Success! Hooray!

The folks at HomeTech (www.hometech.com) were quite helpful, and set me up with a Xantech 291-10 IR device, which I installed in the kitchen to listen to IR signals from the "second remote" taht came with the receiver. I threaded the IR signal wire through the wall & cabinets with a little poking (since the cabinets were already drilled for the speaker cables previously installed, so this only took a couple of hours; I don't have the wall fishing-wires that pros use, but I managed by taping the end of the wire to a coathanger.)

The Xantechs are sensitive; I destroyed one using an unregulated 12-volt power supply, but HomeTech helped me out, and I tested out the second one before I left the store. The Xantech + power supply ran a little more than the $60, but I could pick it up.
Installed, it works! I can independently turn on and off, and control the volume. It even can change the radio station. It's still a little funky in that you have to use the Harmony in one room to turn on the CD player, and then the second remote in the kitchen to listen there, but it's workable.

To get the HK second remote to control the DVD/CD player would require an IR emitter out of the back of the receiver to the front of the player; I think I'm going to hold off on that.

For WAF, I wrote a little guide and taped it to the second remote (it's is a little confusing, because you have to press "DVD" to get the CD player and "CD" to get the computer, and "AVR" and then "OFF" to turn it off), but at least controlling the second zone doesn't require a complex walk through 5-second-timed menus.

I've deleted all the "kitchen" activities out of the Harmony setup, since they didn't work out.

I had trouble with the wiring (had to re-solder the connectors once to clear up one problem), and with IR interference (the light from the skylight was interfering with the IR signals to the receiver on top of the cabinets, during the day). I solved the latter problem temporarily by making an aluminum foil 'hat' for the IR receiver. I think I may need to move its mounting point so that it isn't in the sunlight.

Lessons:

* Harmony can't easily do multiple zones with one remote, because there are actually two independent activities
* Harman Kardon made things worse by not making discrete IR commands for controlling the second zone, and (even worse) using the same IR codes for the main room and the second room and distinguishing by the IR input port

This message was edited by lmm on 06/05/05 02:46 ET.