Go buy a Harmony Smart Control

picnic said:
If I have 2 hubs will 1 controller talk to both at the same time? e.g. control the telly in the bedroom via hub 1 and Sky+ box downstairs via hub 2.
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Never tried but either:

1) The remote will only allow itself to be paired with one hub - so no.

or

2) The remote will be paired with both hubs but then control both hubs at the same time - thus not being a viable option.


The first one is the most likely to happen as the remote is always in sync with the hub, like it's a two way communication. But I can't see it working either way.
 
rs1800 said:
I bought one for the bedroom (already have one in lounge) and can use my phone to quickly switch between hubs and control either room (although not exactly at same time as requested)
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Good point! Forgot about this as the only time I use the phone app myself is to annoy the other half when she's watching some naff on the TV and she has the remote :)
 
What exactly are you trying to achieve anyway? I'd never have recommend buying just a hub (I've said before that I personally hate any smartphone app being used as a TV controller) but did you buy "just a hub" because you thought it would do?

If so, sell the hub on (one got snatched up on members market earlier in the year) and buy the full Smart Control and Hub kit (currently £63 on Amazon)
 
Yeah, buy a second kit.

You're causing yourself a world of hurt for no reason.

Also, note sure what you mean by this "Upstairs use the harmony remote in conjunction with the real TV remote" but you should never have to use more than one remote in any one location with the Harmony Smart Controller. It should be able to control almost everything you throw at it.
 
Ah, how are you getting your Sky Box video signal to the TV upstairs then?

If you're running an HDMI cable then simply follow this with an extension cable for one of the IR emitters from your hub upstairs to point at the Sky Box downstairs.

EDIT: The IR emitters can be plugged into any mono/stereo audio cable to be extended. I've personally used 3.5mm to 2.5mm converters attached to a 5m long stereo cable to extend mine in one room.
 
picnic said:
I have a 15M HDMI cable, really struggled to pull it through so not sure I can get another cable along the same path. I did try a TV Eye, and IOBit in the Sky box, but I couldn't get that to work :( The TV Eye light came on to say it had power but it wouldn't control the Sky box, even when plugged directly in to the Sky box, i.e. not using my dodgy aerial extension cabling ;)
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If I ever moved, having it working perfectly now, I'd do everything in my power to make it work 100% in my new home :)

Whether it's worth that effort to you, only you can say.

One thing to note, if you DID get the hardware set up perfectly, the one concession you'd have to make is that the Sky Box would have to be left ON at all times.

By having two separate Hubs control the same Sky Box neither one will be able to know if the device is on or not, and because the Sky Box uses a "power toggle" button rather than a "power on" button, when an activity on one Hub tries to turn "on" the device it would instead turn it off.
 
You get one IR emitter in the box.

The hub has two 2.5mm mono jacks in the back that allow it to power two of these emitters.

HOWEVER! Do a search on the bay for:
IR Extender 1 Receiver 4 Emitter Emitters Repeater Kit Hidden Infrared Remote UK

It costs about £10.

Ignore all parts you get APART from the 4 small, sticky emitters that use a 3.5mm mono cable. These work perfectly with the SMART hub and I use them on all of mine.

The one trick you'll need to do is obviously buy a converter (again from the bay):
Male 2.5mm Plug to Female 3.5mm Mono Socket Cable Lead Adadpter Adaptor

About £3.

Also, again like I've done already, you can also extend using any mono or stereo cable. It's cheaper to buy a 3.5mm extension cable rather than a 2.5mm one (again from the bay):
3.5mm Stereo Jack Plug to Socket - just get the length you require.

I highly recommend the "sticky IR emitters" to everyone. They work a treat.
 
Oh snap!

I can't test this right now but it looks like the Harmony Hub can now be upgraded to the "home" version which will allow you to use it with "home control" products!

https://forums.logitech.com/t5/MyHarmony-com/Harmony-Release-Notes-UPDATED-June-15th/td-p/1039103

June 15th, 2015
- Harmony App for iOS (v4.3)
- Simplified new user set-up flow
- Harmony Ultimate, Smart Control, Smart keyboard & Ultimate hub users get the power of home control with an optional upgrade of hub software. Visit Menu > Harmony Setup > Upgrade Hub Software to upgrade your hub software
- Support for Nexus & Netflix activity
- Connectivity Improvements
- Bug fixes
 
oHUTCHYo said:
OK, received a Smart today.
Two issues;
(1)
I have a Revo RL70 PC running Kodi (XBMC) Isengard, along with a HP RC6 media centre receiver plugged in.
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This is going to be a toughy I think as it could either be an XBMC problem or a Harmony problem.

All I can say is that I've had more trouble than with XBMC and MCE remotes/keyboards. The harmony stuff is just sending IR commands so it's hard to get it wrong and usually jsut comes down to making sure it's sending the RIGHT IR commands.

It could be that you've selected a suitably different MCE keyboard from the available list than for the one XBMC is setup to support but it's hard to tell just without massive amounts of trial and error.

oHUTCHYo said:
(2)
For reasons I won't explain, I NEED to run non-DHCP on my Virgin Superhub 2.0 and instead use static IP addresses on all of my devices.
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I'd try approaching this the other way. The Harmony App does let you put in an IP address to connect to. Have you tried assigning a static IP address from the router using the MAC address then connecting to this IP from the phone App?
 
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Yeah, PS3 used to be the same - it would go through a wee sequence of button presses to turn off. You can configure the Harmony to do that with any turn on / turn off command as well. Like my projector requires you to press the power button twice.
 
Sorry I can't test this and give you specific step by step instructions as all my AV gear is still packed up after the move but...

1) Doesn't the Xbox One download in standby mode anyway?

2) You can configure any device in the harmony setup, under power options somewhere, so that it stays on even if you change activity and only goes off when you press the off button. This will likely resolve all your issues.

Ah, wait, found the relevant information on the Harmony site for you:
https://support.myharmony.com/en/changing-when-a-device-powers-on-or-off
 
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Deathjester said:
What's the advantage of the Smart over the Harmony Ultimate?
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Ok, so my understanding of the Harmony Ultimate is that it's the touch screen version of the Harmony Smart Control...

Both come with a RF controlled "hub" but the Ultimate is able to add more devices (natively - because there's the usual harmony work around on the "Smart" version) and the Ultimate has a touch screen.

If you've got a Harmony Ultimate that looks like this:

Then I'm led to believe that if you DON'T have the hub, you should be able to buy it separately and do everything the Harmony Smart Control can do.


HOWEVER - I also think it's possible there are older Harmony Ultimates that you're referring to, that maybe doesn't work with the Hub. In which case updating to the new Harmony Ultimate, or Harmony Smart Control, might be a good idea.

At the centre of them both is the RF controlled Hub with built in IR blaster (and optional external one) that means your remote doesn't need line of sight to control your TV / AV devices.

I take advantage of this by putting all my AV in a cupboard.

Additionally, personal preference means I prefer the simpler Smart Control remote because it DOESN'T have a touch screen (I hate touch screens on remotes) and in turn, this also means it doesn't have a charging cradle!

Also, as a long time Harmony user, I much prefer the new range of Hub based remotes because they're much more responsive - in two ways.

First, when you press a single button no longer is there a 0.5s delay when trying to turn the volume up one click at a time.

Secondly because your remote no longer requires line of sight "activities" (that do a sequences of button presses) preform perfectly 100% of the time - and you don't have to hold out the remote out at arms length for 15 seconds while it turns everything on.

Lastly, the Hub can be controlled from the Harmony smart phone app - meaning you don't even need to use the remote. Not something I use (again, I hate touch screens for remote) but some people find appealing.
 
picnic said:
Almost, the hub needs IR line of sight ;) My problem is visitors, my kit is in the dining room except for the telly in the front room. The IR is beamed across the living room and thus is interrupted if someone is standing in the way. Perhaps I need to find a very long extension cable!
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You've answered your own question :)

Do exactly that. In my old flat I had a 5m extension hooked up to an emitter attached to my TV. The IR emitter/connections on the harmony hub are 2.5mm but I simply bought a pair of converters to allow me to run a cheap 5m long 3.5mm stereo cable as an extension - as this seems to be the cheaper wire compared to a 5m 2.5mm mono cable likely due to mass production.

All in it's about £10 for everything you need to get it fixed and enjoy your 100% activity success rate! :D
 
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