Pre-Harmony, I had two Sony universal remotes (VL-900s). We have one at one side of the room near two chairs, and the other on the other side of the room near the couch.

Since you were not choosing activities with the Sonys, the remotes volume and mute controls were always set to control the receiver, regardless of what "activity" the other remote user had chosen. If you wanted to actually control the device (say, DVR or DVD player) one quick tap of the device key would allow both remote controls to control the devices.

Is there anyway with the Harmony (lets say you have two H1s, for example) where if one Harmony has selected an activity, you could press a key on the other to effectively join an activity "already in progress," or someway to keep the volume and mute buttons always functioning, even if the last event was to turn everything off?

Would this require setting up duplicate activities that basically select the appropriate device, but don't reset power or inputs?

Thanks,

John

Will you be using both remotes at the same time (in one session)? If not then just select the activity you want and when you're done hit off. You could do that from either remote.

If you want to use them simultaneously you either have to select the same activity on the 2nd remote but hold your hand over the IR emitter on the top of the remote OR set up 2 activities - one that does everything (sets power and inputs) and one that does nothing but gives you the correct button mappings. The down side of option 2 is that you have to turn everything off with the same remote that you turned it on with.

Another option is to leave both remotes in the watch TV activity and use manual buttons to control the TV and receiver power and inputs.

[EDIT: I think I was wrong about all this, they do not share state information.]

I believe the 890Pro is the only Harmony remote which can have two or more (up to six) remotes communicate with each other (thru RF) so that they can share state information like you want. I'm not sure if switching an activity on one will automatically change the activity on the other or not though. The 890Pro may be harder to find a manual for than the consumer remotes but there are other ppl around here who surely can guide you in the right direction.

oooo - sharing state would be ideal!

I think at this point, from an ergonomics point of view, I Prefer the One, though.

Thanks for the input.

Generally, yes.

Power On/Off was an issue B.H. (Before Harmony) too. What I had settled on a few years ago was to leave the receiver on all the time, just muting when not in use, and to only shut it off when we went to sleep. Not so good for my "good to the Earth" cred, I know...

At this point I've configured the Harmony to leave the power on when leaving an activity for my Receiver and BD/DVD player. The TiVo is, of course, always on too.

So, I think given that, I can handle the few seconds pause (now that I have reduced the IR delays) if the second user needs to start an activity, and let that second remote "get into the groove" so to speak.

When we are done for the evening, or an extended period of time, we can hit the Harmony Off button. That seems fine.

Thanks,

John

None of the harmony's feature 2-way communication or communication between remotes AFAIK. Do you have something that indicates the 890 pro does this?

I take back what I said earlier, it looks like they do not share state information. I think I misunderstood what I was reading yesterday on the forums.

I found the 890 Pro manual with a google search for "secondary harmony 890 Pro" at [Link: smarthome.com]
Now, after reading the section "Using Multiple Remotes and RF Wireless Extenders" on page 10, it seems that the primary remote only communicates with the second one to use this Z-wave network for the extenders and lighting devices.

I think I got confused with what's on the next page, how the 890 pro lets you set different rooms locations to keep from having the remote get the state information wrong. I forgot these two features unique to the 890 pro are separate and that state info has nothing to do with the Z-wave network. While it might be technically possible, it might be prohibitively difficult for them to have put in such a feature.

Apologies for getting your hopes up about it.

If all your devices support discrete power and input commands, then you can set both remote the same way including power & input control. When you press "Off" on one remote (to turn everything off), the other remote still thinks the activity devices are on, so it will not resend the power & input commands if you switch to another activity using the same devices. However, if you press the same activity again, then it will blindly resend all the discrete power and input commands. This blind re-sync feature applies only to devices configured and deemed to support discrete commands.

I have three 890 Pro's and two extenders, here's how it works: each 890 Pro has the same set of activities, divided into rooms. On your remote you select a room first, then you have the list of activities available in that room. If you have two remotes and put them both in the same room, the remotes DO keep track of the state of the components.

If you start an activity with one remote, nothing happens on the other remote's screen. However, you can then select the same activity on the second remote, and it'll "join" that activity because it knows everything is already turned on. Then you can actually control your components with either remote.

Then when you're done, you can press "off" on either remote and that remote will shut everything off. The other remote will still be on the activity screen though. But if you press "off" on that other remote, it knows everything is off so it won't send any off signals again, it'll just return to the activity screen. Of course, when you have both remotes on the same activity, you can just hit the "activity" button on one of them and then put it away, you don't have to do "off" on both remotes when you're done. The only thing is that might be a little confusing because you might at some point pick up that remote again and find it still on the activity screen when it's not really in that activity anymore.

I hope that wasn't too confusing.

But that's the same thing that would happen with any Harmony remote if your equipment has discrete on/off and input selection. What's happening is when you select an activity or OFF on the second remote, it's attempting to start or end the activity but because it's using discrete commands it appears as if nothing is happening.

If the second remote actually KNEW that you had started an activity on the first remote then it would change to the activity screen.

Your scenario would not work if your equipment did not use discretes. The remotes do not communicate with each other.

The 890 Pro remotes do talk to each other If one remote changes activities the other one knows this and will control that activity. One remote is set up as the primary and the other as the secondary. Only the 890 Pro has this ability

All my components use PwrToggle commands, none of them use discreete on/off commands. Therefore the 890 Pros do keep track of what's on, at least.

Also I can tell by the LEDs on my TV that after I turn off everything with one remote, when I press off on the other remote no IR signals are being sent to attempt to turn off the TV again.

The 890 pro manual also says:

Note: Do not have more than one remote operating at the same time in the same room.

The manual doesn't cover that scenario but it implies that only the primary remote communicates with the RF extender and the secondary remotes send their commands through the primary remote. So in that case the master remote is keeping the smart state information - making it appear that the secondary remote "knows" that you're already in that activity when it's really the master remote that's keeping track of it.

So I think it does work as advertised but not because the remotes are communicating with each other and sharing state information. And I don't believe that will work with IR control (without the RF extender).