My-Harmony-Card

Not yet only another Remote Control for Logitech HARMONY COMPANION Hub

This project is inspired by the LG WebOS Remote Card based on (madmicio's repository)

In short words

The Harmony Card My-Harmony-Card is a highly customizable remote control for managing a Harmony Remote Hub, offering flexible button assignments and configurable color design. It allows the remote's height to be adjusted based on the selected activity and provides the option to save favorites and other specific functions. Configured activities can be automatically imported and linked to specific device IDs for a easy setup process. Special buttons can be assigned individual commands or service calls for each activity. Additionally, it includes a scaling of the size of the remote for best fitting.

Introduction

I couldn't find any remote controls for the Harmony that met my needs, either visually or functionally. Fortunately, I came across Madmicio's project, and I really liked the layout. Inspired by this, I decided to develop a solution for Harmony based on his work.

However, I encountered some limitations with the current implementation of the aioharmony library used by Home Assistant Core. Specifically, it doesn't handle actions as effectively as I'd hoped (or perhaps I missed something—any tips are welcome). While the library allows for switching device groups on and off and detecting which action is currently active, that's about the extent of its capabilities regarding actions.

As a result, it's not possible to directly map the Harmony's remote buttons to the physical remote's functions. To work around this, I decided to use actions to manage the device groups. Once an action is active, I directly control the device using its ID and configure the remote buttons as flexibly as possible.

Card install

You can find this card by searching for "My-Harmony-Card" in the HACS Community Store. If that doesn't work or if you prefer a manual installation, you can find a detailed guide here.

Card config:

At least the following entries must be present for the card to work:

- type: 'custom:my-harmony-card'
  entity: remote.<device>

Main Options

You can find a screnshot of the remote with some button nameing here

Name	Type	Default	Example	Description
type	string	Required	custom:my-harmony-card	Type of the card
entity	string	Required	remote.myharmonydevice	harmony entity
name	string	Option	Living	name of harmony device in HA, ie. living room
activities	Opject	Required	see activities	name of harmony device in HA, ie. living room
tooltip	bool	Option	false	Displays tooltip on hoover on buttons Guide, Menu, Home, Info, Keypad, and 'ACT' (Actions).
Special	object	Option	see Button[A-D]	Free global select: 5th configurable global Button - works on all activities same
Button[A-D]	object	Option	see Button[A-D]	4 Buttons for global use. You can add to each button one service call. If all 4 buttons not configured, the buttons disappear and the remote will get smaller - works on all activities same
favsize	int	Option	80	Size of the icons in the favorites popup
faviconpath	path	Option	/local/icons/	Path were your station logos reside. Default it is a directory below this card (/local/community/my-harmony-card/stations/), but you can change it to a different directory i.e. /local/icons. This directory is not the physical directory, it is the directory, you can reach through Home Assistant. In my example the physical directory of /local/icons would be ~/www/icons.
dimensions	object	Option	see Dimensions	Scale total size of remote and size of border
colors	object	Option	see Colors	Color setup of the remote (background, buttons,...)
debug	bool	Option	true	Provide debugging information in the browser's console.log if set to true

Import activities

You can import your configured activities by checking the import box in the configuration menu. This will automatically import your activities and assign 0 as the device_id for each new device. You can edit the device_id directly if needed.

If your Harmony configuration changes (e.g., adding a new activity, renaming, etc.), you can re-import the activities by clicking 'Import Activities.' This will remove any unused activities and add new ones. Unchanged activities won't be affected, so you won't lose any data if you click the button again. :-)

A very basic example:

~~~
type: 'custom:my-harmony-card'
entity: remote.harmony_wohnzimmer
activities:
  Listen to Music:
    device_id: 59107742
  Watch TV:
    device_id: 59107742
~~~~

The device_id is one of the most important parameters. It specifies which device is targeted when a command is sent. The number of the device that the remote control primarily interacts with should be entered as the device_id." 

How to find the device_id?

The device_id: of each device can be found in the harmony???.conf at the end of the respective device definition and begins with "id": . Please only accept the respective number.
Example: device_id: 77085993

   ~~~more functions~~~
     "Delete",
     "Apps",
     "Home"
   ],
   "id": "77085993"
 },
 ~~~next device~~~

Activities Options

As mentioned earlier, due to certain limitations, we can only control individual devices and not actions (except for channel changes), unlike what the physical remote control can do. To address this issue, specific keys can be overridden with functions that better match the device and the particular key within an activity.

For each defined activity under the activities section, the following options are available:

Name	Type	Default	Example	Description
device_id	number	Required	77085993	This is the device id below each defined individual activity
volume_device_id	number	Optional	59107742	Special: If you define this, you can send VolumeUp and VolumeDown command to a different device. I.e. If you have an AV Receiver and you watch TV, you want to send all commands to TV, but volume change has to be send to AV Receier. In this case, enter the device_id of AV Receiver as volume_device_id here
Guide	string	Optional	InputCD	Below each activity you can define this option. In this example "InputCD" will be send to default device_id instead of 'Guide'. Remove the option for default.
Home	string	Optional	InputGame	See comments to 'Guide'. Command to send instead of 'Home'
Info	string	Optional	Favorite	See comments to 'Guide'. Command to send instead of 'Info'
OK	string	Optional	Enter	See comments to 'Guide'. Command to send instead of 'OK'
player_name	media_player entitiy	Optional	media_player.anlage	You can add a media_player entitiy for each activity. If you press log the 'Menu' button, it opens 'more-info of the defined media_player
activateCButtons	bool	Optional	true	Enable or disable color (red, yellow, blue, green) buttons for the actual activity
Button[1-4]	Object	Optional	Button1	see explanation below
favorites	Object	Optional	favorites	see explanation below

Numeric Button Options

Each activitiy has as option it's own 4 individual buttons. You can add up to additional commands or service calls on it. This means the activity "Watch Tv" may have other commands on these buttons as the activity "Listen to Music". You can name it as you like (aprx. 3 Chars), or give instead a mdi: image to the button, and you can add an idividual command or service call to each of these buttons (Button[1-4]).
If you don't do, the buttons are invisible for this activity.

Name	Type	Default	Example	Description
Button[1-4]	Object	Required	Button1	Only Button1, Button2, Button3, Button4 are possible
name	Char	Required	DVR	Name on button
service	Object	Required or	see below	Service to call. Cannot be used together with command
command	string	Required or	DVR	Command to send to device_id of activity. Cannot be used together with service
tooltip	string	Optional	Digital Video Recorder	Tooltip information to this button (long text) inside of this activity
icon	icon	Optional	mdi:netflix	Instead of nameing a button, you can set an image instead

A basic example configured with one Button for activiy Watch Tv:

~~~
type: custom:my-harmony-card
name: Wohnen
entity: remote.harmony_wohnzimmer
activities:
  Watch Tv:
    device_id: 77085993
    volume_device_id: 59107742
    Button1:
      icon: mdi:gesture-two-double-tap
      command: Settings
      tooltip: 'Settings for my TV'
~~~~

Button[A-D]

You find 5 free configurable global buttons on this remote. Buttons A-D and Special. These buttons have no link to the current activity and are working on all activities in the same way (even at power off) If you don't configure them, they dissapear on the remote control.

Name	Type	Default	Example	Description
Button[A-D] or Special	Object	Required	ButtonA	Only ButtonA, ButtonB, ButtonC, ButtonD and Special are possible
name	String	Required	DVR	Name on button
service	Object	Required or	see below	Service to call.
tooltip	string	Optional	Digital Video Recorder	Tooltip information to this button (long text) inside of this activity
icon	icon	Optional	mdi:netflix	Instead of nameing a button, you can set an image instead for the name on the button

Services

Name	Type	Default	Example	Description
service	Object	Required	light.toggle	Service to call at Home Assistant
name	String	Required	DD	Name to display on remote button
icon	String	Required	mdi:access-point	Image to display on remote button
tooltip	string	Optional	Digital Video Recorder	Tooltip information to this button (long text) inside of this activity
data	Object	Required	Data sent to service	Data send to Home Assistant for service. i.e. channel and entity_id Please be aware, you can sent only data to a sevice. Other optiones (i.e. target) cannot be sent to service.

A basic example configured with one global Button:

~~~
type: custom:my-harmony-card
name: Wohnen
entity: remote.harmony_wohnzimmer
ButtonA:
  service: light.toggle
  name: Iri
  tooltip: 'Toogle Iris Hue Light'
  data:
    entity_id: light.leuchtstab
~~~~

Favorites

For each selected activity, you can define individual favorites. By long-pressing the '123' button, a popup will appear with your predefined favorites for the actual selected activity. If you click one of the displayed icons in the popup, the channel number associated with that icon will be selected. The dialog will remain open for continued use until you manually close it (useful for channel surfing).

Name	Type	Default	Example	Description
number	integer	Required	103	Number which should be called by remote control Cannot be used with service
service	Object	Required	light.toggle	Service to call at Home Assistant. Cannot be used with number
data	Object	Required	Data sent to service	Data send to Home Assistant for service. i.e. channel and entity_id Please be aware, you can sent only data to a sevice. Other optiones (i.e. target) cannot be sent to service.
image	icon	Required	ndr_hd.png	Name auf the icon as stored in your icon directory. (See below)

Icons for Favorite Popup

If you install this card automatically through HACS, all icons in the repository's dist/stations directory will be installed as well. If you need additional icons, you can manually add them to the stations directory within the installation folder of this card. Typically, this is located at ~/www/community/my-harmony-card/stations. If you prefer a different directory, see remark on the the chapter Main options.

A basic example favorites for activiy Watch TV:

~~~
type: custom:my-harmony-card
name: Wohnen
entity: remote.harmony_wohnzimmer
activities:
  Watch Tv:
    device_id: 77085993
    volume_device_id: 59107742
    favorites:
      - number: 1
        image: das_erste.png
      - number: 2
        image: zdf.png
      - service: harmony.change_channel
        image: ndr.png
        data:
          channel: 3
          entity_id: remote.wohnzimmer
      - service: media_player.play_media
        image: 1Live.png
        data:
          device_id: 0c2d3d4f089a165d8313ada64a29fddf
          media_content_id: >-
            https://wdr-1live-live.icecastssl.wdr.de/wdr/1live/live/mp3/128/stream.mp3
          media_content_type: music
~~~~

Dimensions

Optional Object to change size of the remote.

Name	Type	Default	Example	Description
dimensions	Object	Optional	see example	Object for size and border size of remote
scale	Float	Optional	0.63	With this parameter you scale the size of the remote. I not set it defaults to '1'
border_width	Size	Optional	2px	You can have a borderyaround the remote. With this option you can define how thick the border is. If used '0px' it is set to none

Colors

Optional object to configure the colors, used by this remote.

Name	Type	Default	Example	Description
colors	Object	Optional	see example	Object for customize the colors for this remote
background	html color	Optional	#565a67	The color of the background of this remote control
buttons	html color	Optional	#393232	Color of the buttons - to differentiate to background color
popup	html color	Optional	#585555	Background color for the favorite popup
buttons	html color	Optional	##0d0c0c	Color of the border of this remote

A basic example configured with colors a dimensions:

~~~
type: custom:my-harmony-card
name: Wohnen
entity: remote.harmony_wohnzimmer
dimensions:
  scale: '0.63'
  border_width: 2px
colors:
  background: '#565a67'
  text: '#f8f7f7'
  buttons: '#393232'
  popup: '#585555'
  border: '#0d0c0c'
~~~~

Complete Example

type: custom:my-harmony-card
name: Harmony
entity: remote.harmony_wohnzimmer
tooltip: true
faviconpath: /local/icons/
favsize: 80
activities:
  Musik hören:
    name: 36830123
    device_id: 59107742
    player_name: media_player.anlage
    Button1:
      name: MCh
      command: ModeMultiChStereo
      tooltip: Multichannel Stereo
    Button2:
      name: QS1
      command: QuickSelect1
      tooltip: AV Receiver Macro 1
    Button3:
      name: CD
      command: InputCd
      tooltip: Input CD Player
    Button4:
      name: Eco
      command: Eco
      tooltip: Eco Mode
  WatchTv:
    name: 37038020
    device_id: 43935598
    volume_device_id: 59107742
    player_name: media_player.lg_webos_smart_tv
    favorites:
      - number: 1
        image: das_erste_hd.png
      - number: 2
        image: zdf_hd.png
      - number: 3
        image: das_vierte.png
      - number: 104
        image: zdf_neo.png
    Button1:
      name: Set
      command: Settings
      tooltip: Settings
    Button2:
      name: Smt
      command: SmartMenu
      tooltip: SmartMenu
    Button3: null
    Button4: null
dimensions:
  scale: '0.59'
  border_width: 2px

More Functions

The buttons Forward and rewind have two functions:

• Short pressed: FastForward or Rewind
• Long pressed: SkipForward or SkipBack

Activty selector:

• Actual activity now shown on top
• If the name of your activity is wider then the size of the activity field, the name will bump left to right, to make the hole text visible

Troubleshooting

After installing the card and adding the default configuration along with your Harmony entity, you should immediately see your configured activities when you press the Activity button on top. In PowerOff mode, the power button will appear red; otherwise, it will be green. If you've configured your activities as described above, you should be able to perform basic actions (e.g., Volume Up, Guide, Home, Number, etc.) at once. If this isn't working, try pressing the 'Synchronize' button again.

If you not know, which button is for which functionallity be default, look here

Debugging

Launch the Chrome browser on your computer and access my-harmony-card. Open the config of card and add in the root of config debug: true to enable debugging Save your config

Access Developer Tools:

Click on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the Chrome window to open the menu.
Navigate to More Tools.
Select Developer Tools from the dropdown menu.
Navigate to the Console Tab:

Once the Developer Tools window is open, click on the Console tab. This tab displays logs and diagnostic information about the current web page.

Inspect the Log Output: In the Console tab, you will find the log output of the messages being sent. This is particularly useful when a button is pressed on the card.
The log will display the following information:

• Current Activity: The current action or state being executed.
• device_id: The identifier of the device to which the message is being sent.
• Command: The command being sent.

Example output:
_button Pressed: DeviceID: 43632597 - Command: VolumeUp - entity_id: remote.harmony_wohnzimmer

As well you can see the current Activitty and the used DeviceID:
Current Activity Fernsehen - DeviceID: 43935597

Have fun!