Chime On / Chime Off: requesting ideas for discreet commands

[jono]

I'm using BLDSC to toggle on/off the alarm chime. The virtual keypress is *>>>*
which works wonderfully to toggle the chime on/off. However, I'd like to know the existing state of the chime. If it was only turned on and off via homeseer, I could use a virtual device to keep track of it.
But if the chime is turned on or off at the keypad HS would get out of sync, and my toggle would be doing the wrong thing.
Just wondering if anyone has a work around so I can run discrete events for chime on and chime off. I tried checking the HS and BLDSC logs to see if there was anything unique recorded for on vs. off, but I saw "command acknowledge: 070" in both cases.

I'd like the chime turned off so someone coming in late at night won't wake up my household. I'd then like to turn it back on when the alarm is disarmed in the morning. I'd appreciate any ideas people have. Thanks

[jono]

Just an update here. While pressing *>>>* does toggle the door chime, it doesn't do so reliably. I toggle the chime on in the morning and off at night using that sequence, but it gets out of sync pretty rapidly. Is there a way to slow down the commands?
I was wondering if there is a symbol for a pause, like "*,>,>,>,*" which might increase the reliability of the command when given.

The log below indicates to me that the recognition of commands may not quite be in sequence with how they are delivered. Perhaps slowing them down would help?
10/18/2011 7:00:01 AMInformationCommand Acknowledge: 070
10/18/2011 7:00:01 AMInformationCommand Acknowledge: 070
10/18/2011 7:00:00 AMInformationCommand Acknowledge: 070
10/18/2011 7:00:00 AMDSC CommandCommand: 'Virtual Keypress' sent to DSC system
10/18/2011 7:00:00 AMInformationCommand Acknowledge: 070
10/18/2011 7:00:00 AMDSC CommandCommand: 'Virtual Keypress' sent to DSC system
10/18/2011 7:00:00 AMDSC CommandCommand: 'Virtual Keypress' sent to DSC system
10/18/2011 7:00:00 AMDSC CommandCommand: 'Virtual Keypress' sent to DSC system
10/18/2011 7:00:00 AMInformationCommand Acknowledge: 070
10/18/2011 7:00:00 AMDSC CommandCommand: 'Virtual Keypress' sent to DSC system

[jono]

I think I solved the problem. Rather than doing all the virtual keypress commands in one line of programming (i.e. "*>>>*), I just did one virtual keypress at at time, with a 1 second wait command in between.

Now my log looks like this:
10/27/2011 7:55:51 PMInformationCommand Acknowledge: 070
10/27/2011 7:55:51 PMDSC CommandCommand: 'Virtual Keypress' sent to DSC system
10/27/2011 7:55:50 PMInformationCommand Acknowledge: 070
10/27/2011 7:55:50 PMDSC CommandCommand: 'Virtual Keypress' sent to DSC system
10/27/2011 7:55:49 PMInformationCommand Acknowledge: 070
10/27/2011 7:55:49 PMDSC CommandCommand: 'Virtual Keypress' sent to DSC system
10/27/2011 7:55:48 PMInformationCommand Acknowledge: 070
10/27/2011 7:55:48 PMDSC CommandCommand: 'Virtual Keypress' sent to DSC system
10/27/2011 7:55:47 PMInformationCommand Acknowledge: 070
10/27/2011 7:55:47 PMDSC CommandCommand: 'Virtual Keypress' sent to DSC system

In contrast to how it was before, the acknowledgement no longer crosses with the commands. My system seems to be responding better and the chime on / chime off is working better.

[jono]

Different menus depending on the state of the DSC alarm

So the problem was that the menus on the DSC alarm are different if the alarm is armed vs. unarmed. That means that different virtual keypresses are necessary to turn the chime on or off. If the alarm is unarmed, *,>,>,>,* will toggle the chime on/off. If the alarm is armed stay, *,>,>,* is required for the toggling. I'm hoping armed away has the same menu as armed stay. If not, that will require a separate set of key strokes as well.

[beerygaz]

Jono, the official HS plugin has a device that represents the LCD display of the keypad which may be of use seeing as the keypad displays "Chime ON/Chime OFF" - but I've not done a lot of investigation as to how often it's updated etc.