Harmony 890 - programming tips?

[mod]

I've setup my 890 for the TV, 2 dvds, a vcr, a receiver, and a cable box. So far, I'm really happy with it. The sw mentions being able to start your tv on a specific channel and I've read that the volume on the receiver can be set, etc, etc. But I can't find anything that tells me how to do those things. I see where I can send a "band" command to my receiver, but I have no idea what that does. It apparently doesn't let me choose am/fm or anything. Then there's a section that lets me choose IR commands such as 1 thru 9. But I have no idea what that does.

Is there somewhere I can look to find out more about programming the 890?

 

[OttoMatic]

Hmmm, I've been using the 890 for almost three years now, but I'm not sure about some of these things. If you want to start it on a specific channel, I know how to set that up, but I wouldn't necessarily count on it always working. I believe the way that I would do that is in an "Activity" macro. In each Activity set up screen, you can indicate what will be turned on or off, and which inputs will be used, etc. You can also insert delays and whatever other commands you want. In whatever Activity, I would insert a delay that's sufficient to allow your TV to power on, and then be prepared for other commands. After the delay is done, set it to issue a command to set it to whatever channel.

As far as setting the volume, I'm not sure about that. The 890 is generally at the mercy of the commands that your receiver or preamp is willing to accept. I've used the 890 with three different preamps, and none of them have offered discrete volume levels. If the 890 is always going to set the volume to, say, -50dB, it would need a discrete IR signal for that, otherwise it doesn't know where it started and how many "up" or "down" volume "button presses" to issue. I suppose you could program it to set the volume to "down" for a "long time", at which point you could assume it's at its minimum, and then allow the 890 to issue however many number of "up volume" commands until it's at the point you want it to be.

In the end, I gave up with all that type of automation because it never really knew if I wanted the TV on or off. I put all "power on" and "power off" buttons under an Activity called "Power". I just go to that Activity and turn on what I need and move on. Once I started allowing the 890 to turn things on and off, it was a mess. This mess was partially due to my usage, because I may not want the TV on for the "DVD Player" activity if I'm only listening to music. I just found it easier to do power on/off myself. I also put the appropriate power on/off controls as the last "page" within an Activity. That is, in the "DVD Player" Activity, there is a "TV On" control on the last page within that activity. I can then turn on the TV (or whatever else I might need) without going back to my "Power" Activity.

It works pretty well for us. Hey, if my wife can use it, we're doing OK!

Good luck!

 

[mtrycrafts]

Hmmm, I've been using the 890 for almost three years now, ...

It works pretty well for us. Hey, if my wife can use it, we're doing OK!

Good luck!

I need to consider a remote that can do a number of boomboxes. How do you like yours?

 

[OttoMatic]

I need to consider a remote that can do a number of boomboxes. How do you like yours?

Boomboxes rule! The 890 will control any number of them!

I love the 890. It's very flexible and works great. There are one or two things that I wish I could do that I can't (e.g., assign a Z-Wave device to be controlled under an Activity), but those minor shortcomings are expected.

I generally like the PC interface to program the device. I do wish it were faster (but I only reprogram a couple times a year, so it's not that big a deal), and I wish there were some other GUI niceties, but overall it's pretty good.

I understand that there are many happy owners of the "Universal" brand as well, but I've never used one.

Let me know if you have any specific questions, and I'll answer as best I can.

 

[mod]

I would insert a delay that's sufficient to allow your TV to power on, and then be prepared for other commands. After the delay is done, set it to issue a command to set it to whatever channel.

Sooooo, where can I learn more about these commands? I have a Yamaha Rx-V663 receiver and can't figure out how to issue a command to start on a specific band, such as FM, or a specific station, or even how to change bands after it's on. Is there information somewhere that I'm overlooking?

 

[FirstReflection]

No, I don't think you're overlooking anything. Sometimes, you have to be rather creative is all and there are no handy instructions for that.

Basically, in order to get your Harmony to do whatever you want it to do, it's best if you can figure out how you would go about getting the setup you want while still using the original remote controls.

For example, I recently set up a system with a Harmony Remote for a coworker. He had a Jamo all-in-one system that used a confusing button layout where there were 4 buttons for the various inputs. Except there were 7 inputs and most of the buttons would toggle between two different sources. There were no discrete button codes.

More than that, when watching TV, he wanted it to turn on the TV, turn on the cable box, turn on the Jamo surround sound and automatically tune to the weather channel when he first turned it on, but just go back to whatever it was on last if he was switching from watching a DVD or listening to music or something.

Solution?

First, for the Jamo, I discovered that if I turned it off, turned it back on and then pressed the "DVD input" button (which also doubled as the "Front A/V Input" button) that it would always go to the DVD input - regardless of the input it was last on before it was turned off. So that was great. It gave me a knowable starting point. From there, rather than use any of the 4 input selection buttons, there was a command in the Harmony database to just cycle through all of the inputs in a fixed order.

So, in order to always get the Jamo on the correct input for any given source, I would first make sure a command was sent to turn the Jamo off. Then turn it back on. Then press the "DVD input" button. Then use the input cycle button to press however many times were necessary to get to the correct input.

Round about method? You betcha! But at least it was reliable

Getting the TV and cable box on - no problem. And getting the cable box to tune to the weather channel was as simple as adding commands to the "Activity" telling the cable box to hit the channel number buttons and enter.

But how to get the cable box to just stay on the last channel it was on when switching from some other activity? Well, the only solution was to create 2 seperate "Watch TV" Activities. I just labelled one as "Watch TV - Weather" and the second as just "Watch TV". No biggie

The Harmony Remotes are not magic. But what they are great for is in allowing many many remote commands to all be sent with just a single button press. The "Activities" setup is also more intelligent that just a universal remote that can program macros.

One thing to make sure of is that you go into the "Power Settings" of each and every device and make sure that it is set to power on and off in the way that you want. If you set the Power Settings for the Devices, they will automatically adjust within their Activities as well.

When all else fails, just go through all of the options available, one by one, for each device and each activity, just to make sure you don't miss any options

Best of luck!

 

[Nomo]

Sooooo, where can I learn more about these commands? I have a Yamaha Rx-V663 receiver and can't figure out how to issue a command to start on a specific band, such as FM, or a specific station, or even how to change bands after it's on. Is there information somewhere that I'm overlooking?

It may be necessary to have the Harmony learn those commands directly from the original remote and include those commands in the activity macro.

As far as the RX-V663 goes: There most likely exists a .pdf file of all of Yamaha's discrete remote commands. I did a quick Google search and couldn't come up with anything, but it should be around somewhere.

Email Yamaha. Ask for the standard and extended IR commands. For some reason they choose to not put them on their website. If nothing else, check out posts 15 and 16 in this thread.
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50378
Obviously, these are for the RX-V1800. But it would make sense that some of the commands would work for your receiver as well. There are commands for AM and FM, as well as for some of the tuner presets.

As was mentioned above you need to a bit creative, and patient, in the programming of the Harmony's.

 

[Nomo]

Ah Crap!!
I just took a closer look at the RX-V663 remote. I does not appear to have the capablity to output the discrete codes. (no learn button)
Looks like you're stuck with what ever codes are within the Harmony's database and what basic commands the Yamaha can teach it.

Sorry.

 

[OttoMatic]

Sooooo, where can I learn more about these commands? I have a Yamaha Rx-V663 receiver and can't figure out how to issue a command to start on a specific band, such as FM, or a specific station, or even how to change bands after it's on. Is there information somewhere that I'm overlooking?

Hi there,

I'm not sure you're overlooking it. I'm not sure how there documentation is; I never really read the manual, and I don't even think there was one supplied with my remote. I've just been playing with it for a long time, I've read some forum questions from them when I run into problems, and I've called customer service a couple times (I understand they aren't going to have the call in number as available as it was, which is too bad).

Try this:

In the Harmony software, under Activities, get the Activity you want and select "Settings" -> Review Settings for this Activity -> Yes, but I want to add more control ... -> and then go through all the questions about what device you use and what channel they will be on.

Once you go through the normal questions, there will be a summary of the options you selected from those basic questions. Under that, there will be a drop down menu that says "Add action for". From that menu, you can pull down the device you want and you can add delays as well as any applicable command for that device. You can make it quite complicated if you like.

That macro will then run when you start the Activity. You might have to play with it a bit, especially if you are setting delays, but you should be able to get it to work.

Good luck!

 

[OttoMatic]

Ah Crap!!
I just took a closer look at the RX-V663 remote. I does not appear to have the capablity to output the discrete codes. (no learn button)
Looks like you're stuck with what ever codes are within the Harmony's database and what basic commands the Yamaha can teach it.

Sorry.

The Harmony database has the most extensive listing of commands possible, at least as far as I can tell. If there are discrete on/off commands available for the RX-V663, they will be there. They have all the commands for the weirdest little devices I have, so I'm sure all the Yamaha commands will be there.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Boomboxes rule! ...
Let me know if you have any specific questions, and I'll answer as best I can.

Thanks I finally figured out how to program the remote that came with my new boombox. My needs are not much, don't need to push one button and everything goes as it should. Don't mind pushing several buttons and now I may be able to use just the new one. I'll give it a test drive and see

 

[mod]

Thanks for all the advice here. Just so you know how much of a novice I am, until recently my experience was limited to an old JVC TV and its remote. A few months ago I decided to "upgrade" and now I have the plasma, the Yamaha receiver, 2 dvd players, etc. So all of a sudden I'm trying to learn everything all at once with all of this equipment and remotes. Thanks for being patient with me.

I've been reading the manuals and the posts here are helping to make sense of it all for me. Trouble is I'm still getting stumped on basic stuff I guess. For example, page 12 of the 890 user manual tells how to add favorite channels and icons to the remote. I've tried it 4 times and can't get it to show up on the remote. I've rechecked what I've done on the online program and it shows I've input my channel numbers and added icon images in the Watch TV activity. But when I select the Watch TV activity on the remote it gives me a screen that shows the buttons are labeled as A, B, C, List, Fav, Aspect. A and B take me to cable TV info pages on the TV, C, List, and Fav do nothing. Aspect changes the aspect of the TV screen. I can't find what controls this screen or how to possibly update or change it. I can't get favorites to work or show up at all.

I know it'll get easier with experience, but for now I'm stumped again.

 

[OttoMatic]

Do you have a link for the version of the manual that you are reading? I'll poke around for it if I have time. I've never added favorite channels or icons.

 

[mod]

I got the manual from the sw. When you go into the help tips it gives you a tab for the manual and it downloads as a pdf. Couldn't find a web link.

 

[recsq]

Boomboxes rule! The 890 will control any number of them!

I love the 890. It's very flexible and works great. There are one or two things that I wish I could do that I can't (e.g., assign a Z-Wave device to be controlled under an Activity), but those minor shortcomings are expected.

I generally like the PC interface to program the device. I do wish it were faster (but I only reprogram a couple times a year, so it's not that big a deal), and I wish there were some other GUI niceties, but overall it's pretty good.

I understand that there are many happy owners of the "Universal" brand as well, but I've never used one.

Let me know if you have any specific questions, and I'll answer as best I can.

I didn't have any trouble getting my 890 to adjust the lights (Z-wave dimmers) as part of my watch DVD/TV activities. I only wish it would bring the lights back up when I shut it down.

 

[OttoMatic]

Yeah, I think it can control a "scene" programmed for a Z-Wave device (or multiple Z-Wave devices) as part of an Activity macro, but I don't think I can assign a Z-Wave device to be part of my Activity. I would like to be able to have a Z-Wave device show up in the Activity so that I can assign it to one of the soft buttons on the screen. For example, I would have soft button for "L Room Lights +" and another for "L Room Lights -". Maybe I'll poke around at it some more. It's possible that they've changed things in the software -- I've definitely seen them improve things in the past.

Thanks!

 

[Halon451]

What cable box do you have? If it's a Scientific Atlanta, you can bypass the need to program the Harmony for a specific channel when turned on by setting that up directly in the cable box. I'm sure other brands have similar functionality these days. That's what I did with mine; reduces the need for extra macro commands in your remote, and all that other fun stuff - that is, if you plan on having it tuned to that channel every single time.

I just picked up the Harmony 510 before Christmas and I love it. Bought one for my Dad for Christmas in fact, while it may not have all the bells and whistles of the 890, it's a fantastic device - especially for those (like my Dad) who are easily confused by the complexity of modern home entertainment systems.

 

[recsq]

Oh I see yeah that would be cool so far I just have a new activity labled RF but it would be nicer inside an activity.

 

[highfigh]

I've setup my 890 for the TV, 2 dvds, a vcr, a receiver, and a cable box. So far, I'm really happy with it. The sw mentions being able to start your tv on a specific channel and I've read that the volume on the receiver can be set, etc, etc. But I can't find anything that tells me how to do those things. I see where I can send a "band" command to my receiver, but I have no idea what that does. It apparently doesn't let me choose am/fm or anything. Then there's a section that lets me choose IR commands such as 1 thru 9. But I have no idea what that does.

Is there somewhere I can look to find out more about programming the 890?

Go back to the setup and it will ask what channel/input you want the cable box and TV set to.

Look on the home page for the Support button and in that, it has waaaaayyyyyy too many FAQs, but it's all in there. Unfortunately, it takes far too long to find most things.

You can map commands to most of the buttons. If you go to Custom and Change Behavior of Buttons, you'll see a screen that shows Device and Command dropdowns for each button. Once you select the device that you want to control, select the command and if you see blue arrows, they're for changing the order of the commands. You can also add commands to a button press and that's one of the options when you first open Custom. They call it a "add a sequence". Worst case, call their support number and have them walk you through it, but you'll need to have a list of what you want to change, first. Otherwise, it's a waste of time for them because they have other customers to help.

For Band, you can use almost any button. I have used the + and E buttons at the bottom of the keypad. One is fine if it's just a Band command and if AM and FM are discreet commands, use one for each.

 

[highfigh]

Thanks for all the advice here. Just so you know how much of a novice I am, until recently my experience was limited to an old JVC TV and its remote. A few months ago I decided to "upgrade" and now I have the plasma, the Yamaha receiver, 2 dvd players, etc. So all of a sudden I'm trying to learn everything all at once with all of this equipment and remotes. Thanks for being patient with me.

I've been reading the manuals and the posts here are helping to make sense of it all for me. Trouble is I'm still getting stumped on basic stuff I guess. For example, page 12 of the 890 user manual tells how to add favorite channels and icons to the remote. I've tried it 4 times and can't get it to show up on the remote. I've rechecked what I've done on the online program and it shows I've input my channel numbers and added icon images in the Watch TV activity. But when I select the Watch TV activity on the remote it gives me a screen that shows the buttons are labeled as A, B, C, List, Fav, Aspect. A and B take me to cable TV info pages on the TV, C, List, and Fav do nothing. Aspect changes the aspect of the TV screen. I can't find what controls this screen or how to possibly update or change it. I can't get favorites to work or show up at all.

I know it'll get easier with experience, but for now I'm stumped again.

You have to type the ID of the favorite channel in order to see what it is, other than maybe Fav 1, Fav 2, etc.

Until you are more familiar with the programming, press the Device button, then whatever the Cable box is called and select the command. It will have a full set. When you're done, press the Activity button and it will go back to what you were doing.