Harmony Remote Recycle Program

[Kustom Kid]

Hey gang, I just wanted to share a deal some of you stateside guys might be interested in. Now until November Best Buy is offering a trade in program for Logitech Harmony remotes. You bring in your old Harmony remote and they print a coupon for $50 of a Home Companion or $100 of the Elite. I traded in 350 that I bought refurbished on Amazon for $20, so it's for any Harmony remote. I was able to stack the deal with another and get an Amazon Echo Dot for free. Grand total $85.59 after tax for a $150 remote and $50 Echo Dot. You may not be able to stack the deals though. It took about 10 minutes of wheeling and dealing which eventually lead to the assistant store manager giving the ok. Once it got up to him though he said yes fairly quickly because there was nothing that said the deals couldn't stack. YMMV though.

[stigzler]

Score. When you go back to Best Buy, will you tell them Steve from the UK politely requests they stop pestering him for his location. He's got enough clicks to make without adding one bloody more. Skaggy b******s

[RIP-Felix]

Ooo...that's tempting. I have a Harmony 880 that is starting to have issues registering the volume up and the button I assigned my HTPC to. I was going to open it up and clean the contact pads, ssuming it has them. If it has tactile switches instead I'd have to desolder/replace them. More trouble than it's worth. So I can get an elite for $150 on trade for my 880 huh? I think I'll try to save my 880, I'm still in love with it, even if the battery swelled and broke the batt cover off. I replaced both a few years back. Maybe I should bite the bullet and finally buy a new one. The truth is, however, I've been holding out for a bluetooth capable one that doesn't need an IR adapter to work with PS3/4 if your TV doesn't have CEC.

[Kustom Kid]

43 minutes ago, RIP-Felix said:

Ooo...that's tempting. I have a Harmony 880 that is starting to have issues registering the volume up and the button I assigned my HTPC to. I was going to open it up and clean the contact pads, ssuming it has them. If it has tactile switches instead I'd have to desolder/replace them. More trouble than it's worth. So I can get an elite for $150 on trade for my 880 huh? I think I'll try to save my 880, I'm still in love with it, even if the battery swelled and broke the batt cover off. I replaced both a few years back. Maybe I should bite the bullet and finally buy a new one. The truth is, however, I've been holding out for a bluetooth capable one that doesn't need an IR adapter to work with PS3/4 if your TV doesn't have CEC.

Try and fix the one you have and if it doesn't work trade it in. Both of the ones you can get with the coupon ($100 for the Companion Home or $250 for the Elite) have a hub that sends IR, Wi-Fi, RF, and Bluetooth, so you'll be good to go. I have it set up to dim my Philips Hue lights when I watch tv, and raise them up once everything is turned off. It turns on and the Wii, PS3, PS4, Xbox One, and Firestick TV . It integrates with Google Home and Amazon Echo as well. They're really amazing products. I got the Companion because I couldn't justify the extra $150 for the nicer remote. They both use the same app for a smart phone or tablet. We'll eventually get a tablet for the basement to run everything. Until then we will just use the included, not as nice remote, and our phones.

[RIP-Felix]

How does it integrate with an echo? I have 2 and use them quite a bit for smart plugs (Fans, lights, even to reset my network switch). If they come with the blutooth thingy, then maybe I should upgrade. Does it matter what Kind of harmony? I have a cheap 510 too. It works well where I have it, but it's limited to like 5 devices. I could replace my 880 with the elite and replace the 510 with the 880 (after fixing and reprogramming it).

[Kustom Kid]

I set up both an Echo Dot and Google Home. The setup is similar for both. Personally I went with Google over the Echo because I've been using Google Assistant for a while now on my phone.

You set your start and end routines in the Harmony app for each activity. Then you connect your Harmony Hub to your smart speaker though the Alexa app. Both Echo and Home do not require anything else set up to work properly. You'll have to figure out what you say to get the desired result, but is fairly intuitive. You can say "Alexa, turn on the tv" or "Alexa, skip back 30 seconds" "Alexa pause the tv" or anything like that and it will do it.

So, if I'm in the kitchen getting a snack before I head down to the basement I can say "Hey Google, tell Harmony to turn on Fire TV" it will start and run through the activity named Fire TV that was set up on the Harmony. The nice thing is it'll run a lot of IoT devices. I have a Nest Thermostat, and Hue lights connected at the moment. But you can connect smart plugs, switches, other hubs like Wink or Smart Home. I'll try to get a video for you at some point so you can see it in action.