How do i refresh devices ? I have deleted and reinstalled that particular Vswitch, that solved the problem (at least with the power service, something still not working yet
My tablet is a Hudl, which is a reasonably fast tablet, nothing special but should be fast enough for what i want. I have only bought it for this last week for this one task, i want it as a security monitor. Autovera and tasker are installed. System logs in autovera are disabled (they were never enabled)
I have only 1 device enabled for updates at the moment, my front door motion sensor.
In tasker i only have one profile
Autovera status update: Vera 3
Device: Front door motion sensor
Service: Security sensor
Variable: tripped
New value: 1
this is linked to this task:
Say: Front door visitor
Secure settings Configuration Screen & keyboard Lights On 1 minute
Launch app Tinycam monitor free
Wait 1 minute
System lock
This profile/task combo is the same running on my phone, wheer it works fine, but on my phone tasker is a lot busier with lots of tasks, and autovera is monitoring a few more devices too
To refresh, you’d just go to Your Veras>Devices and then refresh with the icon at the top of the screen.
As for your tablet, is the order of Tasks the same on your phone? I would suggest moving the Say action down in the task, as it can take a second to launch, and the task typically wont continue until the Say action is complete. To test the response, try including an Alert>Beep as your first action. This should be almost instantaneous. Perhaps you could compare the two devices with identical profile/tasks? Use the AutoVera Status Update action and just a single Beep action.
How much of a difference between the two? 1 second? 5? 20?
I really appreciate your willingness troubleshoot, thank you.
I have moved the say action, and that did make it a little quicker. Not sure what i did but my tablet was working as quick as my phone for a day or so, but occasionally it is still very slow (slower than the phone) responding to the motion sensor trigger, so there is still something strange going on. The delay can be anything from a few seconds to a few minutes.
In the push notification fixer app, what did you set the heartbeat to? Try lowering it further.
For your relay switch, check the AutoVera logs after letting the action run on Vera. Confirm that you are getting the log and that all values align. I think I understand what you explained about the sensor to the relay switch, and it should be working as stated. You can always try passing the duty to a virtual switch or multiswitch.
I have got the relay switch working, you must have read it before i deleted that part of my post, I had to enable disable updates a few times, a few refreshes and it was working, so i deleted that part of my last post.
I have not touched this, what values should i change, and to what values would you suggest ?
The app itself makes recommendations, I believe 5 minutes is good, but you can always try lower. Be sure to toggle off/on your internet connection after enabling to ensure the new values are pushed. I haven’t had the need to use this app as of late, but older devices(<4.3) with GCM issues are generally fixed entirely by PNF.
Just an idea, is it possible that somehow the communication from my Vera is slow at times, and that being the cause sometimes ? I have not had the camera come up on my phone any more, something has gone wrong and I have not had a chance to look into it so I don’t know if the phone is still quicker to respond to changes on Vera.
I still have a problem with autovera updates taking a very long time to get to my tablet. Today it took 15 mins ! for a motion sensor alert to come through on my tablet. I have installed the push notification fixer app and set the heartbeat to 3 mins (5 mins was recommended but that did not really help)Any more suggestions of what I can do please? It does not really help to have my screen come on with the front door 15 mins after someone has been at the door… so I need to find a solution if you can see my predicament…
I can certainly understand your predicament, AutoVera Status Updates are supposed to be instant and in the case of your tablet, they are obviously not. If Status Updates are sent to your phone without issue, that means the issue must lie with tablet, and it probably isn’t related to AutoVera. Do you have any sort of battery-saving mode enabled? Anything that sets your tablet in to a deep sleep to conserve battery? Is the tablet always powered? If so, do you keep the screen on at all times? Have you tried sending Status Updates to the device while it is “awake”? All GCM messages work the same way, so if you aren’t receiving AutoVera Staus Updates in a timely manner, you probably aren’t receiving any GCM messages on time. I did some research on your Tab, is there any 3rd-party software settings software with power-profiles? I couldn’t find anything indicating issues with that particular model, so I’m kind of at a loss.
I dont think there are any power saving modes enabled. I have only had it for a few days, so i will have a look if i can see anything. As far as i am aware its a fairly standard Android, without much alterations to the OS. It is WiFi only. The screen is normally locked, and autovera sensing the front door motion sensor wakes up the tablet, and displays the camera. Same setup on my phone, i just copied the tasker profile as it was working well on the phone. The tablet runs in battery mode. I am at loss why this is happening. But saying that, it is not the first time Vera (or Vera related) surprises me… Are there any logs or is there a possibility to enable logs to maybe see in more detail of wheer the problem could be ?
I just checked, there are no power saving modes. WiFi is on permanent, without any power saving mode either.
Over the last few days i have done a lot of testing. While i thought my phone updates quicker than the tablet, that was not the case. Testing with various different devices, what happens most of the time the updates in AutoVera are instant, probably about 80% of the time. Other times they can be delayed by up to a few minutes, not depending on which device i monitor, it happens with power switches, virtual switches, motion sensors. So the problem is somehow communication from Vera to AutoVera. I can see the device change on my ipad when i log into UI5, that updates normally, but then my phone as well as the tablet do not get the update. That being all 3 devices next to each other, on the same WiFi. If there is a way to help you find the cause of this (logs or anything else) please let me know. I love the app, and would like to help make it even better if i can.
I tried changing the thread title, as most of it is now about AutoVera delayed updates. Maybe that should be seperated and put in a different thread ?
You have access to logs from within the AutoVera app itself, enable system logs for a more detailed view. You should be able to compare the timestamps for the received update to the time the message was supposed to be sent on Vera. If the timestamps align, then the issue is related to bringing the device out of a sleep state. If the timestamps are delayed themselves, then your device is incapable receiving GCM messages at the time they are sent, for one reason or another. If you can study your logs and relay which of the two scenarios is causing the problem, I can certainly investigate further. Thanks for your willingness to perfect AutoVera, I’m glad you are still enjoying your muddled experience with AutoVera
I have a Virgin Media Superhub (not sure what that is, they have obviously rebranded this), and i use a Buffalo WHR-G300N router configured as a access point
TL:DR A colleague and I ran some tests using a man-in-the-middle gateway to record packet activity between the Android device and the router and came to the conclusion that the router (a Virgin Media "Super" Hub AKA a Netgear CG3101D) is deliberately forgetting the port mapping after 5 minutes of inactivity.
I’m somewhat relieved that the issue is not with Google or AutoVera, but I am sorry that you have to deal with this particular hardware problem. Sending a GCM message every two to three minutes as a workaround will not harm a powered device. I hope you find a fit resolution.
I have been doing a little research on google about GCM. I must admit this is way over my head. I can see i somehow have to ping GCM every 2 mins ideally from my Android tablet as it is always on. But how to achieve this i have no idea. There are solutions (or one solution) but i do not understand it at all.
I think a way round this is using the super hub as a modem, and buy another router… not ideal (expensive) but it should solve my problem. Are other Netgear routers ok, or do you know of any to avoid ?
I’m not aware of other off the shelf routers with this problem, so you’re probably safe with anything relatively new.
That being said, I do have a solution you can try.
[ol][li]Create a new virtual switch, name it Staying Alive[/li]
[li]Refresh AutoVera and enable status updates for the new device[/li]
[li]Create a new Scene, name it Bee Gees[/li]
[li]In the Scene, turn the Staying Alive switch On[/li]
[li]Add a 3 minute delay to the Scene, then turn the Staying Alive switch Off[/li]
[li]Create a Schedule to run the Bee Gees scene every 5 minutes[/li][/ol]
This means that every two or three minutes, an AutoVera Status Update will be sent over GCM, ensuring your connection is Staying Alive.
If you do try it, I’d be interested to know if it works
I can report back… it did not work unfortunately. There are still delays. I cannot say yet if the delays have been reduced. Also my phone and tablet are now reacting with different delays. I have not enabled the ‘bee gees’ updates on the phone. I cannot say yet which is quicker or better in updating, as its in the early stages of testing, and i sent quite a few triggers as there was no reaction… So that is just the first initial feedback
All problems solved. You were spot on, it was the router. I have replaced the router, and have no delays any more. Even my SQ remote Vera commands seem to be instant again. Vera Alerts occasionally had delays, that seems to be instant now. Unbelievable how much trouble the router caused. Without your suggestion I do not think I would have ever found the cause. I thought that was all unrelated, I asked RTS about Vera alerts delays, and he could not explain it. I don’t think he would have suspected a router at fault… It was a expensive solution, but worth it for me.
Many thanks
