Bought an older Harmony 890 remote off of EBay

[3dbinCanada]

I purchased this old Logitech Harmony 890 remote off of Ebay with all the bits that go with it and the remote is immaculate. The rechargeable battery is bad but I had previously ordered some because of the same model that I am now using. Its in such nice shape that I made it the remote for the bedroom and the older bedroom remote will be going to the trailer/cottage.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

They have been infamous over the years. I can't see how Logitech didn't lose money when they stopped making them.

 

[JStewart]

That model was my first Harmony remote! Before getting it It wasn’t unusual to come home from work to a dead tv and frustrated wife. Afterward it was smooth sailing and an uncluttered coffee table.
I know everything is converting to use of a smart device, but I’ll always prefer a small handheld device with tactile buttons so there’s no need to look at it when it’s used.

 

[3dbinCanada]

They have been infamous over the years. I can't see how Logitech didn't lose money when they stopped making them.

I think they cut productions because they are making substantially more profit with the other products. Its unfortunate because Logitech purchased Harmony, a Canadian company. Yes, Harmony was invented by Canadians.

 

[3dbinCanada]

That model was my first Harmony remote! Before getting it It wasn’t unusual to come home from work to a dead tv and frustrated wife. Afterward it was smooth sailing and an uncluttered coffee table.
I know everything is converting to use of a smart device, but I’ll always prefer a small handheld device with tactile buttons so there’s no need to look at it when it’s used.

What I like about he 890 over the newer models is that you can order he activities on the display screen that the new Harmony remotes such as the 650,655, and 700 series can't do.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I never owned a Harmony remote.... I always stuck with the URC remotes, mainly the MX-890.... I still have two.

I am not fond of the larger remotes. I prefer using smaller remotes like my Apple TV-sized remote. The StormAudio remote is small, as is the Kaleidescape, one of my McIntosh remotes, and a miniDSP remote. My Sony TV remote is also small. I probably use the small Apple remote most of the time. For music, I usually use my X1 Carbon laptop for Roon, but I have begun to use my S25 smartphone for that, which also has the StormAudio remote on it.

I wish someone would come out with a super small universal remote with maybe 6 presets, volume, channel, and power buttons that can learn macros.

 

[JStewart]

I wish someone would come out with a super small universal remote with maybe 6 presets, volume, channel, and power buttons that can learn macros.

This little guy was is my favorite harmony just for that reason.



Bigger than the apple but easily held in one hand and easy to distinguish the buttons by feel. It works in conjunction with their hub. Last I looked about a year ago they were still available on eBay

• Length: 7.25 inches (184 mm)
• Width: 2.13 inches (54 mm)
• Depth: 0.57 inches (14.5 mm)

Edit:
For comparison

Siri Remote (2nd & 3rd Generation) – Used with Apple TV 4K (2021 & 2022)

• Height: 5.4 inches (136 mm)
• Width: 1.4 inches (35 mm)
• Depth: 0.36 inches (9.25 mm)

 

[Sonnie Parker]

That would be better than most, if it can learn at leat 4-5 presets, and power on and off macros.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Hmmm... requires a hub. So I suppose since the remote is not IR, the hub is... and has to be setup where it can see everything that is IR. Probably wouldn't work for my setup.

 

[3dbinCanada]

I never owned a Harmony remote.... I always stuck with the URC remotes, mainly the MX-890.... I still have two.

I am not fond of the larger remotes. I prefer using smaller remotes like my Apple TV-sized remote. The StormAudio remote is small, as is the Kaleidescape, one of my McIntosh remotes, and a miniDSP remote. My Sony TV remote is also small. I probably use the small Apple remote most of the time. For music, I usually use my X1 Carbon laptop for Roon, but I have begun to use my S25 smartphone for that, which also has the StormAudio remote on it.

I wish someone would come out with a super small universal remote with maybe 6 presets, volume, channel, and power buttons that can learn macros.

You can't get the programmability and the functionality in a much smaller remote. I think J's Harmony is about as small as you can get. As far as balanced and ease of handling, nothing beats this family. Its so ergonomic and easily controlled by one hand.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

That one is bigger than my MX-890, which does about everything for me except pop my popcorn.

 

[Tim Dawson]

I had one of those, an

This little guy was is my favorite harmony just for that reason.

View attachment 81745

Bigger than the apple but easily held in one hand and easy to distinguish the buttons by feel. It works in conjunction with their hub. Last I looked about a year ago they were still available on eBay

• Length: 7.25 inches (184 mm)
• Width: 2.13 inches (54 mm)
• Depth: 0.57 inches (14.5 mm)

Edit:
For comparison

Siri Remote (2nd & 3rd Generation) – Used with Apple TV 4K (2021 & 2022)

• Height: 5.4 inches (136 mm)
• Width: 1.4 inches (35 mm)
• Depth: 0.36 inches (9.25 mm)

I had one of those, and it absooutely would not work well with my Dish network Joeys . . . intermittent, stuttery, excess or missed commands sent (while everything else worked) and support just stuck thier head in the sand . . . . that, and the incredibly non-flexible programming of the Harmony stuff overall made then close to useless for a complex system. Mymfavorites were my Lexicon remotes, followed by URC . . . (I did use one of the top end Harmony touch screen devices for several years . . . decent unit, but programming was still incredibly irritating . . . mainly the inability to control on/off and input selection sequence and timing . . . )

 

[JStewart]

I had one of those, an

I had one of those, and it absooutely would not work well with my Dish network Joeys . . . intermittent, stuttery, excess or missed commands sent (while everything else worked) and support just stuck thier head in the sand . . . . that, and the incredibly non-flexible programming of the Harmony stuff overall made then close to useless for a complex system. Mymfavorites were my Lexicon remotes, followed by URC . . . (I did use one of the top end Harmony touch screen devices for several years . . . decent unit, but programming was still incredibly irritating . . . mainly the inability to control on/off and input selection sequence and timing . . . )

Seems to be the way of things these days. Compatibility isn’t universal as it should be for devices using the same technology. Works for most and not at all for others. If I had a nickel for every story posted …

mainly the inability to control on/off and input selection sequence and timing . .

While it does have the ability to control the on/off sequence and delays between, I accept that it wasn’t enough for your use case. The real question is why should it matter in the first place?

 

[Tim Dawson]

Some devices will not respond to commands until after they finish coming up, and with the Harmony, it was near impossible to get it to wait and not just throw commands into a deaf device, leaving the system in an unknown/incorrect state.(As I recall, input select on my projector was a big one, as well as others . . . ).

 

[JStewart]

I just add delays in the start sequence as needed. Multiple if more than a second is required.

What was a pain was figuring out the first time how long a delay was needed.

 

[Tim Dawson]

As I said, it's been a while, so I'm not 100% . . . I just know that no matter what I did, it kept losing sync with the system, so was replaced with a far more versatile product (URC). That, and my wife kept killing screens (replaced it 2 or 3x iirc).