I have set up a Smartphone web interface device for my phone. I use Authomation to switch it from home to away. I do this with a combination of tasker and autolocation. So every time i leave the house and i exit the geofence, i get an acknoledgement from my phone that my device has been set to away. The command gets sent once and it works. Coming home though is a very different story. Location wise, when i get close to the house (i walk the same way leaving as well as coming back) the phone sends the command to Vera (via tasker and Authomation, same as when leaving), i can see on the phone ‘response ok’, so the command is being sent, but Vera does not switch the device. So i have got a loop in tasker, which keeps sending the ‘home’ command until it gets a received message (via Vera Alerts) back from Vera. Big mistake. First time i tried, it went into a constant loop resending the message… So i limited the repeats to 15 times. Still no joy. Although occasionally it does work, so its not always, but most of the time. But when i am actually at home, and i run the tasker task which sends the home command, that works on the first send ! So i thought it might just be on 3G. So i turned of wifi on my phone and tried again. The device is switched from away to home and vice versa with every command.
So, i am really out of ideas of where the problem could be. The command is working, tasker is sending the command, but why is there a problem, but just coming home, never going away ?
I know this is a weird one…
If I read this post correctly, this is an issue with switch between different connection types and tasker firing the task before AutoHomation can figure out which connection type to use. You never stated which version of the App you are running. The alpha version has a few things set in place to try and make this easier and faster. It is much improved over the play store version Are you running the play store version 3.1.3.X or alpha 3.3.0.X?
- Garrett
I am using 3.1.3.9, i have installed this from the play store (as well as tasker and autolocation), so everything is on the latest (but not beta) versions
You are most likely hitting what I described above. Tasker will fire the command faster than when AutHomation notices a change in the connection to switch over. If you use remote for the connection and not “Auto Connection Switching” this will work all the time. The alpha versions I rewrote how gets noticed when the connection changes and how it is detected. It is much improved with upto a few second delay. I also put in a mechanism that if connection type is local, but you have remote credentials in place, after 5 attempts to send the command, it will try and send it remotely. Either way, it is really hard to get two different apps in sync when it comes to sending commands and switching connection types. I have done my best in the alpha versions to mitigate this. The only solution for the play store version to have it work all the time is to have it set for Remote connection type.
- Garrett
I have changed the setting, i will see when i get home tonight if that makes a difference. Would be great if that was the problem. I will let you know.
I have changed the settings of my Authomation, i have unticked in connection, other settings the auto connection switching. Unfortunately that did not solve the problem.
The only thing I can say is give the alpha a try and see if that improves.
- Garrett
I have applied to be in the alpha testing group. Once approved i will give it a try
Mike,
I just approved you. Let me know if it works better or if I need to improve anything. This would be the build to make changes so I can push it out as a new release to the play store.
- Garrett
I have updated it. I will not know until tomorrow evening if it makes a difference. One thing i noticed, unrelated and you probably know. I have now multi switch control which is brilliant as i have 4 of them… but i cannot see the state, or the labels, but they do switch on/off as intended. I have updated my multi switch to version 1.1
If there is a new alpha, do i have to manually update or does that happen automatically ?
Mike,
I have a new version ready to be pushed out in a day or so that supports the labels for the MultiSwitch. The app should update automatically when new versions are available. Just like the stable play store version. No need to manually remove or reinstall.
- Garrett
It looks as if going to the alpha version has solved the problem. I have only left the house and come back twice, but every time the command got through on the first send. So i’ll see how i get on over time, but there is definetely an improvement.
It might not have solved the comms problems completely. Today took a lot of resends before the command got through. Later on my phone notifications I did see automation errors.it came up with send error no data connection, with the time stamp of when I came home. It is unlikely that I have no network there but I will confirm that on the way home tomorrow. In the meantime I have sent an error log from the app, maybe you can see something useful
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
While leaving the house I checked mobile signal strength to see if there was an issue. There isn’t, signal is good including data
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
Mike,
Like I stated before. This may be hit or miss. Just because your data connection is fine, does not mean the app will be 100% in sending the data. It will take at least a few seconds for the app to know if the connection changes. If the command gets fired before or during the time it is checking the connection, it can fail. It is all about the timing and in this case is very hard to do with multiple apps.
- Garrett
It is not a major problem for me, I have tasker resend 12 times or until received, and set up another task to send the home command again when my wifi is near. That worked yesterday when the normal task failed. So I think for me it’ll work most of the time, and if it works 90% of the time I am happy. I just thought i’ll send you the logs in case there is a bug somewhere
Mike,
I do not use tasker much, but is there a way to set a delay?
- Garrett
Yes I can set delays. At the moment for example I sent the mike home, if no response from Vera Alerts, tasker waits 2 or 3 seconds then attempts to resend until received or after 12 retries. So I can specify waiting periods, I could have a wait before sending the first command
Today on the way home I watched my phone when it started sending the home command to my VERA. It failed with 12 retries. But it cannot be an issue with connection switchover, as this was quite far from my house.and I had to walk a lot closer before my WiFi near picked up my WiFi (and this is still to far and to weak to connect) and that the tried again sending the command 12 times without success.when I finally got in I did see another error message from automation send error no data connection. So I think there might actually be another issue. It is not 3G issue, signal strength is very good. I don’t think it is connection switchover as too far from the house to pick up my WiFi.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
I saw MultiSwitch mentioned in here… How do I use the Trigger (formerly called Tasker “NFC Task Launcher” ) app to command the Multiswitch on/off? Not sure of the command string :
authomation://device/VeraID#/device#/ then what ???