If you know something about universal remotes then you know Logitech’s Harmony line of products. In this short review we’re going to take a look at the Logitech Harmony Link, an infrared bridge that’s meant to link your Android/iOS tablet or smartphone to all the gadgets in your house that feature an infrared remote. You’ll be downloading free Logitech apps that will control everything through the touchscreen.
Let’s see first how the Logitech Harmony Link looks like. Logitech took great care to make sure the Harmony Link design will blend easily in both classic and modern homes, so we’re dealing with a glossly black stone shaped device. From the front you’ll see the Logitech logo in the middle and a LED with two colors: red for boot up and for when you’re not connected to a WiFi network and green when everything is good to go. On the back there are just a few ports: mini USB, power port and two mini infrared blaster connectors. This universal remote ships only with one mini blaster (and a pretty long cable), which you can use if you want to hide the remote in a drawer somewhere.
You’ll be connecting the mini blaster in this case and make sure the smaller infrared emitter is placed somewhere with unobstructed view to the devices you plan on controlling. During my testing it was not necessary to use the blaster, as the Logitech Harmony Link was able to emit powerful signal even from across the room, without direct visual contact to my TV.
This is the interesting part: you’ll be creating a free account on Logitech’s servers - myharmony.com and then configure your home devices and activities (each activity can have multiple devices associated, which are turned on when the activity starts), then download the configuration to the Logitech Harmony Link remote via an USB cable. Your profile is thus saved in the cloud and can be accessed at any time and transferred to another device, if you lose this one or if you upgrade at some point in the future.
You need to note down the model numbers and brands of all the devices you have in your house and then make sure you find them in the huge Logitech library (5000+ brands). If you’re unlucky to find your gadgets you can always train the Harmony by using the original remote. You can select up to 8 devices to be controlled at any time.
Next step is to download the free apps (from here: iTunes, Android) and launch them. You’ll be logging in with the same credentials with which you’ve created your Logitech Myharmony account, select the Link you’ll be using (you can control more than one from the same tablet/smartphone), select your TV service provider and start browsing through the TV schedule (if you’re watching TV as an activity). Each time you select a new activity the associated devices will be started (or closed if they’re already open). Logitech Harmony Link can’t detect current state (it only transmits infrared bursts one way) so you’ll have to manually turn on the devices you want. It’s a minor inconvenient, but it’s worth mentioning. The TV schedule within the app shows a good amount of extra info and the control buttons change when you change activities (you won’t be skipping tracks when watching TV, right?).
Logitech 915-000144 Harmony Link - BlackEven if this is only a bridge, and costs over 100 bucks, it’s still cheaper than custom made home automation products. It’s at least worth a try if you have plenty of gadgets in your house. You can also buy a nice Bluetooth adapter for Playstation 3, if you want to add Play Games as an activity. If it wasn’t for the slightly steep price I would recommend this universal remote to everyone, but as it stands, it’s more of a ‘nice to have’ than a ‘must have’.
Let’s end with a video I’ve put together to help you understand what you’re getting with the Logitech Harmony Link (I’ve used my new iPad for illustration purposes):