20 Most Recent Logitech Harmony 880 LCD Remote Control - Page 3 Questions & Answers

Hi,

Note - I am assuming that there is no Problem with TV.

I would like to share certain Points with you :-

1. From time to time, Signal Strength might be Reduced. In this Regard, the first Option would be to Call Harmony and ask for the Firmware Update. I have seen many Cases when Firmware Update could help improving Signal Strength.

2. You could Dissemble the Remote and Clean all the Components including the IR sensor.

3. There is no Point of Repairing the Remote as IR Sensor is not serviceable and is not easily available. Even if you get the IR Sensor, in the end it might cost you a high Repair Cost relative to the Cost of the New Remote.The best Option in this situation would be to Purchase New Remote.

Let me know, if needed further assistance.

Hope i helped you.

Thanks for using ' Fixya ' and have a nice day!!

Hi. You can download the Harmony Remote Software at http://logitech,com/myharmony and click on 'Downloads'.

Hope that helps.

Make sure that you have stepped through the entire process of setting the current date and time using the Systems Option menu on the remote. Note that it appears that some firmware updates leave you with an option to select AM or PM hours from the System Options-->Set Time. However, the most recent firmware update seems to have removed this ability, so only a 12hr clock is shown, and there is no option to set AM or PM. The clock will always default to AM. So, one workaround is to simply set the time before noon! Also, the remote will pick up the correct date and time when connected to the computer (assuming your system clock is correct) and you update the remote. Hope this helps!

Ok well it may be the batteries or maybe not. First we MUST check the battery with a meter, You need to open it up, and see if it is holding a "Charge" Also we MUST check to see if the "Charger" is similarly putting out Voltage. IF BOTH are OK, then you have an internal fault, Unfortunately we get remotes frequently, often it is the LED being broken off from it's mount, or some sort of "Jungle Chip" fault. IF NOT OK then obviously we have to swap out the faulty "Bit" with a "Known Good". Sometimes the taking Out of the batteries is all that is needed the doing so, sort of "Resets" the entire thing, and it mysteriously works again.. Electronics don'tcha love 'em Hope this helped.

This is a configuration problem. My guess is that when you set up the "Watch TV" Activity, the input source was not properly selected. Remember, you should almost never need to control devices separately,(as you would with a typical remote). In fact, the only time you need to specifically control a device would be a situation where you need to access a little-used function that was not programmed as part of an 'activity'. Sometimes, you may need to control a device to tweak an activity that did not start correctly, but apart from these situations, you will almost always be concerned with starting "Activities". This is very different from your typical universal remote! Instead of operating 'devices' like your TV, cable box or DVD, you configure and select "Activities" that automatically control the devices that are used during that activity. So, go back into the Logitech software and make sure that your Watch TV activity is selecting the appropriate input. If everything is setup correctly, and you still are unable to go to the correct input, you may need to adjust some of your delay settings, especially the Power-on Delay. Power on delay is the amount of time it takes for the device to turn on and start accepting IR commands. On most electronics when you first turn them on if you hit other buttons too quickly the device will not respond to them. This delay helps to keep that from happening. Hope this helps!

Learn the commands from the original remote in RAW mode. See the following link:

http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/logitech_en_amr.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3859

Hope that helps. If it doesnt fix the problem, then its most likely a hardware issue with the remote.

This is very strange and I have to admit, I have not come across a situation where I've seen (or heard about) this degree of intermittent behavior. I've seen a couple of buttons require a bit more pressure to operate and then clear itself up and act up again - with or w/o doing firmware updates, so I do understand your frustration. Your post is already quite old, so I wonder if you were able to find a solution somewhere. In any event, I wanted to tell you that it looks like you have done all of things that I would have recommended and I'm not sure there is anything else to try. You could try jarring the remote a bit by banging it against your hand to see if anything changes (this is the old 'brute force' approach). This may help identify a loose connection somewhere. But, my sense is that it is more software related, since typically when hardware starts to go it does not repair itself and a failing component or solder joint would usually affect a smaller area, not the majority of your buttons, both hard and 'soft'. So, another thing you can try is starting over. Since there is no way for you to initialize the remote back to 'Factory Defaults' or restore the remote with a previous version of the firmware, you could create a new account and add only 1 activity (watch TV) using only 1 device (the TV). Update the remote with this configuration and see if that helps clear it up. If that takes care of the problem, add back your other activities and devices. I hope this is helpful, though I'm not optimistic.

Try this solution http://www.smorty71.com/2006/02/using-harmony-880-with-xbox-360.html

Wow! Well, at least I hope it was a good Cab. I see your post is from some time ago, so by now you have probably been able to salvage the remote or it has found itself another home (trash). But, for those of you out there who may experience this kind of unfortunate event, sometimes you can recover from this! The first thing to do is immediately remove the battery. The quicker you remove the power source, the better. Then, you should open the remote and dab obviously wet areas with a soft cloth. To open the remote do the following: remove the two screws - one in the battery compartment and one at the top of the remote. The next step is to seperate the two halves of the remote. Don't use a screwdriver for this, you will only mar the surface and possibly break the tabs that hold the body of the remote together. Using your thumbnail (this is really the best, unless you have a thin, rigid piece of plastic. A part of a credit-card may work), force your nail between the two halves of the clamshell casing near the bottom of the remote on the left or right side. Once you get your nail (or plastic) into the remote, angle it down at about 45 degrees and simply slide your hand up one side. This will release all the locking tabs very nicely without marring the surface of the remote. Then do the same on the other side. Now, seperate the top-half (face). This will expose the logic board. Remove the two screws located midway on the left and right side and gently lift up the logic board part-way. Be careful, - the board will still be connected to the bottom part of the remote's body via a small power cable. Look on the underside of the logic board and you will see a small white plug. Gently pull the plug out to detach the logic board completely from the body of the remote. Once you have everything apart, you can dry the wet areas and allow the parts that you can't see to continue to air dry as well. You may need to clean some of the sugars left by the wine if there is a sticky residue left. Use alcohol or contact cleaner to do this. The metallic part of the buttons on the logic board are underneath a protective plastic covering, so with some luck, they may escape damage. Good Luck!

Generally there are three possibilities (apart from the battery going bad) that can cause your battery not to charge:

1) Some folks have reported that the battery is not sitting tightly enough in the battery compartment. You can try folding a small piece of thin cardboard and place it between the battery and the back of the compartment. This will push the battery towards the front of the compartment and create a tighter connection against the contacts.

2) There have been reports of problems with some of the charging cradles in which the remote does not make sufficient contact with the contacts in the cradle. To ensure that the remote begins to charge, place it in the cradle and listen for a single beep. The slide show should start and then, after a few moments the screen should darken. If you hear two beeps at any time, it means that the remote has lost contact with the charging cradle and has 'woken' and is no longer in charging mode. Wiggle the remote to ensure that it is sitting in the cradle and making contact. There are also some fixes that can be done of the cradle itself, including opening it up and adjusting the height of the contacts. Others have had luck cleaning the contacts on the remote and the cradle with alcohol or a contact cleaner like DeoxIT. Still others have actually sanded down the plastic surrounding the contacts on the outside of the remote in order to bring them closer to the cradle contacts.

3) If you still have trouble after you have tried everything above, there may be a loose connection inside the remote itself. There is a very small plug that connects the charging terminals on the remote to the battery compartment. In some cases, this plug can become loose (especially if the remote has been dropped). If all else fails, you can open the remote and check to make sure that the plug is completely seated or attempt to push the terminal contacts slightly farther out. However, most people have found that altering the height of the contacts on the charging cradle is a better way to go. If you want to open the remote, do the following: remove the two screws - one in the battery compartment and one at the top of the remote. Then, using your thumbnail (this is really the best, unless you have a thin, rigid piece of plastic. A part of a credit-card may work), force your nail between the two halves of the clamshell casing near the bottom of the remote on the left or right side. Once you get your nail (or plastic) into the remote, angle it down at about 45 degrees and simply slide your hand up one side. This will release all the locking tabs very nicely without marring the surface of the remote. Then do the same on the other side. Once you are done exploring, simply realign the two halves and snap them back together.

If they are exactly the same model and your component setup is the same as well (for example, you have exactly the same TVs and they each have the same DVD player as well, and the inputs-outputs have all been configured the same way), then the 'Watch TV' activity you set up will successfully control all of the setups in each room. But, let's say that you have the same TV in each room, but in one situation you have a connected DVD player and in another you have a home theatre and still the other is only the TV by itself with no additional devices. In this case, you would set up 3 different Activites and call them 'Watch TV 1", "Watch TV 2", etc. Each activity would be configured to use the same make & model television, but would also include the devices that were unique to each room's configuration. Hope this helps!

Hi - this is by design to save battery power. You can adjust the amout of time that the back glow stays on by adjusting this option in the Logitech software and then updating your remote.

A communication problem can be caused by a variety of issues, both hardware and software related, so this can be difficult to debug. First, make sure that you have the latest software installed and that the installation is successful. Next, make sure that the USB cable and the USB port on your computer are good. Try to upload some pictures from a digital camera, etc. They generally use the same kind of cable. If the software is ok and the USB cable/port is ok, it's time to turn off any virus software, firewalls, etc. Now you should try to connect. If the software still does not detect the remote, you can try putting the remote into 'safe mode' and then try establishing a connection to upgrade the remote's firmware. Here's how you do that:

Launch the Logitech Remote software on your computer and click on "Downloads" (on the top menu bar). Then, take the battery out of your remote and at the same time you connect the USB cable to your remote (it should be already connected on the computer end) press and hold down the Off button at the top of the remote. This will put the remote in "safe mode". Continue to hold down the Off button until you see the message "safe mode requested" on the remote's screen and the screen starts blinking. Release the Off button. Now, go back to your computer and click on "Firmware". If the software is able to communicate with the remote, an update to the remote's firmware should be executed. If this step is successful, you will be prompted to update your remote with your personal configuration (your device and activity profile). I hope this works out for you!

If your Harmony remote is not charging on the base, try pressing down on the remote, and wiggling it around. It's just that the pins are not making contact.


If pressing down helps, you can fasten it on with a elasitc band or something so that it keeps charging. Also, if it is still under warranty, I woul advise contacting Logitech's wonderful support team to get replaced.


Hope that helps!

If the plastic cover is cracked but the LCD is fine, the fix is very different. In some ways it's actually harder than replacing the LCD, which is simply connected by a ribbon cable. One challenge for you is that, unlike the LCD, which is available as a replacement part (on Ebay - about $25), there is no direct replacement available for the plastic covering. You will need to pick up another 880 that is being sold for parts and then salvage the plastic screen from there. I'm not sure I can actually describe the replacement procedure to you without pictures but here is the general idea:

First, you need to open the remote so that you can work with the top half. To open the remote, do the following: remove the two screws - one in the battery compartment and one at the top of the remote. Then, using your thumbnail (this is really the best, unless you have a thin, rigid piece of plastic. A part of a credit-card may work), force your nail between the two halves of the ****-shell casing near the bottom of the remote on the left or right side. Once you get your nail (or plastic) into the remote, angle it down at about 45 degrees and simply slide your hand up one side. This will release all the locking tabs very nicely without marring the surface of the remote. Then do the same on the other side. Now, take the bottom of the remote that is holding the logic board and put it aside. You will only need to work on the top half of the ****-shell case. Ok, now looking at the face, there are 4 pieces of silver trim that are locking the plastic screen into the case, two on each side; the piece directly above the Mute button and the Prev button (they look like unmarked softkey buttons), and the two thin elongated pieces at the top on either side. To remove these pieces, you need to turn the top half of the casing over so that you are looking at the underneath at the area of these 4 trim pieces. If you look carefully, you can see that there are very tiny posts covered with glue that are holding in these pieces. You need to forcefully, but carefully scrape the glue off and try to push the trim pieces out from the back. Try to do this is carefully as possible, since the surrounding plastic is delicate. Once you pop these pieces off, turn the top half back right-side up. Now the only thing holding the screen down is a kind of rubber cement around the perimeter. To remove your cracked screen, you can pull it off from the bottom without worrying too much. However, be very careful when trying to get your replacement screen off of the salvage remote! The screen must be pried up gently and slowly from the bottom. If you use too much force, you risk cracking the screen as you pry it up. If you wind up scraping some of the black paint on the screen's perimeter, you can use a permenent marker to color it. Back on your good remote, remove as much of the cement as you can and lay down some double-stick tape (a glue stick may work also) and lay the new screen down so it is aligned perfectly in the space. Then attach the trim pieces and use some epoxy on the underside to affix them in place. Re-assemble your remote and it should be as good as new. Good Luck!

Generally there are three possibilities (apart from the battery going bad and the remote cradle not getting power, both of which are infrequent) that can cause your battery not to charge:

1) Some folks have reported that the battery is not sitting tightly enough in the battery compartment. You can try folding a small piece of thin cardboard and place it between the battery and the back of the compartment. This will push the battery towards the front of the compartment and create a tighter connection against the contacts.

2) There have been reports of problems with some of the charging cradles in which the remote does not make sufficient contact with the contacts in the cradle. To ensure that the remote begins to charge, place it in the cradle and listen for a single beep. The slide show should start and then, after a few moments the screen should darken. If you hear two beeps at any time, it means that the remote has lost contact with the charging cradle and has 'woken' and is no longer in charging mode. Wiggle the remote to ensure that it is sitting in the cradle and making contact. There are also some fixes that can be done of the cradle itself, including opening it up and adjusting the height of the contacts. Others have had luck cleaning the contacts on the remote and the cradle with alcohol or a contact cleaner like DeoxIT. Still others have actually sanded down the plastic surrounding the contacts on the outside of the remote in order to bring them closer to the cradle contacts.

3) If you still have trouble after you have tried everything above, there may be a loose connection inside the remote itself. There is a very small plug that connects the charging terminals on the remote to the battery compartment. In some cases, this plug can become loose (especially if the remote has been dropped). If all else fails, you can open the remote and check to make sure that the plug is completely seated or attempt to push the terminal contacts slightly farther out. However, most people have found that altering the height of the contacts on the charging cradle is a better way to go. If you want to open the remote, do the following: remove the two screws - one in the battery compartment and one at the top of the remote. Then, using your thumbnail (this is really the best, unless you have a thin, rigid piece of plastic. A part of a credit-card may work), force your nail between the two halves of the clamshell casing near the bottom of the remote on the left or right side. Once you get your nail (or plastic) into the remote, angle it down at about 45 degrees and simply slide your hand up one side. This will release all the locking tabs very nicely without marring the surface of the remote. Then do the same on the other side. Once you are done exploring, simply realign the two halves and snap them back together.

Wow! A fair amount of people have had this problem and most have tried all of the tricks with no success. Several have reported returning their remotes to Logitech and getting warranty replacements. If you are still under warranty, you may want to contact Logitech tech support and open a case. But before you do, try at least attempting to update the remote's firmware while in 'safe mode'. To do this, do the following:

Launch the Logitech Remote software on your computer and click on "Downloads" (on the top menu bar). Then, take the battery out of your remote and at the same time you connect the USB cable to your remote (it should be already connected on the computer end) press and hold down the Off button at the top of the remote. This will put the remote in "safe mode". Continue to hold down the Off button until you see the message "safe mode requested" on the remote's screen and the screen starts blinking. Now, go back to your computer and click on "Firmware". If the software is able to communicate with the remote, an update to the remote's firmware should be executed. Then, when prompted, continue with the update to your remote's 'profile' - your personal settings that get loaded into the remote. Good luck!

I wish I could take credit for this one, but I found something that may be helpful to you from Logitech's technical support forum:

The adding of an iPod dock is frequent question. The quickest & easiest solution is to just add a Digital Music Server with Manufacturer: Apple and Model: iPod to you account. The reason behind this is just to let the Harmony Software know you have an iPod & wish to create an activity to use it.

Once the iPod is in your account you can create a 'Listen to Digital Music' activity. It will ask you which device you want for volume, so just choose the A/V with the dock & the DMPort as the input.

After the activity is been created, you can go back and says 'Yes, but you wish to add more control'. This is where you would add the TV as a additional device in the activity & tell it to go to AV1. Once that is done, the Harmony will turn on the TV & set it to AV1, and turn on the AV & set it to DMPort.

You can also 'Customize Buttons' for the activity in case there are any volume & control buttons you wish to specify yourself instead of using the Apple iPod.

Generally there are three possibilities (apart from the battery going bad) that can cause your battery not to charge:

1) Some folks have reported that the battery is not sitting tightly enough in the battery compartment. You can try folding a small piece of thin cardboard and place it between the battery and the back of the compartment. This will push the battery towards the front of the compartment and create a tighter connection against the contacts.

2) There have been reports of problems with some of the charging cradles in which the remote does not make sufficient contact with the contacts in the cradle. This sounds like it could be your problem. To ensure that the remote begins to charge, place it in the cradle and listen for a single beep. The slide show should start and then, after a few moments the screen should darken. If you hear two beeps at any time, it means that the remote has lost contact with the charging cradle and has 'woken' and is no longer in charging mode. Wiggle the remote to ensure that it is sitting in the cradle and making contact. There are also some fixes that can be done of the cradle itself, including opening it up and adjusting the height of the contacts. Others have had luck cleaning the contacts on the remote and the cradle with alcohol or a contact cleaner like DeoxIT (sounds like you tried this). Still others have actually sanded down the plastic surrounding the contacts on the outside of the remote in order to bring them closer to the cradle contacts.

3) If you still have trouble after you have tried everything above, there may be a loose connection inside the remote itself. There is a very small plug that connects the charging terminals on the remote to the battery compartment. In some cases, this plug can become loose (especially if the remote has been dropped). If all else fails, you can open the remote and check to make sure that the plug is completely seated or attempt to push the terminal contacts slightly farther out. However, most people have found that altering the height of the contacts on the charging cradle is a better way to go. If you decide to open the remote, do the following: remove the two screws - one in the battery compartment and one at the top of the remote. Then, using your thumbnail (this is really the best, unless you have a thin, rigid piece of plastic. A part of a credit-card may work), force your nail between the two halves of the clamshell casing near the bottom of the remote on the left or right side. Once you get your nail (or plastic) into the remote, angle it down at about 45 degrees and simply slide your hand up one side. This will release all the locking tabs very nicely without marring the surface of the remote. Then do the same on the other side. Once you are done exploring, simply realign the two halves and snap them back together. Good Luck!