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2012-04-04, 21:24
(This post was last modified: 2012-04-04, 21:24 by kromix.)
So I see it says the 2 has "2-button support for independent on/off control" and the 1 has "1-button support for on/off control" but thats the difference there, as in the IR has a seperate on and off command vs only one Power ON/Off or does that mean physical butrtons? I can't figure it out on their site?
Also the site seems very old, are they still in business? Anyone order recently and know how long it takes to arrive?
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eskro
Posting Freak
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yes they are still in business and they are good guys.
i talked with them not too long ago...
last month actually...
u got it right,
only difference basically is the fact that
you can program the PCS-2
in order to make it understand a Power ON and Power OFF command from a remote
instead of just being able to make it receive a Power Toggle command....
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nss/
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Reviving an old thread, I'm thinking about purchasing two of these from Simerec.
I'm fairly new to using the harmony one remote and understand the operation of the PCS 2, in that one IR command is sent to power on and another IR code to power off. With the PCS-1 one IR command is used to do both, a toggle.
I'm just trying to figure out how this effects day to day operation. To turn the PC on the contact is closed via the Simerec device, emulating the pc power switch. This is a momentary close. To turn the PC is off, the contact is again closed.
At the moment I can't see the advantage of going for the PCS-2 apart from the forced shutdown option it offers, unless I'm missing something. A IR off code with the PCS-2, is closing the contact, Is the IR toggle sent using the PCS-1 not closing the contact as well each time.
Does this effect the way the harmony remote keeps track of the activities?
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2013-05-16, 21:17
(This post was last modified: 2013-05-16, 21:19 by teaguecl.)
You are correct, both the PCS-1 and PCS-2 perform the same operation, momentary close of a switch. However, the difference is /when/ they perform this action.
Short version: You almost certainly want the PCS-2.
Long version: In the beginning, TV's had only one IR code for power (it is a toggle). This was cheap and simple and easy. It also sucked for "smart" devices like the Harmony because it had to track the state of the TV constantly. In order to turn the TV on, it had to know if the TV was on already, or if it needed to broadcast the toggle command. It was wrong about what state the TV was in a LOT. This was due to someone using a different remote to turn on/off the TV, or someone hitting the physical power button on the TV, or a power failure, or a sent command which was blocked because the remote wasn't pointed correctly. It sucked. Then TV manufacturers started creating "Discrete IR codes", which meant there was one code for Turn On, and another for Turn Off. This solves a lot of headache for the Harmony user. Now Harmony doesn't need to know what state the TV was in previously - only what state it wants it to be in now. Sending the "Turn On" command to an already on device does no harm. The PCS-2 knows whether your HTPC is on or not (Hint: it's the red wire on the PCS-2 wiring diagram) and it can decide whether to perform the momentary switch operation or not. In essence, PCS-1 gives you an IR Toggle code, PCS-2 gives you IR discrete codes.
If you get an IR decoder and log what the Harmony does, you'll find that the Harmony ALWAYS uses discrete IR codes for any device which supports them. It never uses toggles, because they are unreliable.
