"When it comes to Logitech, I believe everyone is very familiar with this Swiss company that started with the mouse. Especially those who are interested in games that require a high operating environment, such as e-sports, must be very interested in Logitech's keyboard and mouse suit. Perhaps most people still stay in Logitech's image as a professional manufacturer of computer peripheral accessories such as mouse and keyboard. There is no doubt about this idea, but the next thing the author will introduce to you may be slightly different. This time, aiban.com got a special product launched by Logitech - Harmony smart control, It can also be simply understood as intelligent remote control.
When it comes to intelligent remote control, friends who have seen the broadlink intelligent remote control previously disassembled by Aiban may have ideas and may scoff. It's not like a thing instead of infrared remote control. It's a bit exaggerated to install WiFi and shout intelligence. I just heard about Logitech's intelligent remote control. I said I thought the same as you. However, after experiencing harmony smart control, as the article title said - half heaven and half hell. No matter how to evaluate the birth of intelligent remote control, Logitech harmony did its best to achieve a relatively high level at this time, And it is different from broadlink intelligent remote control in terms of specific subdivision fields. Let's experience it together.
Logitech harmony smart control
For the domestic E-fast food culture, the packaging boxes of electronic products of many companies draw lessons from the simple and environmentally friendly Kraft linerboard packaging materials of Xiaomi company, which is now popular in e-commerce. The difference is that the packaging of Logitech harmony smart control is high-profile and luxurious, with a great sense of texture. At first glance, it feels "tall". The appearance packaging is obviously carefully designed. The front is the prototype of harmony smart control base, the side contains the instructions of accessories in the packaging box, and the bottom has simple instructions. OK, open the packing box immediately to see what happened (see the figure below).
Logitech harmony smart control accessories list
Intelligent remote control base, intelligent remote controller
5V power adapter, micro USB interface, mini infrared emission extender, product description
The above figure shows all the accessories of Logitech smart remote control. As I mentioned before, Logitech harmony smart control is an intelligent remote control with slightly different positioning from broadlink. The specific differences are as follows:
Broadlink focuses on infrared controlled remote control of household appliances, such as air conditioners, televisions, set-top boxes and other general infrared controlled household appliances
Harmony smart control is mainly a multimedia controller extended around the home theater, which is expanded around the TV. It can be extended to audio multimedia, DVD / blu ray player, game controller (PS4 \ Xbox), etc. electrical equipment can be controlled through infrared or Bluetooth.
Harmony intelligent remote control main body mainly includes two parts, one is the intelligent remote control base connecting with the smart phone and controlling the home multimedia equipment, and the other is the remote control of the control base similar to the appearance and size of the ordinary TV remote control (see the figure below for details).
Intelligent remote controller and remote control base
The front of the base is printed with harmony's logo. The appearance of the pure black polishing treatment looks very bright, but it is also easy to be contaminated with fingerprints. The volume is not too large. It is about the size of an ordinary adult's palm. In fact, it is about the same size as the domestic Xiaomi box and tmall box. It won't hinder the eyes and occupy space anywhere. In terms of power supply, the base adopts a 5.1v/1a power adapter and micro USB interface. Several other external interfaces on the base are as follows: Bluetooth pairing / reset button and infrared transmitter extension interface.
Intelligent remote control base interface
Intelligent remote controller
The remote controller adopts streamlined design, but compared with the simple remote controller of smart TV launched today, the interface operation is complex, the design is outdated, and it looks quite ugly. In terms of material, the back of harmony smart remote controller is frosted, which is very comfortable to hold and feels very comfortable. The power supply adopts 3V button battery, abandoning No. 5 or No. 7 dry battery, In the industrial design, the volume of the remote controller is reduced to a certain extent. On the other hand, it reflects that the peak current of the remote controller in the normal working state is also very low.
Another very useful accessory is the infrared transmitter extension cable in the figure below, which greatly reduces the blind area of blocking infrared communication due to the placement of the remote control base and increases a certain experience. However, if you hang a cable on the wall abruptly, it is actually ugly and may not be very popular with people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. In addition, although there are two infrared transmitter extension cable interfaces on the base, there is only one infrared transmitter extension cable as standard.
Infrared transmitter extension cable
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Logitech harmony smart control
After introducing the basic situation of Logitech harmony smart control, let's actually use it. First give you a preventive injection. When using the settings, the process is smelly and long. The author really doesn't want to experience it for the second time (of course, there may be some reasons for its use in China, which will be briefly explained later).
Firstly, plug in the 5V power supply to the harmony intelligent remote control base, and you can see that the LED on the front panel is red, as shown in the figure below
Power on harmony intelligent remote control base
Second, you can set the matching between the smart remote control and the base through online settings or mobile phones. However, if you need to use the mobile phone to operate the smart base, you must set it on the mobile phone app. Download and install the corresponding application software harmony (supporting IOS and Android system) on the mobile phone. Taking Android mobile phone as an example, the author downloads and installs harmony application in Google play store. After downloading, open the application and continue. It will appear in the wireless WiFi and domain search harmony hubs interface of your mobile phone. Because it is the first time to set, it can not be searched, You must first select to set up a new device -- > turn on the mobile phone Bluetooth and select to pair with the smart remote control base -- > when pairing with Bluetooth, you need to press the reset button on the smart remote control base (see the following figure for the specific process).
Pairing process of mobile phone Bluetooth and smart remote control base
The pairing process takes about a few seconds, and then the interface of adding the smart remote control base to the same WiFi domain of the mobile phone will appear. Enter the WiFi password and continue. We customize the name "eeboardsmartcontrol" for the base device at this time, and then need to register an account. The account is a necessary step for you to use the software cloud service, which can save the information you set, It is convenient for direct import and use in the future.
After the account registration is completed, you will first check whether the firmware of your smart remote control base is updated (automatic update by default). After the update is completed, the account setting information in the last step of the process shown in the figure below appears.
Add the smart remote control base to the mobile phone WiFi domain
The first few steps are easy to complete through harmony's own app. The real nightmare is just beginning now. To set up account information, first select the TV device you use. My company happens to have a newly purchased LETV S50 2D TV (large screen smart TV, very hot), which can be used. However, it seems that the current hot TV is too "advanced". Logitech claims that it can't find this equipment in the database with more than 225000.
There is no way. You can only add settings manually according to the wizard of harmony app. Of course, the premise of manual setting is conditional (you must have the original remote control of the TV). This is like a learning process. Specifically, through the app as a guide, aim the original remote control of the TV at the logo position on the intelligent remote control base (there should be an infrared receiver in this place), and input the learning command buttons one by one. It is very troublesome. The app has more than 40 preset key settings, which should be matched accurately one by one, Because this setting corresponds to the intelligent remote control one by one (which requires you to know the specific functions of each button of the remote control like the back of your hand), otherwise you will "fail to express your meaning" when using the intelligent remote control - that is, what you enter is not the result you want. In addition, when you press the key to set, you will often be prompted to recognize command errors and re-enter. Like the red prompt box in the last figure in the following figure, you can play the rhythm of your collapse.
Intelligent remote control settings
Finally, the author can't bear it. Only a few digital buttons and power switch buttons are retained, and all other functions are skipped. After setting up the TV, you can also set up devices around the TV, such as DVD / blu ray player, game controller, etc., and the game controller can be controlled through Bluetooth, which is much higher than infrared control. However, due to the limitations of equipment conditions, only some devices with Bluetooth function can be used. Once the settings are completed, it will be convenient in the future. The app will store your saved settings in the cloud. You can call them directly every time you use them in the future, as shown in the figure below
Load configuration from cloud
Once the TV control on the mobile app is set, the Logitech skill remote control can be used synchronously. At this time, the settings of each key on the remote controller are the same as those defined on the app. However, if you skip all the keys like the author, the remote controller will have no effect. However, when using the remote controller, you find a brilliant place. The intelligent remote controller controls the intelligent base, which is not a simple infrared control, but at least a short-range wireless communication technology, And it has the effect of penetrating the wall. At present, the specific method is not known. It will be unveiled in the following disassembly link. Finally, a picture of the author using the mobile phone custom setting button to turn on LETV is attached.
Turn on the TV through the mobile app harmony
Rather than introducing the use of Logitech harmony intelligent remote control, the author is explaining the most basic working principle of harmony with the most original use method, and then will continue to deepen in the disassembly below.
Before that, let's talk about the author's feelings about using harmony intelligent remote control. First of all, I have to borrow Mark Twain's words - "friends, please forgive me, I really don't have time to write the letter shorter". In fact, the author has tried his best to delete the text content, but the amount of information is too large. The whole setting process has been tossing back and forth for a long time, which is not a complete version. Here is a summary of Logitech harmony smart control:
1. Logitech harmony is half heaven and half hell - how to say, if your TV device happens to be in the harmony app, you can use it directly. Moreover, the experience effect of its supporting 2.4G wireless remote control is far better than that of the infrared remote control; However, if your TV device doesn't exist in your harmony app and you need to customize it, you should take the time to understand the function of each button on the remote control. The author has also seen some comments from some purchasing users on Amazon. Basically, it doesn't need to be set for 5-star high praise and 1-star low praise.
2. Logitech harmony intelligent remote control is a remote control for home cinemas. This is not particularly common in China and may be popular abroad. Therefore, we can see that Amazon in Chinese does not sell this product, but the purchase base of Amazon in English still accounts for a certain proportion. In China, it may really be a premature product of "entertainment", The broadlink intelligent remote control previously mentioned by the author may be more in line with China's national conditions.
3. Another big trouble of Logitech harmony intelligent remote control used in China may be cloud service. When the author needs to connect cloud service content for many times, there is often a "suspended state" - always showing that it is connected. This may be because the cloud server is set up abroad. I believe everyone knows in China, I believe that this problem will certainly be alleviated abroad.
In short, you can use harmony smart control in China, but if you want to get a humanized experience, you need to have the conditions of a home theater, and these electrical devices are guaranteed to be in the database of Logitech harmony app, and you don't care about the slow cloud connection.
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Logitech harmony smart control
After a preliminary understanding of the use method of Logitech intelligent remote control, we really can't see the special brilliance of Logitech harmony from the experience. The only bright function is that the base and electrical equipment can be controlled through Bluetooth and the wireless control communication between the intelligent remote control and the base. We will also focus on this during disassembly.
Disassembly of intelligent remote control base
The author once disassembled Baidu wireless music box and was shocked by its Golden Jade and its external scandal. I don't know how Logitech harmony intelligent remote control will bring about? Let's take it apart. First, turn the intelligent remote control base over and tear off the rubber cushion.
Disassembly of harmony intelligent remote control base 1
It was found that the base was fixed by four cross screws, and two holes were left in the back. You can see the internal metal pad. No accident. This should be the test point of the intelligent remote control base. Unscrew the screws, and the front and rear covers were still firmly fixed. It was useless to pry open it. It was found that there were inverted buttons in this thing, and the double insurance did a good job.
Disassembly of harmony intelligent remote control base 2
According to the internal structure seen after disassembly, the intelligent remote control base should not reach the weight of the author's hand. First, we ignore the hardware design scheme, continue to unscrew the fixing screw on the PCB board, remove the board card, and find that a weight increasing anti-skid aluminum block is still fixed at the bottom, as shown in the figure below.
Disassembly of harmony intelligent remote control base 3
Now we have basically disassembled the intelligent remote control base. Let's take a look at the specific hardware design scheme.
Front of harmony intelligent remote control base PCB
The first is the layout of the front of the PCB board. The most prominent is the six omni-directional infrared emitting LEDs. This is easy to understand. In order to solve the direction of infrared propagation, it depends on the quantity and direction performance to ensure the reliability of communication quality. Moreover, according to the current situation, this is a common solution, such as broadlink intelligent remote controller.
There is a black box near the middle and top of the board
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