ADD ZONE vs. ADD SESSION on Android display

[drmark12pa]

I've noticed an issue in Control4 with what will show up on MyHome Android screen.

In my case I have a Sirius table top radio that I stream and it works great.  In my programming, the source I'm using in this case is SIRIUS NET as I call it in my project.

If I add a room to a room I'm listening to from my phone, that shows up as an active room on my Android.

If I add a zone to zone currently being listened to from the SR250 remote that shows up as an active room on my Android.

However, when I have a button programmed to "Add rooms DECK to KITCHEN session" (as an example) this active room is not showing up on Android screen. 

When I do the "Add room...." command, it displays on the SR250 remote as Deck - Digital Media and not the actual source being used.

Is there a way to program in Composer an add zone command so the additional room is identical?  It seems like the ADD ROOM and ADD ZONE commands are different in some ways yet you can still get the same audio source. 

I can't seem to figure out what this "bug" is and how to remedy it.

[Cyknight]

Hmm.

Well you need to understand that the 'join session' programming is ONLY for controller fed sources. ie, natively TuneIn, Rhapsody or stored music. The fact that you can use it at all in your specific scenario it that you're inputting the sirius radio into a controller, in essence creating a temporary streaming service. Much like when using the mentioned 'native' options - the system sees this as a digital media source. This is what allows you to use the 'join session' option to begin with (as opposed to use a string of IF statements to match sources). So yes, when you use programming like that, it would show as 'digital media' in those rooms - because that is what you selected as far as the system is concerned.

And the remotes simply aren't able to show you anything but 'digital media' as info (think of using TuneIn or stored music - it's the same, you'll see digital media on the remote). Screens on the other hand can give you 'live' info on what you're playing, in your case the only 'live' info it can give is that the selected digital media is in fact your Sirius (whereas other options would include cover art, current song etc).

 

If having it show the source is of importance to you, you'll have to program those 'if' statements in:

 

IF KITCHEN current selected device is (X)

-select device (X) as the current media device in DECK

IF KITCHEN current selected device is (Y)

-select device (Y) as the current media device in DECK

etc.

 

And yes, the Zone page is NOT the same as 'manually' using the join session option (what you call "add room"). 'join session' is MUCH older (at least as far back as 1.3.2 for SURE, probably before that - I'm pretty sure I was using it since before that) than the Zone page (2.x up) is and the Zone Page was developed quite as a separate option (that we cannot use for programming purposes I might add).

 

 

However, when I have a button programmed to "Add rooms DECK to KITCHEN session" (as an example) this active room is not showing up on Android screen.

 

This is something of a different matter however - is SHOULD be able to show you that zone is on. If you don't mind me asking - is this on the room homepage you added, in the Zones function or both?

[drmark12pa]

Hmm.

Well you need to understand that the 'join session' programming is ONLY for controller fed sources. ie, natively TuneIn, Rhapsody or stored music. The fact that you can use it at all in your specific scenario it that you're inputting the sirius radio into a controller, in essence creating a temporary streaming service. Much like when using the mentioned 'native' options - the system sees this as a digital media source. This is what allows you to use the 'join session' option to begin with (as opposed to use a string of IF statements to match sources). So yes, when you use programming like that, it would show as 'digital media' in those rooms - because that is what you selected as far as the system is concerned.

And the remotes simply aren't able to show you anything but 'digital media' as info (think of using TuneIn or stored music - it's the same, you'll see digital media on the remote). Screens on the other hand can give you 'live' info on what you're playing, in your case the only 'live' info it can give is that the selected digital media is in fact your Sirius (whereas other options would include cover art, current song etc).

 

If having it show the source is of importance to you, you'll have to program those 'if' statements in:

 

IF KITCHEN current selected device is (X)

-select device (X) as the current media device in DECK

IF KITCHEN current selected device is (Y)

-select device (Y) as the current media device in DECK

etc.

 

And yes, the Zone page is NOT the same as 'manually' using the join session option (what you call "add room"). 'join session' is MUCH older (at least as far back as 1.3.2 for SURE, probably before that - I'm pretty sure I was using it since before that) than the Zone page (2.x up) is and the Zone Page was developed quite as a separate option (that we cannot use for programming purposes I might add).

 

 

 

This is something of a different matter however - is SHOULD be able to show you that zone is on. If you don't mind me asking - is this on the room homepage you added, in the Zones function or both?

 

 

In my case I was adding my DECK "room" to my KITCHEN "room" and both DECK and KITCHEN are rooms in my project and are also zones so think I would answer both.  The DIGITAL MEDIA display makes sense. 

It's very odd that at the very least, the MyHome on my Android phone isn't at least showing DIGITAL MEDIA in the DECK room when it was added to the KITCHEN session.  I may have to just add some additional lines of programming as you suggested using a few extra IF statements.

If the programming for the IF AUDIO SELECTION CHANGED IN  DECK is used, does that trigger if there was no audio (POWER OFF in room) or only if the audio changes from what it was already playing?

[Cyknight]

Audio change includes room off (as audio is changing)

[drmark12pa]

I believe there is a 2.7 bug in the Android MyHome after looking at this more at today.

When I used to add the MASTER BEDROOM to KITCHEN, both rooms would show up on the Android and could be controlled such as volume.  However, now the MASTER turns on however it doesn't show up in the active rooms.

[Cyknight]

Still wanting to know if it doesnt show under zones, when changing to the room or both in the app. Also - this is all on a source connected to a controller audio - in correct?

[drmark12pa]

I will check when I get home on the remotes....

But is there any difference in programming between ROOM ON/OFF and POWER STATE of a given room?

[Cyknight]

There is no 'room on' trigger for one. There is a break-up in video and audio selection so you can program different scenarios between audio and video (though needing an IF room is on statement to prevent triggering on room off).

Or use powerstate changes with IF room is on and IF room is off.

Small difference - but giving more options.

 

In essence, very often they will have a similar effect.

[drmark12pa]

There is no 'room on' trigger for one. There is a break-up in video and audio selection so you can program different scenarios between audio and video (though needing an IF room is on statement to prevent triggering on room off).

Or use powerstate changes with IF room is on and IF room is off.

Small difference - but giving more options.

 

In essence, very often they will have a similar effect.

So using an IF ROOM POWER IS ON would be same as IF ROOM POWER STATE IS TRUE

and IF ROOM POWER IS OFF would be the same as IF ROOM POWER STATE is FALSE?

[Cyknight]

Well the first one would be powerstate is false, but essentially - yes.

[drmark12pa]

Well the first one would be powerstate is false, but essentially - yes.

Hahhaa good catch!  I went back to edit that

[drmark12pa]

One additional question... Is there any way in programming to make a room copy another room's source with using the ADD SESSION programming?  Is there a way to copy the source without using variables to copy the source?

[Cyknight]

Yes, there's CURRENT_SELECTED_DEVICE under the break-out for room variables:

 

WHEN button is pushed:

SET CURRENT_SELECTED_DEVICE of room b to the value of CURRENT_SELECTED_DEVICE room a

[drmark12pa]

Just revamping some programming, it looks like using the SET CURRENT DEVICE is the better option rather than add room to a session and this has cleared up the problem in the Android MyHome not showing the room as being active if it's just an added session.

[drmark12pa]

After changing some programming and using the SET CURRENT DEVICE command, it appears that this command doesn't work if you are streaming DIGITAL MEDIA (ie in my case I have my music on my DROBO).  In order to copy DIGITAL MEDIA that is playing in another room, you have to use the ADD SESSION command based on the tinkering I was doing.  So I ended up doing something like this:

 

IF POWER STATE LIVING ROOM FALSE

  - set LIVING ROOM CURRENT DEVICE AS KITCHEN

IF POWER STATE LIVING ROOM FALSE

  - add LIVING ROOM TO KITCHEN SESSION

 

This captures both scenarios.....