I have both a smart and ultimate at home which are the best thing since sliced bread. Now being you can now hide things in cabinets with the new design, I thought this would be the cats meow on my boat however a router or wifi is not available without tethering off of my phone which would be too much of a pain to be worth while. I could now hide both my bluray player and satellite box in a cabinet to make things more aesthetic and would free up some valuable space. I did try operating my units at home with my household internet connection offline and they still work so I assume wifi is only needed for initial setup/programming and then work flawlessly with no need for wifi after the fact? Is this correct?

Only issue is the hub needs to be plugged into 110v but they do have micro USB converters for 12v dc to 5v like this which should work on the hub. Correct? [Link: cgi.ebay.com]

To sum up, can the system operate normally without wifi and can it be powered from a 12vdc source using a converter as shown in the link above?

No, Wi-Fi is needed for the Hub to work. and since the Smart control is only RF, you would not be able to contol any devices without the Hub being powered on and connected to Wi-Fi, as the Hub sends IR to the devices.

So why was I able to disconnect the wifi in the house yet my remote still worked as advertised. (I unplugged my wireless router and internet/wifi were obviously not available any more)

My bad, for giggles, I unplugged my router, the light on the hub turned red, but I was still able to control my devices with the smart remote.  I didn't try it with my iPod Touch, since my wife was out walking with it, so I am not sure if the iPod wold be able to contol it since it does need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network to work, I am guessing no in that regards.

I doubt the phone can control without wifi but then agin in my application I do not need the phone. Will try it no wifi with my iphone but like I said it probably will not work.

I think that because the Smart remote is connecting to the Hub via RF and not Wi-Fi is why it is still working.  What I haven't tried yet is unplugging the router, then after the Hub light turns red, unplugging the Hub and plugging it back in to see if the Smart remote will still connect, I think that is where the problem may lay.

I am at the boat for the weekend so I can't check it out until Monday but you do have a point so I will disconnect the hub from power and reapply to see if it still works. Maybe you could do this little experiment for me to confirm this?

Without Wi-Fi, your Smart Control remote will still be able to control your devices as it is linked to the hub via RF.

The Harmony app, however, will no longer work as it relies on the Wi-Fi link between your smart device and the Harmony hub.

Disconnecting and reconnecting the hub while your Wi-Fi network is down (or disconnected) should see the hub power on, its LED remain red, but still remain functional with the Smart Control remote. If you decide to try this, let us know how things worked!

Regards,

Sylvain

This makes perfect sense. I will experiment and get back to all on Monday.

This also opens the door for campers/trailers/motorhomes or any other 12v only application. Only thing extra required would be the mini USB to 12v adapter which is pretty darn cheap.

I am thinking of getting the Smart control -
I have an iPad Air.
With the Hub being wi-fi is there any delay in controlling the cable box and tv versus when using the remote itself?

Also, can't tell - but is the remote or the hub that uses the battery?
Does the Hub have to be visible for the iPad Harmony App to work?
And can I use my Harmony Touch's cradle for the Smart Control's Remote?

The remote uses battery,
the hub is powered from an 5v suply (mini usb plug),
the hub must be on the same network as the iPad, but doesn't have to be visible.

From my experience, no big delay's noticed, but i didn't test the app much.