Control devices rather than activities

Posted on
Mon Jul 10, 2017 9:18 am
siclark offline
Posts: 1960
Joined: Jun 13, 2017
Location: UK

Control devices rather than activities

Hi
I have moved from Vera to Inidigo and am loving the experience now. (Almost) everything just works and I spend my time setting up my automation rather than battling the system.

I have a single harmony hub currently that controls 4 HDMI inputs that are then sent over HDMI extenders to 3 TVs with 2 way IR so it can control the TVs locally as well (plus passback IR from the rooms if required)

I would like to be able to manually turn on and off TVs via Indigo without impacting the activity running. ie if someone is watching "Lounge Tivo" I would like to be able to turn on the kitchen TV and switch the matrix to the same input but so that its transparent to the person in the lounge. ie I could activate "Kitchen Tivo" activity but then the remote which is in the lounge would stop controlling the volume in the lounge.

Is this possible (I think I had this functionality on the vera plugin but it worked so infrequently I cant remember) The goal being I can then ask Alexa to turn on the kitchen TV as I leave the lounge and continue watching the TV in the kitchen, which would then get turned off automatically when motion is no longer sensed.

I guess I could do this with another hub or Global iTach setup but both expensive, and this setup works well for now using the devices on the Logitech remote or iOS app

thanks

Posted on
Mon Jul 10, 2017 9:21 am
FlyingDiver offline
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Posts: 7189
Joined: Jun 07, 2014
Location: Southwest Florida, USA

Re: Control devices rather than activities

Hmm. Not sure. You can specify commands for specific devices in the plugin actions. But I don't know what the Hub will do if you try to send a command to a device that's not part of the current activity. If it doesn't work, it's a Hub issue, not a plugin issue.

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Mon Jul 10, 2017 10:02 am
siclark offline
Posts: 1960
Joined: Jun 13, 2017
Location: UK

Re: Control devices rather than activities

Ok. Thanks will give that a go. Hadn't spotted I could send device commands. It should work though as per suite or used to and the remote can send commands to devices not in the activity.
Was expecting to create a device to control but now see I need action groups. Still figuring out indigo a bit.

Thanks

Posted on
Mon Jul 10, 2017 10:12 am
FlyingDiver offline
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Posts: 7189
Joined: Jun 07, 2014
Location: Southwest Florida, USA

Re: Control devices rather than activities

You need a hub device, then you use that to send commands. I don't try to do Indigo devices for all the hub controlled devices. Does the Vera do it that way?

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Mon Jul 10, 2017 7:20 pm
durosity offline
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Posts: 4320
Joined: May 10, 2012
Location: Newcastle Upon Tyne, Ye Ol' England.

Re: Control devices rather than activities

I can confirm you can definitely send commands to devices that aren’t part of the current (or indeed any) activities.. i use this a lot for things such as turning on my upstairs roomba when the alarm system is set to away and controlling a legacy blind which has an IR control function (soon to be replaced with a z-wave module.. finally!! :)

Computer says no.

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