A WorkAround 880 Macros

[thepackfan]

I picked up a Harmony 880(good price @Dell). After alot of messing around I got all my stuff working, but, Lack of Macros sucked.

Then my brilliant (at least I think so :) ) idea, I used a different remote to program a macro (I.E. turning on clock (S-P-S-9-S)). I then taught it to my 880 in a new button called TimeTog.

I worked fine My custom button labels will toggle time, list Todo, and wishlist.


If there is an easier way to do this I didn't find it.

Hope this helps.

[Mark W]

Hey, that's a great idea! It really works? I am a new Harmony user as well, and am painfully aware of the lack of macro ability. I have read about other Harmony users lamenting this as well, so I am surprised that such a simple workaround exists.

What does the button activity look like in the software when you do this? What I mean specifically is that since this "function" does not appear in the dropdown list of things to do, what does it say there?

[Mark W]

I have the lower 628 model. I hope the same capability is there for it. Can you explain a little more about how it is done? Is it really as simple as learning the button with no other things to set?

[thepackfan]

I first create a macro on an old jp1 or whatever remote you have that can create a macro. I then taught it to the 880 as a new learned button. Then in the menu where you can select buttons under you activity I name it (IE ToggleTime) choose the button that I just taught the 880 and it works great. the first time you teach it the macro it questions if you did it right, just retry it see that the commands are the same and your good to go.

[Mark W]

Thanks, I will definitely give this a try. Some macros that I would like to program are a 22 second skip (replay, 30 second skip) for football games, resetting of the 30 second skip function, and for my Listen to Satellite Music activity, tuning to 4 of my favorite channels, and labeling the buttons by type of music. I am sure that I will come up with many others as well. Thanks for the tip, I hope it works on my 628!

[thepackfan]

Well, I picked up a 628 for a second room, and no luck working a 628 in this manner.
I tried your football macro on the 880 and it repeated the last command twice, i reversed the order and still the last command was repeated.

[Mark W]

Well, that's not good news. Is the software for the 628 any different in this area? It sounds like it isn't, just that it doesn't work correctly on the 628? Has it worked for any macro that you tried?

[annenoe]

I first create a macro on an old jp1 or whatever remote you have that can create a macro. I then taught it to the 880 as a new learned button. Then in the menu where you can select buttons under you activity I name it (IE ToggleTime) choose the button that I just taught the 880 and it works great. the first time you teach it the macro it questions if you did it right, just retry it see that the commands are the same and your good to go.

RATS! Now I have to go out and get a remote that learns macros so i can teach my 880... Hmm, it sounds so wacky, I just might try it. What might be the cheapest macro remote I can buy??

[thepackfan]

No, I could not get any macro to work on the 628 :( . I thought of a way to fix Your football skip on my 880, all I did was add an unimportant character at the end of the macro that repeats.
I usually am quite happy with the 30second skip, but in 2 min. drill or with a quick QB this will come in handy. Thanks for the idea.

[thepackfan]

RATS! Now I have to go out and get a remote that learns macros so i can teach my 880... Hmm, it sounds so wacky, I just might try it. What might be the cheapest macro remote I can buy??

Unfortunately the cheapest remotes are the Jp1's. but the learning curve is a little steep for this project. I love jP1 but there is no way to label hard buttons and no LCD's that allow naming. But you can make these $20 remotes do just about anything, except teach everyone what button does what.

You could try http://www.remotecentral.com/ for some ideas

[Mark W]

Well, he doesn't need a jp1 remote, he just needs one that can learn macros. I did try this macro learning on my 628, but all it did for me was record the first command of the macro. The macro was 817, and when I tried in on my Harmony, it only did the 8.

[jstoddard]

try learning in RAW mode. This works fine on my 680

[Mark W]

I did click raw mode, but maybe did something wrong, there are so many choices there. How do you rename the function to something other than "mynewfunction" or whatever it's called?

[JTAnderson]

If you don't want to send the 30-second skip sequence very often, then you could add a "generic activity" with the startup sequence S-P-S-3-0-S.

The downside of this is that it won't be a single button press. You would need to go to the activities menu, find the activity, select it and then go back to your original watch TiVo activity.