I haven't seen any real reviews on using the new Nyko IR USB with the Sony PS3 and Harmony yet. Has anybody gived it a test drive? I'm about to buy a PS3 (now that the price dropped and Amazon has a nice promotion to boot-- the PS3 + 6 Blu-Ray movies + the bluetooth remote control for $500).

I'd rather not use a second remote to control the PS3 which is why the Nyko product seems interesting but I wonder how much control it gives you over the PS3 in order to power on/off the PS3 and play back movies.

So if you're using the Harmony to control your PS3 with the Nyko I'd be interested in reading about your experiences.

Thanks!

I read somewhere that since the IR key cannot be energized when the PS3 is off, the key will not accept any commands from a remote since it requires power to work. Because of this, you aren't able to turn it on or off with the remote. However, one person who used it said it worked better than the controller and that it uses all the buttons found on the remote.

Darn, if that is indeed the case then what is the point of the Nyko IR USB interface? Unless the PS3 is supposed to be powered on 24x7 (like my TiVo S3) the failure to be able to power it on and off is a deal breaker. FWIW, I doubt I'd want to run the PS3 continuously (since it's quite the powerhorse compared to a TiVo).

Sounds like I'll be in the market for a next gen Harmony remote that contains Bluetooth support. Either that, or, I'm sure someone will hack a PS3 to add an embedded IR sensor (or maybe that's just wishful thinking).

Since theoretically you'd be loading a game or DVD each time you use it, manually turning it on shouldn't be a problem. Seems like you should be able to turn if OFF since the USB port would be powered when it received the OFF command.

Only problem is the PS command isn't available via the current USB implementation, so you can't bring up the menu to turn it off either. :-)

Sony *really* wants you to buy that movie remote...

Yes. It works fine. I tool the Nyko remote and learned the various IR keys to my Harmony 880. It controls the PS3 functions just fine. I only wish I could get the IR code to turn it on and off.

Look on this thread
[Link: remotecentral.com]

I just got the Nyko Blu-Wave (real good deal... don't ask, deal is already dead). I wanted this so I could learn the buttons into my Harmony 680.

It works, but I have just one issue: I had to manually learn the buttons (no premade profile for this device yet) and they work but I can only send commands to the PS3 roughly once every second. So I can't tap the direction buttons and get through lists quickly, for example. The original nyko remote sends commands perfectly fast, but the harmony can't. I have tried various combinations of holding the remote at different distances when learning, various durations of holding down or quickly tapping the original button while learning, and playing with the button timing settings for the device (turning the delay down to minimum had no effect.) I have also tried standard and raw mode learning.

Is there anything else I can do? Maybe I'll just have to wait and see if an official profile is added.

Reduce both the inter-device delay AND the inter-key delay and you could also try lowering the repeat rates.

Unfortunately none of that works. I set all of those to minimum and each keypress is still "held down" by the remote... the green LED stays lit for about a second and the remote doesn't respond to further keypresses during that time. Really strange, this hasn't happened on any of my other devices.

Have you called Logitech? My guess is that the learned command has the code repeated for whatever reason and they should be able to quickly go in and clean that up. Unfortunately the won't make the tools available for you to do it yourself. If you do that, and you happen to get a good tech, it's also possible that they will add the proper codes for the Nyko to the database for all to use.

So they can actually do things remotely to tweak the remote that we can't do ourselves? In that case, I'll give it a try.

I tried everything to make it not send a "long" command, but it always does.

Yes, they have access to tools that the users don't. And they can update your configuration directly so all you have to do is log in and download. One of the often overlooked benefits of the web interface design.

Okay this is weird... I just bought a second 680 off ebay (so I can use the old one in the bedroom) and it came tonight. I transfered my setup into the new remote, and now the nyko adapter operates perfectly! So something is actually wrong with the old remote itself. I didn't change the programming or call logitech support.

I'm going to see if they'll RMA the old remote. Worth a shot. The buttons were always kind of mushy and messed up on it. They're perfect on the new one.

Also, you know the infamous glitch that breaks the green button when you customize the media center activity? Well that fixed itself too... my green button is back, and I still have the customizations.

I have to clarify the above post. Logitech actually *did* tweak the settings in my account but I didn't notice the email. So when I transfered the settings to the new remote I had unknowingly loaded their modified settings. Again it now works great. I hope this helps them to add the device officially into their DB.