Re: {Disarmed} Harmony to replace Pronto - Thoughts please.

[Neil Spellings <lists2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

rb_ziggy wrote:

> So, to the questions:

I have an 895, so my answers are based on that...(plus I've never owned
a Pronto, so can't compare...)

> - Can I do room based menus again?

Not sure exactly what you mean by this - do you mean different remotes
control different rooms?

> - Can I completely configure hard buttons (eg vol on the av amp, tv
> for say pip, ch up/down for sky) for use on the 'same screen'?

Every hard button is configurable apart from the Device, Activities,
Power and Help buttons

For each Activity, you configure which piece of equipment should control
the volume, channel etc

> - Can it control X10 IR and perhaps CBus?

It could certainly send IR codes to an X10 receiver, however I'm not
sure whether the Activity-based screens would allow sufficient control.

I've got my Harmony controlling my Idratek-controlled lights, but it
took quite alot of fiddling to customise the activity screens using IR
codes from an unused remote (which Idratek then learns and responds to
accordingly)

I think the Harmony scene-based control only works on ZWave devices and
not X10/IR

> - Is there anything else I should also know (pros / cons) about the
> Harmonies?

Pros

The way it tracks whether your devices are on or off is pretty good and
works quite well.
The Help feature also sorts  things out when things dont go as planned
or a device misses is on/off command and gets out of sync.

I've found email support to be pretty good

Very SHMBO friendly and I don't hear many complaints

Build quality is good and its sturdy - its taken quite a few falls off
the sofa arm onto a hard wooden floor with no apparent damage so far!

Good (online) database of devices and IR Codes


Cons

The main grip I have is that there is no native Macro support. You can't
just create a new series of commands and tie them to a particular key -
you have to base everything around activities, and then you start
getting tied up having devices involved you don't really want in there.

Lighting scenes are ZWave only


Cheers


Neil