carealtor Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 (edited) I'm curious if anyone has worked out a way to get a button press or screen press to control the ISY. I'm NOT talking about the Home Control buttons at the bottom of the Elite remote, but rather the AV buttons and the screen. I saw a youtube video tutorial where he was doing it, but man, what a long process. He used: Harmony -> an Android box running "Button Remapper" (never used it myself) -> Tasker (never used it myself) -> Join (never used it myself) -> IFTTT (webhooks to his lighting system) I already know how to go from IFTTT to the ISY, so that part is do-able, but adds a few more steps to this already very long process. Anybody have a shorter solution? Edited February 24, 2019 by carealtor typo
TrojanHorse Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 I'm curious if anyone has worked out a way to get a button press or screen press to control the ISY. I'm NOT talking about the Home Control buttons at the bottom of the Elite remote, but rather the AV buttons and the screen. I saw a youtube video tutorial where he was doing it, but man, what a long process. He used: Harmony -> an Android box running "Button Remapper" (never used it myself) -> Tasker (never used it myself) -> Join (never used it myself) -> IFTTT (webhooks to his lighting system) I already know how to go from IFTTT to the ISY, so that part is do-able, but adds a few more steps to this already very long process. Anybody have a shorter solution? I know the older harmony remotes have 40 IR codes that you can load into your remote that an ISY could see if it had the IR module. I actually just dusted mine off today (harmony 900 with RF to IR blaster). They could be called as part of an activity and I believe you could also associate them with hard and soft buttons. Do you know if that’s the case with the Elite? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
carealtor Posted February 24, 2019 Author Posted February 24, 2019 I'm like 99% sure the ISY can still be selected as a Device on the Harmony Hub (Elite). That said, my ISY is not in the vicinity of the Harmony Hub, so IR isn't practical and more IR is not really of interest to me.
TrojanHorse Posted February 25, 2019 Posted February 25, 2019 I hear you. Years ago I ran an extension cable to get IR to my ISY. As Roomie turned to Simple Control (subscription service) and the old app hasn’t kept up, I found myself going back to the old IR with Harmony today. IR leaves a lot to be desired but there’s something nice about direct input to ISY vs using other web services. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
giesen Posted February 25, 2019 Posted February 25, 2019 I ran an IR over Coax extender from my TV to my structured media panel (why my ISY is). You can also get IR over CAT5 and HDMI extenders as well. They're pretty cheap (I think about $30 or so) and you can get them at Monoprice or Amazon. https://www.monoprice.com/search/index?keyword=IR+Extenders Sent from my SM-N9500 using Tapatalk
carealtor Posted February 25, 2019 Author Posted February 25, 2019 Thanks for the comments. I swear, this has become the search for the Holy Grail for me. I thought the Android Box solution was at least a solution that would work, even if extremely round-about. But not having any experience with an Android Box, it wasn't until I really started to think it through... How does Harmony communicate to the Android Box? It appears to me that it is IR, so that puts the kibosh on that. If I was going to go IR (which I'm not), it would make more sense to just use an extender (as suggested) and use the ISY IR. The search continues...
giesen Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 Thanks for the comments. I swear, this has become the search for the Holy Grail for me. I thought the Android Box solution was at least a solution that would work, even if extremely round-about. But not having any experience with an Android Box, it wasn't until I really started to think it through... How does Harmony communicate to the Android Box? It appears to me that it is IR, so that puts the kibosh on that. If I was going to go IR (which I'm not), it would make more sense to just use an extender (as suggested) and use the ISY IR. The search continues... What is it you're looking to do that using IR will not accomplish?Sent from my SM-N9500 using Tapatalk
carealtor Posted February 26, 2019 Author Posted February 26, 2019 I think it's more about the challenge rather than whether IR can do it or not.
giesen Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 Maybe an RPI with a bluetooth receiver (assuming you can get it to pair with the Harmony and write backend code to make API calls to the ISY). But honestly, I can think of more useful and interesting problems to solve when there's a cheap usable solution already available.Sent from my SM-N9500 using Tapatalk
giesen Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 Maybe an RPI with a bluetooth receiver (assuming you can get it to pair with the Harmony and write backend code to make API calls to the ISY). But honestly, I can think of more useful and interesting problems to solve when there's a cheap usable solution already available. Sent from my SM-N9500 using Tapatalk This looks like an interesting solution: https://github.com/wickerwaka/harmony-bridge Pairs with Harmony using bluetooth and you can map buttons to REST calls (on the ISY) Sent from my SM-N9500 using Tapatalk
Jimbo.Automates Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 This looks like an interesting solution:https://github.com/wickerwaka/harmony-bridgePairs with Harmony using bluetooth and you can map buttons to REST s (on the ISY)Sent from my SM-N9500 using Tapatalk I don't see what that gets you. You can control ISY devices from the Harmony using the HueEmulator Polyglot. Which is different than what the OP is asking?Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk
carealtor Posted February 26, 2019 Author Posted February 26, 2019 @giesen Thank you very much for finding that. It looks like an interesting possibility. Way over my head, but I will probably give it a go anyway. @Jimbo Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you have to use the Home Control buttons for Hue. I want to use the other buttons and screen.
Jimbo.Automates Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 Yes, HueEmulator maps to home control buttons, but you can control on screen under devices.I'm not getting how this allows you to pass other key presses from the remote to the RPi? But if it does that would be interesting.Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk
carealtor Posted February 26, 2019 Author Posted February 26, 2019 Yeah, I don't know either. But I haven't tried it yet.
apostolakisl Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 (edited) I have my IR codes for ISY on my Harmony, so I get control that way for individual button presses. I also have polyglot with the harmony node server. There is two way communication between ISY and Harmony, though it doesn't have nodes for individual button presses. Basically, when you turn an activity on, it will tell ISY the activity is on and it will show "True". So at least from the standpoint of starting or ending an activity, there is a direct link between ISY and Harmony (or at least mostly direct since it goes through polyglot on a Rpi). This works great for something like dimming the lights when you start an activity and turning them back up when done. Also, for things like, when I arm my Elk alarm, ISY shuts off any running activities on Harmony. But in short, if you want individual button presses on Harmony, I only know of using IR. If you can't run a wire between your ISY and Harmony, you may use an IR/RF repeater that can cover the distance. Edited February 26, 2019 by apostolakisl
carealtor Posted February 26, 2019 Author Posted February 26, 2019 Thanks @apostolakisl So far, this is same conclusion that I've come to.
carealtor Posted May 9, 2019 Author Posted May 9, 2019 Follow up to this. Home Assistant has a "Roku emulator" that can be used to do this. Very similar to how the "Hue emulator" allows use of the Home Control buttons, the HA Roku emulator allows use of the Home Entertainment buttons. This works because the Roku is a Home Entertainment device that is WiFi controlled by the Harmony Hub.
BJB2757 Posted December 19, 2020 Posted December 19, 2020 (edited) It would be great if there was a 'virtual device' that you could add to the Harmony, and include it in every activity. You could then program any available buttons on the Harmony remote, to trigger a function on the virtual device. The virtual device could be connected to a node server, and you could have ISY programs watch the corresponding nodes for button presses & and then do anything you wanted. I have zero idea how to create such a virtual device & get Harmony to allow us to add it to a Harmony activity. But other than that, the right person could probably implement this pretty easily I'm guessing? Or maybe such a virtual device for the Harmony already exists??? Or is this essentially what the Hue Emulator node server already does? I will try it. Edited December 19, 2020 by BJB2757
carealtor Posted December 19, 2020 Author Posted December 19, 2020 Hue Emulator will do exactly this, but only for "Home Control" buttons on your remote. You didn't say what remote you have, but I know this will work for the Elite and newer Companion remotes. To map to the the rest of the buttons is entirely different problem. I've seen other home automation systems where someone has written a "Roku Emulator" that will do this, but I haven't really played with any of them. Someone would have to write a "Roku Emulator" nodeserver for ISY, but nobody has yet.
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