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    Help, WAF dropping. Can I stop announcing when phone is picked up?

    I am currently running the NetCallerID and scripts, it properly announces callers and I have that announcement manually loop 3 times. At first the wife loved it. But if we answer the phone the announcements do not stop. This is getting annoying and she is starting to complain.

    Is there something else I can trigger from? The modem in my system is currently unused, can I detect rings from that and only announce when I see a 'RING' ? (I feel this may be the best way, but I am not even sure how to attempt this)

    Others have suggested using a device connected to my Ocelot that will detect if the phone is off-line, the problem with that is I loose my call-waiting callerID and she loves that feature.

    Help

    Thanks,

    Scott

    #2
    Scott,

    If you have HomeSeer Phone, and a supported modem, you should have access to the number of rings, but aside from that, what comes to mind is going to Mike Sandman's site (www.sandman.com) and getting one of the loop sensing relays he has which triggers when a phone goes off-hook. Attach one of those babies to your Ocelot, and you might have what is necessary to stop the announcements when the phone is picked up.

    --David

    Comment


      #3
      I don't want to try the Ocelot route as I stated above... and I would like to try the RING method, but am unsure as how to attempt it. I was hoping someone else has already done this.

      Thanks,

      Scott

      Comment


        #4
        Scott, why would the loop sensing relay in any way effect CWCID?

        --David

        Comment


          #5
          <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by David Kindred:
          Scott, why would the loop sensing relay in any way effect CWCID?

          --David<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
          1: I don't have one
          2: I do not have easy access to my inbound phone lines
          3: My Ocelot ports are all in use
          4: In a script I can see difficulties detecting when to ring if the line is in use or not.
          5: My Modem in the computer is not in use.

          Thanks,

          Scott

          Comment


            #6
            Good luck.

            Comment


              #7
              Gee, thanks...

              Comment


                #8
                The loop sensing relay must be in front of all phones for it to work. In my case that is just way too much work.

                I am going to attempt to use a ring relay that will close a contact upon ringing. Then I will play my overhead ringing/announcements only when I see the ring on one of my Ocelot lines.

                If this fails I will attempt to use my free modem port and detect the 'RING' there.

                I would like to say thanks for the help... but this topic was less than helpful.

                Scott

                Thanks,

                Scott

                Comment


                  #9
                  Why not just use an old cheap modem to begin with, it can detect the ring function, and your problem will be resolved quickly, with no custom relays etc.. This is what I use myself. And I also use another program called Identify $18 , with the free client's, it sends CID to all the computers on my home network, and works alongside Homeseer just fine.
                  Identify
                  Phil

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Scott,

                    You certainly write with a great deal of tone in your notes. I really was trying to offer you some assistance, but you shot down my attempts. I feel reluctant to offer further thoughts; however, I will do so, in the hope that it will be either be of some assistance to you, or to someone else who may be in similar circumstances.

                    1.) You do not need to splice the relays into the head of your phone line if you have standard phone wiring in your home and are not using the second pair for an additional line. Rick Tinker and I worked out this methodology many years ago when we worked at the evil HAL. Simply go out to the demarcation point where the phone company hooked up your phone line, and switch the main line to the second pair of wires in the house (this could mean using the black/yellow pair or the white-orange/orange-white pair depending upon how things were wired). This will make all the phones in the house inoperative as they will be looking for a signal on red/green (or white-blue/blue-white). At the location of your HS computer, get a line splitter from RadioShack that will split out Line 1 and Line 2 from the jack. Feed line 2 into the relay, and then the lines leading out from the relay feed back into the Line 1 jack. By doing this, wou will have set up the relay as the "first" telephone device in your house, with all other phones downstream. Hook the relay up to the Ocelot. With this setup, not only would you have control over the CID announcement, but you could have the TV/music muted the entire time you're on the phone.

                    2.) You pointed out in a latter note of yours that you have no free inputs on your Oceleot. You might consider using an X10 Powerflash for this application, as the loop-sensing relay could provide the dry contact needed to trigger the transmission of an X10 code, which could interrupt the announcement of your Caller-ID. Install the relay in the manner outlined in #1.

                    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>I would like to say thanks for the help... but this topic was less than helpful.
                    <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

                    I'll keep my thoughts to myself about that comment.

                    --David

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Sorry to sound so iritated byt your "Good Luck" answer seemed quite a bit harsh, actually offended me as I actually paid for your plug-in. I had decided not to go the relay route for many reasons and didn't feel I had to list each and every one out here. I also thought that programming to receive the RING command from the modem would be easy, I just didn't know where to start.

                      I have 20+ years experience in the telecom world so I know how to connect up a phone line, I was just having a hard time getting the system to read the com port in a timely method.

                      I also thought others would be in the same boat and could use the same answers. I find that there are a lot of people that are just looking for answers without posting. I was one of those, I had been a member here for a year before I even started any automation tasks, let alone making a single post.

                      David I did not shut you down, but you were offering solutions that I had already looked at and had passed up.

                      At this point I will figure this out for myself and consider this topic closed.

                      Thanks,

                      Scott

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Scott,

                        I'm sorry my "Good Luck" response irritated you.

                        If you want to pursue the modem RING command, please accept my well wishes (as opposed to "good luck") in your attempts. If you plan on implementing this as a script, take a look at the hs.OpenComPortEx command. Perhaps something like:

                        <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">s_ret = hs.OpenComPortEx(cint(i_com_port),"9600,N,8,1",1,"modemring. vbs","GotData", vbCr, i_com_port_resource)</pre>

                        Where GotData is the name of the sub to be called in "modemring.vbs". Try accumulating all raw data in a HS variable with the GotData sub, then search the variable for "RING". If you find it, lop off the "RING", and anything preceding it leaving the rest of the string intact, so that it can be appended to when the next "chunk" of serial data is passed to GotData. In case that wasn't clear, what I am attempting to convey is that it is possible to get the "RI" in one chunk and the "NG" in the next chunk. Establish the HS variable in your initialization routine, where you open the COM port with a command such as:

                        <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">i_ret = hs.CreateVar("s_modem_accumulator")</pre>

                        Does that give you a starting point?

                        --David

                        Comment

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