Harmony Remote only works when I'm holding it?

Configuration
1

Hi all!

I’ve been dipping my toes into hass and so far I love it. I’ve been experimenting with my harmony elite remote with the 250 firmware on it. I have a ‘switch’ which turns things on and off again… the only thing is that it only works when I’m holding the remote in my hand and the remote is awake! When it’s sitting in the base, nothing works.

Has anyone else experienced this?

For completion, here is my switch configuration - thanks! I hope someone can help me.

switch:
  - platform: template
    switches:
      # SHIELD TV HARMONY ACTIVITY
      living_room_shield_tv:
        friendly_name: "Living Room Shield TV"
        value_template: "{{ is_state_attr('remote.living_room', 'current_activity', 'SHIELD TV') }}"
        turn_on:
          service: remote.turn_on
          data:
            entity_id: remote.living_room
            activity: 'SHIELD TV'
        turn_off:
          service: remote.turn_on
          data:
            entity_id: remote.living_room
            activity: 'PowerOff'
2

do you have a harmony hub?

3

Yes, I have a harmony hub - 2 actually. But I’ve only integrated the 1st one into HASS.

image

4

One thing I just realized - I couldn’t get the TV working with the hub because I was too lazy to run the extra probe from the hub through the wall to the TV so I set the remote to use IR for the TV and the hub does everything else with the receiver, etc… could this be the reason the commands only work if the remote is awake?

5

I have two Harmony Hubs integrated with HA, although I am trying to eliminate them. IP control is better (more reliable) than IR.

Also, I find mine works best if I hug them, and talk nicely to them (via Alexa). :innocent:

6

Yea, but the weird thing is, not even the IP stuff triggers… the receiver doesn’t turn on/off. I could understand if it’s simply the TV not working because the of the IR.

7

Walk out of the room with the remote. While out of the room and not having the remote pointed at the devices use it to trigger an activity and see what actually turns on.

8

Very interesting. When I take the remote out of range of the hub, nothing works. I just changed the setting on the remote from IR to all (hub/blaster1/2) to control the TV now the remote location and/or status doesn’t matter. The hub is fully responsive now - at least with my initial tests. Thanks @James_Will_i_am_Will for debugging this with me - I really appreciate it. Now all I have to do is make the TV work 100% of the time w/o IR from the remote.