Review on 🔌 Logitech Harmony RF Wireless Extender: Discontinued Exceptional Connectivity Solution by Luz Rojas

The Logitech Harmony RF Wireless Extender lets you control your RF-equipped Harmony remote (890, 895 or the new 1000) without using it IR line of sight components. The Harmony 890 includes an RF wireless extender, but unfortunately the Harmony 1000 does not. Make no mistake, this device is an absolute REQUIREMENT for any large room or complex facility. In my configuration, the Harmony 1000 didn't have the power to power all of my components over IR from 20 feet away. The HF Extender solved this problem and now I can even control my entire setup from another room. An RF extender can control up to 8 components within line of sight of the device or within line of sight of 8 activated IR emitters. . You can add multiple extensions to your configuration if you have components in different rooms or areas that a single unit cannot serve. Annoyingly, the Harmony software doesn't let you assign more than 8 devices to the same extender, even if you have more than 8 components within range of the device or transmitters. IMPORTANT: You should try to set up and test your Harmony setup using only IR as much as possible before adding an extender, even if you have to sit next to components or open closet doors. This is because the Harmony software forces you to plug and unplug both the power strip (which needs to be unplugged) and the remote each time you make changes. Set up Harmony on your own first, it's much easier to make configuration changes using IR. After making sure I could only control my components with IR, I added an RF wireless extender to my setup. The Harmony software is up to date and I had no trouble setting it up with Mac OS X and Windows clients. The installation is very easy. If all of your components are behind a cabinet, you can easily mount this "blaster" inside, at least 10 inches from the front of your components. Or you can attach the 8 included wire transmitters (4 pairs of 2) next to each component's IR receivers. The wires for each of the 4 pairs are approximately 7 feet long and divided into 2 emitters that need to be placed within 25 inches of each other. It's also good to note that the tape is strong enough to attach to your component, but not strong enough to leave a residue if you need to remove it. Optionally, you can assign each component a channel (A, B, C, D, Blaster) corresponding to 4 sets of two wired transmitters and one base, or all channels sending all commands to all transmitters. I chose to specifically assign a channel to each component, which seems to offer better performance. (TIP: Label the transmitter wires!) Once set up, connect the RF Extender and Harmony remote to your computer to download the configuration. Then you need to connect the RF extender to the wall and, if necessary, connect the wires of the IR emitter. First, the Harmony remote needs to be 'paired' with the RF extender, which is done by pressing the connect button on the RF extender and following the instructions on your remote. The work went perfectly. I could control all the components from my house! And the starting performance was much better I think because I assigned each component a specific channel on the expander. In my configuration, I was pleasantly surprised that the RF extender was fast enough to send the repetitive command sequences needed to speed up the menus on my AppleTV. Great job Logitech! If there were one area where Logitech could improve, it would be the included documentation, which tries to be user-friendly but is so simplified that it's of little use. Since Revain doesn't allow a half-star increase, I'm maintaining my 5-star rating by enduring the documentation. Due to a lot of issues people had when this was first released a year ago I was expecting problems but they will work with the latest firmware (RF Extender v2.4, Harmony 890 v4.7) and the Harmony client software ( v7.0.2) solved all problems for Mac OS X and Windows users. Great price bundled with a matching Harmony 890 (see my review there). I have since switched to a Harmony 1000 but kept this extension for use with it. It's a shame that Logitech doesn't include a 1000 extender, because that's really mandatory. I would recommend it without hesitation.