perfectly good remote for that. This is what i came up with:

I hope this also helps someone get started easily with harmony remote.

This was done with this code:

type: entities
entities:
  - entity: remote.basement_harmony
  - type: call-service
    icon: 'mdi:microsoft-xbox'
    name: Xbox
    action_name: Play Xbox
    service: remote.turn_on
    service_data:
      activity: Play Xbox
      entity_id: remote.basement_harmony
  - type: call-service
    icon: 'mdi:television-classic'
    name: TiVo
    action_name: Watch TV
    service: remote.turn_on
    service_data:
      activity: Watch TV
      entity_id: remote.basement_harmony
  - type: call-service
    icon: 'mdi:sony-playstation'
    name: PS5
    action_name: Play PS5
    service: remote.turn_on
    service_data:
      activity: Play PS5
      entity_id: remote.basement_harmony
  - type: call-service
    icon: 'mdi:nintendo-switch'
    name: Play Nintendo Switch
    action_name: Play Nintendo Switch
    service: remote.turn_on
    service_data:
      activity: Play Switch
      entity_id: remote.basement_harmony
  - type: call-service
    icon: 'mdi:apple-airplay'
    name: Apple TV
    action_name: Stream
    service: remote.turn_on
    service_data:
      activity: Watch Apple TV
      entity_id: remote.basement_harmony

(use the code editor once you have added the card - like this)

OK thanks. I’m not ignoring anyone’s advice or contributions to any of the topics I have posted. I’m very grateful. But my intention is just to dip into and out of my hass installation as time and focus allow.

If I get stuck I hope you don’t mind if I pop back with any questions I may have?