Primary Vera - Secondary Harmony 890Pro - HowTo

Well, I figure I’ve done enough research online and yet to find a how-to on this - mostly because everyone says it’s not possible. I will begin by saying it is possible, I’ve had my Harmony 890 pro set up as a secondary controller to my ControlThink Thinkstick. In that scenario, I set up the network with the H890P as the primary and added the thinkstick as a secondary, then shifted the primary role from the Harmony to the ThinkStick.
Ever since I got Vera, however, I wanted Vera to be node 1, and the H890P’s to be secondary nodes. The instructions below will outline how to do that, but let me begin with two quick notes… First, with these instructions, the H890P’s will think they are primary controllers, but they are actually accepting the network id and node numbers from Vera. I will also state that I added my ControlThink Thinkstick as a secondary to Vera, and it thinks it’s a primary as well, but that’s not an issue (yet), because they will still accept updates from Vera. Second note, the only issue I’ve found while using my H890P’s as secondaries is it takes a few minutes for Vera to pick up any device changes. For example, if I turn on a light manually at the switch, Vera picks up on that pretty quickly and polls it properly within a few seconds. If I turn the light on with the Thinkstick or the H890P’s, it’ll take a few minutes for Vera to pick up that change. This doesn’t bother me, since if I’m using the H890P’s to control lights, I’m probably not looking at Vera when doing it. I am still working on finding a resolution to the latter problem.

GETTING READY:

  1. Reset Harmony 890 Pros - On all H890P’s in your setup, select System Options > RF Network Tools > Reset RF Network. I had to do this twice on one of my controllers; it didn’t actually reset the first time, so I always reset 3 or 4 times when doing this – it can’t hurt.

  2. Reset Harmony Extender(s) – Plug in Harmony Extender to power, and hold down the Connect button for about 60+ seconds until the RF & Status lights flash rapidly.

  3. Clear all virtual devices and links in Harmony 890 Pros – Load the Harmony software, and select Modify Setting > Lights – Modify > Modify, and delete all z-wave devices. Then go back to the main page and update remotes. Make sure you update the remotes to delete any of the Z-wave device references from the remote. I could not get this method to work without updating the remotes at this step.

  4. Set up Vera as primary – and add all z-wave devices as usual (don’t add H890P’s or Extender yet). If your network is already set up with Vera as your primary, you can skip this step.

INCLUDING HARMONY:
5. Add Extender – Plug Harmony Extender back into power outlet. Unplug dongle from Vera, and put it in inclusion mode. Hold dongle close to the Extender, and hold down the Connect button on the Extender for 1-3 seconds until the Status LED comes on. When the dongle stops blinking rapidly, take it out of inclusion mode.

  1. Add the first H890P’s – On your first (or only) H890P, select System Options > RF Network Tools in preparation to include the remote. Put the dongle in inclusion mode and hold close to the remote. On the H890P, select Set Learn Mode. When the dongle stops blinking rapidly, plug it back into Vera. Please note that the H890P will tell you that it is now the primary controller. Don’t worry about that – I don’t – see initial notes above.

VERA CONFIGURATION:
7. Set up New Devices – Load Vera setup page, and wait until the new Extender and H890P appear. Name them, place them in a room, and save. Then go into the z-wave device settings for the added H890P, and select No under Automatically Configure. I also select 0 for poll interval, although I don’t think you have to. Save and exit Vera setup page.

HARMONY CONFIGURATION:
8. Create Device Names – Log back into Harmony software and select Modify Settings > Lights – Modify > Modify and add the names of the devices that you want to be able to control with the H890P(s). You don’t have to add all of your devices, only the ones that you want to control. Don’t add thermostats, sensors, or door locks, etc. since Harmony can’t control those anyway.

  1. Load Inclusion Tool – Click the Lighting Setup button at the top of the page; plug your remote into an available USB port and press next. This will load the inclusion tool on the remote.

  2. Quit the Harmony Software – When the inclusion tool has finished loading on the remote, you will see a page that tells you to unplug the remote, pair all lights, plug it back in, and click next. Don’t do any of this. After the inclusion tool has loaded on to the remote, quit the software. Make sure to quit it completely – including the little icon in your system taskbar. I couldn’t get this to work without quitting the software at this step.

  3. Link Software Devices to Real Devices – Walk back through the house with your H890P to each light switch that you listed in step 9. At each switch, follow the on-screen instructions on the remote, and be sure to just tap the light switch to add it. Make sure not to hold down the light switch for too long, or do anything else that would cause the switch to reset. All you’re doing in this step is literally identifying device nodes to the H890P.

  4. Link Harmony Extender – When finished adding all lights, press I’m Done on the H890P, and select Go To RF Extender Setup. This will prompt you to add the Extender. To add, just hold the remote close to the Extender, and press the connect button on the Extender for 1-3 seconds until the status light comes up. Keep the remote close to the Extender until it tells you that it successfully added.

  5. Load Network Configuration – When finished adding devices and the extender, load the Harmony software and log in. Then select Modify Settings > Lights – Modify > Load Network Configuration. Plug the H890P into an available USB Port, and click Next. This will load the device mapping into the software. When finished, the software should tell you all devices have been successfully paired. If so, move on to step 14. If you forgot to pair a device or more, quit the software, unplug the remote and repeat steps 11-13, but don’t forget to pair any devices this time!

  6. Create any Scenes – since you still have to update the remotes, which is the most painful part of the process, you might as well create any scenes you need. When finished, click done.

  7. Update Remotes – In Harmony software, click Update Remote. Follow the on-screen prompts, and make sure to update all remotes/extenders. If you only have one H890P, you are finished. Your remote should now be communicating with the Extender, as well as controlling any lights you’ve added. Vera can still control your lights.

ADDITIONAL H890P’s:

  1. Include H890P’s – unplug dongle from Vera and put it inclusion mode. On additional H890P, select System Options > RF Network Tools, Set Learn Mode. Again, the dongle will blink rapidly, and again, the H890P will tell you that it is now the primary controller. When finished, plug dongle back into Vera.

  2. Name and Save New H890P – Load Vera setup page, and again name and save the new controller. Then go into the z-wave device settings and select No under Automatically Configure. Then click save, and you are finished.

ADDING NEW NODES:

  1. Add Nodes to Vera – as you normally would.

  2. Update H890P’s – unplug dongle from Vera, put it into inclusion mode, and put each H890P into learn mode (update only one H890P at a time, obviously). When finished, plug dongle back into Vera.

  3. Repeat Steps 8-11 above

  4. Repeat Steps 13-15 above

Wow.

Painful, I know… but a great remote

I can confirm to the best of my (newbie) ability that 890 NON_PRO fails at #6. "Add the first H890P’s " no matter what I do. Remote fails to recognize dingle and/or vera box (low power/full power and/or vera box with Black and red combo. I could include RF Extender but not the remote :frowning:

Additionally I could not add any device to remote that was already configured with MCV unless I reset and delete it from MCV - being both primary, I guess.

Wish I can press a button “Watch TV” and it should adjust the lights etc…

regards

Keeper

I dont think you can put the 890 non-pro in learn mode… only inclusion mode…

Looks like I need to put these on craigslist :frowning:

Great non-zwave remotes though. I use mine in my basement… no z-wave down there… yet…

@woodsby,

May I suggest putting this on the Wiki? Thanks.

I added it to the wiki, but please confirm here that it works for you…

Didn’t realize there was already a page on it. This method works better, IMO…

Since the Monster AVL-300 is essentially the same as the 890 pro, could somebody test it with Vera and post the results?

I went through the process twice with my h890p and it failed, but I am using UI3 on a Vera2, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it since I can not seem to get any controllers to work with Vera2… I will try it again later this week when I get a chance.

Where is it failing? I may be able to help, since I failed a lot in order to get the remotes working. I don’t think it could be a UI issue. The remotes just need to join the network which can be done completely without the UI. But just speculation - still on UI2 here.

Having just gone through this guide with my AVL-300 I can confirm it works great. Success on the 1st try!

Notes from my experience:

  • I skipped step 3 (my remote was blank and new out of the box)
  • In step 7 only the OmniLink extender showed up as a Zenesys Scene Controller (remote itself is not in Vera devices, although it did pair and say ‘Remote is primary scene controller’ as described in the post [which I also ignored])
  • The Inclusion Tool in step 9 is called “Pair Z-Wave Devices” in Monster software (one or two other wording differences easy enough to figure out)

Cheers and thanks to woodsby for awesome walkthrough!

Hi there - I tried doing this with my AVL300 but can’t seem to get past the stage where I have to just have to tap the switch and have the remote recognize the node. Step 11. At this point, the switch is already paired and tapping it just controls the light. The remote just freezes up.

Any thoughts appreciated.

It sounds like your remote wasn’t actually added to the z-wave network. Can you see it added in vera? I don’t have a monster, but that’s what it sounds like.
Similarly, if you try to add a device to vera that has already been added, vera locates it and says it’s already been added. Tapping the switch is all you need to do to identify it to (other) controllers on the network.

Hi All,

Has anyone tried this with UI4? I have Monster AVL-300 and Vera1.

I cannot for the life of me get remote to show up in vera. Dongle confirms connect, plug it into Vera, and nothing…

I have reset the RF in the remote first, re-started Vera, repeat, repeat - nothing.

Any suggestions please?

Thanks.

Not sure if there have been updates to the 890/890Pro but I know in the past, the Harmony implementation of Z-Wave did not like them to be made secondary controllers. I know with the 890 you could not make it a secondary and I remember seeing somewhere that the 890Pro could only be a secondary to another 890Pro. As I said, we have not carried Harmony for many years now so I don’t know what has changed. Just wanted to get the info that I remembered out there.

Thanks, but it’s the Monster AVL300 which is technically the same as the 890Pro, and others have managed it according to this thread, but the difference here is that I am using UI4, and am unable to join the remote as a secondary controller to the network, or at least Vera is not seeing it.

Frustrated…

Wow, same problem with my AVL. I can’t even find the “H890P, select System Options > RF Network Tools” on the software for the remote. This is kind of a bummer, I hope someone (much smarter than me) figures this out.

Again, I don’t have the monster, but I have both my 890pros on my network. I am using a vera1, running ui4. I set up my network back on UI2 and upgraded to UI4 a while back and the remotes are still listed in Vera. I have received my V2, and plan on rebuilding my network from scratch on it. Of course, this will require a full weekend, so I don’t know if I’ll get to it this week. I’ll post my results as soon as I do.
Just out of curiosity, are the folks who can’t get this to work running a V1 or a V2? I am more likely to believe that this would be a hardware problem, not a Ui problem. Especially, since you really don’t need the UI to teach the zwave network to the remotes; you just need to include them, and the rest is handled on the remotes.
@mbairhead, the RF network tools screen is on the remote, not the software - don’t know what the screen is called on the monster.