Im purchasing Vera but don’t understand how to control A/V devices with Vera. I really want to use a typical Universal remote like Logitech or Monster’s remote that elude to control z wave devices. Are either of these compatible with Vera so that when I set up a macro with the remote it can dim my Vera/z wave controlled lights. I think there are z wave solutions that work with Vera but I don’t want to necessarilly operate my A/V through a web interface or Ipod Touch, I’d rather have the tactile feel of an actual remote that happens to work with Vera. Any Ideas?
a GE/Jasco 45608 is the way to go, love this remote!
Take a look at the Jasco website
Wayne Dalton has a low cost option that has some macro IR capability and Z-wave control. It doesn’t have the product database that Logitech has though.
I like the Harmony 890 pro. Have a Nevo s70 as well, but the 890 pro is still my preferred remote.
I have a few 890 PROs and have found it is not usable for a network with more than 15-20 devices… I spent alot of time dealing with Harmony Support on this, and they basically stated that its “not supposed to support more than 8 devices” even though its advertised as a “whole home controller”…
Harmony COULD HAVE made the 890PRO the BOMB if they had just put some more Zwave support into the thing, but as it is… the burdensome programming and absurd limitations such as not being able to clone to a secondary remote other than another 890PRO…its just too much of a PITA to use for more than one room, which makes it no better than the 890 IMHO.
Ultimately, I still use Harmony 880/890s around the house mainly because of its ergonomics and ease of use for the wife… but my quest for the ‘perfect’ remote with seamless zwave/HA integration continues, which is why I bought Vera with the hope that the IR and Iphone/touch integration will eventually get me there.
Agreed on the ergonomics. I have about 35 devices on my network. 23 of them are controlled by the 890 pros, and never had a problem. Actually the response time is better than the Nevo.
The only drawback is old z-wave support… So no thermostats or locks. I use the internal switch on one of my leviton 4-button controllers as a gateway for the locks, but no practical solution for the thermostats.
And, I have been able to clone the network from the 890P to a ThinkStick (Harmony as primary, node 1, and thinkstick as secondary) and more recently from the Vera to the 890P’s (Vera as primary node 1, and Harmony’s as secondary, nodes 32 & 33 with the extender as node 31). Not too painful, but tech support was useless on the subject.
Yea, 23 sounds about right for the limit of devices the 890pro can control from what I remember from my network (I went through all this over 18 months ago)
I remember I spent over a week adding/deleting/adding/deleting devices before Harmony Support figured out that they have a limit on devices, and were honestly suprised I was able to even add that many…
Just curious… if you are using 890pros for your house, what are you using your Vera for? Or have you figured out a way to transfer secondary control to the Vera from the 890pro?
I don’t know if I understand the question - Vera and Harmonies have two totally different purposes. It’s the difference between home automation and home control. I can control the house with the vera, the harmonies, and the nevo, but I prefer to use the harmony for control of devices and the vera for automation of devices.
I don’t see a need to clone from the harmony to the vera - i wanted vera as my primary and the harmonies as the secondaries so I added the harmonies as secondary controllers to the Vera network.
[quote=“woodsby, post:8, topic:165587”]I don’t know if I understand the question - Vera and Harmonies have two totally different purposes. It’s the difference between home automation and home control. I can control the house with the vera, the harmonies, and the nevo, but I prefer to use the harmony for control of devices and the vera for automation of devices.
I don’t see a need to clone from the harmony to the vera - i wanted vera as my primary and the harmonies as the secondaries so I added the harmonies as secondary controllers to the Vera network.[/quote]
THAT you were able to add the harmonies as secondaries is GREAT news to me since I was under the impression that an 890Pro HAD to be primary and ONLY 890pros could be cloned as secondaries…
I would GREATLY appreciate you teaching me how you set up your Harmonies both as a secondary, and then how you programmed them… did you do it via the Harmony software or via Vera?
I posted instructions on another thread recently… http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=3083.0 , as well as on the wiki… on the Logitech 890pro page - scroll down to Method 2. Give it a try and post back to the other thread on the subject.
Follow the instructions closely. And you have to have 890 pros… Obviously the 890 standard won’t work. The RF extenders are a little cumbersome when changing their network ID, but if you follow the instructions, you should be ok.
Woodsby, you ROCK man! Sorry, I did not even think to do a search on this since I had always been told it was impossible, and had failed miserably when I tried to add a network to my h890p from my ha07 and/or thinkstick.
I will now be up much later tonight trying to accomplish this 
Blade, I’m assuming most people gave up on the subject long ago… so, please confirm that the instructions work for you, so we can all consider this a real solution… Follow the instructions closely… especially the part where you have to quit the Harmony software and reload after adding the devices to the 890p… That’s what did it for me…
And, FYI, the only issues I am seeing with the Harmony’s (the 2 issues I point out in the wiki) are the same issues I am seeing with the ThinkStick and the Nevo S70… so as far as I’m concerned, it’s just as good as those controllers, from a support perspective… As I read more about the GE remote though, it seems that Vera sees it as a true scene controller… which is a major advantage… if someone else who has this remote can confirm, that would be great… Although, I am going to try the IR window on the Leviton 4-Button scene controller this week, and see if I can get the Harmony to trigger those scenes via IR… not clean, but should work…
I will definitely post my results either way… my problem at the moment is that I have one 890pro account that has my basement/home theatre switches on it in addition to all of my HT AV equipment perfectly controlled at the moment… I dont really want to screw up whats working even though those switches are on a totally different zwave network than the rest of the house. Ideally, the whole home would be on one zwave network, but I havent got the guts up yet to mess with my successful HT setup.
I do have two other h890p (one of which is still NIB that Harmony sent me for the troubles they caused me)
I have a clone of my account that Harmony made for me along time ago, if it still exists, I will try to set up the new Harmony for the main home network and see how it goes… maybe I will luck out and the wife/kids will give me enough time tonight for this
Once again, Kudos to you for taking the time to do such a detailed writeup on this!
@myhomeserver - were you able to get both ch+ and ch- to work properly ?
Mine turns the device ON but doesnt turn it off
Whats strange is if you hookup a scene you could only select one command (Turn it on or OFF) - so its not making ANY sense how it turns it off??