How-to; control devices on your Vera from the remote

reneboer · August 19, 2016, 9:14am

As this is a question on the mind of many I made a short summary of how you can have a device on your Vera respond to a command on the Harmony remote.

First you need to Harmony Hub and the plug-in of course. That will give the option to detect activity changes on the Harmony and trigger a scene.

Thus far I have seen three options people used to expand that activity based response to also control individual devices like lamps.

This is also what I use, a Keene IR module([url=http://www.keene.co.uk/keene-ir-anywhere-ir-over-ip-module-single.html]http://www.keene.co.uk/keene-ir-anywhere-ir-over-ip-module-single.html[/url]), Rex’s KiraRx plug in ([url=http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,14618.0.html]http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,14618.0.html[/url]) and a dummy device on your Harmony to trigger a scene that is not related to the current activity on the Harmony. A few posts back you find the links to Rex’s plug in and all details. I just installed the module and plug in and it works great. Eliminated my z-wave remote for the lights and can now do that with my Harmony remote.

There are similar modules like the Keene that can also work with Rex’s plugin. See those treads for details.

Use a Hue Emulator. This is also used to tie Amazone Echo with Vera, so lots of info to on that [url=http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,31920.0.html]http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,31920.0.html[/url]. You should then see Vera lights and other devices via the Hue options of the remote and control that way.
Use the Harmony Hub Extender. This Z-Wave controller should make the Vera devices appear on the remote when setup properly. It does not support as many Z-wave devices as Vera does though.
[url=http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,34206.0.html]http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,34206.0.html[/url]

Have fun being in control. However, it is more important to automate

Cheers Rene.

dudinka69 · September 16, 2016, 6:21am

Hi there,
thank you very much for this post,
i have a newbi question, how do i install the harmony plugin? do i install it on the harmony or on vera?

reneboer · September 19, 2016, 8:55am

Hi,

It is an app running on your Vera. Go to Apps > Install Apps and enter Harmony in the search app bar. Then follow the onscreen instructions, and the user guide in this forum group to complete the setup.

Cheers Rene

Hutchca · December 6, 2016, 6:04pm

Just as an update, I’m using option 2 but there’s a newer version of the software called HA Bridge.

github.com

bwssytems/ha-bridge/blob/master/README.md

# ha-bridge
Emulates Philips Hue API to other home automation gateways such as an Amazon Echo/Dot or other systems that support Philips Hue local network discovery. The ha-bridge is not part of meethue.philips.com so the cloud sign in does not apply to this system.  The Bridge handles basic commands such as "On", "Off", "Brightness" and "Color" commands of the hue protocol.  This bridge can control most devices that have a distinct API.

Here are some diagrams to put this software in perspective.

The Echo path looks like this:
```
                     +------------------------+    +------------------------+
+-------------+      | H A +------------------|    | A +------------------+ |
| Amazon Echo |----->| U P | ha-bridge core   |--->| P | Device to control| |
+-------------+      | E I +------------------|    | I +------------------+ |
                     +------------------------+    +------------------------+
```
THe Harmony Hub path looks like this:
```
                     +------------------------+    +------------------------+
+-------------+      | H A +------------------|    | A +------------------+ |
| Harmony Hub |----->| U P | ha-bridge core   |--->| P | Device to control| |
+-------------+      | E I +------------------|    | I +------------------+ |
                     +------------------------+    +------------------------+

This file has been truncated. show original

It lets you configure specific devices or scenes on Vera to show up on your network as Phillips Hue devices.
The harmony hub sees them automatically and they show up as controllable lights.
So you can turn lights on, off, dim or even run scenes from the harmony remote or as steps in an activity.

sirelboe · December 20, 2016, 12:14am

do I need the hub to use the keen?

is there a way just to call a URL with the keen?

that way you can directly call the URL to any scene/device within vera.

MarkAgain · December 20, 2016, 3:49am

Another “hub” option is cutting one end off the Kira cable and use a Xanteck 791-44 connecting block. Use the black and bare. I have several in use. Xantech has LOT of IR devices including a blaster that can fill a room.

shallowearth · December 20, 2016, 4:11am

@sirelboe you do not need a hub to use the Keene, any programmable IR remote can work with the Keene, you just need to be able to get a set of unique IR codes on your remote that won’t trigger your current Media devices ( most folks just program their remote with a device they dont actually own).

Then from the Keene plug in learn in the codes. You can trigger scenes based on codes received by the Keene directly using the plug in. No URL calls nessisary.

sirelboe · December 20, 2016, 3:05pm

thanks shallowearth…
so I would just a Keene to make this setup work:

vera edge UI7 (connected to router) (have it)
Harmony 650 IR remote (has learning+macros) (have it)
Keene RX device+vera plugin (don’t have)

with these 3 pieces of hardware I can use the harmony remote to turn on/off a light or lock/unlock a door or run any vera scene ? ? ? ?

Sammy2 · October 4, 2017, 10:24pm

I’m not sure but this looks like the right place for this…

Is anyone using the Harmony Hub Extender connected to their Harmony Hub to be able to control lights via the light buttons on the Harmony Elite Remote?

I know I can set up a scene in Vera triggered by the state of a device in the Harmony Control to turn the lights off or even use the Denon Plugin to trigger it too but I also want the ability to turn the light on or dim it with the Elite when Alexa is being a 2 y.o. brat and not responding to voice commands to do so through the Vera Skill.

There’s a multitude of ways to control all this but it seems that this one is possible but missing.

Does the Hub Extender get the job done?

TIA