"Alexa" can turn on your TV with the Harmony Hub and IFTTT

[949BFN]

Yes, no problem. I created an IFTTT trigger command for alexa, and it results in a pushbullet link being sent from IFTTT and is picked up by the pushbullet app on my android tablet. You can set this resulting link notification as a tasker trigger, which sets of a task which uses harmony tasker plugin to do a Harmony command (a specific non activity button press, ie a tv channel up button or a sky menu etc).

The pushbullet link can be anything you choose, the pushbullet plugin simply looks for a recognised text string in a notification. I set the pushbullet command to delete the notification after receiving it, so you don't have to swipe anything away after the notification has done it's job.

I find pushbullet IFTTT links very fast, so much faster than other channels, I have pretty much given up on commands which control things like hue bulbs etc also. It's quicker to just pushbullet it to my tablet & have a tasker task plugin control whatever smart device. You get a lot more fine control that way too.

I hope that is is some way clear.. As mud!

If you get stuck on any particular part please do ask.

Thanks very much. (Sorry, only noticed your reply now. Did not receive an email to warn me of activity in this thread)

I will definitely try this. I'm using my old Note 4 as a "server" on my night stand. All it is used for, is to display the time (used a screen saver) and to run Tasker tasks. If I remember correctly, the Harmony Tasker Plugin allows specific commands per device, which could probably be used for stuff like changing volume and channels.

[Maff]

Yes, that's right. You can control individual equipment button presses with the tasker plugin. With this, and the hue and wemo equivalent plugins, I have created a great cinema movie command,  which turns off the lights, then slowly raises blue sidelights, switches on a bunch of infrared controlled candles (controlled by harmony), & turns on all of my av equipment to the right settings for my chromecast ready for a movie. Just like a cinema! It also gently raises the lights back on when you say "alexa, trigger end credits" :-)

[dirtdiver069]

I am really interested in this ability but after reading I'm not sure if its worth the time or money. I really intended getting the harmony hub (if this is the easiest & functional) to use echo to turn on the tv but always like checking out other abilities available. Can someone let me know if they think its reliable enough, I know one post said echo verified the voice command but did nothing and i've had that happen to both my Lifx bulbs & tp link plugs but far and few between. Also is just the hub required, I'm guessing that would be the cheapest route & I really dont need any of the other accessories you can get packaged with the hub. Thanks for the ideas & any help ahead of time.

P.S. on an unrelated subject since this is an echo forum I had bought my echo through the amazon payment plan of $36 a month & two days before my 2nd payment amazon just charged my card for the remaining balance. After inquiring to them, they dont know how or why it has happened. I should have just bought it outright to begin with but it was easier dealing with my wife paying for it this way. Has anyone run into this issue or heard of it happening, I'm now not sure about how secure my payment info is from them if they can just charge things as they please regardless of arrangements. They told me their looking into it but 4 days later have yet to hear anything. Thanks again for the helpful posts

[mtagt56]

I'm going through Smartthings hub -- sorry, should have specified (all my stuff is through Smartthings and sometimes I forget which forum I'm on, as most of the time I'm on the ST forum talking about Echo, rather than vice versa).

But it's just SO much easier than trying to write IFTTT stuff -- I just connect to the Harmony hubs and whatever routines I've programmed there show up in ST and I can create simple one word commands to have Lexa do them (like "Lexa turn on Movie" which then turns on my theater stereo system, my media player, my projector and sets all to the appropriate channels for our movie night.  Not to mention dimming the lights and making sure the doors are all locked).

I have three Harmony hubs to control three different receiver/TV setups so I never have to touch a remote to get things set up (I actually don't have to touch a remote after that, but I usually use my TiVo to fast forward through commercials.  Hmmm, perhaps I'll program a voice command for that as well :>).

No t related but do you have any issues with smartthings sockets outlets? I.e not working through echo


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk