Help requestd: Setting up Logitech Harmony

Questions
#1

I got two devices I want to control with the Home Remote app, a samsung smart TV and a Yamaha RN 602 Receiver. THey’re both added as devices on my Harmony Elite remote.

I came across this app googling, since I don’t think the Harmony app is very customizable. What I want to do is simply create a screen with controls for the amp and the tv. I’ve watched the videos on creating grids and creating buttons, and more or less made up the design I want. However, when it comes to assigning commands to the buttons I am at a complete loss, and alle the videos out there very soon go into very complicated territory.

When I add devices and select Logitech Harmony, it does seem to load the devices alreay on my harmony remote, but getting commands assigned to buttons just seems daunting. All the commands I want are already on my Elite remote, but I don’t know how to get the buttons in home remote to do the samet.There are so many menus and boxes and I have no idea how to go about achieving what I want Are there any videos that explain this to inexperienced users? Or is this ecosystem just too complicated for a non-programmer to comprehend?

#2

It’s not too complicated for all-nonprogrammers, but it is for some. Just depends where you fall in the spectrum. I would help but I’m not familiar with Harmony. I would consider changing the title of this post to something more specific like “Help Setting Up Logitech Harmony”.

#3

It might be too complicated for me, but I have been able to master some tools in the past. The sepcific problem I have is where to go to assign buttons (or if buttons are indeed the right object to use). I could follow the grid and the buttons video, but when it comes to triggers etc I just don’t know where to start.

But perhaps I shoudl try to be a bit more specific:

What I’m after is a single screen with four buttons on the top, Power toggles for the Samsung TV, the Yamaha receiver, input selector in the Yamaha, and last a mute button for the Yamaha

Under there I want to put a up/down/left/right controller mimicking that of the tv remote, with an “ok” or “enter” button in the middle and a smart tv menu button on the side.

Under that again, a volume slider for the Yamaha receiver.
I’ve layed out grids and buttons for this, down to naming them etc. I seem to have managed to import the harmony device into the designer. But where to go from here I really don’t know. I’m guessing it has to do with triggers-

#4

Select the button you want to control. In the bottom right corner, add an EventTrigger. Just like it sounds, this will perform an action (aka command) when an event happens.

When you have the EventTrigger selected, at the bottom you see an option for Event. It’s asking you, what kind of event do you want to trigger this action? You want to choose “Clicked”. So when you click the button, it’s going to perform the action.

Now click on actions. It’s going to bring up a separate box. Click on the plus in bottom left and add a DataAction. So the action is that you’re going to send some data when the button is clicked. Where it says Binding, click that and type the name of your device (whatever you named your Logitech Harmony). It will pull up the list of attributes that you can use for this device. An attribute is the category of data that you’re going to send, such as InputSource, PowerToggle, etc. Sometimes the attribute requires a value, sometimes it doesn’t. This is where I unfortunately cannot help you with Harmony.

But I’ve included a screenshot of my Denon receiver. For me to watch Roku, my Roku is plugged in to my DVD input source on my Denon receiver. So I choose the InputSource attribute of my DenonAVR device and then I use DVD as the value.

Good luck. Please report back and let me know if you get something to work. Hopefully someone who knows Harmony will chime in here.

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#5

Thanks, this was helpful. I’ve been on that menu before, not knowing that it was the one I should use.

I also think someone who knows the harmony would be ideal here. The list of attributes perplex me, there don’t seem to be any specific commands mimicking commands in the Harmony activity. Devices have the same names I gave them in the Harmony Hub when I set it up, but the list of attributes for instance for the TV looks like this

Attributes

#6

Ok, choose “Smarttv.MediaCommand” as your device and attribute. MediaCommand is part of the MediaControl capability, meaning it’s hard-coded into HR with a set of commands that will work with any device. The list of possible values for MediaCommand are:

PowerOff, PowerOn, PowerToggle, Menu, List, Guide, Info, Option, Setup, Exit, VolumeUp, VolumeDown, Mute, DirectionUp, DirectionLeft, DirectionDown, DirectionRight, Select, Back, ChannelUp, ChannelDown, PrevChannel, Rewind, Play, Pause, FastForward, SkipBackward, SkipForward, Stop, Record, Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Number1, Number2, Number3, Number4, Number5, Number6, Number7, Number8, Number9, Number0, Hyphen, NumberEnter, Return, RepeatAll, RepeatOff, RepeatOne, ShuffleOff, ShuffleOn, Home, ModeMovie, ModeMusic, ModeGame, ModePure, ModeDirect, ModeUp, ModeDown

I found that information here: https://thehomeremote.com/docs/capabilities/#media-control

Put one of the possible values in the Value box. It’s case sensitive. This should now work!

#7

TIP - Temporarily put in a text box element into your page. For the text, put in the device binding Smarttv.SupportedMediaCommands. Now run the designer. This should pull up a list of all possible media commands for that device. You use a text box to do this so you can select and copy the text during run time and paste it in your notes. Now you have a list of all commands you can use for that device that HR recognizes.

You can also do this exercise with Smarttv.Capabilities. Here’s the info for Capabilities:

#8

Thanks a lot man. You’re really helping out here. I don’t have the time to set it up right now, but I still got a quick question I was wondering if you could answer.

For the input selector on the Yamaha receiver, would you suggest I try the Media INput Source capability (and if so, are string values just numbers, and would I have to keep trying until I get the right one? (My receiver has a stupid amount of input sources))?

Thanks again for taking the time to help out a novice like me, its much appreciated!

#9

Try the suggestion I offered with the text box and use SupportedInputSources as the attribute.

#10

I ran into some problems here, but figured out what it was.

If any harmony users find this thread, this is important:

The device folder will contain both the devices you added to your Harmony, and any Activities you set up. If like me, you’re prone to not giving a lot of considerations to the naming of these, it can get confusing. When you’re trying to add bindings and values, make sure you use the devices, and not the activities.

#12

Everything seems to be working, so thanks a lot, Greg. I was wondering if I could bother you with one last thing. I had to give up the volume slider, as Level isn’t available as a value for my device. So I made up and down volume buttons instead, but I have to click them a lot, since each click doesn’t change the volume a lot. Is there a way to make it so it keeps reducing/increasing when I press it? Tried Pressed as event for the trigger, tried making the button type Repeat, but none of these gave the desired effect? Do you know if there is a way to accomplish what I’m after?

#13

If you make the button type repeat, then it should continue to increase/reduce volume when you hold the button. Play with the RepeatInterval, it’s in milliseconds. I would start at 100 and increase it by 100 all the way up to 600-800. Something else you could do would be adding multiple volume up/down data actions. So each time you press the button, it would raise/lower the volume 2, 3, 4, 5 times.

#14

Man, thanks for helping out with this, much appreciated.
I did eventually work out the Repeat mode, but I had to have one event trigger (well, two, like you suggested) for the Click and another for the Press. So now I got the perfect remote that my wife also can handle (she hates the harmony even though I set it up as easy as I could imagine how to)

At some point I might make a “How to for dummies” on how to do this. Are you comfortable with getting a shout-out if I do?

#15

I really appreciate it but that’s not necessary. I got plenty of help when I started. If you feel the passion to make a how to for dummies, I think that would be so nice and needed and you’re the one who needs the credit. But remember the way you feel now… the only reason these things don’t come to fruition is because it’s human nature to convince yourself to not do it because the way you feel will fade away after the weekend.

#16

No, I still feel like it, but I got a problem I got to sort out first, but I’ll make a new post about that since it’s not specific to harmony