Calling Sonos users

[Osler]

It is Windows specific...sorry.

Osler

[blackcows]

First post to the forum. I found my way here by way of the Sonos forum while looking for a good way to integrate a touch screen into my Sonos setup. I downloaded the housebot trial and also downloaded the current Sonos file and got through the instructions but can't change the Sonos device to "Running" when I try and change it I get that Windows sound you hear when it doesn't like something and it flashes running very quickly (less than a second) and quickly goes back to stopped. What am I doing wrong?

Mike

[Osler]

Hard to say. Are any error messages showing up? Did you register the components? Did you obtain the UDN for the device?

The current script is bit wonky but should work. I will try to post a rolled back script that doesn't have the same wonkiness this evening.

Have you tried restarting HB and then setting the device to run?

Osler

[vcruz777]

I just wanted to tell you this is great. I just bought a Sonos system because of your work done here. I am having a couple of issues though. Some of them have been mentioned before and apparently were fixed which have me wondering if the import is the latest version. I downloaded the 030808 zip file just a week ago.
Issues:
1. getting disconnected and the only way to have the script connected again is to reboot housebot. I saw this issue in the post and you mentioned something related with having the right COM or WSC verions. I am using the wsc included in the download.
2. although the single device import includes the linking part the theme import doesn't. I modified the theme to point to the other devices created with the single import and it worked. The problem is that the theme import doesn't include the 3 tasks you mention to handle the linking nor the panels if any related to linking.

I can live with issue # 2 but the issue #1 is killing me. I have to stop and restart the scripts or even re-start housebot like every four hours, if not the connection is lost and it cannot reconnect automatically.

By the way, I am using Windows 2003 server edition to which I installed separately the UPnP service with XP SP2 files.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Victor

[Osler]

HI and thanks for your interest in the script. I need to upload the latest version of the script and wsc....been busy for a bit. I will try to get them up later this week. I think I have fixed the problems you are having. The main problem is polling for track info (i.e., the incrementing bar for track position), which I have gotten rid of in the latest version. It seems very stable at the moment so let me get something up and posted for you. Currently I only allow the ZP to be polled at startup and whenever a callback is received from the ZP.

Osler

[Osler]

Ok...try the attached .wsc with script. The script is a bit of a roll-back and doesn't include millisecond updates of track position. I will try to work through the issues with you. Give this a try and see if it doesn't solve issue #1 above. Issue #2 is easily solved, I just need to do an export from HB...something I don't have time to do at the moment.

There is another issue I have seen and pointed out just today by another user concerning "Error: 424" messages. I believe I have a fix for this as well that should be easily implemented. If you see this error show up in the Device.ZoneName when the script is set to run, you need to restart the script. I can fix this in code in the near future. I believe this is a product of the new asynchronous find routine I am using (old style was synchronous).

Osler

EDIT: Latest files moved to very first post.

[Osler]

Here is an export of the 800x480 theme that includes link/unlink panels as well as the associated tasks.

Osler

[vcruz777]

Osler, thanks a lot for your response and help. Regarding the disconnect issue I am still having it. Normally I restart HouseBot and it works while I am using it. When I go to sleep or during any extended period of time then when I try to use the panels it doesn't update. The script is shown as running but apparently the communication is lost. Sometimes is strange, I have the ability to mute and/or play a song but it doesn't update the next song field nor the cover art. Others it just doesn't communicate. Sometimes by just restarting the script is start to work and sometimes I have to restart housebot for it to begin working again. I created a couple of tasks to restart the script if the there is a 424 error and also created some tasks to stop the script when the sonos panel is not open and start them only when the panel is open. I don't know if its going to do something but we'll see.

Any other help will be greatly appreciated.

Victor

[Osler]

Any info in the device log? Expand the device and select the top branch of the tree.

How are your ZP's connected? Wireless? Hardwired? Some mixture of the two?

Are you performing any auto updates overnight? Any batch files running during that time?

Osler

[Osler]

Ok...I transitioned HB to a new server a few weeks ago and I think I have uploaded the incorrect script as a result. Find attached a new version of the script that hopefully actually does the things I said it would do. All device properties are the same; however, track info will only update if a callback is received. This means no more eye candy watching a gauge control increment as the song plays. Polling to get this info has been the major source of connection problems in the past...so now it is gone. All other functionality is the same, though.

In addition, I have now set the script such that if a callback is not received for 10 minutes, HB will ping the ZP to see if it is on the network and responsive. At this time it only traces a message as to the success or failure of the ping. I can add a reconnection routine to this if it becomes necessary. I think that the included modifications will solve most of the dropped connections you are seeing.

The included file has everything one needs to get started with the script. I have upgraded the script version to 2.0.0 and it can be found in the script folder.

Please note that I have modified the script without access to HB or my ZP's so they have not been tested as yet by me. The changes were simple and I was careful to ensure no syntax errors.....but just a warning.

Osler

EDIT: Latest files moved to very first post.

[Osler]

Oops...forgot some quotes. Try this one.

EDIT: Latest files moved to very first post.

[vcruz777]

Thanks for the updates. I will try them tonight. Last night, using the previous script, I added some logic to only start the script when the sonos panel is open and stop it when close. (this was to avoid constant updates even when not using the panel). For the first time I was able to make it work without restarting housebot, at least for the last 24 hours. I will try version 2.0 for a while. BTW, the linking part is really good, thanks again for an excellent script and graphics.

Saludos,

Victor

[Osler]

You are welcome.

The original version you were using constantly pinged the ZP to insure it was on the network prior to executing commands against it. As you can tell, the ZP doesn't like to be pinged constantly.

I think you will find this version much more stable. On my todo list is to resubscribe to the ZP services at set intervals instead of subscribing once like I do now. I think the ZP gets confused sometimes and simply forgets to update its subscribers. Renewing the subscriptions should prevent the loss of updates as sometimes occurs.

Do me a favor. If you encounter a loss of services as you have in the past with this script, open a browser window to the address below and see if a subscription to your HB server IP address is present:

http://<ZP IP Address>:1400/support/review

Osler

[Osler]

Just an FYI. I have had the script (2.0.0) up and running continuously since I posted it here without problems. I even updated the Zone Players to 2.6 this evening and the script handled the update without a hiccup (all Zone Players are rebooted in this process and the script must recognize this and reconnect to the unit when it becomes available again on the network).

Things appear quite stable from my end. Let me know of any issues.

Osler

[vcruz777]

Everything is very stable here as well. Not one issue. I added some logic to get the track info only every 5 secs and only when playing and I haven't seen issues. If it fails I will try to do it with a HB timer since I can get the track length and can count only when playing. Thanks again.

Victor