Hi all, I've read some very mixed reviews on Harmony Elite, and am still not entirely sure after reading through the threads on what portions of it may or may not be possible to reliably integrate with HE. I would prefer not having cloud dependency.
My A/V equipment, AppleTV and BluRay sources are in an equipment room about 30 feet from the couch. I have separate RF remotes for them, plus IR for the TV in the room, which is obviously annoying; one for turn on tv, one for turn on receiver and adjust volume, one for the source, and if that source is the AppleTV with its horrible remote, it's just an overall frustrating experience.
Was hoping to get an RF-based remote to replace them all, and if it can talk to the devices in non-IR ways, even better. If it integrates with HE as well, double bonus! I don't need too fancy; has to be able to control Yamaha receiver and BD player, AppleTV 4k, but it sure would be sweet if it could also turn the lights off or set a scene in HE so I don't have to get a phone out or go to a wall. Would Harmony do this? Or something else out there that would?
Unfortunately, the community developed interface to the Broadlink RM has been withdrawn.
It would be very helpful if someone were to pick it up.
It's a very versatile device.
Yes Harmony will do all that. Get the Elite and you should be able to program the buttons on the button to control lights and outlets. I have not switched my "Pro" remote for the Elite yet, but it is on my project list, so I can add some lighting functions to the remote.
Harmony does integrate with HE via community driver from @ogiewon. Ex. I have a button on my RA2 keypad that talks to HE/Harmony/Lutron to run the "Good Morning" routine of a few lights and turning the TV on the wife's favorite news channel. The same should be able to be done via the remote. When remote button X is pressed do Y. Again I have not done it that way yet, but it's on the short list.
FYI be sure to reprogram the remote so that it sends the IR signal via the remote (not the hub) to the TV and all other signals via the hub. This is done via the Harmony software (on PC I'm not an app guy when it comes to setup). The hub will live in the AV room, and the remote will send signals to it for device control (IR and RF). The remote does not need line of sight to the hub. The have installed at least 25 remotes with the exact configuration you describe.
Just be aware that the Elite remote control's 'home control' buttons are really designed to be used with an official Harmony Hub integration, with other systems such as Philips Hue, Lutron Caseta, and SmartThings. Using these official integrations, one can map the 'home control' buttons on an Elite remote control to various switches and dimmers that are exposed via those official integrations.
Since Logitech is not accepting new official integrations, Hubitat has not way to create one. Thus, I wrote an unofficial community integration for Harmony Hub. The Logitech application and cloud servers have no knowledge of the Hubitat hub. I am using a local webSockets connection directly to the Harmony Hub to request a list of Harmony 'Activities' that are then turned into child Switch devices that Hubitat can use to control and monitor the current active activity. These switch devices can easily be used as triggers for whatever Hubitat automation you desire.
Recently, I worked with another community member to add some very limited support for the Elite remote's 'home control' buttons. In order to use them, one has to map these buttons to devices expose via one of the official integrations. Using SmartThings is the simplest way of doing this, as one can create a ST account for free, without a hub. Afterwards, simply create 4 virtual switch/dimmer ST devices, and then use the official ST-Harmony Hub integration to map these virtual buttons to the remote's 'home control' buttons. Afterwards, it is possible for my Hubitat Harmony Hub integration to 'sniff' the webSockets traffic to identify unique IDs for each of the buttons. Once the user completes that portion of the process, the four home control buttons will generate 'Button' pushed and held events in Hubitat, that can be used in whatever automations your desire.