Event not able to determine if Sonos is Playing

[teladog01]

The event as it was originally has been working fine for quite some time until a few days ago.

Have you tried restarting HS3? I know it seems obvious but many times this initial troubleshooting step gets overlooked. I have found that when things all of a sudden start working differently than usual, when no changes have been made, a simple restart often times resolves the issue.

[dcorsus]

Look at my original event in Post #1, I believe that is what I used to begin with. The event as it was originally has been working fine for quite some time until a few days ago. The issue is the player would stop playing and then start playing again. I first thought it may have been a buffering issue but when I saw that the event kept triggering with every motion trigger I started there. None of the other Sonos speakers have buffering issues and the one in the Master bedroom is within 8 feet of the AP.


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I believe I have been focusing on the wrong issue ... Just changed my test to use device status and seems to work OK.
Gotta run now but if you could confirm the trace you posted had the issue captured I can look at it again .... or .... you take a trace only when it happened and post that.
Typically, I have made events that tend to have some "consistency" check added , say when motion for more than x seconds. It depends a bit on which sensor you have been using and how well you can trust it not to "bounce" .... I had a garage door opening sensor which would generate a bunch of on-off-on-off events before settling.
Do also check your other events, recently a very similar issue was posted which (after posting a log) showed that one event triggered another and therefore interrupted, in this case, the TTS announcement, paired or linked players tend to be the culprit here ...

[The Profit]

Have you tried restarting HS3? I know it seems obvious but many times this initial troubleshooting step gets overlooked. I have found that when things all of a sudden start working differently than usual, when no changes have been made, a simple restart often times resolves the issue.

Yes I did that a few minutes ago....I agree this is always a good idea!


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[dcorsus]

So is this still an issue? Looking at it again, I believe the reason the status shows 2 = dim is because the PI doesn't set a status it only sets a value, in this case equal to 2 or equal to "stopped". I now also believe that the reason I don't see anything in the logs is because HS doesn't need to query the PI, it has the device value in its own database..... which would mean that if this doesn't work, it might actually be an HS issue or we're doing something wrong and none of us is seeing it. When it comes to tracing HS, no idea how or if at all possible.

[randy]

I'm a little late to the game on this, but this thread was linked in another that brought it to my attention. I use a "Sonos Condition" rather than the device in quite a number of Events. They all work correctly. Here are some examples.

This one turns my Living Room rear speakers On when the Sonos is playing.



I use an Arduino to control switching my speakers from our Yamaha surround system to a Sonos:Amp. This Event will turn the rear speakers ON (move them from the Yamaha to the Amp) when the Sonos is playing at the same time as the receiver is On. It will allow the Sonos to play while we are watching TV. When we are watching local football games, we will use a local radio stream for the play-by-play. We AirPlay from a tablet or phone to the Amp. It will also connect both the front and rear speakers to the Amp when the receiver is Off. This fills the rooms a little better when we are entertaining or just listening. I use a similar but separate set of Events for announcements.

Here is the Event that turns them back off.



Both of these Events look to Sonos Conditions rather than the Sonos HomeSeer Device and they are 100% reliable. I have three rooms with similar setups. I also control power for subwoofers with similar Events, both the Yamaha and Sonos share subwoofers in two of the rooms.

[The Profit]

I'm a little late to the game on this, but this thread was linked in another that brought it to my attention. I use a "Sonos Condition" rather than the device in quite a number of Events.

Both of these Events look to Sonos Conditions rather than the Sonos HomeSeer Device and they are 100% reliable. I have three rooms with similar setups. I also control power for subwoofers with similar Events, both the Yamaha and Sonos share subwoofers in two of the rooms.

Hey Randy,
Thank you for your help with this! It's been a while since Dirk and I worked on this and I know it's not documented in the above thread but if my memory serves me, I believe Dirk suggested the same thing and I thought I tried that as well and still couldn't get it to work. However, I just recreated the original event and substituted the condition that uses the State device with the Sonos condition "IsNotPlaying" and it is working as expected! I'm not sure why it's working for me now, all I can figure is that I must have made a mistake in the selection before.

That being said, I'm not sure if Dirk can change something about the State Device that would allow the status of the device to be used in events?? While the workaround is working, it might be a source of confusion. Devices that have a status usually can be used as triggers/conditions in events.

Thank you again for your help Dirk and Randy!

[dcorsus]

Hey Randy,
Thank you for your help with this! It's been a while since Dirk and I worked on this and I know it's not documented in the above thread but if my memory serves me, I believe Dirk suggested the same thing and I thought I tried that as well and still couldn't get it to work. However, I just recreated the original event and substituted the condition that uses the State device with the Sonos condition "IsNotPlaying" and it is working as expected! I'm not sure why it's working for me now, all I can figure is that I must have made a mistake in the selection before.

That being said, I'm not sure if Dirk can change something about the State Device that would allow the status of the device to be used in events?? While the workaround is working, it might be a source of confusion. Devices that have a status usually can be used as triggers/conditions in events.

Thank you again for your help Dirk and Randy!

Not sure I follow. All the HS devices can be used to trigger events.

[The Profit]

Not sure I follow. All the HS devices can be used to trigger events.

I agree usually all HS devices can be, but like I was stating above, when I try to use the Sonos “State” device status as a condition (Ex. And If Sonos XRoom State is not Playing) it doesn’t work correctly. In the past events that I’ve created it just always evaluates it as true.


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[randy]

I agree usually all HS devices can be, but like I was stating above, when I try to use the Sonos “State” device status as a condition (Ex. And If Sonos XRoom State is not Playing) it doesn’t work correctly. In the past events that I’ve created it just always evaluates it as true.


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Not to be the contrarian... I use the state devices as triggers for my subwoofer power control Events. I use the HS device, because I want to delay the event until the state has changed for a period of time. If they work for triggers I cannot imagine they wouldn't work as Conditions. I have 6 of these Events and they are all working.



Maybe you could post a screenshot of one of your Events that doesn't work.

[The Profit]

Not to be the contrarian... I use the state devices as triggers for my subwoofer power control Events. I use the HS device, because I want to delay the event until the state has changed for a period of time. If they work for triggers I cannot imagine they wouldn't work as Conditions. I have 6 of these Events and they are all working.



Maybe you could post a screenshot of one of your Events that doesn't work.

Ok, I’m completely confused now. The first post has a screenshot of the original event that I was trying to use a device status, in that case it was a condition....but I use device status in event conditions all the time and I thought I understood that I shouldn’t use that device and I should use the Sonos conditions instead. So if I understand....I should be able to use it as a condition, if that’s the case then it doesn’t work for me.


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[randy]

Ok, I’m completely confused now. The first post has a screenshot of the original event that I was trying to use a device status, in that case it was a condition....but I use device status in event conditions all the time and I thought I understood that I shouldn’t use that device and I should use the Sonos conditions instead. So if I understand....I should be able to use it as a condition, if that’s the case then it doesn’t work for me.


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It should work. I will build a couple of test Events and test later tonight or tomorrow.

[The Profit]

It should work. I will build a couple of test Events and test later tonight or tomorrow.

Ok. The logs and everything that I provided Dirk should be in the posts above. They show the event triggering every time a motion trigger occurred.


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[randy]

OK. My test Event works. Here is the Event



I started the player at 5:01:44 and stopped it at 5:02:38



Here are the log entries. It stopped after the 5:01:41 run and the Event started running again at 5:02:41 after the player was stopped.

Dec-30 5:03:01 PM Event Event Trigger "HomeSeer Demo Sonos not playing"
Dec-30 5:02:51 PM Event Event Trigger "HomeSeer Demo Sonos not playing"
Dec-30 5:02:41 PM Event Event Trigger "HomeSeer Demo Sonos not playing"

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Dec-30 5:01:41 PM Event Event Trigger "HomeSeer Demo Sonos not playing"
Dec-30 5:01:31 PM Event Event Trigger "HomeSeer Demo Sonos not playing"
Dec-30 5:01:21 PM Event Event Trigger "HomeSeer Demo Sonos not playing"
Dec-30 5:01:11 PM Event Event Trigger "HomeSeer Demo Sonos not playing"
Dec-30 5:01:01 PM Event Event Trigger "HomeSeer Demo Sonos not playing"
Dec-30 5:00:41 PM Event Event Trigger "HomeSeer Demo Sonos not playing"
Dec-30 5:00:31 PM Event Event Trigger "HomeSeer Demo Sonos not playing"
Dec-30 5:00:21 PM Event Event Trigger "HomeSeer Demo Sonos not playing"
Dec-30 5:00:01 PM Event Event Trigger "HomeSeer Demo Sonos not playing"

I have no idea why it doesn't work for you. Have you looked at the actual state of the device? I know there were times in the past where the HS Sonos devices were not updating due to problems in the plug-in not always seeing the players. I haven't seen that problem in quite a while.Have you tried the Events lately?