Harmony 650 User manual

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Harmony
Remote Repair
harmonyremoterepair.com
How to Check for
Defective Buttons
Often, Harmony users suspect a button is not working and the reason may have nothing to do with actual
button hardware failure. It may be that the button is not mapped for use in an Activity, or there may be other
issues related to IR (or RF) signal transmission, or conguration issues with devices that are in the setup. It is
important to be able to differentiate actual physical button failure from these other, conguration-related issues,
and luckily, this is very easy to do! Find your model listed below and review the button testing procedure that is
listed. If your model is not listed, contact us for help and guidance.
Harmony 650/700
The Harmony 650/700 has two types of button contact technology; conductive carbon-tip and tactile button
dome. All of the ‘squishy’ buttons on these models are the conductive-tip type, and the ‘clickable’ buttons, like
the Vol/Chan toggles are tactile button domes. Although the repair process is different for each kind, the testing
procedure is the same:
1. Place the remote down on a at surface and, without starting any Activity, allow the LCD to go to ‘sleep’
(turn off). Now, without jostling the remote, so as not to disturb the tilt-sensor (motion sensor), press down
on any button that you suspect is not working.
2. If the LCD lights up using normal pressure, then the actual button hardware is ne and any issues you may
be having are not related to button failure. However, if you need to press multiple times, or with force, then
there is something wrong with the actual button and/or contact surface. You can test every button exactly
the same way and it does not matter if the button is mapped for use or not. Once you hit a button that starts
an Activity, wait for the command sequence to complete, and you can continue testing any suspected de-
fective button using the same process.
3. Although failing tactile button domes usually need to be replaced, typically what happens with the conduc-
tive tip buttons is that some oxidation occurs on the pad on the board and this prevents the conductive tip
from making good contact. You can usually improve the performance by opening the 650 up, removing the
rubber button pads and cleaning the conductive tips and the corresponding pads on the board with a prod-
uct like DeoxIT D100L. This is superior to alcohol or using other methods to clean and improve conductivity.
Harmony 880/890 (all versions)
The Harmony 880/890 series uses tactile button domes; small, convex metallic discs that, when pressed down,
make contact with the corresponding pad on the PCB. These discs can deform with time or develop microscop-
ic pitting and corrosion and, most often, these tactile domes require replacement as cleaning the underside of
the dome and pad on the PCB is not effective. Each button should respond with a light touch. If you need to
use even slightly more pressure to activate a button (we call this ‘lazy’), it is usually a good idea to replace it.
The best way to test each button is to use the ‘Glow’ button as an indicator. The great thing about using the
Glow button is that every button can be tested, even without starting an Activity and even when a button is not
mapped to be used. This is the procedure:
1. Place the remote down on a at surface and, without starting any Activity, allow the LCD to go to ‘sleep’
(turn off). Now, without jostling the remote, so as not to disturb the tilt-sensor (motion sensor), and, starting
at the bottom of the remote, press a button using normal pressure.

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2. If the LCD lights up using normal pressure, then the actual button hardware is ne and any issues you may
be having are not related to button failure. However, if you need to press multiple times, or with force, then
the tactile button dome is failing and should be replaced. Press the Glow button to turn off the LCD and test
the next button and so on and so forth. Each button can be tested the same way until you hit one of the Ac-
tivity buttons that surround the LCD, since, pressing one of these will actually start an Activity. But, once the
Activity has started, each of the buttons that surround the LCD can be tested the same way (again, even if
there is no command associated with a particular button).
Harmony One
The Harmony One uses tactile button domes; small, convex metallic discs that, when pressed down, make
contact with the corresponding pad on the PCB. These discs can deform with time or develop microscopic pit-
ting and corrosion and, most often, these tactile domes require replacement as cleaning the underside of the
dome and pad on the PCB is not effective. Each button should respond with a light touch. If you need to use
even slightly more pressure to activate a button (we call this ‘lazy’), it is usually a good idea to replace it. This
is the procedure:
1. Place the remote down on a at surface and, without starting any Activity, allow the LCD to go to ‘sleep’
(turn off). Now, without jostling the remote, so as not to disturb the tilt-sensor (motion sensor), press down
on any button that you suspect is not working.
2. If the LCD lights up using normal pressure, then the actual button hardware is ne and any issues you may
be having are not related to button failure. However, if you need to press multiple times, or with force, then
there is something wrong with the actual button and/or contact surface. You can test every button exactly
the same way and it does not matter if the button is mapped for use or not.
3. If none of the hard-buttons are working, but the touch screen buttons are working, this is usually due to a
failure in the button controller IC and replacement of the logic board is usually required. However, some-
times this symptom can be caused by a partially stuck button or a glitch in the rmware. So, rst check for
these possibilities. To test for a partially stuck button, massage each button to ensure that it has the cor-
rect travel and does not feel like it is partially depressed. Press each button rmly and see if there is any
difference in travel. Often, buttons near the bottom of the remote, where the front cover begins to narrow,
can become partially stuck. If all the buttons feel like they are moving correctly, then it’s time to check for a
power or rmware glitch. Try doing a battery-pull, wait 30 seconds and re-install. If the buttons are still not
working, then try re-applying the Firmware using the Harmony Software. If there is still no change in behav-
ior, the logic board generally needs to be replaced.
Harmony 900
The Harmony 900 uses tactile button domes; small, convex metallic discs that, when pressed down, make con-
tact with the corresponding pad on the PCB. These discs can deform with time or develop microscopic pitting
and corrosion and, most often, these tactile domes require replacement as cleaning the underside of the dome
and pad on the PCB is not effective. Each button should respond with a light touch. If you need to use even
slightly more pressure to activate a button (we call this ‘lazy’), it is usually a good idea to replace it. This is the
procedure:
1. Place the remote down on a at surface and, without starting any Activity, allow the LCD to go to ‘sleep’
(turn off). Now, without jostling the remote, so as not to disturb the tilt-sensor (motion sensor), press down
on any button that you suspect is not working. This should be done in a slightly darkened room, as you will
need to watch if the keypad backlight goes on. Note that with the Harmony 900, the LCD will only go on if
certain buttons are pressed, so the LCD cannot be used for this testing.

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2. If the keypad backlight goes on when you press a button using normal pressure, then the actual button
hardware is ne and any issues you may be having are not related to button failure. However, if you need
to press multiple times, or with force, then there is something wrong with the actual button and/or contact
surface. You can test every button exactly the same way and it does not matter if the button is mapped for
use or not.
3. If none of the hard-buttons are working, but the touch screen buttons are working, this symptom can be
caused by a partially stuck button or a glitch in the rmware. So, rst check for these possibilities. To test
for a partially stuck button, massage each button to ensure that it has the correct travel and does not feel
like it is partially depressed. Press each button rmly and see if there is any difference in travel. Often, but-
tons near the bottom of the remote, where the front cover begins to narrow, can become partially stuck. If
all the buttons feel like they are moving correctly, then it’s time to check for a power or rmware glitch. Try
doing a battery-pull, wait 30 seconds and re-install. If the buttons are still not working, then try re-applying
the Firmware using the Harmony Software. If there is still no change in behavior, the remote cannot be
repaired and logic board replacements for the Harmony 900 are usually not available, but check with us.
Harmony 1000/1100
The Harmony 1000/1100 uses tactile button domes; small, convex metallic discs that, when pressed down,
make contact with the corresponding pad on the PCB. These discs can deform with time or develop microscop-
ic pitting and corrosion and, most often, these tactile domes require replacement as cleaning the underside of
the dome and pad on the PCB is not effective. Each button should respond with a light touch. If you need to
use even slightly more pressure to activate a button (we call this ‘lazy’), it is usually a good idea to replace it.
This is the procedure:
1. Place the remote down on a at surface and, without starting any Activity, allow the LCD to go to ‘sleep’
(turn off). Now, without jostling the remote, so as not to disturb the tilt-sensor (motion sensor), press down
on any button that you suspect is not working. This should be done in a slightly darkened room, as you will
need to watch if the keypad backlight goes on. Note that with the Harmony 1000/1100, the LCD will not
go on when any of the hard-buttons on the pad to the right of the LCD are pressed, so the LCD cannot be
used for this testing.
2. If the keypad backlight goes on when you press a button using normal pressure, then the actual button
hardware is ne and any issues you may be having are not related to button failure. However, if you need
to press multiple times, or with force, then there is something wrong with the actual button and/or contact
surface. You can test every button exactly the same way and it does not matter if the button is mapped for
use or not.
3. If none of the hard-buttons are working on the hard-button keypad, but the Activities and Off button are
working, then the hard-button PCB board is defective and must be repaired or replaced. This is not a tactile
dome problem, but is generally caused by damage to the ribbon cable that attaches this small board to the
main PCB.
Questions? Need additional help? Contact us at [e-mail]
www.harmonyremoterepair.com