Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×
RV Trip Planning Discussions

Go Back   iRV2 Forums > THE OWNER'S CORNER FORUMS > Alpine Coach Owner's Forum
Click Here to Login
Join iRV2 Today

Mission Statement: Supporting thoughtful exchange of knowledge, values and experience among RV enthusiasts.
Reply
  This discussion is proudly sponsored by:
Please support our sponsors and let them know you heard about their products on iRV2
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
 
Old 08-24-2006, 07:14 AM   #1
Member
 
RVersOnline's Avatar
 
Alpine Owners Club
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Bend, OR
Posts: 79
Send a message via Skype™ to RVersOnline
A few final choices before picking up our '07 34' FDDS at the factory in early October. One involves the universal remote, described as Harmony 880 (I note there's now an "890" from same mfgr). Anyone had experience with the 880 -- and would you recommend it rather than the individual separate remotes?

Thanks
__________________
2007 34' FDDS Ltd SE
RVersOnline is offline   Reply With Quote
Join the #1 RV Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

iRV2.com RV Community - Are you about to start a new improvement on your RV or need some help with some maintenance? Do you need advice on what products to buy? Or maybe you can give others some advice? No matter where you fit in you'll find that iRV2 is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with other RV owners, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create an RV blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 08-24-2006, 08:41 AM   #2
Senior Member
 
Jim A's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,957
Here is a website, http://www.remotecentral.com, that has a forum on Harmony remotes. You might find something of interest there. Harmony remotes are programable from a computer and the internet. The 890 is similar to the 880, but also has RF capabilities. But I don't have either one. I bought a MX-500 remote for ~$100, and love it and highly recommend it. But it is harder to program.

However, I would recommend you use a universal remote such as the Harmony instead of the individual remotes. In addition to having only one remote instead of the 6 that my '04 came with, you can program macros that will switch inputs to the TV, sounds system, and DVD player with the press of one button. This makes it much easier to switch from the satellite TV to a DVD to a VCR tape to the radio.

Buying the remote from WRV saves you the time to program it yourself to the specific components in your coach. (Hopefully!) If you haven't searched for it, you can buy the 880 for ~$250 at places like Crutchfield and Circuit City.
__________________
Jim A
'04 Alpine Coach 36' MDDS
Jim A is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-26-2006, 05:27 AM   #3
Senior Member
 
gator67's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: everywhere
Posts: 527
We have the H688 (we got it in May, 2005) and are glad we did. WRV programmed it for us, and although it doesn't do everything, and sometimes some manual intervention is required, overall it makes life very convenient.
__________________
Jerry & Shirley Friedman
2014 Chevy Silverado 3500HD
2015 Mobile Suites 38RSSB3
gator67 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-26-2006, 07:38 AM   #4
Senior Member
 
Wayne R's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Winter Haven Brownsville, TX
Posts: 1,143
I have been looking at the 890 the big advantage it has is it is RF capable. So far they have not released the codes for the new HR20 HDDVR satelite reciver so I will wait until the codes are available.
__________________
Wayne & Kathy
05 Alpine 40FDQS #75330 Towing 24' car hauler, 2012 Spyder, 2003 Harley FatBoy
Wayne R is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-26-2006, 11:36 AM   #5
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Auburn, CA, Havasu, AZ & Mulege, BCS
Posts: 5,385
H880 sounds too good to be true, so I ordered off Amazon.com for $160 w/free shipping. My Sony Commander is a world champion shmerts in the tuchis to program and can't be done via a computer. Maybe this'll launch me squarely into the 20th century.
__________________
Baja-tested '08 2-slide 36'
Alpine: The Ultimate DIY'er Project
EngineerMike is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-27-2006, 05:13 AM   #6
Senior Member
 
Wayne R's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Winter Haven Brownsville, TX
Posts: 1,143
I am impressed; I just downloaded the latest software from the Logitech web site. You can take a test drive simulating setting up your system. It had all of my components including the Kenwood mini system. I ordered one from Amazon and it should be hear before I leave for the Rally.
__________________
Wayne & Kathy
05 Alpine 40FDQS #75330 Towing 24' car hauler, 2012 Spyder, 2003 Harley FatBoy
Wayne R is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-04-2006, 10:24 AM   #7
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Auburn, CA, Havasu, AZ & Mulege, BCS
Posts: 5,385
Mine came likety split from Amazon.
Setup software wouldn't work on my wife's Dell laptop. Moved to my desktop upstairs (motorhome outside, so it's great cardio workout debugging, which thankfully is taking along time and many iterations up & down the stairs so I'm getting in shape; maybe they should bill it as the next great exercise program?). Been on tech support line for 140 minutes so far. Remote has a hard time finding the "DVI PC" setting for watching TV off the RCA satellite control box.
__________________
Baja-tested '08 2-slide 36'
Alpine: The Ultimate DIY'er Project
EngineerMike is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-04-2006, 11:45 AM   #8
Senior Member
 
Wayne R's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Winter Haven Brownsville, TX
Posts: 1,143
So far I am disappointed; it is too slow for the new HR20 HDDVR unit. I set the delay to zero and when I change channels it changes 3 times. Example 382, receiver changes to channel 3 then channel 8 and then channel 2. Sometimes it changes to channel 3 and then 82. So setting up favorites doesn't work. It does select the HDMI input most of the time when I turn it on. It tends to switch my Kenwood receiver to video1/opt instead of video 1. It does a nice job of controlling the volume, which most remotes won't do with the Kenwood unit. I am waiting for DTV to do another software update to the HR20 before I call tech.

PS: EMike, I drove clear to Nashville thinking I would get to meet you and Audrey and John but you both are no shows.
__________________
Wayne & Kathy
05 Alpine 40FDQS #75330 Towing 24' car hauler, 2012 Spyder, 2003 Harley FatBoy
Wayne R is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-04-2006, 12:52 PM   #9
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Auburn, CA, Havasu, AZ & Mulege, BCS
Posts: 5,385
67 more minutes (tech help had to take a break) and the thing works. Somehow cycling thru the 7 inputs on the the LG TV was giving the Harmoney fits and it had a hard time with the amount of delay between input instructions, sometime taking an extra hop on the input chart, or one too few.
Done now & seems to work on the WatchTV or WatchDVD functions. It still can't manually scroll thru TV inputs tho. There's always a shortcoming w/these gizmos. Now I have to see if the wife will use it w/out throwing it across the room.

Wayne- Sorry to disappoint on Nashville. Send me the bill for the gas. I'll pay you as soon as my peace dividend check comes in from the Clinton administration; it seems to be delayed in the mail or something.
__________________
Baja-tested '08 2-slide 36'
Alpine: The Ultimate DIY'er Project
EngineerMike is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-04-2006, 02:29 PM   #10
Senior Member
 
Wayne R's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Winter Haven Brownsville, TX
Posts: 1,143
Mike, I will just forward the bill to Hillary, I am sure she will make good on it. Hope to run into you on our swing west this winter.

On my Sharp TV, on the 6th screen next input will cycle the inputs. None of the rest work.
__________________
Wayne & Kathy
05 Alpine 40FDQS #75330 Towing 24' car hauler, 2012 Spyder, 2003 Harley FatBoy
Wayne R is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-04-2006, 02:46 PM   #11
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Auburn, CA, Havasu, AZ & Mulege, BCS
Posts: 5,385
I made the mistake of aggressively editing the Device-TV screens down to a more manageable 3 (from 10!!!). But somewhere I deleted the command that brought up the input screen. Gotta go back & find which one it was. Talk about stupid- the Harmony scrolls thru the LG's input choices using the Ch+/Ch- toggle instead of the 4-way toggle buttons; found that by accident.
Now my dire fear is that the Harmony will lose its setup while we are in Mexico somwplace you can't hook up to internet. Then I'm screwed. And by that time the batteries in all the other remotes will have leaked...
Or maybe I'm working this over too much, and I should go back to reading non-fiction instead of watching the boob-tube.
__________________
Baja-tested '08 2-slide 36'
Alpine: The Ultimate DIY'er Project
EngineerMike is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-01-2009, 10:07 AM   #12
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Auburn, CA, Havasu, AZ & Mulege, BCS
Posts: 5,385
Has anyone had to restore the program to their WRV-programmed Harmony remote since the factory closed? My guess is WRV had the setups stored on the Logitech/Harmony server (IIRC that's how it works if you buy & program the gizmo individually), and I'm guessing you could effect a recovery thru WRV Tech Support connecting you w/Logitech. I don't have that problem just yet, but came close when the coach was off 110V for ~3 weeks and the remote was acting up due to extremely low charge. My theory is that using some level of Help available off the Harmony 800# for programming support, you could find the setup stored for your remote based on serial number off the handheld. Wondering if anyone has had the opportunity.
__________________
Baja-tested '08 2-slide 36'
Alpine: The Ultimate DIY'er Project
EngineerMike is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-01-2009, 10:37 AM   #13
Senior Member
 
Marca's Avatar
 
Alpine Owners Club
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Wabash, IN USA
Posts: 125
Hi Engineer Mike,
Yes, we had the opportunity to completely reprogram the Harmony 880. I couldn't find anyone who had the original setup so we punted. I'll try to remember how we did it as we worked it in stages.

First of all, I downloaded the Harmony software from the Logitech website. I was trying to update one device (TV) and ended up wiping out the entire setup. I accidentally chose new remote, I think and that was incorrect for what I was trying to do. I don't know if there is a way to save the setup that you have or not. Probably is. Anyway, once the software is on your computer you can always return to it. Also, once you get the devices and the entire program setup, it is on your computer for the next time you need it.

Next, I hooked the Harmony Remote to my computer using my Garmin cable. Could use a camera cable if you don't have a Garmin as long as the connection is the same. We were not fortunate enough to have the original cable. Then we took the remotes we had and used the infrafred procedure to capture as many of the commands as we could. We managed to get most of them and build our main Harmony screen with the exception of the Silverleaf. I had to call the Logitech Help Desk and they suggested we use the Appliance remote setup to program it by manually entering the commands from its remote.

The final product is probably not exactly like WRV had it but with being able to rename the activities, etc. it's pretty close. Everything works correctly.

Hope this helps in case you ever need it.
Chuck & Marca
__________________
Marca
2006 Alpine FDQS Apex
"The Butterfly Express II"
Marca is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-01-2009, 12:14 PM   #14
Member
 
RVersOnline's Avatar
 
Alpine Owners Club
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Bend, OR
Posts: 79
Send a message via Skype™ to RVersOnline
We've found the Harmony 880 to be really easy to use. We have one login site we use to update the settings for the coach; and when we're home we use a different login site that re-sets the entire remote to control the entertainment center at home. The support is excellent. Once you've tried to set it up following the step-by-step instructions -- and find a problem -- just contact them by email (support) and they'll program the problem area for you at their end. Bottom line we've had very good luck w/the 880, and it's doing two completely separate jobs for us.
__________________
2007 34' FDDS Ltd SE
RVersOnline is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply



Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Universal Remote Control Differences Capt Joe Technology: Internet, TV, Satellite, Cell Phones, etc. 5 12-02-2008 05:22 PM
Harmony remote John & Jeanne Alpine Coach Owner's Forum 2 04-19-2008 05:48 PM
Campsites near Universal Studios in Orlando Josephg Camping Locations, Plans & Trip Reports 2 02-27-2008 07:30 AM
Universal Remotes loranimal Monaco Owner's Forum 16 08-28-2007 06:51 AM
Dineyland, Knotts, Universal Studio's teofff Camping Locations, Plans & Trip Reports 5 06-25-2007 06:17 AM

» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:20 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.