The frustration of a Logitech Harmony universal remote... or is the LG TV to blame!?

After seeing and hearing a bit about universal remotes, I finally decided to give one a go. Reading through online reviews, it seemed that the Logitech Harmony line of remotes stood out above any of the competition. Checking for compatibility with my devices via Logitech's Harmony Device Compatibility site, it quickly became clear that I needed a remote with a Harmony Hub. At this point, I was quite impressed with the details provided by Logitech - their compatibility page was extremely helpful and had a large number of devices listed. Thumbs up there.

So after doing some shopping around I found a good deal at JB Hi-Fi and got myself a Logitech Harmony Smart Control.

After unpacking it and successfully connecting it up with my devices, the frustration started to creep in. And it only grew as the compatibility problems could not be resolved. To this day, I am unable to effectively create any workable solutions. The dream of getting rid of these four remote controls...

...by replacing them with this universal remote...

...seems as though it may never become a reality.

After literally spending hours and hours, day after day, configuring "activities" (that's Logitech Harmony lingo), I just couldn't get the remote to reliably do what I wanted. The culprit, though, I believe is my TV rather than the remote itself. Let me explain...

The devices I have are:

• LG 55" LED LCD Smart TV (55LN5710)
• Philips Soundbar Speaker (HTL3140B)
• Amazon Fire TV (1st Generation)
• LG DVD Player (DV7821P)

The basic "Watch TV" Logitech Harmony activity that I setup uses the LG TV and the Philips Soundbar.

Now, the fundamental problem I have with the LG TV is an inconsistent input changing method - menu toggle (or menu cycle) - due to media server connectivity. Logitech has a very good support article explaining the different input changing methods, but there is no way that I know of to work around an inconsistent listing of inputs. The LG TV may or may not have my DLNA media server and / or my Plex media server showing, and there are no LG TV settings to disable them from showing or to change the order in which they appear.

Here is the LG TV input list without any of the media servers showing:

And here is the LG TV input list with both of the media servers showing:

This is a big problem, as the remote needs to know precisely in what order all the inputs are listed otherwise it will select them incorrectly.

The LG TV does have a direct input button for TV / Radio, but that simply toggles between the two. So if it is used with a Logitech Harmony activity, you'll get TV one time and Radio the other time. No good.

About two months ago, I lodged a support request with LG via their website asking for assistance, specifically seeking a direct method of selecting the TV input. I have had no response. And since then, the Logitech Harmony remote has been gathering dust on our cabinet. I'd love to be able to use it, but if every second time it is used you have to go back to the original remote, it's pretty much useless. It just defeats the point of having a universal remote.

I intend to research this in more detail and will attempt to get technical support from Logitech and / or LG (again). With some luck, perhaps this dream of a universal remote can become a reality. If it can, maybe then I can look at integration with the likes of IFTTT and Alexa. Scheduling the TV to turn on at specific times or instructing it with your voice - now that would be neat!

How to make a homemade solar heater for an above ground swimming pool (with an automatic schedule and smartphone control)

So a few days after setting up our above ground pool, we quickly realised that we were going to need to heat it, particularly as it was undercover, otherwise it was not going to be getting used very much.

After searching for an affordable and effective heating solution, I gave up and decided to make my own. And after seeing the results - an increase of over 5 degrees Celsius in a few weeks for an outlay of $50 - I thought I'd provide the details here, including how I setup an automatic schedule with the pool pump using a Belkin WeMo Insight Switch.

I will say, though, that the biggest contributor to keeping the swimming pool temperature high is the pool cover. They say that water evaporation results in approximately 70% of heat loss, so do make sure your pool is covered when not in use if you want good results.

This homemade solar heater took me about four hours to setup, which includes the trips to Bunnings. Incidentally, this was probably around the same amount of time I spent researching and driving around trying to find a ready-made solar heater to purchase.

All parts came from Bunnings, including the WeMo device. Total cost was $125.05 (or only $50.31 excluding the WeMo device).

Here's the full list of parts:

• 1 x Holman 25mm x 25m Black Poly Drip Irrigation Tube (1 x $35.89)
• 2 x Holman 34mm x 25mm Reducing Coupling (2 x $3.97)
• 2 x Toledo 21-38mm Perforated Clamp Hose Fit (2 x $1.52)
• 2 x Toledo 27-51mm Perforated Clamp Hose Fit (2 x $1.72)
• 1 x Belkin WeMo Insight Switch (1 x $74.74)

I did get the WeMo device at about a 25% discount to the RRP thanks to Dick Smith having it on special. Bunnings, per their policy, beat them by 10%.

Making most of Dick Smith prices. Bunnings beat them by 10% on this #WeMo Insight Switch. #IoT #homeautomation pic.twitter.com/uVHI9nI2b7

— Greg Solon (@gregsolon) January 5, 2016

The above ground swimming pool we have is an Intex 15ft x 36in Metal Frame Pool. This solar heater should work with most above ground pools that come with a filter pump. A pump is required, as the solar heater works by filtering water out of the pool, moving it through a length of black pipe that gets heated by the sun, and ultimately returning it back to the pool. The returning water should be slightly warmer, thereby slowly warming your swimming pool. Here's what the assembled solar heater looks like:

Setting this up is really a breeze. Essentially, all you need to do is extend the hose / tube that returns water from the pump to the pool with the black poly tube. The poly tube should be positioned to ensure maximum sun exposure - both in terms of its surface area and duration of day. Obviously, the hotter the day and the more sun exposure the flowing water gets through the black tubing, the better results you'll get.

I found the Holman 34mm x 25mm Reducing Coupling as the most suitable product to use for attaching the standard pool pump hose / tube to the black poly tube. This was secured using the appropriately sized Toledo clamps to ensure no water leaks. The same reducing coupling and clamps were used to connect the black poly tube back to the swimming pool. Here's what the two connections look like:

So there you have it, for $50 you can setup something similar. And after a few hot days you should be noticing your swimming pool water temperature rising. As mentioned above, do ensure you cover your pool to prevent heat loss due to evaporation!

So now comes the automatic scheduling. Unless you plan on running your pool pump 24 hours a day, you'll need to turn it on and off at various times. Given the pool pump powers the solar heater, it's best to turn it on in the morning and off in the evening to ensure it does get maximum sun exposure. You can do this manually, but it's a little mundane and you can forget some days. As stated above, my solution to this was the Belkin WeMo Insight Switch. The cost of the WeMo device is high and you can get some cheaper and simpler products at Bunnings that can automate turning on and off a pool pump, though given my interest in home automation I decided on dabbling a bit with Belkin's WeMo range. WeMo devices also provide smartphone control and the Insight Switch offers further functionality such as providing power usage statistic, which is an added benefit.

I have set my pool pump to turn on at 6:30am and off at 5:30pm daily. Here's a screenshot its power consumption today. I turned it off early as the temperature of the water increased to 29 degrees Celsius! I thought that was warm enough.

And here are some photos of the Belkin WeMo Insight Switch:

The WeMo device was very straightforward to setup and I didn't experience any issues. The WeMo Android app, somewhat disappointingly, is quite rudimentary. It has the basic functionality you would expect, though is not as polished as most smartphone apps. It almost seems as though it has been put together by a high school student working a summer gig at Belkin, rather than an experienced team of developers. Hopefully that will change with time.

So there you have it. A simple yet effective solar heater for an above ground swimming pool. It has achieved its intended outcome, as we have definitely used the pool more!

Turning off a light without touching anything

So now I've made our Amazon Echo even more useful by integrating it with our LIFX light bulb.

Simply saying "Alexa, trigger turn on the lamp" or "Alexa, trigger turn off the lamp" and the light turns on or off. It is pretty handy to be able to have this functionality from anywhere in the room without having to move or push any buttons.

This was achieved by an IFTTT recipe with Alexa and LIFX. You can configure the phrase you say to Alexa, and the colour, brightness and fade in / out duration of the LIFX light.

It hasn't been flawless all the time, though. The day before, issuing the same commands resulted in the lights turning on / off after about a 10-15 minute delay. I believe this was because of IFTTT, as checking Alexa online or on the app, the command was issued, but IFTTT only showed the recipe had triggered after the delay. Obviously this is not ideal, though I'm not yet sure if it was a once-off or will continue to frequently occur. Time will tell.

Once you have a few of these home automation devices, it's really amazing what you can connect and configure. And although some of it may be gimmicky, there are those genuine uses that can make tasks just that little bit easier.