I have been researching universal remotes and really like the Harmony lineup. But, I would really like to include light control as I already have z-wave dimmer control in the theater. Is there any solution for this?
I think I may have to get the harmony remote and then some kind of repeater box from my console that instructs the VeraLite. Is that correct?
I understand that I cannot have VeraLite AND a singular light controller at the same time as the dimmer switch is configured to one controller at a time. Is that correct?
I’m using Roomie Remote. It’s designed for iOS devices but it’s about the slickest universal remote I have ever used and I have had them all from the iPronto TSI6400 to the Harmony’s. With Roomie you can control most current AV devices over ethernet. You can also control RS232 as well as IR devices with their Roomie Adapters. I’m controlling my entire home theater, my bedroom AV, my lights via the App as it supports Vera and all it’s connected devices. It will also control Vera scenes. It has built in subscription based TV guide which is pretty cool as well because you can surf the guide, get show info and select your station without taking up real-estate on the TV. It also has the capability of learning IR codes if there isn’t already native device support. This assuming you have the IR Roomie adapter. I have it installed on my iPhone as well as my iPad.
So I would have to dedicate an ipad mini for control? I can do that as I have an extra.
Looks like I will need the “typical” pack which isn’t too bad. I don’t love the annual fee, but if it stays up to date the price is relatively low over time.
Do I need the IR blaster? I have a Roku3, Directv, Receiver, and TV. I am trying to replace 4 remotes. And add light control, obviously.
take a look at the Roomie compatibility page. It is broken down via IP, IR and RS232. Start with IP and see if your devices are listed. Directv is supported via IP so need need for IR for that device. Your stereo/AV receiver may be IP controllable. My older Pioneer Elite is for example. Most new TV’s can be controlled via IP. My Pioneer Kuro Elite Plasma is controlled via their RS232 adapter. Your Roku 3 is controllable via IP as well.
In my bedroom upstairs, I needed an IR Blaster for my older Pioneer Plasma and my AV Receiver but one blaster was able to handle both devices.
We don’t have a dedicated iPad. We just open up the app on our iPad or iPhone when we want to control something. It’s nice because you can create an activity such as watch TV and the receiver will turn on, the TV will turn on, the receiver will change inputs and the directv will turn on. Or watch Netflix and the receiver turns on, TV turns on, receiver changes input, bluray turns on and changes over to netflix. I’ve got activities setup for DirecTV, Bluray, Netflix, Amazon, Sirius XM, Pandora and Youtube which like amazon and netflix is handled via my Sony Bluray player. We have an activity called Good Night that shuts off the TV, shuts the light and locks the front door. It’s incredibly capable. It takes some time to create the activities but once you figure it out, it’s very straight forward. I’m not big on universal remotes but this is by far the best I have seen to date and given that its Vera friendly, nothing else compares.
I have been researching universal remotes and really like the Harmony lineup. But, I would really like to include light control as I already have z-wave dimmer control in the theater. Is there any solution for this?
I think I may have to get the harmony remote and then some kind of repeater box from my console that instructs the VeraLite. Is that correct?
I understand that I cannot have VeraLite AND a singular light controller at the same time as the dimmer switch is configured to one controller at a time. Is that correct?[/quote]
How tech savvy are you? I use an IR receiver connected to a PC to watch for certain IR commands and then make the appropriate call to Vera. You could setup something similar with a raspberry pi or arduino, i would imagine.
I use iRule and its Vera interface . So I can create a remote that has both AV and Lights. Now let me say the Vera interface is buggy, at least on Andriod. But iRule is overall very easy to work with and I like it a lot…
If money isn’t an object, there is a really slick case by Launch Port that includes buttons that can be controlled via Roomie. It’s a pretty neat case as it allows for wire free charging via it’s magnetic transfer charging. Not cheap though when coupled with the charging station.
Here are a couple screen shots of my Roomie remote.
In the first shot, you can see the activities on the left. Push one of those buttons and it will trigger a sequence to turn my devices on, switch inputs, bring up the remote associated with that device etc. You can see my custom Vera remote in this shot.
It won’t let me add more screen shots because it says my files are over 512k and it seems I can’t embed photos in to my post from photobucket so here are some links.
Next up is my DTV remote interface. I use the standard DirecTV virtual remote. You can also create your own remote designs. You can also see the TV guide on the right. You can swipe the guide to the left and it will make it full screen. Touch a program and it gives you the info on it. Hit the channel number on the left side of the guide and it will switch the TV channel.
This is the full screen DirecTv guide. You get this screen when you swipe the guide next to the remote.
This is my Home Screen. I can select Living Room or Bedroom and get the remote interface associated with that room. It will then only control that room. You can see the Vera remote in this shot. You can also see the icon for my Ecobee thermostat in the home screen. At this point that is not fully functional but I am hoping that when the new Ecobee Vera plugin is updated, I may gain control via Roomie. The Nest Theremostat is completely supported by Roomie. I also believe any Z-Wave thermostat that is controlled by Vera will function perfectly with Roomie.
You can upload images to Dropbox and add them to your Roomie interface. You can also backup your configuration to Dropbox or Roomie and restore your configuration to other devices. If you have other people in the house with iOS devices like I do, I just temporarily changed their itunes login to my account and downloaded the app under my already pair for download. Then switched them back to their own itunes login.
If you try it out and have questions, feel free to PM me and I will help you out.
I use a URC remotes (you can get the MX-450 and program your self on the the device… which is kind of a pain the but, or use the MX-780 or higher line but you have to find a dealer that will give you the Complete Control software so you can program them), I prefer them over the harmony’s as I found them to be much more snappy and responsive than the harmony particularly when you add the RF repeater.
For bridging between any IR based remote and Vera, I recommend the IR Anywhere device from Keen, as No-PC needed to translate from IR to a Vera Command. The KIRA will talk directly to Vera over you home network (see the KiraRT plug in for full info). Much cheaper than dedicating a PC or tablet to talk to Vera in the the room.
So my current rig is a URC MX-780 that talked over RF to the MRF-350 and the KIRA. The remote talks via RF (so no need for direct line of site) to the IR repeater that has direct cabling or a mini emitter to the various components (audio, tv, xbox, cable box, etc), one of those components is the KIRA which in turn triggers the Vera to run scenes to manage my lights in the room etc. I also own a MX-450 and MRF-260 which could work the same way.
Because guests and parents tend to struggle with non-tradition or more complex remotes and stuff and not realize you can do the lights from the remote. I also added a Cooper RF9500 battery powered switch to a wall near the couch in the media room and associated it to the lights in the room, (because the main z-wave dimmer switch for the room is just outside the room… yes… lame!) and that lets people adjust the lighting with a switch that is very obvious what it does, as it looks and acts like a normal wired list switch.
I tried using Roomie Remote for about a year and finally gave up. It’s a very cool family of processes and equipment that I found not very user friendly. I found it a little buggy, but I had the most problems with the IR blaster (too weak). I tried using the IR “bugs” glued to the ports on my devices, but that didn’t work too well either. Oh, and the rest of the family couldn’t figure out how to make most of it work, so there were too many hours spent as tech support. Unless you are very patient, tech savvy and really like messing around with this stuff, you should be cautious, not so much because of the above, but the cost with subscriptions, additional hardware etc. can be very high.
I’m headed back to the Harmony stuff. At least the family can use it.
[quote=“jpope42, post:12, topic:187378”]I tried using Roomie Remote for about a year and finally gave up. It’s a very cool family of processes and equipment that I found not very user friendly. I found it a little buggy, but I had the most problems with the IR blaster (too weak). I tried using the IR “bugs” glued to the ports on my devices, but that didn’t work too well either. Oh, and the rest of the family couldn’t figure out how to make most of it work, so there were too many hours spent as tech support. Unless you are very patient, tech savvy and really like messing around with this stuff, you should be cautious, not so much because of the above, but the cost with subscriptions, additional hardware etc. can be very high.
I’m headed back to the Harmony stuff. At least the family can use it.[/quote]
It may have changed some since you last tried it. I had no issues with IR and even got my old & new equipment working relatively quickly and without the help of support. This included my 8 year old Pioneer Elite Kuro Plasma that had to be controlled via RS232 as well as my 10 year old Pioneer industrial plasma up stairs that needed to be controlled via IR along with my IR controlled Denon receiver in the same room. I have not encountered any bugs either but I just recently set this up so I am sure the product is much more mature at this point. I am however tech savy but I also did my share of reading and figured most of it out on my own. Once you get a feel for it, it becomes self explanatory setting up. Once I set up the activities, anybody in my family was able to use the Roomie without any real explanation. Hit Bluray to watch Bluray, Netflix to watch Netflix, DirecTv, Youtube, Amazon, Pandora, Sirius , Vera, Goodnight etc. It does take a bit of patiene setting up if you have a complex system like mine but when you couple the cost of the one time Roomie license and an IR device, it’s still cheaper than a good universal remote. The annual service fee for the guide is pretty fair and provides for something that you don’t get with a universal remote. A guide that doesn’t occupy your TV screen which is nice if you want to check out a guide while watching TV.
From the home screen, select the room you want to control. Roomie also supports Bluetooth beacons so it can (optionally) sense what room you are in as well.
Then select your “activity” by selecting what you want to watch or listen to or control such as Vera. I also created activities to shut off certain light that we use frequently and one called Good Night that shuts all the AV stuff down, shuts the lights & locks the doors with the push of one button. It all works flawlessly. Below activities I have a list of remotes that you can toggle through if you are already watching something but don’t have the right remote on the screen. That can happen if you turn the TV on with a regular remote so having the available remotes listed below the activities can come in handy as you can bring up a remote without que’ing serquence of events. Activies for those that are wondering are just like macro’s used with a typical universal remote on they are much more intuitive to program using the Roomie interface.
Damn, I can’t seem to post another screen shot as I am getting a file size limit error. If you look at the first photo I posted last week, you can see all my Activities on the left side for my Living Room home theater. Below my Activities are the available remotes that are associated with any of the activities in that room. When you select an Activity, Roomie automatically brings up the remote associated with that activity.
Here is a screen shot of the DirecTV interface. I used the default remote style but you can also design your own remote. You can also make the guide go full screen by swiping left. Then select a program to get the details on or a channel to switch to by clicking the channel number on the left side of the guide. You can see all the activities on the left side. I think that is intuitive enough for even the most simple minded folks. Bluray, Netflix, DirecTV etc. Push one and the system automatically switches. It doesn’t get any more simple than that.
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