My Harmony One died.

pitdogg2 wrote: »

Ricardo wrote: »

Good News.....looks like I will be enjoying my 950 for a few more years. It turns out you can't use just any cable to connect with the PC. It HAS to be the micro USB that came with the remote. Go figure.....

I had it in a drawer and tried it....voila.

Life is good.

Definitely do not toss it or lose it, I made that mistake cleaning out all my old "phone" cables and tossed out the one I needed to recharge a big battery I used in travel. I hadn't traveled in a length of time and boy was I scrambling to find another to use. I now tie it with an old shoestring to the battery to avoid that mistake in the future.
Glad to hear you got it going

This is why I subscribe to @""Tony M"''s former philosophy of "Keep everything".
Purging only guarantees that you will need one of those purged items within 2 weeks. It's a scientific fact. Even Myth Busters couldn't bust it.

@Ricardo - glad you got it sorted. To your question, I'm using older URC MX-800 remotes. 20 device capable. They're not very easy to program at first, but you get the hang of it. And you can save configurations. The software stopped updating years ago (maybe still does for techs; URC were stingy Fs about that), but you can learn-in OE remotes for newer stuff. You can also program macros. I still really enjoy using them. Nice ergos and feel.

A while back, I was looking for a Harmony-esque type remote for a system I was building for a gf. Something easy and modern, and wound up looking at the Sofa Batons. I never got around to trying one. I think I read mixed reviews or couldn't decide for some other reason, but that's probably where I'd start if I absolutely had to upgrade.

I have a couple Harmony One remotes. Fortunately, they have been working without issues. But, but, I've had issues with the replacement batteries. Seems the third party batteries aren't up to the task. I'd hate to find a new solution. They've done everything I could want.

I use a Harmony Hub for my living room and a Harmony 700 for my theater setup. I am hoping the hub lasts for some time. I can control the Hub with a phone app if the physical remote dies. I have a few spare Harmony 676 that are in varying states of usefulness. All the 676 have become sticky due to the soft touch coating. I've scraped it off two of them so they are smooth in hand now, but I think the D-pad is screwed up on one and they all need button replacement kits (eBay). Cleaning with isopropyl doesn't work after a certain point. I think I screwed up the back lighting on one of them as well by trying to repair the d-pad. It is sad that Logitech abandoned what was easily the best product on the market. I guess market was shrinking with the trend of people using Smart TVs and soundbars, which typically all run off HDMI CEC and can be controlled with the TV remote. On the high end of things, there are still expensive programmable options that the custom installers can use. For the DIY home theater enthusiast, sadly, there is void now.

I have a couple other universal remotes but they are not as easy to use as the Harmony models. That old One For All was pretty useful back in the day because URC would allow you to do updates using an audio file (sounded like old dial in modems). The remote has a microphone that can listen for the modem sounds and update the firmware. I used it to add some obscure Sony ES gear to the codes. It is still far less capable than a Harmony.

The Sofabaton remotes are trash. Not even close to a Harmony replacement.

One of my Harmony remotes got destroyed by the dog and I started looking for a replacement.

Ordered their U2 remote as it was a secondary system and didn’t need anything too fancy.

It was a PIA to use/setup and constantly wouldn’t respond to commands without multiple presses.

Left a poor review and set up a return (Amazon).

Got a message from Sofabaton about my review and they wanted to send me the new X1 to make up for the bad experience. I told them to go ahead if they wanted to send one.

It came in and was also a piece of trash. Set up is terrible and not intuitive. Several commands for my Sony TV had to be manually learned and settings had to be fiddled with to get many things to function. Apple TV was hard to get to pair and again, clunky to operate.

Then the hub for the X1…

It needed to be unplugged and power cycled pretty much daily as it would stop responding to the remote.

My favorite part, after the X1 was delivered Sofabaton emailed me trying to get me to delete or change my review for the original remote. not in direct language and they tried to strongly insinuate.

When I emailed them back and asked for them to tell me exactly what they were looking for and to be clear about it, they emailed back saying the email was sent to the wrong person and I should ignore it.

Basically, the positive reviews are fake or paid for.