XBMC OpenElec / Logitech Harmony / Micasaverde Vera integration – PART2

In part one here I demonstrated my method of using a Logitech Harmony universal remote control to send keyboard shortcut commands to my XBMC PC. The XBMC PC then runs a python script to send a http request to Vera the Home automation controller, to do something like turn on / off lights or to control a device in my home.

In Part 2 I am adding some feedback in to the XBMC user interface. For example if the light or device you want to control is not in the same room as you, you don’t really see any feedback that the script file has been run? and that the light or device has been controlled?

To try and eliminate this lack of feedback somewhat, I will be demonstrating adding XBMC pop-up notifications upon each run of the python scripts.

I’d like to thank @Montellese on the XBMC forum, for his assistance with the Unicode stuff and for pointing me in the right direction for getting this working.

To give you an idea what I am talking about, here are some screen shots of the pop-up notifications in XBMC.

“Harrison Home” is the title and “Turning Lounge Lights On” is the message







OK so now you get the idea if you’d like to add this functionality we need to edit our python script files that were created in part 1.

But first ensure you have the web server turned on in XBMC or you wont be able to send the notifications to your XBMC PC.

Go into XBMC Settings – Network – Webserver and ensure it is enabled and also make a note of the port number, I changed mine to 8080. The username is XBMC and I have not set any password.



You also need to know the IP address of your XBMC PC? I recommend you set a static IP address on your XBMC PC.

I also recommend using Notepad++ text editor as these http commands for the XBMC notifications needs to be in Unicode so we can run them using curl in the python script file.

Open your first python script file to be edited

Below is my Lounge-On.py file, you can see on line 3: I have the http command which is sent to Vera to turn on the lights this was created in part 1.

   1: #!/usr/bin/env python

   2: import subprocess

   3: proc = subprocess.Popen(["curl", http://192.168.1.100:3480/data_request?id=lu_action&serviceId=urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:HomeAutomationGateway1&action=RunScene&SceneNum=1])

We need to add a new line of code (line 4) into our python script file, to also now send a popup notification to the XBMC PC as well.

So we need to construct the line of code to send the popup to the XBMC PC and this is done in two parts.

The first part of this line is always the same and can be seen below. We’ll say the IP address of my XBMC PC is 192.168.1.10 and the webserver is on port 8080

Line #4 – First Part

proc = subprocess.Popen(["curl", "http://192.168.1.10:8080/jsonrpc?request="])

The second part of the line is the bit that needs to be encoded into Unicode and we will use a website to assist us with this: http://www.url-encode-decode.com/



Above is a screen shot of the website, on the box on the left enter this code:

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"GUI.ShowNotification","params":{"title":"Your Title Here","message":"Your Message Here"},"id":1}

Change the Title and Message to suit your needs, select UTF-8 from the drop down list and then click the URL Encode button.

Then on the box on the right we get the encoded string that we need.

Line #4 – Second Part

%7B%22jsonrpc%22%3A%222.0%22%2C%22method%22%3A%22GUI.ShowNotification%22%2C%22params%22%3A%7B%22title%22%3A%22Harrison+Home%22%2C%22message%22%3A%22Turning+Lounge+Lights+On%22%7D%2C%22id%22%3A1%7D

Now we need to combine the first and second parts of the Line #4 in our python script file.

proc = subprocess.Popen(["curl", "http://192.168.1.10:8080/jsonrpc?request=ENTER-ENCODED-STRING-HERE"])

The fully combined line of code will then look like this:

proc = subprocess.Popen(["curl", "http://192.168.1.10:8080/jsonrpc?request=%7B%22jsonrpc%22%3A%222.0%22%2C%22method%22%3A%22GUI.ShowNotification%22%2C%22params%22%3A%7B%22title%22%3A%22Harrison+Home%22%2C%22message%22%3A%22Turning+Lounge+Lights+On%22%7D%2C%22id%22%3A1%7D"])

So now the fully completed Lounge-On.py script file looks like this:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import subprocess

proc = subprocess.Popen(["curl", "http://192.168.1.100:3480/data_request?id=lu_action&serviceId=urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:HomeAutomationGateway1&action=RunScene&SceneNum=1"])

proc = subprocess.Popen(["curl", "http://192.168.1.10:8080/jsonrpc?request=%7B%22jsonrpc%22%3A%222.0%22%2C%22method%22%3A%22GUI.ShowNotification%22%2C%22params%22%3A%7B%22title%22%3A%22Harrison+Home%22%2C%22message%22%3A%22Turning+Lounge+Lights+On%22%7D%2C%22id%22%3A1%7D"])

Click the links to download my sample Lounge-On.py and Lounge-Off.py scripts to have a look at them.

All of this might sound a bit complicated but its actually pretty simple to create these new lines of code to also send a pop-up notification to your XBMC PC, once you have done it a few times.

Now you need to repeat this entire process and add a new line of code into each of your existing python script files you created in part one changing the pop-up notification message for each.

Now when I click these buttons on my Harmony remote control handset to turn on /off my lights or fireplace etc I also get a feedback notification pop-up being displayed in XBMC, so I know the python script has been run and can therefore safely assume that the light or device I wanted to send the command too via Vera has received it.



Summary

A neat little way of adding some feedback notifications to my Logitech Harmony / XBMC / Vera Home Automation integration project.

UPDATE:

I migrated from XBMC Gotham to Kodi Helix, there seems to be some differences with the notifications in Kodi.

For example now when Sickbeard auto sends a notification to Kodi I see the Sickbeard logo image next to the notification message, this never happened in XBMC.

Then if after this I run one of my Vera commands the Sickbeard logo is still being displayed next to my Vera notifications, I have no idea why its doing this?

A fix / workaround: So I thought maybe I should update my code a bit to include and display my own icon image.

The directory on my OpenElec HTPC where all these python scripts are located is:

/storage/.kodi/userdata/vera

So I just put an icon of a house image file in this directory. To have this house.png image displayed in the popup notification this JSON code seems to work:

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"GUI.ShowNotification","params":{"title":"Your Title Here","message":"Your Message Here","image":"/storage/.kodi/userdata/vera/House.png"},"id":1}

I then had to encode it as per the instructions above before editing the python scripts to update them all with this change.

I am using a new Kodi skin called 1080XF but this is how the notifications now look with the new house image next to them.

XBMC OpenElec / Logitech Harmony / Micasaverde Vera integration - UPDATED!

       
  
  

When I was using Windows Media Center, I was able to program my Logitech Harmony universal remote controls to control my Z-wave lights and devices in Micasaverde Vera, I wrote about that back here. And also here for mControl.

Basically the idea is this – Program your Logitech Harmony to send keyboard shortcuts to your HTPC via IR or with the RF extender. Your HTPC in response then runs a script to send a http request to your home automation system to do something, like turn on some lights or control a device in your home. I still think its a brilliant idea and whilst using your HTPC you can turn your bog standard IR universal remote control  handset in to a Z-wave / Home Automation remote control handset !

Since I moved to OpenElec XBMC I have lost this feature until now! There are no other how-to or guides on the Internet that talk about this topic directly? Not that I have seen anyway's and as my Linux programming skills are not great, I have had to battle through and cobble it all together myself. If you are more proficient in Linux then you may well spot some ways of improving what I have done, so please feel free to leave your comments.

I have this working currently on only one of my HTPC’s this is an Intel based mini ITX board using the CIR header and an Inteset CIR receiver board. I am using OpenElec 4.0.3 Gotham.

The break through came when I discovered this thread here, which talks about enabling the mce_kbd IR protocol in Linux (MCE Keyboard). As without this the QWERTY keyboard shortcuts just don’t work and are not seen.

Here is an over view of the steps required and what I will be covering in this blog post.

1. Enable the mce_kbd IR protocol in Linux

2. Figure out what http commands you need to send to your Home Automation controller (Vera)

3. Create the script files XBMC will run to send the http request to the Home Automation controller

4. Create / Tweak the XBMC keyboard.xml keymap file to add support for your new keyboard shortcuts in XBMC

5. Program your Logitech Harmony remote with the new keyboard shortcuts (MCE IR Keyboard required)

6. Test, hope it works and if it does, sit back and think WOW nice one CW-KID!

OK before we start just a word about the Logitech Harmony software there are several devices / profiles in the database relating to MCE:

Windows Media Center SE
Windows Media Center (EU)
Media Center Extender
MCE Keyboard

Are just the ones I know about. I am using the “Windows Media Center SE” device.  When using the MCE Keyboard profile I had big problems with the command being sent multiple times over and over so I don’t recommend you use that profile.

Also there may be ways to do this without actually owning a MCE IR keyboard and using the pre-defined keyboard shortcuts in the Harmony MCE profiles. However I think if you have Logitech Harmony’s then you should have one of these MCE IR Keyboards. So you can teach your Harmony any keyboard shortcut combination you wish, so I recommend you just buy one if you haven’t got one.  This will also give you much greater scope for creating many new keyboard shortcuts such as Ctrl+Alt+A  to Ctrl+Alt+Z and many more etc


1. Enable the mce_kbd IR protocol in Linux

Until you do this your just pissing in the wind trying to send IR keyboard shortcuts, believe me I know. Use Putty to SSH in to your OpenElec PC, if you don’t know how to do this use Google.
enter this command:

echo +mce_kbd > /sys/class/rc/rc0/protocols

then type ir-keytable –v

If you are in luck you should see a line that says:
/sys/class/rc/rc0/protocols protocol mce_kbd (enabled)



This worked on one of my HTPC’s with the Inteset CIR receiver board but did not work on another HTPC which has an iMon VFD/IR I’m still investigating that issue. Can you help me here?

OK so now you need to add this command in to your OpenElec autostart.sh script file. If you haven’t got one follow the wiki here to create one.

This will ensure that this command is run each time you turn on your PC.



2. Figure out what http commands you need to send to your Home Automation controller

I am basing this on Micasaverde Vera as that is my Home Automation controller, however this should work for any HA controller that can accept HTTP commands. I know it will work with mControl for example and probably many others like HomeSeer.

If you see my previous blog post here I talk about how to figure out what the http commands are to control devices and scenes.
So I am just going to copy and paste from that previous post and tweak it a little bit to save myself some time.

Turning a Z-wave device on and off
Here is an example HTTP command which turns on my Lamp (Left) device in my living room. You need to know what your DeviceNum is?

curl "http://192.168.1.100:3480/data_request?id=lu_action&output_format=xml&DeviceNum=3&serviceId=urn:upnp-org:serviceId:SwitchPower1&action=SetTarget&newTargetValue=1"

There are two ways to work out the device number, you can go to the Vera UI in a browser find the device in question, click the spanner icon and then go to the settings tab. You can see that this Lamp (Left) device is ID 3 and DeviceNum=3 in the above HTTP string to turn on this device.



The second method of listing the ID numbers for all your devices and scenes in Vera is to use the URL below, which displays a page of XML with all the information in it. Change IP-Address for the internal IP address of your Vera box.
http://IP-Address/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_sdata&output_format=xml

This example HTTP command turns off the Lamp (Left) device:

curl "http://192.168.1.100:3480/data_request?id=lu_action&output_format=xml&DeviceNum=3&serviceId=urn:upnp-org:serviceId:SwitchPower1&action=SetTarget&newTargetValue=0"

Note:
SetTarget&newTargetValue=0 = OFF
SetTarget&newTargetValue=1 = ON

To test your Vera HTTP commands you can just run them in a browser and the Z-wave device should respond. Obviously you need to change the IP address 192.168.1.100 to the IP address of your own Vera unit.

Run a Vera scene

In this example we are going to look at a HTTP command to run a scene in Vera. Again first you need to know the scene number of the particular scene you would like to create your script file for. My scene is called “Lounge On” if I look at the scene in Vera I can see its number is = 1



Or if I look at the XML code from the URL I mentioned above, I can see its id=1

<scene active="0" name="Lounge On" id="1" room="1"/>

So now I know the ID number of the scene I want to create a script file for, I can use the HTTP command below, note I have the number 1 at the end: RunScene&SceneNum=1

If my scene had an ID of 5 I would change this to be RunScene&SceneNum=5 etc.

HTTP Command to run a Vera Scene:

curl "http://192.168.1.100:3480/data_request?id=lu_action&serviceId=urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:HomeAutomationGateway1&action=RunScene&SceneNum=1"

3. Create the script files XBMC will run to send the http request to the Home Automation controller

OK so now we need to look at creating the script files for XBMC to run which will contain our http commands to be sent to the Home Automation Controller.

To do this I created a python script which runs a curl command to send the http request to the home automation controller.

Create the python script file

I am using EditPad Lite as my notpad editor program. Create a new file and paste in this code and use your own http command for Vera.

#!/usr/bin/env python
import subprocess
proc = subprocess.Popen(["curl", "http://192.168.1.100:3480/data_request?id=lu_action&serviceId=urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:HomeAutomationGateway1&action=RunScene&SceneNum=1"])

and save it as a .py file I called mine lounge-on.py

As you can see the lounge-on.py script file sends the http request to Vera using curl. In this example my http command will run a scene with ID=1 which is my lounge lights on scene.

Also worth noting now, I am saving all my script files in this location on the OpenElec PC:

/storage/.xbmc/userdata/vera/

I just created a new sub-folder called vera via the OpenElec samba shares

OK at this point we can now test its working? To do this we need to run the python script.

type: python lounge-on.py and press enter

It should say OK and your lights should have just been turned ON in your room!

So now what? Well you need to repeat this process of creating these python script files for each Vera scene or device you want to control. So I now need a lounge off script.

lounge-off.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
import subprocess
proc = subprocess.Popen(["curl", "http://192.168.1.100:3480/data_request?id=lu_action&serviceId=urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:HomeAutomationGateway1&action=RunScene&SceneNum=2"])

You can see my lounge off scene in Vera has an ID=2 / SceneNum=2

Now in terminal I can test the lounge-off.py script by running:

python lounge-off.py




Again it says OK and now my lights have just gone OFF.

4. Create / Tweak the XBMC keyboard.xml keymap file to add support for your new keyboard shortcuts in XBMC

Now we need some way for XBMC to be able to run the python .py script files, when we press our keyboard shortcuts / send them from the Harmony IR remote control handset.

Look in this folder on your OpenElec PC:

/storage/.xbmc/userdata/keymaps

Is there a keyboard.xml file in there? If not you will need to copy the master / default file from the system: /usr/share/xbmc/system/keymaps in to your /storage/.xbmc/userdata/keymaps folder

For example this command in terminal would copy the default keyboard.xml file in to your userdata/keymaps folder

cp /usr/share/xbmc/system/keymaps/keyboard.xml /storage/.xbmc/userdata/keymaps/keyboard.xml

We now need to edit the keyboard.xml file, to add in support for our keyboard shortcuts in XBMC, so I opened it in my EditPad Lite editor.



You can see in the global section at the top I have added two lines of code:

<A mod="ctrl,alt">RunScript(/storage/.xbmc/userdata/vera/lounge-on.py)</A>

<B mod="ctrl,alt">RunScript(/storage/.xbmc/userdata/vera/lounge-off.py)</B>

I wanted my keyboard shortcuts to be CTRL+ALT+(LETTER) for example CTRL+ALT+A and CTRL+ALT+B

That’s what this part of the code is <A mod="ctrl,alt"> a modifier for CTRL+ALT+A

We then RunScript and call the python script

RunScript(/storage/.xbmc/userdata/vera/lounge-on.py)

and close with </A>

Save the keyboard.xml file and reboot your OpenElec PC for the changes to take affect.

So what this means if I press CTRL+ALT+A on a keyboard XBMC will run my lounge-on.py script.  And when I press CTRL+ALT+B XBMC will run my lounge-off.py script.

5. Program your Logitech Harmony remote with the new keyboard shortcuts (MCE IR Keyboard required)

OK we are getting there, now we need to teach our Logitech Harmony remote control handset the keyboard shortcuts i.e. CTRL+ALT+A and CTRL+ALT+B

In the Harmony software or via the online myharmony.com site depending on which Harmony remote you have (I am using the Harmony software and a Harmony 895 remote).

Connect your Harmony remote via the USB cable to your workstation PC and then go to the Media Center PC device and select learn IR



Scroll down to the bottom and under Learn a New Command enter a name for your new command and click the Learn New Command button



You will then see this screen.



Now position your Harmony remote control handset and your MCE IR Keyboard, so you can teach the Harmony remote the new keyboard shortcut.



Press the keyboard shortcut you wish to teach the Harmony in my case CTRL+ALT+A

The Harmony software should then say Key Detected



It will then ask you to enter the keyboard shortcut a second time to confirm it.

Now on the Media Center PC device select Settings



Select Customise Buttons



Select the Additional Buttons tab and scroll to the page on the LCD screen where you would like to add your new custom buttons.

Type a name for your new button “Lounge On” and in the drop down list select the new command you just taught your Harmony “LoungeOn”



Repeat this process and teach your Harmony the other keyboard shortcuts and create new buttons on your Media Center PC device LCD screen.

You will probably also want to edit your Media Center PC activities and add the new custom buttons to those activities as well.

These are two photos of the new buttons I have added to my Harmony 895 LCD screen.

These are the new lines of code I ended up with in my Keyboard.xml file I used CTRL+ALT+A to CTRL+ALT+K

Now point your Harmony remote at your OpenElec XBMC PC and press one of your new custom buttons, if its all working your lights should come on / off etc.

Summary

I’ve only got all of this working today on one of my HTPC’s and I’ve not had much time to test it, but so far it is working flawlessly, I press a button on the Harmony and my lights react immediately. I’ve also wrote this blog post quickly and I hope there are no serious errors, but all of this in Linux for me is still really a work in progress!

If you are a Linux guru? Please look at this post here I need help enabling the mce_kbd IR protocol on my other HTPC which has the iMon VFD/IR.

If anyone wants a copy of my .py script files? Let me know and I will post them up on the net somewhere.

UPDATE: Check out PART TWO here, I have added feedback pop-up notifications in to the XBMC user interface, so you know if the python script has been run by XBMC.

How to use an E.ON TV PowerDown plug with a Logitech Harmony Remote Control

If you want to kill the standby power consumption of the TV’s in your home then using an E.ON TV PowerDown plug is one way to do it.

They are free to E.ON Energy customers and you can purchase them from their online shop for only 3 quid each. They are very easy to setup with your TV’s original remote control and the setup instructions can be found here, they are however not so easy to setup for use in conjunction with a Logitech Harmony universal remote control.

Some blurb from their website:

“Eliminating standby use in our homes is not always easy. That little red light on your television and home entertainment additions such as surround sound amplifiers, DVD Players and games consoles are needlessly costing you money every hour.
Our TV PowerDown automatically switches these TV peripherals on and off when you turn your TV on and off. It learns to recognise the signal from your television remote control. This enables it to activate your television automatically into standby mode whenever you are ready to use it. And when you have finished using your television you switch it off in the normal way using your remote control and the TV PowerDown does the rest!”

Basically you plug in your TV in to the master socket on the E.ON TV PowerDown plug and then use the slave socket to plug in any peripherals such as a DVD player or what ever, I am not using the peripheral socket however as my HDTV’s are wall mounted so just plugging in the TV to the master socket. When your TV goes in to standby mode the E.ON TV PowerDown plug detects this and then totally kills the power to the TV and peripherals if you have any connected so you have now eliminated standby power consumption. I recommend you don’t use this with DVR’s like Windows Media Center , Sky + and Virgin Media boxes they need to be left in standby so they can wake up and record stuff!

Now the first time I tried to set one of these up with my Harmony I couldn’t get it working and eventually gave up. However I had another go yesterday and I now have it working! What I did was to add the E.ON TV PowerDown plug in to the Logitech Harmony database as a new device. Ideally to follow this guide you will need two Harmony remotes capable of learning IR commands (If you only have one remote don’t panic) and also you will need an old remote control you are not using for anything or another remote control from another room in the house.

1. The first thing you need to do is obviously plug your TV in to the master socket on the E.ON TV PowerDown plug and then plug the E.ON plug in to the mains socket on the wall and position the IR sensor thingy.

2. The next thing you need to do is program the E.ON plug with a remote control command which will turn it on and therefore TV standby will be resumed from the totally off power state. This is where you need your old remote control from any device that you are not using or grab a remote control that is from a different room in the house. I was setting up this E.ON plug for the TV in my lounge, I couldn’t find an old unused remote so I used the remote from my Cambridge Audio amp in the bedroom. You can pick any button off the remote to teach to the E.ON plug I used the eject button on my Cambridge amp remote, but it could be any button. Follow the instructions here to teach the E.ON plug the remote control button command. Once you have done this and when pressing the button you chose on the remote turns on the E.ON plug OK then you can move to the next step.

3. Login to your Logitech Harmony software, go to the device tab and click the Add Device button

From the drop down list select Home Automation –> Home Appliance

Now I could not see a manufacturer called E.ON in the list so I just selected Not Listed

Enter E.ON in to the text box and click Save

For the model enter TVA106EON then click the Next button

Click Next again

Select No you do not have a remote and click Next

It will then say it can’t find your device in the database, click Next.

For now just select There are no power buttons…….

On this page select Done

Our new device is then listed with the others as Home Appliance, click the Settings button

Select rename this device and click the Next button

Rename the device E.ON TV PowerDown and click the Save button.

4. Now we need to teach the E.ON TV PowerDown device / your Harmony remote control the button command from your other remote you used in step 2.

Select Learn IR Commands then click the Next button.

Scroll down and tick PowerOn then click the Learn button.

Connect the Harmony remote for the room to your PC via the USB cable, grab your other remote that use used to teach the E.ON plug in step 2 and press the same button again and teach the Harmony that particular button command. In my case it was the eject button on my Cambridge amp remote.

It should then say Key Detected and return you to the page with all the IR commands listed on it, click the Done button.

5. Now select Adjust power settings and click the Next button

Select I want to turn off this device when it’s not in use

Select One button on the remote for turning it both On and Off

Select I don’t have the original remote, but I know the command that is used:

Select PowerOn and then click the Next button and then Done button

6. If your Harmony has an LCD screen you may want to make sure a custom button will be shown. Select Customize Buttons and click Next.

For some reason it set the Channel Up hard button to the PowerOn command? Just blank this out

Click the Additional Buttons tab, on page 1 slot 1 type the name PowerOn and select the PowerOn command from the drop down menu, then click the Done button.

Update your Harmony remote now to add the new E.ON device to the remote control.

Now at this point as a test I added the E.ON TV PowerDown device in to my Watch TV activity. However I found that when I started the activity the command to turn on the E.ON plug was sent OK but my TV was not being powered on. So this meant the TV went back in to standby mode from the totally powered off state but then did not come out of standby mode and actually turn on. I couldn’t figure out why this was happening so to get round this problem I needed to teach the E.ON TV PowerDown device in the Harmony software the actual PowerOn command of my TV. So it would sent two commands one to turn on the E.ON plug and one to then turn on the TV out of standby.

Now you could use your TV’s original remote control to do this but its likely that you only have a Power Toggle button on that remote (One button that turns on and off the TV). So if you have two Logitech Harmony remotes that can learn IR it is probably better to do what I did, so I could learn the discrete PowerOn command for the TV. If you don’t have two Harmony’s you will just have to use the PowerToggle button on your TV’s original remote control.

Harmony remote control #1 is the remote we have just been programming for the lounge.

Harmony remote control #2 is another Harmony from my bedroom.

As I don’t have the same TV in each room what I did was temporarily add the TV in my lounge an LG 42LE4500 to the Harmony #2 controller from the bedroom and updated the remote.

I could then teach the Harmony #1 / E.ON device with the discrete PowerOn command of the TV in the lounge, from the Harmony #2 remote. Confused?

7. Teach the E.ON TV PowerDown device the discrete PowerOn command of your TV.

Select Learn IR on the E.ON TV PowerDown device scroll down to the bottom of the page and enter “TV PowerOn” in the Learn a New Command section.

Click the Learn New Command button

Ensure you connect the Harmony #1 remote to your PC via USB.

Then using the Harmony #2 remote with the temporarily added TV2 device press the PowerOn button from the LCD screen to teach the Harmony #1 remote the command.

Click the Done button.

On the Devices tab, click the Settings button on the E.ON TV PowerDown device

Select Customize Buttons and click Next

Click the Additional Buttons tab, you can see I now have two buttons / commands on the E.ON TV PowerDown device. PowerOn to power on the E.ON plug and TV PowerOn to power on the TV from standby. Click Done.

If you update the Harmony #1 remote again now you will be able to manually test if both of these commands work? Ensure your TV is currently in the totally powered off state i.e. the standby light is out. Then on the Harmony remote click the devices button, select the E.ON TV PowerDown device, press the PowerOn button from the LCD screen and the TV should go in to standby. Then press the TV PowerOn button and the TV should then turn on.

8. Adding the E.ON TV PowerDown device in to your activities.

Now we have added the E.ON TV PowerDown device to our remote and both our power on commands are working you just need to add in the E.ON TV PowerDown device to your activities that use the TV.

Go to the Activities tab and select Settings on your first activity that requires the TV.

Select Review the settings for this activity

Select Yes, but I want to add more control of options and devices for this activity

Now Add the E.ON TV PowerDown device in to the activity, then click Save.

Run through the rest of the wizard clicking next and leaving the settings as you had them. On the page shown below you need to insert an extra TV PowerOn command for the E.ON TV PowerDown device.

Select – Send this IR command: TV PowerOn

This is a pretty basic Watch TV activity, however if you have lots of commands going on in your activity you should use the up arrows to move the E.ON TV PowerDown – TV PowerOn command to the top of the list.

Click Save at the end and then select Yes these settings are correct, click Next and Done.

Select Review the order in which devices are powered on, click Next.

Select the E.ON TV PowerDown device and click the up arrow to move it to the first device to be powered on.

Click Done

Repeat this process for all your activities that require the TV. Update your Harmony remote again. Then test each of your activities and that everything is working as normal and the TV is turning on from the totally powered off state.

Finally don’t forget to remove the temporarily added TV2 on your other Harmony remote and update that one.

You may sleep a little easier now you know your TV’s are totally powered off during the night and when not in use and your doing your little bit to save the planet. Now if only I could do something about that power sucking Windows Home Server beast that lives under the stairs.

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