Is Logitech Harmony Hub compatible with ISY?

[BJB2757]

Yes exactly - my harmony hub does indeed use IR to control the volume of my AV Receiver.  What I'm looking for is a non-IR way for the ISY to communicate with the Harmony (and then the harmony would use IR to control the volume).  Then Alexa could control the ISY.

 

I use Alexa --> Yonomi skill --> Harmony to do simpler thinks (like simply turning off the TV) because Yonomi executes much faster than IFTTT.  But, like IFTTT, Yonomi also does not have a volume-changing activity. 

 

The lack of a direct interface between ISY and Harmony is one thing.  But given that neither IFTTT nor Yonomi enable you to change the volume, maybe the Harmony API doesn't expose a volume-changing function???  I'm going to ask the Yonomi guys - they are very responsive.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Barry,

 

If and only if Logitech would ever respond to our emails (sent 3 already)!

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[BJB2757]

The Yonomi folks are very responsive, just like UDI:)  They responded and confirmed that the Harmony API does not provide a direct way to do volume up/down, mute/unmute, or channel changing.  Yonomi said they've discussed this with the Harmony people, and "believe they are working to add support for it".

 

Now we just need Harmony to return UDI's emails, so we can cut out the lag-y IFTTT middle man!

 

-Barry

[Jimbo.Automates]

I thought the API allowed you to simulate that a button was pressed on the remote, but I could be wrong, I'll have to look at it again. If you want a no-lag option, get a RPi and run ISYHelper which also allows you to define harmony home control buttons to control ISY devices which has almost eliminated our need for remotelincs.

 

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[BJB2757]

If you want a no-lag option, get a RPi and run ISYHelper

 

Thanks a lot.  Although that's a bit of a heavy lift given my knowledge level...

 

-Barry

[sfhutchi]

What other options are there?  Since there is a very simple interface for the Insteon Hub, it is frustrating that a much more useful and powerful device is locked out of it.

http://www.insteon.com/logitech/

 

I would install an Insteon Hub just to have this functionality, but I understand that this will then conflict with my ISY?

 

Regarding connection with Logitech... does anyone here have a current relationship with the Insteon development folks to get an 'introduction'?

 

Is there any possibility of supporting an Insteon Hub in a primarily ISY household to support these types of growing functions?  It seems that they have a bigger commercial reach for the average consumer, so they get attention from many of the other 'connected technology' players.

 

Is there a way for ISY to 'simulate' an Insteon Hub so that something like the Harmony Hub can think that it is an Insteon Hub?  This might solve the problem for this (and others).

 

Steve

 

 

 

Hi Barry,

If and only if Logitech would ever respond to our emails (sent 3 already)!

With kind regards,
Michel

[stusviews]

The Harmony is ISY compatible--if you have the IR module.

[Jimbo.Automates]

The Harmony is ISY compatible--if you have the IR module.

How do you start a harmony activity from the ISY via IR?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[stusviews]

Add the ISY as a device to the Harmony.

[Jimbo.Automates]

Doesn't answer the question. That allows you to send and receive IR between both devices? But how do you start a harmony activity? And can you control activities on multiple harmony hubs?

 

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[sfhutchi]

Add the ISY as a device to the Harmony.

I know that there are some painful work arounds to send IR signals to ISY (which is not line of sight to any of my other devices). I am wondering what it takes to add ISY as a device (as you can with Insteon hub) and simply have an interface to the items on your Insteon network.

 

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

[stusviews]

Doesn't answer the question. That allows you to send and receive IR between both devices? But how do you start a harmony activity? And can you control activities on multiple harmony hubs?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Oops, I misread you question. You can use the Harmony to control an ISY device, scene or program, that is, from the Harmony to the ISY, not the other way, from the ISY to the Harmony.

[dywicked]

I know that there are some painful work arounds to send IR signals to ISY (which is not line of sight to any of my other devices). I am wondering what it takes to add ISY as a device (as you can with Insteon hub) and simply have an interface to the items on your Insteon network.

 

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

Okay, first off there are two different requirements being discussed.

 

1) Controlling ISY *from* harmony.

2) Controlling Harmony from ISY.

 

Jimbo's ISYHelper is an elegant solution to both. However, if you don't want to get involved with an RPi, here are some options:

 

To address #1, get either an ISY or an Insteon IR receiver module. The Insteon option has the advantage in that you can plug it in where all of your media equipment (and your harmony) is located, whereas your ISY might be somewhere else.

 

To address #2, the easiest think to do if ISYHelper is out of the question is to use the network module (or portal subscription) on ISY to call IFTTT to control Harmony, although there is often some lag with this method.

 

I'm not 100% certain, but I do not believe the Insteon Hub solution allows you to control Harmony from an Insteon device, just the reverse. Mixing ISY and Hub is never worth the trouble IMHO.

 

-David

[ccclapp]

I am in on this topic too:

 

- controling isy from harmony is very doable and straightforward: just add a wire (of any length) with ir "bleeper" at output end, from harmony hub ir out to isy ir in. One is somewhat limited by the number of IR commands isy will allow. with a bit more complexity this can be overridden by program-folder commands to multiply the number of IR commands. If you're within the base isy ir limit it's very simple

 

-- as to triggering harmony activities from Isy: yes, this is still a work in progress…

Absolutely isyhelper is fantastic! And Jimbo deserves very high marks! On the other hand, it does require RPI and I am not thrilled by that and I have looked at workarounds. I actually find Amazon echo to be very good but it's not isy controlled it's voice controlled. I have not tried IFTTT but I understand it works with some delay. Like others, I wish Isy would integrate with the harmony API, which in theory is very doable,in practice maybe not?? Alternatively if Isyhelper would work natively within isy without need for RPI that would also be great!! Bottom line as far as I know after much investigation and smile, there is still no perfect solution for controlling ISY from Harmony, Although if you're up for RPI, isyhelper is fantastic

[paulbates]

Alexa can accomplish approximate Harmony to ISY communication. Here is an example for turning on the TV and turning off the lights

• Create an ISY program that turns TV room lights Off for Then and On for Else
  

  Alexa TV
  
  If
     - No Conditions - (To add one, press 'Schedule' or 'Condition')
  Then
          Set 'Family Room / Recessed' Off
  Else
          Set 'Family Room / Recessed' On
  

• Use the ISY Portal to publish this program to Alexa
• In the Amazon Alexa site,
  • Perform a 'discover devices'
  • Create a group under Smart Home with your TV Activity (or DVD, Roku Activities) Button and the program
• Tell Alexa to turn the group name on or off
• You can obviously do more elaborate things from the ISY like dimming, add shades, scenes.. etc

The Harmony skill had limited functionality (don't they all) but if you are looking for simple integration, this will do

 

Paul

[Jimbo.Automates]

Thanks everyone for the compliments.

 

Yes, Alexa and IFTTT control of one Harmony works very well.  I'm currently using IFTTT for Google Home and it's been fine.  But, when you have more than one harmony hub it's not possible, or is painful.  I think the ISY integration could somehow happen in the Portal, and IMO, I don't see this ever happening directly in the ISY, although that would be nice.

 

Here is my plan I hope to work on, but of course it requires a RPi. (or something to run the java/python code)

  1. Run https://github.com/bwssytems/ha-bridge, why? because:

    - It keeps up with continual changes to the mostly undocumented Harmony and Hue API's

    - It has nice method for defining macros, so you can define a macro to change the channel to ABC

       - This macro can be set up to look like a Hue switch, so you can say Turn on ABC currently with Alexa or Google Home.

    - It has a pretty simple REST interface

  2. Write a polyglot to interface with ha-bridge

     - This will be tricky, and require downloading the config to the ISY which is built on the fly each time the ha-bridge config is changed.

 

I plan on working on #1 soon, and initially it will allow pulling the spoken properties from the ISY and create hue devices in ha-bridge, so it will replace ISYHelper's PyHue.  And since you can define Hue devices from Harmony, it will replace PyHarmony as well.  Once that is working, I'll start on #2 which will completely replace current ISYHelper Hue and Harmony functionality.

 

I could do this without ha-bridge, but it would require a text or web-based interface which will be to much work, for me and/or each user.

 

If anyone has better ideas on how to do this, or input on how it should be done, please let me know.

[ccclapp]

Alexa can accomplish approximate Harmony to ISY communication. Here is an example for turning on the TV and turning off the lights

 

• Create an ISY program that turns TV room lights Off for Then and On for Else

  Alexa TV
  
  If
     - No Conditions - (To add one, press 'Schedule' or 'Condition')
  Then
          Set 'Family Room / Recessed' Off
  Else
          Set 'Family Room / Recessed' On
  

• Use the ISY Portal to publish this program to Alexa
• In the Amazon Alexa site,
  • Perform a 'discover devices'
  • Create a group under Smart Home with your TV Button and the program
• Tell Alexa to turn the group name on or off
• You can obviously do more elaborate things from the ISY like dimming, add shades, scenes.. etc

The Harmony skill had limited functionality (don't they all) but if you are looking for simple integration, this will do

 

Paul

Yes but the critical and vital diference is that harmony wont be in sync because you have failed to trigger a harmony "activity" eg harmony still thinks tv is off so could turn it on via remote when you want to turn it off. With what you said, might as well omit harmony and use isy only for avcontrol (not my desire).

[paulbates]

Yes but the critical and vital diference is that harmony wont be in sync because you have failed to trigger a harmony "activity" eg harmony still thinks tv is off so could turn it on via remote when you want to turn it off. With what you said, might as well omit harmony and use isy only for avcontrol (not my desire).

 

This is not the case. After telling alexa to turn on the tv, dvd or netflix (provided by roku for me) via the Smarthome group, I pick up the Harmony remote and it knows where it is and adjusts my tv/roku/dvd for current state that alexa turned it on for. The Harmony Skill was called by the Smart Home group along with the ISY skill and is in sync.

 

Voice turning alexa back off turns the tv off and adjusts the lights via the ISY skill. 

 

EDIT, 'TV' is the name of one of my activities. It doesn't just turn the tv on, it turns on the cable box, etc

[ccclapp]

 

EDIT, 'TV' is the name of one of my activities. It doesn't just turn the tv on, it turns on the cable box, etc

Ok, thats different. What you're saying is you are using echo harmony skill to control harmony Activities via voice. Yes, as I stated in my post above that is very doable and I find it works quite well. But, this has nothing to do with ISY. however, this is not what the poster asked for. He asked how to control harmony via ISY, not via echo voice.

 

having said this, you did teach me something new, which is that using echo one can trigger a echo group, effectively a simple macro, which in your case includes and ISY command. Thanks for that! The alternate way to accomplish the same: using Harmony add ISY as a device and on your TV activity include light on off dim etc. I would do it that way so whether I am using echo or harmony remote the light does the same thing. Further, you can control that specific light during the watch TV activity via Harmony by making a hard or soft button on your harmony remote dedicated to that lights control.

[paulbates]

Ok, thats different. What you're saying is you are using echo harmony skill to control harmony Activities via voice. Yes, as I stated in my post above that is very doable and I find it works quite well. But, this has nothing to do with ISY. however, this is not what the poster asked for. He asked how to control harmony via ISY, not via echo voice.

 

having said this, you did teach me something new, which is that using echo one can trigger a echo group, effectively a simple macro, which in your case includes and ISY command. Thanks for that! The alternate way to accomplish the same: using Harmony add ISY as a device and on your TV activity include light on off dim etc. I would do it that way so whether I am using echo or harmony remote the light does the same thing. Further, you can control that specific light during the watch TV activity via Harmony by making a hard or soft button on your harmony remote dedicated to that lights control.

 

 

Ok thanks. The the IR solution is not (easily) possible for me as my ISY and PLM sit right by my electrical panel and not at the TV.

 

I offered this as an additional method, if the requirements are simple.  The OP asked if anything could be gained by the integration and also did not want an IR solution.

 

Paul

[Scyto]

Hello everyone,If you do know anyone at Logitech, please contact them. They are simply not responding to us.With kind regards,Michel

Did you ever got hold of anyone?

This person is a 2nd degree connection on linked for me.... http://linkedin.com/in/renee-niemi-300139

[stusviews]

Did you ever got hold of anyone?

This person is a 2nd degree connection on linked for me.... http://linkedin.com/in/renee-niemi-300139

 

What's a 2^nd degree connection?

[nwchicago]

Stu, it's a friend of a friend. Linked in is a professional social network and organizes people by who they know at what company.

A first degree connection is a friend you are directly connected to. You can see their updates, job changes etc - great way to keep in touch with co-workers especially when you change jobs.

2nd degree is someone your friend knows that you could be introduced to by asking them.

3rd degree is a friend of a friend and so on.

 

 

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[Teken]

Stu, it's a friend of a friend. Linked in is a professional social network and organizes people by who they know at what company.

A first degree connection is a friend you are directly connected to. You can see their updates, job changes etc - great way to keep in touch with co-workers especially when you change jobs.

2nd degree is someone your friend knows that you could be introduced to by asking them.

3rd degree is a friend of a friend and so on.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I guess no one wants to talk to the mad wife because your going to get the 4th degree!

[nwchicago]

Hahaha

 

 

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