Harmony Elite & hub

[carealtor]

I'm going to have 4 Harmony Elites and hubs that will be in different parts of the house, and my ISY will be in the equipment closet.  So, of course, the question becomes, how to get the Harmony hubs and the ISY to communicate when they are not in close proximity.  I bought the IR module for my ISY in anticipation of this project, but now that I'm starting to think it through, I don't know exactly how I'm going to get the IR signal from the Harmony hubs to the ISY.  Everything seems like such a kludge...  There are "IR over IP" products and "IR over coax" solutions.  There are various IR extenders that convert to RF and then back again.  All these "solutions" require more little boxes, more wires, and more wall warts.

 

The very very big frustration with this scenario is that both the Harmony hub and the ISY are already on the LAN.  So why is this so complicated and messy!  Why am I having to use IR at all?  I know the Harmony does not directly support the ISY other than through IR.  I've read the threads here and how Michael has tried to work with Logitech, but has not had any luck.  But still, there has got to be cleaner way to do this.

 

I know both ISY and Harmony hub are IFTTT capable, but the Harmony hub has no triggers (yet), so that won't work, at least not directly.  But what about some of these other hubs that I see that the Harmony does work with?  I see SmartThings, LIFX, PEQ, Qivicon, & Insteon hub in the Harmony Home Control Device list. Are any of them IFTTT capable and can send a trigger?  I'd be willing to buy one of these other hubs if this would work.   I don't know what most of these are, or how any of them work, but maybe some of them can send an IFTTT trigger?  If so, then an ISY scene could be run without using IR.

 

Thoughts?

 

[MustangChris04]

I too would like to see some native integration between the Harmony hub series remotes and the ISY.

 

I am currently using IR over Ethernet to reach the network rack where my ISY sits.

 

I absolutely HATE the IR method because with all of my A/V equipment, there are some IR commands that are triggering the ISY IR, so I have to disable about 5 of the ISY IR Code, leaving me with only 35 available IR commands. 

[Jimbo.Automates]

Check out ISYHelper http://forum.universal-devices.com/forum/118-isyhelper/

(edit link fixed)

Edited December 13, 2016 by Jimbo

[Jimbo.Automates]

It works for me in Tapatalk, sorry that's how Tapatalk shares links. Search the forum for ISYHelper

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[larryllix]

It works for me in Tapatalk, sorry that's how Tapatalk shares links. Search the forum for ISYHelper

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

I did the search and only find this thread with mention of it.

 

Am I missing something here? Why would I go to tapatalk and view the same thread and forum as I am already viewing?

Edited December 13, 2016 by larryllix

[Jimbo.Automates]

You must not be searching the entire forum?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[Jimbo.Automates]

The link was from tapatalk to share this:  http://forum.universal-devices.com/forum/118-isyhelper/

[larryllix]

The link was from tapatalk to share this: http://forum.universal-devices.com/forum/118-isyhelper/

LMAO..OK That works better!

It always took me to a 404 page on tapatalk despite permanent login.

 

Thanks!

Edited December 13, 2016 by larryllix

[carealtor]

C'mon.  Most of you guys and gals are way smarter than I am.  And I just know that some of you have knowledge of some of these other hubs that I mentioned.  Certainly more knowledge than I do.

 

Is there any hub that is currently supported by the Harmony hub (SmartThings, LIFX, PEQ, Qivicon, & Insteon hub) that could send out IFTTT or REST commands to the ISY?  If the answer is no, please just let me.  If I have no idea what I'm talking about, let me know that too! 

 

The ISYhelper sounds like a possibility, but it also sounds WAY more difficult and involved than I want to get into.

[mjpotts82]

I use CQC as the glue between the isy, harmony hub and many other things.

 

I'm not up on the node server stuff could something be built with that?

Edited December 15, 2016 by mjpotts82

[Jimbo.Automates]

Yes a node server can be done. I've started on a new ISYHelper that I plan to move into a polyglot.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[carealtor]

I use CQC as the glue between the isy, harmony hub and many other things.

 

 

Thank you for that.  I had looked at CQC awhile back, but didn't get too far with it at the time.  I spent a good part of the day yesterday with it and made some good progress.  Very cool product.  Way easier to use than OpenHAB.  The wall I came up against is that there is nothing that can be read from the Harmony Hub except the current Activity.  So, I can trigger a scene on the ISY if an Activity or PowerOff is selected, but there is nothing that can be done (that I can see) for a button press on the remote.  This is of course no fault of CQC or the ISY.

 

So back to my first post...  I'm wondering if there is some other "hub" that the Harmony Hub nativly communicates with that could in turn issue an IFTTT trigger?  I may pick up a Smartthings Hub at Home Depot this week and see if this is a possiblility.  Unless someone can already tell me my idea won't work.

 

Jimbo, I have not ruled out ISYHelper, but if I can get something "off the shelf" that will meet my needs, it will be much easier for me than learning RPi and everything else that goes with it.

[Jimbo.Automates]

No worries, sorry I can't think of a way for the Harmony to push an update any other way than to fake it out with a device thru the hue or WeMo emulator.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk