New Hubitat owner, have registered but not much else. Hoped to use this to IR blast my DTV box and HDMI matrix to change inputs, channels, etc. via Dashboard. Understand IR on hub non-functional, but looking now for another way without spending more than I paid for the Hubitat. I have a Switchbot IR Plus hub, any info on Hubitat communicating with that device or other solution??
Logitech Harmony Hub is probably the best solution. These can be purchased new in the US with a remote control for about $60.
So, what would that look like, do I just use Harmony/remote and forget about Hubitat/dashboard, or use together?
I do miss my anymote. seems like if it had a remote, I could control it. Hint Hint!
You can use the Harmony remote (which actually communicates to the Harmony hub via RF - then the Harmony Hub emits IR via its IR blasters) to control Harmony Activities. Activities are essentially Logitech's name for a "home entertainment scene", like "Watch TV", "Watch BluRay", "Play Xbox", "Watch Apple TV", etc... Starting one of these Harmony Activities configures all of your home theater devices correctly.
With the Harmony Hub integration I wrote, each of these Harmony Activities will show up in Hubitat as a Switch Device. Thus, you can turn on or off any activity via the Hubitat hub. This could be as part of a Rule Machine rule, or as a switch on the Hubitat Dashboard.
It works extremely well. As an example, I have two Amazon Alexa Routines. One is "Good Morning", which turns on the proper Hubitat lights, turns on the "Watch TV" activity via Hubitat, and then speaks the weather forecast for the day. The second one is "Goodnight", which turns off the current active Harmony Activity via Hubitat, and turns off all of the proper lights.
For channel surfing, adjusting the volume, etc..., we simply use the Harmony remote control.
I have three Harmony Hubs in my house. They really are pretty good devices and are well supported. For example, they integrate with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT, Lutron, Hue, etc...
Logitech has stopped accepting new integrations for some reason, which is why the Hubitat integration is community supported currently.
Does your integration still work with the shenanigans Logitech pulled with recent updates? Looking into getting a Harmony myself now or curious if you know of other more future proof options.
My integration for the Logitech Harmony Hub has been solid for 8 months now. No standing issues. IMHO, the Harmony Hub is the best bang-for-buck IR/Bluetooth remote control one can buy that integrates with a home automation system like Hubitat, as well as with Lutron, Philips Hue, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, etc...
Just a thumbs-up for this solution. I already had the Harmony Hub when I purchased the Hubitat to replace an obsolete lighting automation I was using. When I came across @ogiewon's driver, I was tremendously impressed by it. I can now tell Alexa to turn on "Nightwatch". Alexa tells Hubitat to set a scene which turns on and dims the lights in the family room. Using this driver, Hubitat then tells Harmony to start my Watch TV activity. Harmony tells the TV, cable box, and receiver to turn on. It works flawlessly.
I am not a Harmony Hub Activities fan because it turns every device used in the current Activity 'off' before turning each device 'on' for the next Activity. This can irritate others who still want to watch the movie in another room (AKA the Zone2 irritation).
I just would like to know the best (supports many IR devices and open sourced) IR blaster that can be controlled by the HE. I think that the higher level controls (scenes) could be controlled by the HE.
In the Harmony app, you can set a specific "no change" for devices when switching activities. Meaning, you can have the devices stay on (because they didn't receive a "power off" command) or you can have them power off when you change to an activity that does not use them (as you have it set up now). I can't remember exactly where that is in the app, but I believe it is in the activity settings. I believe you adjust the "turn off activity" settings.