Logitech dropping support for the older Harmony remotes

[3db]

Logitech is dropping support for its oldest Harmony remotes

You won’t be able to reprogram your first-generation Harmony universal remote once Logitech cuts support for the devices.

www.pcworld.com

 

[Trell]

I've the Harmony Elite and I, like in the article, wonder how long it will still be supported.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I've had a Logitech Harmony 890 universal remote. I could deal with less-than-ideal software programming. I could deal with the "spicy pillow" user-replaceable battery. What I couldn't live with is that shortly after 1st year (coincides with the end of the warranty), the most frequently used buttons become unusable, a common problem on this model of remote since Logictech used the cheapest possible switches.
From that point on, for me, it's URC or nothing.

As for article, Nothing surprises me any more - another planned obsolescence to sell you more disposable crap.

 

[lovinthehd]

None of mine are on the list...yet.

 

[highfigh]

Those aren't actually first gen remotes, but they are 1st Gen Logitech remotes- the photo shows one of them and it was from the time when Harmony had a couple of private stakeholders and a few employees who built the first ones after receiving components from manufacturing. I saw something on TV about them, found out who sold them and bought one for testing in 2003- that software still works and I still need it for some customer's remotes. That may be part of the coming change but I use it more for record-keeping than anything else. It still works, too- I just put batteries in and tried a few activities. It wasn't as user friendly, but it was from the time when Pronto ruled Custom Integration.

 

[highfigh]

I've had a Logitech Harmony 890 universal remote. I could deal with less-than-ideal software programming. I could deal with the "spicy pillow" user-replaceable battery. What I couldn't live with is that shortly after 1st year (coincides with the end of the warranty), the most frequently used buttons become unusable, a common problem on this model of remote since Logictech used the cheapest possible switches.
From that point on, for me, it's URC or nothing.

As for article, Nothing surprises me any more - another planned obsolescence to sell you more disposable crap.

THis wasn't planned, COVID killed Harmony because let's face it, consumers who try to program their own remotes are gonna need a lot of tech support and once COVID was causing people to stay at home, they wanted to be able to see & hear friends & family, so Logitech's video conferencing stuff was outselling Harmony remotes 10:1, with basicaly zero need for support. That came from the manager of Logitech's Digital Products Group. I was one of the Beta testers for the Elite, Companion and Pro2400- he called us he called to give us the real story, rather than have us hear and see it from someone who wasn't involved. Harmony existed for almost 20 years and they were really giving URC a run for their money- when I would go to URC training, they would poke fun at Harmony because of the activity-based function, the Help button and other things but then, URC suddenly had a help button, called macros 'activities' and tried to make a real hard sell- they were feeling the pinch. Also, I had serious problems with some of the URC tech support people. One time, I wasn't able to upload the program to an MX-780, so I talked to the guy and asked if he wanted me to send the program file to him so he could check it. His response was "I don't know what good that would do". I was freaking speechless because what I wanted to do was done before by other tech support people and it's EXACTLY what he should have told me to do. I told the national trainer about this and thought his head was going to explode. Others were incredibly rude, others didn't seem to care and a couple didn't really know how to do what was needed . A few, OTOH, were great and knew URC programming backward and forward.

Harmony's database is far more complete, too. Not only did their tech support answer questions, they would have people learn codes and analyse them in real time, during the phone calls. I can't begin to guess at the number of commands I had to teach the MX editor immediately after updating it.

THe buttons usually stopped working because they didn't seal the front of the remote and all kinds of conductive stuff could get in. Not accusing you of anything- I saw these with button problems even if they were pristine but yes, cost considerations cause these problems. Not sure who made the batteries but I recently found two that had actually split open. Not a fan of Lithium for batteries like those.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

THis wasn't planned, COVID killed Harmony because let's face it, consumers who try to program their own remotes are gonna need a lot of tech support and once COVID was causing people to stay at home, they wanted to be able to see & hear friends & family, so Logitech's video conferencing stuff was outselling Harmony remotes 10:1, with basicaly zero need for support.

Sure buddy. For the remote released in 2006 and it sucked due to poor a$$ design, yes - it was definitely the COVID that killed it. You're right as usual.

 

[3db]

Sure buddy. For the remote released in 2006 and it sucked due to poor a$$ design, yes - it was definitely the COVID that killed it. You're right as usual.

Highfigh is right. Logitech even mentioned that in their announcement when they dropped Harmony support. Its apparent to me that you have a grudge against Logitech that you can't let go. Sounds like a "you" problem.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Highfigh is right. Logitech even mentioned that in their announcement when they dropped Harmony support. Its apparent to me that you have a grudge against Logitech that you can't let go. Sounds like a "you" problem.

Again, reading comprehension isn't strong isn't it? Let me ELI5 it for you:
I said the Harmony remote I've bought in 2006 was bad. I moved on to other brand. COVID had nothing to do with my decision or bad quality of that particular remote.

 

[3db]

Again, reading comprehension isn't strong isn't it? Let me TL;DR it for you:
I said the Harmony remote I've bought in 2006 was bad. I moved on to other brand. COVID had nothing to do with my decision or bad quality of that particular remote.

Much stronger than yours apparently. I was addressing the point that Highfigh was right and had nothing to do with your experience. Once again you demonstrated another "you' problem.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Much stronger than yours apparently. I was addressing the point that Highfigh was right and had nothing to do with your experience. Once again you demonstrated another "you' problem.

My point -> here
VAST SPACE in Between
Your understanding -> here

HF points broken down:
COVID brought bad high profits for Logitech. Harmony wasn't terrible.URC tech support was spotty.
The Buttons on harmony supposedly failed due to "dirt", or not. Some Batteries are bad.

HF went over many subjects, some relevant to my post, most aren't.
The buttons on 890 failed specifically not due to outside "conductive material" but bad design, cleaning the contacts with alcohol DID NOT resolve the issue. The remote never got dirty or spilled any liquids on. Again, it was bad hardware design as HF admitted it due to reducing product cost. Same goes for batteries. They were bottom of the barrel.
These issues with that particular model are VERY WELL documented and were a VERY widespread issue which occurred nearly always after the first year of usage, which Logitech/Harmony did nothing to fix. These issues happened LONG BEFORE COVID, so it's 100% irrelevant.


So, yeah - It sounds like YOU problem very much so. while you accuse me of incompetence, do look in the mirror sometimes, buddy.

 

[Golfx]

Couldn’t deal with the impending doom so I switched to Control4 IP control.

Yes it is more expensive and yes you have to use a dealer/programmer to get you started.

 

[3db]

My point -> here
VAST SPACE in Between
Your understanding -> here

HF points broken down:
COVID brought bad high profits for Logitech. Harmony wasn't terrible.URC tech support was spotty.
The Buttons on harmony supposedly failed due to "dirt", or not. Some Batteries are bad.

HF went over many subjects, some relevant to my post, most aren't.
The buttons on 890 failed specifically not due to outside "conductive material" but bad design, cleaning the contacts with alcohol DID NOT resolve the issue. The remote never got dirty or spilled any liquids on. Again, it was bad hardware design as HF admitted it due to reducing product cost. Same goes for batteries. They were bottom of the barrel.
These issues with that particular model are VERY WELL documented and were a VERY widespread issue which occurred nearly always after the first year of usage, which Logitech/Harmony did nothing to fix. These issues happened LONG BEFORE COVID, so it's 100% irrelevant.


So, yeah - It sounds like YOU problem very much so. while you accuse me of incompetence, do look in the mirror sometimes, buddy.

To dumb this down so that you can even understand this....

Logitech received bigger profits from their video conference product lines (due to Covid) which precipitated them to halt further development of their remotes. That was stated by Logitech. Its not planned obsolescence like you incorrectly chimed in. Highfigh was right in that statement and I reiterated that. You had a bad experience with one model and it comes across as the blame for dropping their support on the OLDER models which the 890 is a part of.

Highfigh is also right that Logitech is much easier to program than URC and Logitech's support from their programming support was top notch.

BTW, I'm so NOT your buddy. The attitude you put into this thread is toxic and there in lies the "you" problem. I never accused you of being incompetent.......

 

[highfigh]

Sure buddy. For the remote released in 2006 and it sucked due to poor a$$ design, yes - it was definitely the COVID that killed it. You're right as usual.

The product line, not that one model. Buddy. I'm not sure the 890 was available after about 2010, anyway.

 

[highfigh]

Again, reading comprehension isn't strong isn't it? Let me ELI5 it for you:
I said the Harmony remote I've bought in 2006 was bad. I moved on to other brand. COVID had nothing to do with my decision or bad quality of that particular remote.

They had better models at the time- you could have picked one of those......

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

They had better models at the time- you could have picked one of those......

Jeez, why didn't I think about such a great idea? I liked the 890 remote just fine for the first year, until it started having serious issues. It wasn't a budget product/series. It had a color screen. Its list price was $399, but sure - I wish I had hindsight 20/20 vision and bought a "better" model.

The bottom line, before I exit this thread, is that, YES, I have an axe to grind with the Harmony based on the single remote I owned. Some people who bought "better" remotes may have had entirely different experiences.
I got burned one time on a terribly designed product, and yes, in my anecdotal survey of 1 out of 1 Harmony remotes, they failed and failed badly. "Fool me once" was enough for me.

As for the Harmony series, you could probably see why I can't feel too bad about them being discontinued.

 

[3db]

I nailed it spot on the first time.

 

[highfigh]

Jeez, why didn't I think about such a great idea? I liked the 890 remote just fine for the first year, until it started having serious issues. It wasn't a budget product/series. It had a color screen. Its list price was $399, but sure - I wish I had hindsight 20/20 vision and bought a "better" model.

The bottom line, before I exit this thread, is that, YES, I have an axe to grind with the Harmony based on the single remote I owned. Some people who bought "better" remotes may have had entirely different experiences.
I got burned one time on a terribly designed product, and yes, in my anecdotal survey of 1 out of 1 Harmony remotes, they failed and failed badly. "Fool me once" was enough for me.

As for the Harmony series, you could probably see why I can't feel too bad about them being discontinued.

I'm not happy about it because I have several customers with Harmony remotes. Have they been prefect? No, but none of the brands I have dealt with were.

Out of curiosity, which URC do you have? They have had some issues, too- the MX780 displays lost brightness not long after that model was released, so they replaced them for while. I have had to replace other URC models and one of the worst problems was when they required a serial connection, but serial ports were discontinued, so an adapter was needed and those were far from consistent. I bought the one they rated as best, but it really was a PITA- I wasted a lot of time trying to program an MX-850 and even the guy who made the training videos for URC couldn't get it to work, so I scrapped that account and created a new one. That guy was great and was the one who asked me to e-mail the file so he could test it. I do like the fact that the remotes can be used without any connection to the internet and my fear that Harmony would go boobs up and kill the database & programming fuction will come at some point, but they also found that people were accepting the use of a smart phone app to operate their equipment. It's not just the US that has been boned, either.

RTi designed some remote models and if they went bad, the program couldn't be extracted, unlike URC- if a programmer is no longer available, a URC program is still usable. THAT, I like.

I tried using UEI and several others, like SofaBaton- that was not good. Nice idea, look good, didn't have much of a library and tech support was seriously lacking.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

@highfigh URC RFS200. Paid $80 for in back in 2010. While not entirely indestructable and has crappy programming (no pc here) - it's build quality is head and shoulders about 890 and it starting having button failures only recently. 15 years lifespan for a remote = I call it a win. Buttons still kinda work, but need to be pressed harder.

 

[highfigh]

@highfigh URC RFS200. Paid $80 for in back in 2010. While not entirely indestructable and has crappy programming (no pc here) - it's build quality is head and shoulders about 890 and it starting having button failures only recently. 15 years lifespan for a remote = I call it a win. Buttons still kinda work, but need to be pressed harder.

I have a customer who didn't like the Harmony 1100 remote I had set up for his wife before they were married, so he threw it onto the Oak floor. They have an Elite, now. The 1100 wirked fine, he just couldn't use it, even with the cheat sheet. He had problems with the, 650 remote, too- she texted me to say that she had to talk him off of the ledge that weekend because he couldn't get the speakers to work in the Master Bathroom. If I had been there both times, I wouLd have shouted "USE THE HELP BUTTON!"- the second time, he started pushing buttons and really worked some magic on it. I find that pressing the master power button on amplifiers with Auto Sense prevents it turning on. He also messed with the stereo receiver's sspeaker selector buttons, even though there was no reason to. He couldn't understand that once the system has been turned off (and the switches set incorrectly were made right), the remote sends discrete commands, so it all goes as planned and if not, the help button can be used to fix it. I have many Harmony remotes out there for 15 years or more and although dropping on hardwood floors isn't great for them, they're not unique in being damaged by the sudden stop. I drop my Companion on carpet frequently, but it's padded and the remote is lightweight.

Have you looked at the remote, to see if it can be disassembled easily? If you try using a cotton swab with Alcohol, you may be able to get it to work normally.