Need some Help with HTPC and Harmony Elite Remote

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newfiend

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Need some Help with HTPC and Harmony Elite Remote

#1

Post by newfiend » Thu Jan 03, 2019 9:12 pm

Ok. I have a question and I hope one of you smart dudes has the answer. (One of you usually do) :)

I have a new(er) Harmony Elite Remote with Hub.
I have a HTPC
Yamaha AVR
Samsung TV.

I have a activity for turning it all on and controlling it working fine with one issue.
Power on/off of the HTPC. I use S3 Sleep mode for the PC.
I also use the PC as a Plex Media Server.

If by chance one of the kids turns on the PC to use PLEX and the HTPC is ON and I want to watch TV hitting the Activity to watch TV results in the TV and AVR powering on and the HTPC powering off (since it was already on).
I then have to select the device and hit the power toggle button to wake it back up.

It's an annoyance more than anything. I know there are settings in the Harmony software I believe to set one button for On and another for off. Can I change this so when I launch the activity it doesn't turn off the HTPC if it's already on? Do I need to use something other than Power Toggle as the turn on/off option?

Thanks for answering my stupid question. :lol:
newfiend~

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newfiend

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#2

Post by newfiend » Thu Jan 03, 2019 9:45 pm

Also should mention I have a Antec Fusion case with iMON software and built in IR receiver.

jachin99

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#3

Post by jachin99 » Fri Jan 04, 2019 3:03 pm

If your just trying to wake up the computer maybe you could send it a keystroke instead of the sleep command via your harmony profile. Try turning on the TV, and PC, then putting the PC to sleep, and pressing a button on a keyboard or moving the mouse. Just an idea.

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spanner

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#4

Post by spanner » Fri Jan 04, 2019 4:11 pm

I now there is a way to do what your asking, but when i was setting this up a few years ago on my dedicated HTPC I decided to leave it on 24/7 and forget about sleep. Now when I am switching around different activities or components with my harmony The PC is always there and ready to go. It simplified things for me so, just a thought

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newfiend

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#5

Post by newfiend » Sun Jan 06, 2019 1:40 am

jachin99 wrote: Fri Jan 04, 2019 3:03 pm If your just trying to wake up the computer maybe you could send it a keystroke instead of the sleep command via your harmony profile. Try turning on the TV, and PC, then putting the PC to sleep, and pressing a button on a keyboard or moving the mouse. Just an idea.
This may be an option as I know I can wake the PC this way with a keyboard/mouse.

I'll look into this. Thanks!

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CyberSimian

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#6

Post by CyberSimian » Thu Jan 17, 2019 10:38 am

newfiend wrote: Sun Jan 06, 2019 1:40 amI know I can wake the PC this way with a keyboard/mouse.
I don't know anything about the IMON software, but if it is compatible with the Microsoft MCE RC6 remote control, will it respond to a keystroke sent from your Harmony?

I use a convoluted setup for controlling on/off on my HTPC, but basically I use the ethernet socket to trigger the system to wake-up. Clearly, if the system is already awake, nothing adverse happens.

I use an infra-red mains electric socket controlled by my Harmony 650. The ones that I have (I have three) seem to be discontinued, but this one looks similar:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revolt-Remote- ... YY94WDKNSF

This learns the signal for the POWER button on the MCE RC6 remote. The mains socket controls a power-line networking adapter, which is connected to the ethernet socket in the HTPC. So, the Harmony sends the MCE POWER signal, the mains socket switches on, the power-line networking adapter powers up and connects to the ethernet socket in the HTPC, which triggers the HTPC to wake.

Notes:
(1) In the Windows power plan, you need to define the SLEEP button (== POWER button on the MCE RC6 remote control) to "do nothing".

(2) Since your HTPC is acting as a server, you will need two networking cards -- one for your home network, and one for waking the HTPC.

(3) When you switch off your HTPC using the Harmony, the mains socket will power down, and your HTPC will sleep after the usual Windows timeout has expired (if the system is not being used for other things). I use some bespoke software to trigger an immediate sleep if the system is idle.

(4) This setup also works with hibernation (which is what I use -- sleep is problematic on my system).

(5) Infrared-controlled mains sockets are preferable because your Harmony can transmit the signal. But these are becoming harder to find. Much more easily available are radio-controlled mains sockets, but your Harmony possibly cannot transmit the signal for those (so you would need to use the separate RF remote control to switch your HTPC on and off).

This is quite a convoluted setup, but it works well for me.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

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#7

Post by joelkirzner » Tue Jan 22, 2019 10:26 pm

I never put my HTPC to sleep and I have a similar setup with a harmony hub, harmony remote, Plex server, etc.
Just keep the PC always on and have it do nothing under the windows power plan for going to sleep, as the other poster wrote.

TVTechTB

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#8

Post by TVTechTB » Mon Jul 20, 2020 5:31 pm

Just bought a Logitech Harmony Companion remote with the base. Took me three days to get it to work. Two big issues:
1) TV would power off between activities. The other activity is Apple TV. So when I switched from WMC TV to Apple TV, it would power off the TV. Had to use the PC based application to set the TV device to not power off between changing activities. Now the TV turns on when I first run an activity but only turns off if I press the Off button. So switching between WMC and Apple TV does not power off the TV.
2) I like having my HTPC running WMC to go to sleep when not watching or recording. But how to wake up the HTPC? Had to program the WMC device with no power button. Then modified one of the color buttons for the Power Toggle command. So when I run the TV activity, it does not try to wake or turn on my HTPC (because it may already be awake and if it issued the power command, would put it to sleep or power it off). If the HTPC is asleep, I just have to press the red color button to wake it up with the power toggle command. The HTPC goes to sleep after 1 hour of inactivity and it works great, waking up to record.
So using a combination of the iPhone app and PC based app, it is finally working the way I want. When you use the PC app, the base has to be connected to the PC via USB. It is great to be down to one remote instead of 4 (Samsung TV remote, Samsung sound bar remote, WMC remote, Apple TV remote).
Be interested if anyone found an easier solution.

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