Harmony Remotes - Programming

[valadezm]

Hello,

I am a first time Harmony user and I have a couple of questions in regards to the functionality. I am pretty sure it's user error but would like some feedback.

I have created an activity call WATCH SAT, that turns on my Dishnetwork VIP622, Panasonic Tv and Yamaha Receive, I am encountering the following issues.

1. When I press the power button on the Harmony after watching it, it turns off the tv, dvr but not the Yamaha Receiver as I can still hear the sound coming out of the speakers.

So I attempted to create an activity called OFF, that basically would turn off all the devices and it works except for the Yamaha receiver.




2. Next issue, I set up the + button to activate the DVR functions of my 622 and it works just fine, I can skip, forward etc, etc. However, when the Harmony remote turns off and I am ready to do something with it, I press the foward, back, pause button and nothing happens. I have to press the device button, press dvr and then the functions would resume.

Any help would be appreciated as the wife and kids are ready to kill me :-)

[saintalan]

Hi & welcome.

The Power Button on the Remote is an OFF ONLY. All power ON will be done by  the Activity. So your Receiver probably has a Power Toggle and you have got it out of sync.

Delete your own OFF activity it will confuse the remote.

I am not sure exactly what you mean by your 2nd point. Why do you use the + button? You can check in Activity Customise Buttons to see what all the buttons do and which device they do it for.

Cheers

Message Edited by saintalan on 06-14-2008 07:27 AM

[valadezm]

Hi and Thank you for responding.

I deleted all activites from the remote and started from scratch in order to debug this problem, so I created the activity call WATCH TV. I pressed WATCH TV on the remote and everything came on with no problem.

I press the OFF button and again everything turns off but the receiver, this is really frustrating :-(


On my 2nd point, basically, with Dish Network, there's a key on the original remote called DVR which brings you to your recordings in which you can play or manage your recordings, timers etc. The original set-up did not have this function on the Harmony One, so I assigned it to the + button on the Harmony so whenever I pressed it it brought that screen up.

Message Edited by valadezm on 06-14-2008 07:25 AM

[WannabeActuary]

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valadezm wrote:
Hi and Thank you for responding.

I deleted all activites from the remote and started from scratch in order to debug this problem, so I created the activity call WATCH TV. I pressed WATCH TV on the remote and everything came on with no problem.

I press the OFF button and again everything turns off but the receiver, this is really frustrating :-(


On my 2nd point, basically, with Dish Network, there's a key on the original remote called DVR which brings you to your recordings in which you can play or manage your recordings, timers etc. The original set-up did not have this function on the Harmony One, so I assigned it to the + button on the Harmony so whenever I pressed it it brought that screen up.

Message Edited by valadezm on 06-14-2008 07:25 AM

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with the receiver....on the original remote control, is there a separate button for off?  or does it use one button for on and off (i.e. a toggle)?  does it take two presses of the power button to turn it off (some receivers are like this)?

it may be that the remote is setup to use separate buttons for on and off and that the command for off doesn't work.  you should go into the device tab of the setup, receiver, adjust settings, adjust power settings, and see how the device is setup.  make sure it's setup like your original remote would work.  that should fix the problem.  if not....press the help button on your remote when the receiver fails to turn off.  if the help buttons fixes the problem, it's a delay/timing problem, and we can help you out there.

as far as the second point, most people don't choose to map that command to the + button (or any other physical button).  most people, like myself, map the DVR List command (in my case it's for my HD DVR cable box), to the LCD screen of the activity.  It's much more user friendly this way because the button on the screen says whatever you label it, so there is no need to remember that it's on the + button.  to customize the LCD of an activity....in the setup, activities tab, customize buttons for the activity in question...then there are two tabs, the standard buttons tab which corresponds to the physical buttons on the remote and the additional buttons tab which corresponds to the LCD of the activity.

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valadezm wrote:


2. Next issue, I set up the + button to activate the DVR functions of my 622 and it works just fine, I can skip, forward etc, etc. However, when the Harmony remote turns off and I am ready to do something with it, I press the foward, back, pause button and nothing happens. I have to press the device button, press dvr and then the functions would resume.

---

your problem in your second point seems to be that you're turning things off and THEN trying to do something with the DVR menu.  when you press the off button on the harmony, and it turns everything that was on (assuming you don't have anything set to always on), the remote is essentially in a 'empty' state.  it's not in any device mode or activity mode.  as a result, after pressing off, you can press any buttons and commands won't be sent.  this is normal.

when you turn the harmony remote off and then want to do something with it, you need to start an activity

Message Edited by WannabeActuary on 06-14-2008 10:42 AM

[valadezm]

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WannabeActuary wrote:

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valadezm wrote:
Hi and Thank you for responding.

I deleted all activites from the remote and started from scratch in order to debug this problem, so I created the activity call WATCH TV. I pressed WATCH TV on the remote and everything came on with no problem.

I press the OFF button and again everything turns off but the receiver, this is really frustrating :-(


On my 2nd point, basically, with Dish Network, there's a key on the original remote called DVR which brings you to your recordings in which you can play or manage your recordings, timers etc. The original set-up did not have this function on the Harmony One, so I assigned it to the + button on the Harmony so whenever I pressed it it brought that screen up.

Message Edited by valadezm on 06-14-2008 07:25 AM

---

with the receiver....on the original remote control, is there a separate button for off?  or does it use one button for on and off (i.e. a toggle)?  does it take two presses of the power button to turn it off (some receivers are like this)?

it may be that the remote is setup to use separate buttons for on and off and that the command for off doesn't work.  you should go into the device tab of the setup, receiver, adjust settings, adjust power settings, and see how the device is setup.  make sure it's setup like your original remote would work.  that should fix the problem.  if not....press the help button on your remote when the receiver fails to turn off.  if the help buttons fixes the problem, it's a delay/timing problem, and we can help you out there.

as far as the second point, most people don't choose to map that command to the + button (or any other physical button).  most people, like myself, map the DVR List command (in my case it's for my HD DVR cable box), to the LCD screen of the activity.  It's much more user friendly this way because the button on the screen says whatever you label it, so there is no need to remember that it's on the + button.  to customize the LCD of an activity....in the setup, activities tab, customize buttons for the activity in question...then there are two tabs, the standard buttons tab which corresponds to the physical buttons on the remote and the additional buttons tab which corresponds to the LCD of the activity.

---

valadezm wrote:


2. Next issue, I set up the + button to activate the DVR functions of my 622 and it works just fine, I can skip, forward etc, etc. However, when the Harmony remote turns off and I am ready to do something with it, I press the foward, back, pause button and nothing happens. I have to press the device button, press dvr and then the functions would resume.

---

your problem in your second point seems to be that you're turning things off and THEN trying to do something with the DVR menu.  when you press the off button on the harmony, and it turns everything that was on (assuming you don't have anything set to always on), the remote is essentially in a 'empty' state.  it's not in any device mode or activity mode.  as a result, after pressing off, you can press any buttons and commands won't be sent.  this is normal.

when you turn the harmony remote off and then want to do something with it, you need to start an activity

Message Edited by WannabeActuary on 06-14-2008 10:42 AM

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WOW! That worked!!!!! You guys are awesome.

Now, the only thing is that sometimes it turns on and sometimes it doesn't and sometimes it turns off and sometimes it doesn't, but after pressing help and doing the little help wizard it works, so there must be some timing issue as you stated. Any help in that regard...But for now, wife and kids are happy.

[rhachey]

I would increase the Inter-Device delay for your receiver if it sometimes doesn't turn on or off, in the software click the Device Tab, for your Receiver, click Settings then click Adjust the delays (speed settings) then increase the Inter-Device delay 1000ms = 1 sec

[hhatkin]

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WannabeActuary wrote:....most people don't choose to map that command to the + button (or any other physical button).
It's much more user friendly this way because the button on the screen says whatever you label it, so there is no need to remember that it's on the + button.


Have to disagree with the "most" and the "much more user friendly":-)
Any command that's used at all regularly is better, for me and I think for many, on a hard button, and is no problem at all to remember.

Message Edited by hhatkin on 06-14-2008 01:11 PM

[valadezm]

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rehaz1 wrote:
I would increase the Inter-Device delay for your receiver if it sometimes doesn't turn on or off, in the software click the Device Tab, for your Receiver, click Settings then click Adjust the delays (speed settings) then increase the Inter-Device delay 1000ms = 1 sec

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Thanks, it is now working much better wit ther inter-device delay setting set to 1 sec. One thing just found out as well is that you have to keep the remote pointed at ir sensor until all functions are complete.

One more question, there seems to be a lag when I press a button for the DISH VIP622 using the harmony remote. By lag, I meant that I press the button say for example guide and it takes a bit for the guide to display, where as with the original remote, you pressed guide and it popped up right away. If any one has any idea how to handle this, thanks!

[rhachey]

is it only the Guide button that is giving you problems? If it is you can try learning the Guice command from your original remote in Raw mode. In the learning area click on Custom at the bottom of the page this will bring up the learn Raw screen this will learn the actual command from your original rather that selecting an Analyzed command from the Database. If other buttons for that device are also slow, decrease the Inter-Key delay.

[valadezm]

Great that worked almost getting to where it's perfect, now I've done a search on the topic of the TV turning off when switching activies and have gone through all the sugestions and I am still having that issue.

Example: I have set WATCH TV, to turn on TV, AV RECEIVER AND SATELLITE RECEIVER, now when I switch activity to WATCH DVD, my TV turns off and everything else works.

My TV is a Panasonic 50" inch plasma and it uses one button for power on/off.

The settings for the TV is to turn off this device when not in use, one button on the remote for turning on and off and command set to Power Toggle.

Once I figure out this issue it will be all set.