The Harmony 1100 Owner's Thread... - Page 9

if you use the default power settings at the device level (off when not in use...not in use = not in the activity) and the activity level (turn off unused devices...i.e. devices not in the activity), then when you start an activity, it will only turn on what's needed...and you can move directly to another activity and it will turn on any 'new' devices that weren't on based on the current activity and turn off things that aren't needed based on the new activity.

so for instance, I'm in the all off state, I press watch tv, my tv turns on, my hd dvr cable box turns on, my receiver turns on to the right input (all my video runs through the receiver so the tv never has to change input, but your tv would also be set to the right input). I then decide to watch a movie...so I press activities, watch dvd...my hd dvr cable box turns off, my BR player turns on and the receiver changes input...the remote knows the tv and receiver are already on...

trust me, after using activities, you won't call them 'dreaded'....just remember, the activity itself handles all power and input changing...there is NO need to add any of those commands manually. activities differ from other universal remotes that use the 'macro' methodology. a macro is a SET string of commands. activities take into account what state the devices should be in based on the current activity and adjust the commands needed to be sent.

Dreaded... is sort of like asking a question in this forum and knowing your gonna get a ton of responses back, none of which answer the question that was asked.

I was trying to explain that the bolded part wasn't the case. I don't think you understand activities.

but to answer your question, yes, you can have the remote not automatically send power signals...and then control them manually. keep in mind, activities don't power on EVERYTHING in your setup, as I explained, the default settings would only power on what's in that activity and would turn off anything that was on from another activity...in short, it would be doing what you want to do manually.

trust me...give it a shot with the default settings...you'll like it...if not, I'll help you do what you want

Yes I understand it doesnt turn all components on at once but it does turn off all other components besides the activity just selected. I dont want it to turn anything on or off, unless I speficially tell it too.

01) I may have already turned the component on when as an example I put the movie in the player.
02) I certainly dont want it turning all other components off. I may be still using something else such as having another component downloading or DVR'ing something.
03) Components such as my dvd burner may or may not be using the cable box at the same time

As a pathetic but somewhat funny side; while setting up (playing with) the remote yesterday in my home office (1st floor of house) I clicked the activities buttons to see what buttons/options it gives by default in the"watch tv" activity. Not thinking about the auto power on crap or the new wireless extender, I was very surprised later when my wife who happened to go down in the basement noticed that it turned everything on in the ht room.

What I would prefer is, first disabling all this auto power on/off options for all activities. I would then like to set up a control activity that has custom buttons being the power button for each component, plus input selector for receiver. I then can turn on whatever I want, while leaving other components on or off as desired. The actual activities for everything else should work as normal with the exception of not turning devices on or off automatically.

In the activities section, when I go into review settings, it lists the power sequences. In that I can see where it says "All other devices are off" but I dont see a way to skip or remove this, it only allows adding more or re-running the activity wizard.

And just to add publicly that I hope ya can see that im being sarcastic in my posts. Wannabe has been very helpful, specially in answering a ton of questions via pm.

if you're hard pressed to really set it up this way then try this.
under the 'adjust power settings' for all your devices set it ito 'i want to leave this device on all the time.'
then create a new activity, any activity that uses one or more of your devices, and after you finish setting it up review the settings and select "yes, but i want to add more control of options and devices..."
add all the devices not in use.
i believe you should now be able to add all the power on/off and input buttons from all devices to that one activity. all your devices will stay on or off as you leave them, and you have yourself a harmony-looking remote with dumb-state technology.

Thanks squareeyes & Wannabe. I found an option to disable the "Turn off unused devices" in the Change Activity Options screen but for now will leave it as you both recommend until it becomes a problem (and I lose a recording...). However Im already finding it a pain in the butt to even try to view any remotes activity buttons to customize without it turning everything in the room on for that activity...

Now Im not seeing much of a difference as far as options wether I use the wizard to set up an activity or set it up manually, are they both the same or does manual offer more options that I might not be seeing?

After initial set up of an activity Im not seeing much documentation as far as customizing the buttons, favorites, icons etc... is there anything specific to set up that you may recomend?

i couldn't really recommend how to set up your activity's command buttons without knowing what you want to accomplish from each activity.
i typically set up mine with the color buttons for my devices, a few speaker channel volume buttons (i have neighbors nearby), eject buttons, etc.

what i do recommend is sticking with manual set up for each individual activity and allowing the remote to power on/off devices using its patented smart-state technology (oh no! not that crap again?!).

Dont start your $hit again, ive already yielded and said I would try the default activities for now.... Umm nothing specific but since there doesnt seem to be much documentation on the activities section and what can be done as far as customazation I figured I would ask if there was anything recommended to set up for average type functions?

I know as far a favorite channels and that stuff that will be dependent on my own channels etc but as far as say blu-ray & HD DVD is there any specific that might not be added by default that should be set up?

i would customize all your activities with your most-used commands. i rarely stick with any of the default.
for blu-ray/dvr-- color buttons on the side blades (what i call those side buttons on the activity screens). blu-ray might also get a 'bookmark' command if you happen to use that once in awhile. i like to make the side blades common to all the screens in one activity so that commands are always in the same place. makes for intuitive finger mapping.
on my listen to digital music activity i like to have my tv on/off button in the command so i can turn off the screen and just listen to tunes between menu navigation.
if you have light dimmers, you may want to include commands for them as well... and so on, and so on.
there really isn't a manual to set this stuff up. it's kind of like chess... you can learn all the moves easy enough, but the strategy is up to you and the particular game (or in this case, your particular equipment and av preferences).

Understandable that most will be a matter of preference but ya already gave me a few ideas such as adding the lights to the activity, which saved me my crippled butt at least one trip up and down the basement steps before I thought of adding it.

For each of these changes, do I really need to keep bring the wireless extender up and updating it? I can picture if I add a new device that wasnt already in the remote but just for changes to the activity screen?

that, i do not know. i don't use rf on the 1100.
btw... if you haven't found it already, you can also add those light dimmer commands to kick in at the start and end of an activity.... it would be impressive to have your 'watch a movie' activity kick in the screen light up with equipment on, and then after a well-timed pause have those theater lights dim down automatically.

Ok now I know this problem is gonna be ironic coming from me but... I set up 3 activities using all the default values. This includes that I have NOT disabled any power options, everything is at default! Testing the activities, its powering the new components on as it should but if I switch from one activity to starting another, its not powering the no longer needed components off.

(gonna have to set the laptop up in the basement, this running up and down the steps is killing me... oh well time to pop some oxycontin)

That does sound cool... hmmm Ill come back to the lighting after everything else since I may need to add some different dimmers and rf options to the lights now

first thing to try is to make sure you're using discrete power commands for all devices that have them (ie. use 'power off' and 'power on' commands rather than 'power toggle' commands).
if that doesn't solve the issue, then ask wannabe. i rarely use my 1100 other than for testing icons.
sorry can't be more help.
you might also try posting your questions at the logitech harmony forum. you'll get alot more ideas from other users and wannabe is more present on that site.
http://forums.logitech.com/logitech/...emote_controls

Even if it was a toggle, as long as it was not out of sync it should work, correct? And they have on & off commands in the device section but I dont know how to check what is being used in the actual activity.

i believe you change the power settings for the devices in each device under the 'devices' tab. the activities will use those commands once set. not sure why it's not working, but have seen similar posts where discretes do the trick.
again, will have to defer to wannabe's expertise on the power issue and best place to catch his eye is on the harmony forum.
btw... laptop in the ht room is an excellent idea. i do all my major programming that way and then back to the office for a few weeks of minor remote tweaking while i get used to the setup. or you can keep popping pills... that's worked for me in the past as well

All seems to be working now except the cable box which isnt powering on/off correctly. When I click "watch tv" activity it doesnt turn the cable box on. When I click on help and answer the wizard questions it eventually asks if my cablebox is on, i click no and it instantly fixes it. So whatever it is, it know how to fix it. But this fix needs to be done each & every time plus its also not shutting the power off when its supposed too.

it's probably the delays. if you have a sa explorer hd8XXX model i can send you the delay and repeat settings i use.
if it's a different stb then go to that make/model's thread here on avs and ask other's what delays/repeats they have theirs at for harmony remotes. that's where i usually find out that kind of device-specific info. the harmony forum is another great place to ask about device delays.

Im not sure how setting a longer delay would solve this. Its the first function in the activity, setting a longer delay would only ensure the next component gets the second signal which it already is receiving.

Can someone tell me what does this thing do.

Hi again,

i called support today and spoke to them about the problem with the high pitched tone while the remote is charging. They said that this problem was known with other remotes but not with the 1100. So I should go back to the retailer and swap it. Will do!

Do you know if I have to set up a new account then or can I just use what I have. Would hate to set up the whole thing again.

Thanks

Jens

Tom...sorry, I can't access Avs while at work. I'm working from home today so I can. let me know what/any problems you're still having

joerod is right, since it will be the same model, just login with the same user id and password and then select update remote

Thanks buddy, someone from the harmony site just helped and I found the problem. Unlike all the other component devices the cable box was automatically set to "I want to leave this device on all the time" in the Adjust Power Settings in Devices. My only real question at this point is, should I leave the default value as-is?

depends, is your box also a DVR? does yours record while off? I have a comcast Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD and mine records when off (and I can turn it on/off WHILE it's recording and the recording isn't impacted)...if yours can behave that way, I would use the 'off when not in use' option....if not, then I would leave it at the default 'always on' and add the power command as a button inside the activity (on the LCD) so you can power it on/off yourself after you start the activity

Hi all,

last update - got the new one and the high pitched tone while charging is non existent. The other advantage is that I saved € 100 vs the old one, since the retailer gave me back the moeny I initally paid for it - I ordered it now for € 100 less.... So all in all I am happy again

Jens

Couple of questions before I bite the bullet.

Can you use more than one extender with the harmony 1100. Reason is my equipment is in a seperate room (extender1) and my projector is built into a hush box in the back of the theater (extender2).

How well does this remote interact with Windows Media Center as I use it for all DVD playback (which constitutes 99% of my viewing). Do I have to go an prgram it all or does logitech have a pre-done template for MCE

How difficult is it to program my lighting control and can I place these controls into the activities (ie press pause and the house lights go on etc)

I see JoeRod placed his theatre logo onto the remote. Is this done thru a hack or is it easy enough to choose a "desktop" picture


Any help would greatly be appreciated. I am looking for a Crestron remote on a beer budget and this seems to be the closest. Thanks guys

Yes multiple "logitech RF wireless extenders" although I would suggest trying it without it first or running a stero wire for a direct hook up to the pj. I just live with the pj working on IR and that remains the one item still pointnclick.


dont know about this one


Ill get flammed for this one but oh man this sucks.... Ok first the RF remote doesnt actually work with RF light switches, it only works with the Logitechs RF extender which converts to IR commands. So in reality the RF remote doesnt actually control RF devices.....

Second if you add the lights to an activity, it automatically sets them up to turn on (regardless if you want them to or not) every time you click on the activity. It does not allow you to add any component to the activity without it automatically starting with that activity, unless of course you set the device to ALWAYS ON or ALWAYS OFF which then your stuck if you want it to work differently somewhere else in the remote.

Besides that, I added power on & off button(s) as a custom button in a activity which works ok although this remains (IR) line of site. And no, although older harmony models allowed sequences (more then one command) in an activity to be set, the top of the line Harmony 1100 model does not. You would have to create seperat buttons and commands for each item within your activity.


hahaha they dont allow you to upload your own icons (except for the favorite channel section) for any of the "fully customizable" buttons (a whole 62 icons to pick from) but for some reason they allow you to upload full pictures to the remote for a screen saver. Now keep in mind the screen saver never actually works because as soon as the remote goes idle it shuts off anyway. So it basically shows the first pic in the screen saver for a split second before the lights shut off on the remote.