[PUBLISHED] Harmony Hub App (v1.0.4)

Peao

brinkie said:

Phuturist said:

Not sure if this contributes but I experience the Harmony Hub app not executing the action quite a lot on v1.0.4. So it does not crash but also does not do what it is supposed to do. I had a look at the action card and this error was shows when clicking on the activity drop down (removed my id).

Client for Hub with Id '<<id>>' not available (yet). Please try again in 10 seconds or so...

This is the hub closing the connection to Homey (to the Harmony Hub app that is). This used to result in a lost connection that would never be restored. Since version 1.0.4 the app automatically reconnects in 10 seconds. In the meanwhile there's obviously no connection, so during that period the app can't do anything.

While debugging the connection handling by the hub, I noticed it closes the connection after about 70 seconds of inactivity. This means there is no way of keeping a connection open, at least not without doing some polling or something.

To be able to retrieve some more useful debug data from the community, I'm going to add a settings page for the app. This will allow you to configure the reconnect delay and to enable the app to output logging by voice (by the lack of another good method to output error to the end user). Hopefully this will give us insight in a good value for the reconnect delay (currently set to 10 seconds) and into the errors that currently are mostly invisible to the end user.

I got a very similar error message since a few weeks. My Hub is connected and the App is not crashed. But when I am in the Flow Editor and open the dropdown menu, there is this error: Client for Hub with id isn't aviable yet.

And all Harmony Hub flows don't work anymore.

When I remove the Hub and readd it again, it works. But the next morning its broken again.

Phuturist

I went back to version 0.3.4. Although I liked the new functionality which comes with app version 1.x this version has never been stable for me an I dont want to use a work around. The older version just works!

pascal

I have setup a "heartbeat" and will check if this is a good work around.

ispaapen

It would be nice if someone can take over this project or create a new app for the Harmony. The developer of this app isn't very active lately and i wonder if this app is abandoned or not.

Eternity

Yes, I too hope someone will take over this project.  Perhaps Athom, as Harmony support is vital. 

ispaapen

I doubt Athom will create an app for Harmony because Homey already supports IR itself. But who knows

Peao

Phuturist said:

I went back to version 0.3.4. Although I liked the new functionality which comes with app version 1.x this version has never been stable for me an I dont want to use a work around. The older version just works!

Yep, thanks for this advice. My robot vacuum is currently cleaning my place again , this means 0.3.4. is the only viable solution atm.

Eternity

Hm.... bummer.

We still use the Harmony remote. So, if someone wants to watch a movie, the remote is used to start the activity "Film kijken" (= watch a movie). This triggers the Harmony supported Samsung TV and the Onkyo receiver, but can't switch on my Raspberry Pi running Kodi and the subwoofer. Those are connected to Homey and use the z-wave protocol to power on.

The latest Harmony App had the option to use trigger cards; so if an activity was started, other stuff could be triggered too.  That made my setup work.

Anyway; for the last month I can't even install the Harmony App. It returns a error (something went wrong) and the led ring urns blue. I even reset Homey, keeping my settings. Still can't install the Harmony App.

Perhaps after the v1.2 f/w it will install again..

Meanwhile I have a work around with IFTTT.... works but is a bit slow.

Julian

I also got the feeling the app is abandoned, because the creater has not visited this forum since February 14th and usually is very active. So @brinkie; please let us know you are still out there and if you are still able to work on the app. 

If not than indeed I hope someone else can take over! 

Also, I am on the latest version and since I created the workaround (sending a trigger every hour to a device in Harmony which I do not have) it works without problem. Before it would come to a stop without an indication that it was stopped. 

PS @Eternity; doesn't the Onkyo receiver can also be linked to Homey so that when it is powered on or changes to the right input it switches the other plugs? But that also depends on the configuration and where you are coming from (eg going from Apple TV to movie could mean no change in outputes etc).

Eternity

@Julian

My Onkyo is pretty old....it doesn't have any wireless capabilities. It is controlled via IR by the Harmony Hub. And, if the IR of Homey would work, I still would have a problem to power on my subwoofer..

Also, I have a second RPi running Volumio; that needs to be triggered too, if I want to listen to music.

With the trigger cards it worked like a charm. I am positive it will work again in the future...

Jschuetz

Eternity said:

@Julian

My Onkyo is pretty old....it doesn't have any wireless capabilities. It is controlled via IR by the Harmony Hub. And, if the IR of Homey would work, I still would have a problem to power on my subwoofer..

Also, I have a second RPi running Volumio; that needs to be triggered too, if I want to listen to music.

With the trigger cards it worked like a charm. I am positive it will work again in the future...

Same here my receiver is plugged in a z-wave power plug cause it needs to many power in the standby mode. And the receiver is hidden in a low board. Sometimes it is working and sometimes not. 

pascal

I have setup the heartbeat workaround yesterday and so far it works great. Created a flow that sends a volume down signal every 60 minutes. Because my sound is not processed by TV this workaround does the trick for me.

Better would be that a reliable solution would be implemented in the next version but I can live with this.

Julian

pascal said:

 Because my sound is not processed by TV this workaround does the trick for me.

Doesn't it then give a notification on screen when you are watching TV? I had something similar (sending the command teletext to my mediaplayer) but every hour when watching a movie I get a notification 'teletext not available' on screen. This annoyed me (ok, low threshold on my end) so I added a virtual device for this. 

pascal

lol. every hour i see the volume icon. I guess I could add a virtual device for this.

Jaxc

With the new 1.2.0 software this app seems to become unreponcive after a while. Will this be updated? Thnx...

Eternity

I had hoped that after the update to Homey f/w v1.2.0 I could install the Harmony App again. Still, it won't install, just gives a blue ring and an error.

spoelly

Is @brinkie still developing on the Harmony App? 

ispaapen

ispaapen said:

It would be nice if someone can take over this project or create a new app for the Harmony. The developer of this app isn't very active lately and i wonder if this app is abandoned or not.

spoelly said:

Is @brinkie still developing on the Harmony App? 

Most likely not

spoelly

aha.. hmm 

olive

@Annemarie, @Emile

Athom please finish the app, so many user cant used this app and for new homey users is not fair!

Julian

I understood from someone @ Slack that the developer is busy @ his personal life but did not abandon it. But still a pity we do not hear anything from himself or from Athom about the possibility taking over development. Because it is a vey handy app considering the two are supplementary to each other. 

OpenMind_NL

To everybody complaining about the Harmony Hub App;

1. Besides that I have to make Homey send a dummy-RC-command to keep Harmony awake, the app is running fine.
2. Anybody who thinks that the app can do better... You're free to do your own additional programming at Github, and @brinkie can include that into the app.
3. Without @brinkie there wouldn't be any Harmony app at all, so be thankfull for what you get.... for free.

olive

OpenMind_NL said:

To everybody complaining about the Harmony Hub App;

1. Besides that I have to make Homey send a dummy-RC-command to keep Harmony awake, the app is running fine.
2. Anybody who thinks that the app can do better... You're free to do your own additional programming at Github, and @brinkie can include that into the app.
3. Without @brinkie there wouldn't be any Harmony app at all, so be thankfull for what you get.... for free.

I'm very thankfull for @brinkie to spend his free time for us, i would like to help but I'm a amateur and i think when athom helps brinkie to finished the app is this a very powerfull app.

MrDutchfighter

I think the trouble is in the core. There are two nodejs libraries used that someone (not @brinkie I guess) wrote back in 2013. There are some changes made since that version, but not that much. And it doesn't sound that logical that the hubs API is still the same since back then... If only I had the time to take a look at it

MrDutchfighter

So I've been digging in the code and maybe got some good news... I'm still in the very early fase of testing, but did some rewriting of the code and got the basic action cards to work (start activity, send action, all off)... have to thoroughly test the connectivity though.

The ' good ' news: you don't have to repair your hubs if your already on the latest version
The ' bad ' news: I haven't got the time to test the connectivity overnight, test the pairing of (new) hubs and implement the trigger cards... ow and you have to redo the flows if your using the send action card...

So for now, hang on for a bit longer, I don't have time to develop the app any further this weekend, but the good news is that I can test if the connectivity keeps working for two days in a row

spoelly

Thumbs up @MrDutchfighter

phb

Go for it  @MrDutchfighter. Already  happy that someone  is working on that app! 

maartenverbunt

@MrDutchfighter That sounds great. The Harmony Hub and Homey should be an awsome  combination. Good luck doing the rewrite! Can't wait to try it when It's done.

rtna

@MrDutchfighter Thumbs up!

Eternity

Yippie !!!