Interfacing Harmony Hub with Xantech

[jrfuda]

Anyone here connecting their Harmony Hub to Xantech IR distribution hardware? Can it connect directly? I used to interface my Ocelot with my Xantech hardware using the OLD Smarthome IR-Linc (not to be confused with their current IRLinc which is Insteon/IR interface). Do I need one of those or will a mono headphone cord work?

I don't own a Harmony Hub yet, but am interested in getting one if I can use my existing IR distro system.

Thanks!

[mterry63]

I'm doing exactly what you describe.

Harmony hub with mono plug out to the 4 pin block on a Xantech hub. Just cut off the second end and stripped the wires. That same hub was connected to a Ocelot with a home-made 5-12V converter about 6 months ago. The Harmony hub is Currently operating a Samsung TV, Hopper, Blu-ray player, Receiver, and Fire-TV (not IR to this one). All the others have stick on emitters from the connecting block.

It's been rock solid since install. Got the info from this link:

http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin...hread.cgi?7993

Good luck if you get a hub, I wound up buying a second unit for the master bedroom. Very nice unit, works great with Alexa. Wife only operates the TV by voice now.

Using this plugin as well. No complaints, but I'm not doing anything fancy with it, mostly on and off control of everything when waking the house or going to bed.

[jrfuda]

Thanks, this is exactly what I wanted to hear. A new Echo in the house was the driving force behind the decision as well. I haven't had any IR automation since HS3 made the Ocelot stop working and hadn't had time to try the new plugin and reconnect the Ocelot. Just ordered a couple of hubs, some new generic emitters (Xantech branded emitters have gotten expensive since i last bought them 10 years ago), as well as the mono cables and distro block (distro for a second room) listed on remote central.

I forgot about remote central. I used to use that site all the time when I first started out with the Ocelot and my URC remotes.

[mterry63]

FWIW, I got my Ocelot back online in HS3 with Bruce Bowser's excellent 3rd party plugin and it works like a champ for X10 and other Adicon modules.

[jrfuda]

Use of Harmony Hub so far

Everything's working great so far. The plugin is very nice and I'm getting ready to pull the but trigger as the trial is going well.

As far as the hardware goes, the hub is nice, but setup is a bit annoying at times. I don't have a great internet connection (barely 3Mbps) so there's a lot of waiting when I'm configuring the hub with either the desktop or mobile app. The 8 device limit drives me nuts too as I'm certain its is just so Logitech can make you buy an expensive upgrade if you want more than 8 devices as there's no way it's a storage issue. I have dozens of devices and several hundred commands learned to my Ocelot and it has what, 16k of memory? I think it has a 1024 code limit.

I'm using workarounds to get my extra devices in, like a little HDMI switch with three discrete commands that i just added as "missing buttons" to my TV device, however, it was VERY difficult to learn the commands. I think, because of my less than stellar internet and the fact that someone was using most of the bandwidth watching netflix, my IR learning kept timing out using the mobile app. I finally connected the hub via USB to my laptop and learned the commands using the desktop app, but even then it took several tries before it successfully learned the commands.

All that said, communication from the plugin to the hub is nearly instantaneous as I assume it's using the IP I entered in setup instead of connecting through the web.