Hi guys,

I have an A/V setup that includes power conditioning and UPS, where power for discrete peripheral devices (Roku M2000, XRt12, DVD-2910) is staged based upon a 12v DC trigger into the conditioner from the amp (Denon 4806).

Ergo, whenever the amp is turned on, it triggers a power up of all the other components 4 seconds after it turns on, and the reverse when it is turned off.

The TV and the Media Center PC are not staged the same way - both are "always-on"

I'm using a Speakercraft Smartpath IR distribution system with a plasma/cf-friendly reciever and emitters on all components,

I have a couple of weird issues with the Harmony 880, that I'd love some help with before I give up and return it:

1) The Roku M2000 comes straight into "active" rather than "standby" upon application of power. The Harmony assumes that the device is "off" when in fact it is "on" and since the device only has a powerToggle command rather than discreet on/off (AFAIK), I can't do a thing with the Roku. It's always back to front.

2) Watch DVD Activity is sending (I think) the DVD player a power on and play command long before it has been given power by the power conditioner.

3) When the TV turns on the backlight (LC45G6U) hammers the IR environment for about 5 seconds until the noise-elimination circuit in the Speakercraft IR distribution system kicks in and filters it out, meaning all commands to select the TV input are lost.

4) When watching TV using the Media Center PC, pushing "Menu" which was mapped to windows Green button causes the system to abandon TV and start trying to play My DVD's.

5) Can't figure out how to set up a Listen to Sat Radio that uses a standalone XM reciever.

6) Where do I find codes for the Apple Video iPod ?

7) Is there any way to see what order commands are actually being sent in ? often running the help button solves issues where commands have been sent in the wrong order. (e.g. HDMI source is selected, needing a second or two to negotiate the Audio connection before the surround paramater can be sent to the amp).

I like the design of the remote, but my experience with Logitech support currently has me ready to walk away from it. That and the very weak IR emitter that is struggling with the backlight from my TV....

Thanks SO much !

Ben.

1&2) The Harmony doesn't work well when one device turns on another; it pretty much assumes it has total control, in order to match its model of device state against the "real world". See if you can eliminate the causes of mismatch: either have the devices always plugged in, and use the Harmony to switch them, or let your power supply turn them on and off, and tell the Harmony they're "always on".
3) My TV doesn't listen to IR commands to switch inputs for 19 seconds while it is turning on, and it isn't IR interference. In any case, try setting the power-on delay for the TV to more than 5 seconds!
4) Relearn the codes from the "original" Media Center PC remote.
6) Learn the codes from your original remote; maybe you're the first.

Thanks for the help, I appreciate the feedback.

Unfortunately leaving them always plugged in is not an option - defeats the power conditioner altogether, and telling the Harmony they are always on doesn't work either - because they aren't always on - they're just sometimes in standby.

Thanks,
Ben.

What a tough situation. To use a Harmony, I'd probably recommend that you leave the power conditioner on and powered up if at all possible and allow the Harmony to power the attached devices up and down.

Technically, support should be able to help you with this, but its clear that they're going through some serious growing pains. Specifically, they can set the order in which devices power up, and I think they can set a 4 second stagger.

You could possibly kluge a solution where you fool the Harmony into thinking that it is sending a power (non-discrete) command - the command can just be something bogus that you've learned from a device not in the room. You would set them all to be left on "all the time", which the Harmony still thinks its powering down when you click "off". Then you put in appropiate power-on delays so it knows not to send commands until the devices are up and running. (Note, it will put the power commands for the devices with the longest delays first, so they may need a little extra time.)

You can probably live with a 4 second inter-device delay on all but one device, but you'll find it awkard at moments.

Otherwise, you're going to need something with much, much more programmibility.

The IR emitter strength is not an issue on earlier Harmonies, but as you know is part of the package on the 880.

BritBen,

If you do find a solution to this configuration I would be interested in knowing how it is done. I have just aquired a OneClickPower strip that is intended to supply power to all my AV devices when the AV Receiver is powered on.

However due to this issue I currently have to put some devices onto an always on power source so that they can be switched on from standby by the harmony.

At the moment it isn't bugging me sufficiently to contact harmony support.... however if I knew that support could actually fix the problem then it might just push into asking them to fix it for me.

If you guys can get away with just letting the Harmony control things and the power conditioners don't actually freak out when everything turns on at once, I'd continue to let the Harmony just control things.

The TV should be the only really large power draw at startup. The reciever has some capacitors, but nothing like a Plasma or CRT display.

In my case the problem is that OneClickPower strip will switch on the power to the other AV devices about 3 or 4 seconds after it has detected the AV Receiver has been turned on - this delay is not configurable.

Unfortunately, this delay means that the power on command for the other AV devices in the activity is sent before they have any power - thus they remain in standby once they do have power. This is what is preventing the Harmony controlling things normaly.

Ideally this could be fixed by having the power on commands for the other AV devices sent 4 seconds after the power on commands of the AV Receiver. As you suggested earlier this might be something that Harmony support could do if I actually contacted them.

In the short term I try could set up a "Power On" activity that just involved the AV Receiver. Then once it is on and power is being supplied to the other AV devices I could select the actual activity that I want ... not ideal would get things working.