The question of today’s poll is: “Does IR work for you using Vera?” Please don’t be shy and vote 
Only tried mine so far with my DirecTV HR 23 DVR as the database is a bit too limited (for the devices i own) and i don’t have the time to try and fiddle with Girder on the PC to capture the IR codes for my other devices!
It worked pretty well to start with, i then changed the remote .bmp and now it wont render the new one for me despite trying many things like deleting, starting from scratch, new scenes and using existing remotes, something is very badly wrong with it now. I opened a trouble ticket for it but nobody answered it yet!
If it wasn’t for Square Connect coming to a rescue with the iPhone app (working pretty well) then i’d be annoyed at spending 50 bucks on USB UIRT and have it just sat there collecting dust.
I’m curious how many of us plan to actually use mobile handset application as a remote control, and how many just want to setup automatic scenes on Vera with no intention to use it as remote control?
I want the latter, and find it terribly annoying that it forces me mess up with layouts and stuff.
I agree - I only plan to have scenes to turn stuff on or off…
I plan a mixture of of power control via scenes for lighting and also more mundane stuff like powering up my AV gear and the control of the IR bits and bobs such as selecting of the correct inputs once everything has been turned back on.
After trying all the options, I don’t plan to use Vera’s IR for A/V at all. A mobile handset is way too small to display the large number of buttons necessary, and waking the device takes way too long. In the future I might reconsider this but I’d need to use a tablet sized device and Vera would have to have a much broader IR device database and be much easier to set up. I do intend to use Vera’s IR to control my skylights, though.
I love my Harmony 900 and prefer its use of RF to control a blaster. It works flawlessly. I think the ultimate setup will be a tablet remote using wifi to control the devices via RS-232 or Ethernet. Maybe someday Vera will be ready to do that. I know that there are, like, three of you guys out there who are hard core programmers and A/V experts who can make Vera do this today. Good for you.
I have a harmony 890 which i bought in the earlier days of Zwave and quickly found it to be inadequate for Zwave purposes; it is good for IR control though i will admit! I use it with the RF extender for controlling my DirecTV box which is in a different room.
I agree about screen real estate with the iPhone app but as soon as i find a suitable tablet/slate or if ever things like the MS surface become financially viable then i will replace the use of the iPhone. For now it will make do as it allows much flexibility with me being able to control, Zwave, RS232 and also IR.
Hopefully next week or whenever we see the new firmware for Vera then perhaps they’ve added in learning capability to the USB UIRT