SonosController Feature Requests

[LeoS]

I suppose the complexity depends on how many players you are dealing with, how many "scenes" you may need and/or if you want to have unoccupied zones removed from the link group.

It would be pretty easy to do with a script.

Paul..

Thanks, i'll look into the script when i get back home in a few days.

I'm looking to deal with 8 sonos zones, 4 scenes so far (pretty sure this will add up in future), and just 2 zones to be removed depending on the scenes.

[rhardcore]

Please make Volume Devices "Dimmable" so that Alexa can discover and control them.

It would be great if you allowed the end user the ability to select the "Dimmable" flag for volume devices. This would allow services like Alexa's home automation to see the device and issue "light" commands to it. With a device name like "Living Room Sonos" and HS's new integration with Alexa's smart home API, we can say something like "Alexa, set living room Sonos to 50 percent" That would be great.

I was working through using a dimmable virtual volume device and an event to pull its newly set value to push into the sonos volume device. From what I have just read, that won't work because it needs to be set via a CAPI call. At that point, it seemed easier to just have the dimming turned on for the Sonos device.

Thoughts?
Raymond

[dcorsus]

It would be great if you allowed the end user the ability to select the "Dimmable" flag for volume devices. This would allow services like Alexa's home automation to see the device and issue "light" commands to it. With a device name like "Living Room Sonos" and HS's new integration with Alexa's smart home API, we can say something like "Alexa, set living room Sonos to 50 percent" That would be great.

I was working through using a dimmable virtual volume device and an event to pull its newly set value to push into the sonos volume device. From what I have just read, that won't work because it needs to be set via a CAPI call. At that point, it seemed easier to just have the dimming turned on for the Sonos device.

Thoughts?
Raymond

Where exactly on the CAPI interface is this a settable item? Or in other words, what do you think should be changed in the PI to support this? I find zero info in the SDK doc on isDimmable.

Dirk

[mrhappy]

Where exactly on the CAPI interface is this a settable item? Or in other words, what do you think should be changed in the PI to support this? I find zero info in the SDK doc on isDimmable.

Dirk

I believe it is under Can_Dim in the SDK and is part of the device class so it is not a CAPI control. The SDK eludes to it being largely unused however I believe that it is used by some functions in HSTouch and perhaps the Alexa...

[xtremesteve]

TTS to not Kill SONOS Playlist

I don't know if this was asked for in this thread, but I am trying to play a TTS Speak command to one of my Sonos speakers while I have a current playlist playing. After it is done, it basically kills the playlist all together...

Here is the scenario...

Wake up alarm

4:15AM, cue music and dim lights
5 min wait
brighten lights a little more
5 min wait
brighten lights a little more
5 min wait
brighten lights a little more
pause the playlist
Use TTS to tell the time and weather forecast for the day
resume the playlist (so wife can still get ready to music)


Thanks!
Stephen

[dcorsus]

I don't know if this was asked for in this thread, but I am trying to play a TTS Speak command to one of my Sonos speakers while I have a current playlist playing. After it is done, it basically kills the playlist all together...

Here is the scenario...

Wake up alarm

4:15, cue music and dim lights
5 min wait
brighten lights a little more
5 min wait
brighten lights a little more
5 min wait
brighten lights a little more
pause the playlist
Use TTS to tell the time and weather forecast for the day
resume the playlist (so wife can still get ready to music)

Thanks!
Stephen

Please provide some screen shots how all of this is setup. Are you using the save all player function, just plain TTS, is this a regular playlist (saved Sonos) or a playlist on a premium/freemium station? Debug log always helpful. What does "basically kills" the playlist means? Totally gone, partly gone ...????

Dirk

[xtremesteve]

Sorry I didn't post the pic on the original post. Take a look at the photo here:

Thanks for the fast response!

[dcorsus]

Sorry I didn't post the pic on the original post. Take a look at the photo here:

Thanks for the fast response!

Last question: what exactly did you mean that the playlist is killed? Is this playlist a list of items that are stored on a local media or is this a playlist of some premium (streaming) service?

The event looks OK, not sure why it "kills" your playlist. If I can't figure it out from your (next) response, a log by turning the plugin's debug flag on, starting at when the announcement kicks in until done might shed some light.

Dirk

[xtremesteve]

Last question: what exactly did you mean that the playlist is killed? Is this playlist a list of items that are stored on a local media or is this a playlist of some premium (streaming) service?

The event looks OK, not sure why it "kills" your playlist. If I can't figure it out from your (next) response, a log by turning the plugin's debug flag on, starting at when the announcement kicks in until done might shed some light.

Dirk

If you look at the attached pic of the Sonos App on my PC, you will see the Playlist on the right called "Wake Up Crooners" and all the devices I have in my house (yes, I have a few Sonos devices, so for future release, let me know if you need me to do some specific testing).

In the middle, if you look at the Queue, it shows in NOW PLAYING the Homeseer announcement, but if you look down a bit to the top of the queue it says QUEUE (Not in use).

Basically whatever I do from this point, I can not get the Sonos Plugin on Homeseer to go back to the playlist....

Hopefully these screen shots make explaining easier.

NOTE: I made a copy of the event and sent the test to the kitchen. It's 4am and my wife is still sleeping.

[dcorsus]

If you look at the attached pic of the Sonos App on my PC, you will see the Playlist on the right called "Wake Up Crooners" and all the devices I have in my house (yes, I have a few Sonos devices, so for future release, let me know if you need me to do some specific testing).

In the middle, if you look at the Queue, it shows in NOW PLAYING the Homeseer announcement, but if you look down a bit to the top of the queue it says QUEUE (Not in use).

Basically whatever I do from this point, I can not get the Sonos Plugin on Homeseer to go back to the playlist....

Hopefully these screen shots make explaining easier.

NOTE: I made a copy of the event and sent the test to the kitchen. It's 4am and my wife is still sleeping.

It looks like a plain vanilla Sonos playlist (meaning you saved your queue at one point), can you confirm?

Sonos introduced the concept of multiple queues and different queue IDs a while back. I wonder whether this is the first time it messes us up.

Any chance to go to the Sonos config page, set the debug flag (not superdebug not UPNP logging). Play your playlist and trigger the TTS event. I need that log from the moment you activated the announcement event until it is completely done.

If you are using the (beta) version of the PI (V3.1.x.x) you can also turn on "log to disk" which will make it easier to capture the log. You just turn that flag on ONLY, just before you start the announcement, do the announcement, turn off the log to disk flag, grab the file SonosDebug.txt from <HS root>\html\Sonos\Logs, compress it and post it. If you are not using this version, don't switch to it, no need to introduce more variables while we are testing.

If you cut and paste the log entries from the HS log webpage, there could be a lot of info, make sure you capture it from the beginning to the end, which means perhaps more than one page.

Dirk

[xtremesteve]

Sorry for the delay.

Yes, this playlist was created in Sonos via the Windows Desktop App.

I would assume this would be the easiest way to create a playlist anyways, correct?

I have attached the debug file (yes, I have the beta, so I was able to log to disk). The file isn't huge, only 67k

Thanks!
Stephen

[dcorsus]

Sorry for the delay.

Yes, this playlist was created in Sonos via the Windows Desktop App.

I would assume this would be the easiest way to create a playlist anyways, correct?

I have attached the debug file (yes, I have the beta, so I was able to log to disk). The file isn't huge, only 67k

Thanks!
Stephen

Hi Stephen,

remind me again on which platform (Linux, Windows, RPI..) you are running this?

The problem is that ALL events generated by the Sonos player towards the PI are missing. This is very typical for a firewall setting issue. The Sonos PI is it's own executable and needs to have permission to send and receive messages. So open your firewall settings and give it the same permission as your Homeseer.exe. Or as a test, turn off your firewall and try again.

Dirk

[xtremesteve]

Hi Stephen,

remind me again on which platform (Linux, Windows, RPI..) you are running this?

The problem is that ALL events generated by the Sonos player towards the PI are missing. This is very typical for a firewall setting issue. The Sonos PI is it's own executable and needs to have permission to send and receive messages. So open your firewall settings and give it the same permission as your Homeseer.exe. Or as a test, turn off your firewall and try again.

Dirk

My Homeseer box is running Windows 10. I will take a stab at the firewall and add the plugin as an exception.

I will update you of my results.

Thanks!
Stephen

[xtremesteve]

Well, it was put to the test this morning. I was watching in the Sonos app while the announcement happened.

It worked! Adding in the exclusion for the HSPI Sonos app did the trick.

It was interesting in the Sonos Controller App, the queue ended up getting cleared out with the Announcement Icon Showing. The announcement happened and then the queue came back. The only thing I noticed (not sure if by design) is that the playlist replays the song that was interrupted and doesn't resume where it left off. It's not a big deal, just observations.

It might be a good idea to add it to the release notes if it's not there (I don't recall if I saw it if it is there)

Now onto the next test... I've sometimes noticed that the Playlist will start with Song 2, not Song 1 in a playlist. This observation has happened without the firewall exception, so I will keep an eye on it to see if that was the cause of that too.

Thanks again for all your help!
Stephen

[dcorsus]

Well, it was put to the test this morning. I was watching in the Sonos app while the announcement happened.

It worked! Adding in the exclusion for the HSPI Sonos app did the trick.

It was interesting in the Sonos Controller App, the queue ended up getting cleared out with the Announcement Icon Showing. The announcement happened and then the queue came back. The only thing I noticed (not sure if by design) is that the playlist replays the song that was interrupted and doesn't resume where it left off. It's not a big deal, just observations.

It might be a good idea to add it to the release notes if it's not there (I don't recall if I saw it if it is there)

Now onto the next test... I've sometimes noticed that the Playlist will start with Song 2, not Song 1 in a playlist. This observation has happened without the firewall exception, so I will keep an eye on it to see if that was the cause of that too.

Thanks again for all your help!
Stephen

Stephen, glad to read it works. As to the resume after announcement, there is always a chance something got broken, but this has worked pretty reliable for the last 5 ~6 years. What I'm trying to say is that in case it doesn't do what you expected, almost in 100% of the cases it is the content itself or setting. Example, your player might be set to shuffle/random play. If the song starts in the beginning and not where it was resumed, chances are high the content was premium/freemium content (Rhapsody, Pandora ..), this kind of content can't be handled properly via the UPNP interface and in some cases (ex Pandora), the next song will start or the content is not available ...

Dirk