Official Logitech Harmony 900 thread - Page 15

correct, new account = setting things up from scratch
this is required when setting up the 900 or the 1100

Has anyone had success in extending the mini-blaster cables? I need to run them about 50 feet to get good line-of-sight coverage.

The 900 works fine for the rack equipment behind closed cabinet doors, but I can't get the mini-blasters working for the other components.

We have a 20x20 theater with the equipment in enclosed cabinets at the left-front corner. The other gear is scattered around the room:
- Projector at center-rear, with remote-control Prismasonic lens in front of projector
- Carada Masquerade screen system with its IR pickup at right front corner
- Lighting controller at the rear left of the room

I figured I'd use the RF Extender in the cabinet for the PS3, A/V Receiver, and Cable Box. Check - all works well. I then tried running 50-foot cables and mounting the mini-blasters on the suspended ceiling, one in front of the projector and one on the right side facing the Carada screen. No go - no device outside the cabinet acts like its receiving IR signals from the mini-blasters.

are you using mono cables or stereo cables? the specs on the blaster are that it has 2.5mm mono jacks on it

I guess you didn't see my post on the previous page:

"On a related cabling note, if you want to extend the length of one of the mini blasters, I tried the Steren 2.5mm Stereo Audio Extension Cable - Sub-mini phone Male Stereo - Sub-mini phone Female Stereo, and even though its not mono, it works great. No other adapters or cables needed. They have them in various lenghths."

I'm not sure if they have one that's 50 feet, but you can easily daisy chain some.

I'm using mono cables and connectors. Since I already had a pair of RCA L/R audio cables run to the projector, I daisy-chained a few adapters in an attempt to make those work.



Drat, you're right. I read through the entire thread and somehow missed your post. I'll search for the Sterens in longer lengths than 3 feet. Thanks!

A lot of places sell them, and they are pretty cheap, just a little confusing telling the difference between the lengths. Got mine by keenzo.com because they are close, though there was a mixup in the order, and their ratings are so-so.

Does anyone have this remote also have a TiVo S3 or HD DirecTiVo (or probably a TiVo HD) ?

If so, is there any problem with up/down arrows acting like they are hit twice.

I'm using mine with a Tivo HD and have had no issues at all.

It should be no problem, you can always run the troubleshooter for It responds too much or not enough then adjust the repeats.

I know there were some previous posts on range but i could use your expert opinions here. Just set up my 900, hoping for a range of about 50 feet through one wall and a wood cabinet. The 900 doesn't even get me halfway there. The 900 was to replace my 890 which works like a charm for the whole distance.

I know it's a different RF protocol etc. Is it worth trying to exchange the 900 for a new one and trying again or should I just accept that the 900 is not going to work for me?

Very very disappointed. Thanks for your advice.

given these details, the alternative i had in mind probably won't work.

I'm finding that the 900 has less battery life than our 1000. I'm unable to use the 900 to skip commercials during a complete recorded NFL game. The 900 stops communicating with the dvr (20' through a sheet rock wall and a 60" plasma) during the fourth quarter.

I'll be moving the 900 to our nephew's home soon, so I need to find out if the battery should hold a larger charge. Much of the time, I was able to skip commercials without having the LCD screen come on.

Good to hear.


I had previously determined that repeats are not the cause of the problem on the 890.

That is not normal for the 900, during Beta testing, I was able to still use my remote after 6 days without it being on the charger

Thanks for the reply. Did you use it for skipping commercials over a three hour period? I'm going to do a more careful test this weekend.

All of my Primtime TV watching is via recording on my Directv DVR, so yes for 3 hours and more. My TV is on almost all day long for most days from 7:00 AM to 10:30 PM using the remote constantly, if I am not watching it then my wife is watching her soaps, so there is usually 4 to 6 hours of programs recorded with commercial skipping going on each day

Mine is used a lot as well during the day and evening, for the first week it seemed to last almost 2 full days, now after a day's use it needs charging. I turned the brightness down to low to see how much difference it makes.

I was using the harmony one for a while before this, and the battery life was better, but not dramatically.

The 880/890 definitely lasts longer. Logitech may need to do something because the battery life seems to get worse with ever new remote.

I have programmed aprox five or six of these and the recurring theme is the distance between the base and the remote is extremely limited.. im talking about 15-20 feet max. One customer I upgraded from an 890 was able to walk all around his house and use his 890 with the 900 he is limited to only his living room. Is there like a channel setting or wave setting? The blaster and RF base or just in a bookshelf type thing with the door closed. This problem occurs with others even with it sitting out in the open. Are there anyway to diagnose this or trouble63372817 shoot it?

Wow, with no macros and the distant issue, its sounding like this remote isn't worth the money.

it seems that most of the beta testers were able to use it about 30 feet away at max in "real world" scenarios
the quoted 100 feet is a straight shot, no inference unrealistic figure

What I dont understand is the 890 would work very far all around the house.. the 900 is suppose to have superior rf technology/functionality.... right?

it's a completely different rf protocol that allows for the wireless updating of the extender and doesn't require the rf licensing issues (which is why Australia saw ir only versions of the 1000 and 1100...the 1000i and 1100i respectively)
personally, other than the wireless update of the "blaster" I don't see anything so far that illustrates the rf is superior

I posted earlier in this thread about my issues with the 900. The distance issue is the biggest gripe I have. I constantly get errors regarding the remote is not communicating with the rf base station. Again, I'm 15' max away from the equipment. The tv is on the wall in front of me, and the equipment is on the opposite side of that wall. The remote has to pass through a non insulated 2x6 interior wall. I don't get why the range is garbage. I moved my router to a new location and that didn't help at all. This thing is so unreliable that half the time during startup, some of the codes don't get sent. I was happier with the IR repeater system and my 880. The battery on this thing is also garbage. I don't watch much tv, and I fully charged the battery when I first go the remote and only charge it when the battery indicator is red. I get a max of 3 days of use out of this thing. Over those three days I watch a total of MAYBE 5-6 hours of tv. I think I'm going to return it and get a Harmony One and use my ir repeater kit.

honestly, given the type of battery it uses, there is no harm in charging it each night
it has way more than enough charge to make it through the day with heavy use, so simply charge it each night
as for the range, yours sounds much worse than others, so I would contact logitech

ftr, I'm not a big fan of the miniblasters vs the old ir blaster tip cables
so I went to radioshack and got a 3/32 to 1/8 mono adapter and used some of the old blaster tip cables I had laying around
the adapter HAS to be mono, as a 3/32 to 1/8 stereo adapter I had laying around didn't work (specs on the blaster are for mono jacks)

Phil (of concordance fame) told me in an email earlier:

We'd love to support the ZWave remotes: 899, 9xx, 1xxx, but we've had quite a lot of trouble reverse engineering them.
We're working on it.

So I guess Z-wave is the RF they moved to that's acceptable in Australia, no idea what was used before.

But hang-on, I could've sworn I read recently that we're still getting this without RF... Unless that person was misinformed?
I think/hope they were, as I vaguely recall a rep. on the Logitech blog saying that RF would be available this time for Australians.

Z-wave is certainly not uncommon, as many deluxe brands (i.e. ridiculously expensive) seem to use it.
Not sure what their range is like with it....

I'm starting to seriously consider on of the ridiculously expensive; Pronto, Nevo, or URC remotes.
But so far my wallet's not agreeing :-) And those makes aren't even expensive compared to some other brands, crazy stuff.

The 890 uses Z-wave. The 900 does not use Z-wave. I have five Z-wave dimmer switches that I control with my 890. For me to "upgrade" to the 900 I would have to move to IR controlled dimmer switches. For the 1XXX remotes Z-wave support was dropped.

I too am having range related issues. With a 14 foot unobstructed distance to the blaster, I get several "blaster not responding" messages a day.

correct, there were beta testers of the 900 in Australia
I really doubt we will see any new harmony remotes sport zwave support
recall, they pulled zwave odd the 1000 and made the 1100 on the old protocol without zwave
they ALWAYS had problems with zwave and secondary remote issues, in fact most people say their lack of secondary remote support many they violated zwave protocol

I'm sorta considering the 900 but have concerns about the few issues brought up on this thread. But I haven't seen anyone address the following issue below, so any thoughts or comments would be appreciated...

We currently have the One controlling our main-level A/V system, with a Xantech IR repeater system (shelf-top receiver - not LCD-proof or plasma-proof model unfortunately - with Xantech 283M stick-on transmitters) to control the equipment behind closed cabinet doors. In general this seems to work just fine, with the following bug: Whenever we enter the "Watch HDTV" activity, the Comcast/Motorola cable box does not respond to the One's commands for the first few minutes. The Yamaha receiver operates just fine, which is located in the same cabinet as the cable box. Any other activity (Listen to CDs, Watch HD DVD, Watch Blu-ray, Listen to FM) has all related equipment being controlled just fine. The cable box is the only one with challenges.

Our LCD TV (Samsung LN-T4061F) sits above the equipment cabinet, with the Xantech shelf-top receiver about two feet to the right of the TV on an adjacent shelf. Also, we do have CFL bulbs in our two overhead light fixtures, one of which is usually on during TV watching. I've noticed when initially entering "Watch HDTV", the Xantech receiver's light does glow reddish, along with all the transmitters inside the cabinet. This glowing usually dims after a few minutes - about the same time the cable box starts reacting to the remote signals

I thought about changing the shelf-top receiver to an LCD-proof model, but came across this thread a few weeks ago. The RF capabilities might work fine since we're only about 10-12 feet away from the equipment cabinet. HOWEVER, I still don't know if we will still have the same potential interference from the LCD TV and/or CFL bulbs in the room with the 990's remote blasters.

Thoughts?

there should be no LCD/plasma interference with the 900 and blaster (ie extender)
see, the way it works is the remote itself sends rf to the blaster, which is inside the cabinet. the blaster and attached mini blasters send out ir to the devices

LCDs and plasmas only cause ir interference in the way that they block ir sensors from receiving ir signals
so your current problem is that your tv is essentially sending out constant ir signals not allowing the box to see signals meant for it
since the blaster doesn't receive ir, there should be no problems

in short, if your box can receive ir signals directly (not through your extender) while the tv is turning on, the 900 will work fine for you