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Dead harmony

Towen7 said:
FWIW... I have been using URC remotes since suffering through the Harmony 880. To be fair I switched because I needed more sophistricated controls than the Harmony line offered. But they are a lot less attractive and a little less programmer friendly.

The good news: I've had 3 URC remotes for about 5 years. No problems whatsoever.

The bad news: Because mine are so old and refuse to die, I can't provide any advice or opinions on any new models!
 
I have a pair of MX900s and anMRF260 base station. I got them because wanted addressable RF control so I could put the STBs for two rooms in a single rack. I'm working on learning the iRule program to use an iPod and/or iPad as a networked universal remote.
 
Rope said:
MatthewB said:
-B- said:
Aside from the Harmony One refurb a friend recently purchased I have had zero problems with any others I have sold, recommended and setup or the one I own. I have the Harmon Kardon branded (it's like a 570 with a rechargable battery) I've been using it since 06'.

I have heard a decent amount of stories regarding failures and most of them end up with decent help from Logitech.

Cue Matt B's Harmony rant in 3...2...1...


My rant B is only with their remotes that have the "rechargable" battery. None of them work well and the batteries have to be replaced after about a year. Not a good design for such an expensive remote. I love their older design like the 659 which work great for years and though do need batteries replaced about every 4 months, batteries are cheap, easy to obtain and you don't have to jump through circles like with Harmony Batteries. I think if you spend over 250.00 on a remote that Harmony on your anniversary should send you out a free battery for five years.

I best order a battery, I'm a one battery behind. I've never had one issue with recharging my Harmony One, and one charge lasts a week. Friday night is recharge night, cordless phone, mobile phone and Harmony, drop it in the craddle, three hours latter it ready to rock for a week.

Rope

A week? I get a month to two months out of my universal remote battery charges. I often don't charge mine for many weeks at a time.
 
Huey said:
I looked last week at Amazon for batteries, and I swear I saw a couple of them in the 12-14 range. Prices seemed to have jumped over night. There is a couple in the 17 range, but it seems sketchy and they are a different brand of battery. I'll get 4-6 hours out of a charge, which works for now, but like Rope, remember when I could get a week off of one charge.
Rob

Rob the same battery is used in the One and the SB controller, I actually have an extra one in a drawer somewhere.


Over the years I had 3 different URC remotes the 500, the 750 and the 850. Very good remotes but a bit more difficult to program and I stopped being able to get database updates. the ease of programming and up to date data bases is why I changed to Harmony. One thing I noticed about the URC's is they put out a much stronger signal than the Harmony's.

I still pull out the URC 850 on occasion but it won't operate my Roku.
 
-B- said:
Aside from the Harmony One refurb a friend recently purchased I have had zero problems with any others I have sold, recommended and setup or the one I own. I have the Harmon Kardon branded (it's like a 570 with a rechargable battery) I've been using it since 06'.

I have heard a decent amount of stories regarding failures and most of them end up with decent help from Logitech.

Cue Matt B's Harmony rant in 3...2...1...


MatthewB said:
My rant B is only with their remotes that have the "rechargable" battery. None of them work well and the batteries have to be replaced after about a year. Not a good design for such an expensive remote. I love their older design like the 659 which work great for years and though do need batteries replaced about every 4 months, batteries are cheap, easy to obtain and you don't have to jump through circles like with Harmony Batteries. I think if you spend over 250.00 on a remote that Harmony on your anniversary should send you out a free battery for five years.

Rope said:
I best order a battery, I'm a one battery behind. I've never had one issue with recharging my Harmony One, and one charge lasts a week. Friday night is recharge night, cordless phone, mobile phone and Harmony, drop it in the craddle, three hours latter it ready to rock for a week.


Flint said:
A week? I get a month to two months out of my universal remote battery charges. I often don't charge mine for many weeks at a time.

I suppose that would have a direct relationship with use factor. You're returning from your business trip, when? :teasing-neener:

Rope
 
Rope said:
I suppose that would have a direct relationship with use factor. You're returning from your business trip, when? :teasing-neener:

Rope

That's funny!

My wife uses the remote every night when I am gone. She has a little ADHD when watching TV, so she ends up using the remote way more when alone than when I am watching with her.
 
I just can't see spending the money on a One right now. Really all I do with the remote is turn the system on&off and change volume. I don't do a lot of fancy stuff with it, and I'm perfectly happy with the functionality of the 600 series. So, I ordered a used 620 for $38 on eBay, seems to be identical to my 670 except black instead of silver.
 
This thread got very interesting. I've had my "One" for about a month now; recently I've had to recharge every 3-4 days, but I've been home for the last week and slightly under the weather, so I've been on TV/BD/CD/Comkrap a lot. Just recently I'm hearing a rattle in mine, if it's a piece of plastic no harm, but if it's a loose piece of solder I've got a potential shorting issue.
Several folks here have had great luck with Behringer equipment, while my scorecard with them is 0 for 4; interesting how we have different luck with different brands...
 
Botch that rattle you hear has always been there, you probably just never noticed it before. That rattle is the sensor in the Harmony that when tilted tells the Harmony to light up. All three of my 880's (before I gave em away to two members for my frustration at how they wouldn't charge) had that rattle issue. So I contacted Harmony about it and that's what they told me.

I know Harmony has improved the cradle design on the newer models but I got so pissed at Harmony on this major design flaw on the 880's when they refused to admit that the charging station was mis designed although online there were thousands of complaints and Harmony refused to do anything to rectify this but to keep sending me out replacement 880's (with more defective 800's - hence how I wound up with three of them) that finally they agreed to sell me at half cost the older style 659 remotes. So I bought two of those that have not given me one single problem.

But because of my many many problems, I refuse to buy any new Harmony that uses the recharble batteries. My whole logic of thinking is if a company builds something with a proven design flaw, then when they fix that design flaw, they should offer the new model as a free replacement or at least at greatly reduced price, But after arguing with Harmony who would constantly tell me they havent heard of any probelms with the charging cradle, then they redesign the charging cradle (which brought on even more charging problems) then came out with a whole new cradle all while telling the consumer that they havent heard of any issues, when thousands were complaining (even on Harmony's own website) was just a lesson in futility.

It's like Jeep and their stabilizer bar, it's a known fact that all Jeep wranglers at some point have what is called the "Death Wobble" where your jeep will violently shake at speeds of 40-45mph and all that is needed is a 100.00 aftermarket thicker bar isntalled. Does Jeep replace this defect with what would cost them about 10.00 per bar. No they continue to say there isnt an issue, even though they're are thousands of complaints. It isnt till somebody dies that they will look into it.
 
MatthewB said:
Botch that rattle you hear has always been there, you probably just never noticed it before. That rattle is the sensor in the Harmony that when tilted tells the Harmony to light up.
Thanks for the info, I was thinking about opening the damn thing up! :shhh:
 
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