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I have the echo hooked up to a Harmony Hub[0], it's a universal remote that controls devices via IR or wifi that the echo can trigger via IFTTT. The Harmony Hub

by dcosson 10y ago

I have the echo hooked up to a Harmony Hub[0], it's a universal remote that controls devices via IR or wifi that the echo can trigger via IFTTT. The Harmony Hub UX is annoyingly overdesigned IMO which makes it more complicated than it should be, but it still works pretty well. I can use it to turn up/down the volume of the tv, hit pause on the Apple TV when I get up to do something, turn on/off the fan if I get hot/cold, etc. The TV use is pretty neat since it takes so many clicks to navigate those menus. I'm hoping the echo will integrate natively with Apple TV or Fire TV, it would be sweet to be able to say "Alexa, play the latest Game of Thrones" and have it just start. [0] http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/harmony-hub http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/harmony-hub

bilalq 10y ago
How are you able to do fine-grained actions like volume control and pause through Alexa? The IFTTT channel for Harmony seems to only have start/stop activity options. Do you have a skill hitting a server running in the background that makes API calls to your hub maybe?
- dcosson 10y ago
  No separate pieces. You can kind of hack it so that single actions are set up as an activity, i.e. one activity is turn it on, a separate activity is turn it on then hit volume up 5 times, separate one for volume down, separate one for play/pause, etc. In harmony's settings for the tv you have to set it not to manage the off state so it won't turn off the tv when you switch to volume up. It could be so much simpler, they really overcomplicated it
helper 10y ago
I've also got mine hooked up to my harmony hub. I've got a program on my network pretending to be a bunch of smart lightbulbs. So I can say "Alexa, turn {on,off} TV". I think I could do volume control by simulating a bulb that supports brightness but I haven't tried that yet.
- dcosson 10y ago
  Nice, is there a github link to the program?

by dcosson 10y ago

bilalq 10y ago

How are you able to do fine-grained actions like volume control and pause through Alexa? The IFTTT channel for Harmony seems to only have start/stop activity options. Do you have a skill hitting a server running in the background that makes API calls to your hub maybe?

dcosson 10y ago
No separate pieces. You can kind of hack it so that single actions are set up as an activity, i.e. one activity is turn it on, a separate activity is turn it on then hit volume up 5 times, separate one for volume down, separate one for play/pause, etc. In harmony's settings for the tv you have to set it not to manage the off state so it won't turn off the tv when you switch to volume up. It could be so much simpler, they really overcomplicated it

helper 10y ago

I've also got mine hooked up to my harmony hub. I've got a program on my network pretending to be a bunch of smart lightbulbs. So I can say "Alexa, turn {on,off} TV". I think I could do volume control by simulating a bulb that supports brightness but I haven't tried that yet.

dcosson 10y ago
Nice, is there a github link to the program?