grouchyoldman
06-17-08, 01:22 PM
I had a vexing problem getting the Harmony RF Extender working with the 890 Pro. I'm surprised not to find more discussion about this because according to the Logitech support tech it's fairly common for problems to occur with pairing when the enviroment has a wireless network or other wireless devices.
In my case, I have a 802.11b/g wireless network as well as several cordless phones, so I guess the problems were almost inevitable. Every other step of getting the 890 Pro setup went so smoothly that it caught me by surprise when I hit the Extender. It was also interesting that the Harmony software seems to have a huge gap regarding the RF Extenders, very little guidance on how to add the Extender to the system, even less documentation or FAQs on them and the Troubleshooting section, which is otherwise very impressive, doesn't even mention Extender problems. Weird.
I first stumbled my way through a "normal" install for the Extender. Here's the sequence: MyRemote -> Add Devices -> Add Extender -> Update Extender -> Set Device Control -> Add an Activity (for an extender controlled device) -> Update Extender (again) -> Update Remote.
At the end of that process things are just supposed to work, the pairing between the remote and the extender should have already been taken care of by the software updates. Manual pairing shouldn't normally be needed. In my case, nothing worked and I couldn't find any resources for troubleshooting the problem.
I called Harmony Tech support the minute they opened today and I got right through. The level-one tech took all my contact info and then immediately escalated my case to a level two tech name Christian. Christian listened to my story then decided to try a manually pairing. Here's the sequence: Modify Settings -> Modify Lights -> Pair Z-Wave Devices -> Update Remote -> Done -> Update Remote (Main Menu) -> Update Extender -> Update Remote -> unplug the Remote, power up the Extender and follow the directions on the remote screen.
This will reset the RF net, and manually pair the devices. At this point we take the Remote and the Extender back to the computer and Update them both one more time. Once that's done you power up the Extender again and select an activity on the Remote that uses the Extender and watch to see if the Status and RF lights on the Extender blink. If they do it's probably working, but you may also have to install the little IR emitters on your devices because apparently the IR emitter on the Extender base unit is pretty wimpy.
Hell of a thing isn't it? It took us the better part of an hour to work through all that, and when we finished....(drum roll please) Nothing!
It was at that point that Christian asked me if I had any cordless phones or other wireless devices in my house. Hell Yes! Lots of them. My whole computer net is wireless, isn't everyones? Christian's comments at that point were very polite, but basically the message was, "Oh well then I can't guarantee anything, it may just not work in your house." I didn't see that coming.
Nothing I'd read on the Extender even mentioned what frequency RF it used, much less that it couldn't co-exist peacefully with wireless computer nets or cordless phones! How could they even sell such a silly gizmo?
I finally convinced Christian to try it again with my wireless net temporarily turned off during the pairing process. I know from other wireless experiences that sometimes, once two units have successfully paired, they can work even in a noisy RF environment. So, to make a long story a little shorter, we went through one drill to remove everything we'd just done, then we started over from scratch, but I shut down my net and unplugged the phones during the pairing process.
To my delight the pairing appeared to succeed this time and when we finished the second updates, everything just started working perfectly. Hooray!
I hope this is helpful in setting some other frustrated individual on the right path.
PS: If you Search the Harmony support area for this "FAQID=1085" you'll find an article with some additional information on manual pairing. It's not the same process we followed but it may be useful to someone.
In my case, I have a 802.11b/g wireless network as well as several cordless phones, so I guess the problems were almost inevitable. Every other step of getting the 890 Pro setup went so smoothly that it caught me by surprise when I hit the Extender. It was also interesting that the Harmony software seems to have a huge gap regarding the RF Extenders, very little guidance on how to add the Extender to the system, even less documentation or FAQs on them and the Troubleshooting section, which is otherwise very impressive, doesn't even mention Extender problems. Weird.
I first stumbled my way through a "normal" install for the Extender. Here's the sequence: MyRemote -> Add Devices -> Add Extender -> Update Extender -> Set Device Control -> Add an Activity (for an extender controlled device) -> Update Extender (again) -> Update Remote.
At the end of that process things are just supposed to work, the pairing between the remote and the extender should have already been taken care of by the software updates. Manual pairing shouldn't normally be needed. In my case, nothing worked and I couldn't find any resources for troubleshooting the problem.
I called Harmony Tech support the minute they opened today and I got right through. The level-one tech took all my contact info and then immediately escalated my case to a level two tech name Christian. Christian listened to my story then decided to try a manually pairing. Here's the sequence: Modify Settings -> Modify Lights -> Pair Z-Wave Devices -> Update Remote -> Done -> Update Remote (Main Menu) -> Update Extender -> Update Remote -> unplug the Remote, power up the Extender and follow the directions on the remote screen.
This will reset the RF net, and manually pair the devices. At this point we take the Remote and the Extender back to the computer and Update them both one more time. Once that's done you power up the Extender again and select an activity on the Remote that uses the Extender and watch to see if the Status and RF lights on the Extender blink. If they do it's probably working, but you may also have to install the little IR emitters on your devices because apparently the IR emitter on the Extender base unit is pretty wimpy.
Hell of a thing isn't it? It took us the better part of an hour to work through all that, and when we finished....(drum roll please) Nothing!
It was at that point that Christian asked me if I had any cordless phones or other wireless devices in my house. Hell Yes! Lots of them. My whole computer net is wireless, isn't everyones? Christian's comments at that point were very polite, but basically the message was, "Oh well then I can't guarantee anything, it may just not work in your house." I didn't see that coming.
Nothing I'd read on the Extender even mentioned what frequency RF it used, much less that it couldn't co-exist peacefully with wireless computer nets or cordless phones! How could they even sell such a silly gizmo?
I finally convinced Christian to try it again with my wireless net temporarily turned off during the pairing process. I know from other wireless experiences that sometimes, once two units have successfully paired, they can work even in a noisy RF environment. So, to make a long story a little shorter, we went through one drill to remove everything we'd just done, then we started over from scratch, but I shut down my net and unplugged the phones during the pairing process.
To my delight the pairing appeared to succeed this time and when we finished the second updates, everything just started working perfectly. Hooray!
I hope this is helpful in setting some other frustrated individual on the right path.
PS: If you Search the Harmony support area for this "FAQID=1085" you'll find an article with some additional information on manual pairing. It's not the same process we followed but it may be useful to someone.