Hoping some of you current owners can happy me decision between remotes
I was hoping to be able tie my home theatre scenes together with vera ones.
I have a 880 right now. I just don’t know if the 890 or avl300 is better for doing nonlight z-wave modules (thermostat and drapes are my next planned additions).
Can get a avl300 for $68 or a 890 pro (refurb) for $129. The avl300 is just so ugly (in pictures atleast) but not sure if it double the cost ugly.
Any comments on better usablity between them would be greatly appreciated.
The 890 (non-pro) is garbage. It doesn’t play with anything z-wave unless it’s the only controller in the system. The 890 pro is not much better but at least can support multiple 890 pros (but no other controllers). They are limited to tiny networks and only switches/dimmers (no thermostats, senors, locks, etc.).
I haven’t used the avl300 but it’s mostly a rebadged 890 (pro?) so I don’t expect anything better.
Both products are rather long in the tooth. No hardware changes in many years. Back when I was using mine, there was very little software support and I suspect it’s even worse now.
Logitech dropped out of the z-wave alliance and stopped using the z-wave logos.
The 890 Pro and the AVL are basically the same remote and actually use the same software. I have the AVL and really like it. You can set it up on your Vera to control your lights/fans etc., though not thermostats or locks but it’s a TV remote so that wasn’t really a big deal for me.
[quote=“mbairhead, post:3, topic:167301”]The 890 Pro and the AVL are basically the same remote and actually use the same software. I have the AVL and really like it. You can set it up on your Vera to control your lights/fans etc., though not thermostats or locks but it’s a TV remote so that wasn’t really a big deal for me.
Am I able to have my “watch movie” scene trigger a vera z-wave scene that would turn lights down and close drapes? Or does it just have control of certain modules?
As of right now i think it’s possible but very hard. You need an IR device other than the one built into it, like SQ Puck. Then it will treat the IR more like a device but it wouldn’t be worth the effort (yet). Right now I just power up the A/V then run the light scene separately.
In a pinch can’t you just recreate the scene in the harmony software? Not sure about the drapes but the lights should work. I am in the same boat as you. I want to know how to use the AVL300 to do anything with Vera. I have set it up as per woodsby’s instructions but I’m just not sure what functionality it has with VERA?
Is there anyway to use the remote to assign it as an “event” in Vera. I have two AVL300 and I love them for my AV control and I got them to be secondary controllers to the VERA but once that is done, what is the actual interaction with Vera?
I posted this in another thread and thought I would also ask in here. For those with the AVL300, is the lcd screen washed out? The colors look nothing like the sicker that came witth the remote. For example the time on the remote is pretty hard to see. Did I just get a defective remote? I just got it in the mail yesterday. I do not remember the 880 having this issue. I know the screens are not of great quality, but it should not be this bad.
OK, as of right now, I don’t know of any simple way to trigger an event/scene on vera using the harmony remote. What I have done in the past is set up a dummy device (like the local load on a vrcs4) that I would toggle using the harmony and as soon as it was polled by vera, it would pick up the event based on that dummy device. I’ve also read in one of the Nevo related threads that someone was able to trigger a scene in vera using the Nevo by “toggling” vera in a Nevo scene, and that “toggle” could be set up as an event - the logic should apply to the Harmony as well, but I was not successful at setting this up using my harmony’s or my nevo.
What I do is just recreate the lighting scenes in the Harmony software, and you can associate those scenes with A/V activities.
As for the screen, all of my harmony remotes have started indicating a slight wash-out of the screen… mostly in the center of the screen. I have also noticed that the battery is slowly expanding. I have had a cell phone do this in the past, and that’s the only other time I’ve ever seen an “inflating” battery. I replaced the battery in one remote, but the other needs to be replaced soon. It’s so bad, you can barely get the battery cover back on. Nonetheless, I love these remotes - they do exactly what they’re designed to do… despite Logitech dropping z-wave support.
[quote=“garrettwp, post:7, topic:167301”]I posted this in another thread and thought I would also ask in here. For those with the AVL300, is the lcd screen washed out? The colors look nothing like the sicker that came witth the remote. For example the time on the remote is pretty hard to see. Did I just get a defective remote? I just got it in the mail yesterday. I do not remember the 880 having this issue. I know the screens are not of great quality, but it should not be this bad.
Garrett[/quote]
I bought the AVL300 after I had hit a dead end getting my Harmon 890 (non-pro) to work with vera. I found that the display was horribly washed out compared to the harmony. Monster also seems to have used a much lower resolution lcd. Overall, I am happy with the remote since it was under $100, but I really miss the ergonomics and display on the 890.
Am I able to have my “watch movie” scene trigger a vera z-wave scene that would turn lights down and close drapes? Or does it just have control of certain modules?
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Yes, I currently have my AVL set to turn on the projector, the receiver, PS3…adjust all appropriate inputs and dim the lights down to 10% when I select “watch a DVD”. This is all set up through the Harmony software.
Yes, I currently have my AVL set to turn on the projector, the receiver, PS3…adjust all appropriate inputs and dim the lights down to 10% when I select “watch a DVD”. This is all set up through the Harmony software.
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Is it controlling the lights or triggering a Vera scene? I think I need it to be able to trigger the scene, not just share control of the lights.
My AVL does not show up in Vera as a Vera controller, so you cannot trigger scenes built in Vera, but you can buil scenes specifically for the AVL with modules you associate with the remote.