Harmony One/890

[D.R. Payne]

I've been looking into getting a swany new remote as my Pronto Neo's learning feature has been unable to learnify my lighting controls and such. The Harmony One looks extremely nice, but I'd really like the RF abilities of the 890. Anyone here have comments on the 890?

 

[OttoMatic]

The 890 works great. You won't be disappointed.

 

[D.R. Payne]

Do you happenn to know, if I create an account, if I can search their list of supported components before buying the remote?

 

[OttoMatic]

Do you happenn to know, if I create an account, if I can search their list of supported components before buying the remote?

Yes, I believe you can install the software, creat an account and then proceed to set everything up as if you actually had the device and were going to use it. They have pretty much everything in the database, and if they don't the remote will certainly learn from original remotes. I've seen some relatively obscure devices like the Chase RLC-1 preamp and the Sirius Sportster receiver. Do you have an oddball device that you're worried about?

Please post if you have other specific questions. I've been using the 890 for about two years now and simply love it, as does my wife. I know there are other options out there that may work just as well, but for us the 890 is great!

 

[D.R. Payne]

Nothing too oddball, just my Aragon Stage One pre/pro. I'll probably go ahead and pick this up.

 

[cjschrot]

question for Otto

I also have the 890 (for about 2 weeks). I set it up and it runs most everything just fine. The only problem is that when I turn off my Panasonic PT-AE1000U you have to hit the power button twice. I can't seem to get the 890 to do that. It will accept the first "off" command, but not the 2nd "confirmation" off command.

Any ideas?

thanks,
cj

 

[OttoMatic]

I also have the 890 (for about 2 weeks). I set it up and it runs most everything just fine. The only problem is that when I turn off my Panasonic PT-AE1000U you have to hit the power button twice. I can't seem to get the 890 to do that. It will accept the first "off" command, but not the 2nd "confirmation" off command.

Any ideas?

thanks,
cj

Hi, cj,

When you say you have to hit the power button twice, which power button do you mean? I think the answer will depend on how you have it set up.

I believe you can set up "sequences" for a particular button push so that the one button push does more than one thing. I think that might help your problem.

I have everything set up so that I turn things on and off manually. I don't allow any macros to cycle power because I just found that things got too confused. I actually created an "Activity" called "Power". In that activity, down the left side is "Preamp On", "DVD On", "R2 On" etc. Down the right side are "Preamp Off", "DVD Off", "R2 Off", etc. It's one way to do it, and it helps me keep things organized for my personal usage. If you did something like that, you could just hit the "Panasonic Off" button twice.

Let me know exactly how you have your power stuff set up and exactly when the problem occurs and I'll see if I can make some sense of it.

 

[cjschrot]

powering off

Otto,

Right now it's set up that when I'm done with whatever I'm watching I hit the power button at the top of the remote. That turns off everything that was on (receiver, tv box/dvd, etc). When I do that, it also turns off the power to the panasonic projector (sort of).

On the original panasonic remote you to turn off you hit the power button once, then it says "to power off hit power again". The problem with the 890 is that nothing happens if I push the power button again. I'll try to do the set up like you mentioned so i can just do it like an activity for the projector...but I really like pushing one button like "watch TV" and having everything powered up/down for me.

Thanks for the help...I'm also having trouble with the RF capability powering up my projector behind the wall (but I'll read the manual a bit more before I ask for help on that one).

thanks again for everything.

cj

 

[aberkowitz]

Otto,

Right now it's set up that when I'm done with whatever I'm watching I hit the power button at the top of the remote. That turns off everything that was on (receiver, tv box/dvd, etc). When I do that, it also turns off the power to the panasonic projector (sort of).

On the original panasonic remote you to turn off you hit the power button once, then it says "to power off hit power again". The problem with the 890 is that nothing happens if I push the power button again. I'll try to do the set up like you mentioned so i can just do it like an activity for the projector...but I really like pushing one button like "watch TV" and having everything powered up/down for me.

Thanks for the help...I'm also having trouble with the RF capability powering up my projector behind the wall (but I'll read the manual a bit more before I ask for help on that one).

thanks again for everything.

cj

What you're describing seems to be more dependent on the settings of the projector. Is there a menu item that will allow you to disable the "are you sure?" feature? I guess I can understand having that in a projector b/c of the time it may take to warm back up, but it seems like its quite annoying. If you can disable the need to double hit the power button then you should be able to shut down with one macro.

 

[OttoMatic]

aberkowitz is right in that it would be nice if you could disable that feature in your projector. We have that same feature in projectors at work, and I think it's because if you accidentally turn it off in the middle of a movie or presentation, everyone's going to go "awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" and make you feel like an idiot.

If you can't disable it in your projector, I bet there's a way to do it in the remote, but I'm not sure how. Perhaps because I don't use any of the power on/off stuff with the remote, I don't have the option to use that "Power" button; it does nothing for me, and although I would like to be able to assign functions to it, I have not found a way (I don't think it shows up as one of the programmable buttons in the "Customize" menu).

There may also be a way to set up your projector's power settings in its setup. If you entered the make and model of the projector in the Logitech software, it should know about the power off sequence for your projector. If it's not implementing it properly, check all the advanced settings for your projector "device" and see if there's something in there that you can change for that aspect. If you "learned" your projector's IR codes from the original remote, the Harmony site may not be able to take advantage of its potential knowledge of the power off sequence (i.e., since you "learned" the codes, it doesn't know what device you are using).

Sorry I can't be much more help than that at the moment. I'd need to look through the site myself. My best suggestion is to call Harmony tech support. They are actually pretty good, and you will be able to talk to a live person on the phone. If you don't get what you want from the first person, ask to talk to "Level 2 Support" or "Tier 2 Support" or something like that. They'll transfer you, and those guys know more than the first level (even though the first level is pretty good).

Good luck!