New user to what looks like a great resource...

I'm getting to grips with an 885 but am a bit stuck in one area. I'd like activity pages that let me mix commands from various devices on one page (satellite channel control with volume from my TV for example) but don't want the remote to issue IR commands when I enter those activities.

Right now, my "Watch Satellite" activity turns on my satellite box, turns on my TV and puts it on the right input. I don't want it to do any of those things, just go to the activity page. Is such a thing possible?

Many thanks!

Maybe, but why do you need to do it? I'm sure there's a better way to solve your problem if you'll tell us what you're trying to do.

Thanks for the reply.

What I'd like to do is stick with activity pages, so one page set up to control multiple devices as in the example above.

What I don't really want, are certain commands sent when entering that activity. I don't mind my display being set to a particular input so that could stay, but the power on/off switches seem to be confusing my system. My display only has an power on/off toggle, and I'm finding that when swapping between activities, instead of just changing inputs it's receiving a power command and turning off completely.

I think it would be better to have one macro (or activity) to turn most or all my components on, and another to turn them all off.

There must be something wrong with your setup as switching between activities which involve the same device shouldn't be having this effect.

Can you confirm that you have checked the power setting for the display device have been configured for a power toggle.

If the display device has been incorrectly configured for discrete power on and off commands (but are then actually using a power toggle command) then you might see the behaviour that you are seeing now.

Thanks for the replies.

After some trouble-shooting, I've resolved one problem. I hadn't realised that the remote resets after being updated, so if you test it with out turning your hardware off first, it muddles up the on and off state. That's my bad.

I do still have problems with turning hardware on and off though and what IR commands are sent when entering an activity.

For example, I need to have my satellite box on all the time (people in other rooms are using it) so have set it up as "I want to leave this device on all the time" and "one button to turn it on/off". This works OK, but I'm a bit stuck as to how to turn the box off when completely shutting down the system, or how to turn it back on again after that, given that there isn't a discrete "on" command and the power state isn't included in the activity. If I turn it off via the device menu, then I also need to go into the device menu when starting an activity, which is something people are finding a little confusing.

You either want to leave the device on all the time or you don't.

If you select "I want to leave this device on all the time" then that's what the Harmony will do!

You could add a Power On/Off command to one of the LCD screen buttons in Activity mode so that you could manually send a Power On/Off command before you shut down and after you start up.

If you want to leave the device on all the time while you are in an activity (any activity) but have it turn off when you hit the OFF button, you have 2 options.

Set the power buttons back to Power Toggle (one button for on and off).

Option 1 - set the "leave unused devices on" flag for all activities.
Option 2 - add the device to all the activities as a passthrough device.

But if it's a satellite box then just leave it on all the time and don't worry about ever turning it off.

Many thanks, that seems to have done the trick. Now everything stays on while I'm using the system, but turns off with the main "Off" button when needed. I think the mistake I was making was to try and control the power on a device level rather than on an activity level.

Now I need to read up on how to remove the phantom text that keeps getting added to the LCD, I have two bogus entries on some pages, "Text" and "Repeat".

This is a bug. You can try fixing it yourself by adding the phantom command(s) (exactly as you see it/them on the remote) and updating the remote. Then go back and delete it/them and update the remote again.