1 (edited by ncoop23 2008-01-07 20:31:06)

Topic: Alarm not going off.

I was an hour late to work the other day because the alarm never went off...  The screen said the time when the alarm was supposed to go off but it never did... I really can't trust an alarm that sometimes won't go off because if I am late to work the boss isn't very happy.  I have had this happen twice...  Shouldn't the alarms features be priority #1?  Other than that I am liking the beta a lot...

This happened about a month ago then about 2 weeks ago.

Re: Alarm not going off.

The same exact thing has been happening to me as well. I double checked and made sure that volume was slid to the max and that I had not accidentally muted it. When the alarm should be blaring, the screen pops us for me to choose if I want to turn the alarm off or snooze.  I can hear the clicks when I touch the screen.  The alarm worked fine before I updated the control panel with the beta control panel :-(.

Re: Alarm not going off.

Please post all of the alarm settings you used so we can try to reproduce this.

Re: Alarm not going off.

Duane wrote:

Please post all of the alarm settings you used so we can try to reproduce this.

Is there a configuration file for the alarms on the box?  if so, we could post that.  If not, that could be a useful enhancement.

Re: Alarm not going off.

Duane,

  Here are the settings:

*  Quick alarm
*  Klaxon call (although it did not matter if it was klaxon, bugle, etc.
*  0545 for alarm time, snooze set for :05.  (although I changed the alarm time to see if that helped, but no change.
*  Volume slider set all the way to the right.  I also checked it at 1/2 way, no change.
*  I set it to click on touchscreen and I could hear the clicks.  I then set it to no clicks to see if by some quirk that helped with the alarm--no it did not.
*  It did not matter if I had touched the night mode to dim it or not.
*  I also tried rebooting Chumby several times, but that did nt help either.

  The alarm did initially go off a couple of times randomly when I first installed the Beta control panel--not sure why it stopped.  Last night I dropped down to the current non-Beta control channel, and the alarm worked like a champ this morning.

  Please let me know if you need any more info.

Thanks,
Amy

Re: Alarm not going off.

wayn3w wrote:

there a configuration file for the alarms on the box?  if so, we could post that.  If not, that could be a useful enhancement.

Yes, it's at /psp/alarms, and the alarm volume is stored at /psp/alarm_volume.

Re: Alarm not going off.

I am having an intermittent problem with one of my custom alarms...
I have 4 alarms set (waking up, changing channels during the day) but as far as I can notice, only one gives me grief...
It is set in the evening to auto-magically dim the Chumby (nightmode).
The settings are:
When: Daily
Time : 9:45pm
Audio: for :00, play "Beep"
Snooze : snoozing for :01
...and then...
Action: Set night mode on.

"Set" and "Don't show alarm screen" is checked.

About 1 out of 3 days it will not activate.
I have restarted the Chumby several times and I have even tried to delete the alarm and recreate it. It is still unreliable.
I'm using 2.6.54.

Any thoughts?

Cheers/ Carl

Re: Alarm not going off.

Hello All,

I have the same problem. Running beta sw 1.2 revision 396. I set a custom alarm for 7am daily and a 30 second beep, and the 1st day it goes off like it should. The 2nd day the alarm "goes off" by showing the alarm display but no beep (it made no noise). Fix for it, is to reboot the Chumby. Now, once the Chumby goes "alarm mute", if I set ANY more custom alarms, the UI shows the alarm but no alarm noises. What a pain... I had relied on the Chumby for alarms, and missed an important meeting because of this. So, I no longer trust the Chumby for alarms now, and I have a backup alarm with my old fashion alarm clock.

Looking forward to a fix...
-Ben

REEF Solutions - IT Network Consultant - www.reefsolutions.com
1st & Only Microsoft Exchange Server Group in NYC - Founder & President - www.nyexug.com
Read My Email Server & Technology Blog - http://ehlotech.blogspot.com

Re: Alarm not going off.

Definitely shouldn't rely on the beta software on chumby to give you a consistently reliable alarm at this point (hopefully we made it clear that "beta" meant "not fully tested and completely reliable"), and anyone who is using the beta software certainly should set a backup alarm if you need to get up in time for a key appointment (I do).  We're working hard right now on release software that will, in a few weeks, enable you to confidently use your chumby as a real alarm clock.

10 (edited by taraba 2008-02-11 09:58:19)

Re: Alarm not going off.

Hey guys, I just wanted to add some stuff to this "weird alarm issues" post because I just encountered some.

My chumby was running fine with alarms, but I was keeping a backup alarm clock just in case. So then on Saturday afternoon I plugged in a 9 Volt battery just because I didn't have one in there. Really didn't have a reason for it since it sets its own time, but I thought I should put one in. So then on Saturday I noticed that my silent alarms that switch the channels and go in to night mode weren't working. On Sunday morning the weekday alarm went off. After turning off the alarm, I checked the device and it clearly knew it was the weekend. Since the only thing I changed was the battery, I took it out. Then all my alarms went back to normal.

So my informal survey is: How many people with alarm issues have a battery in it?

11 (edited by anjiro 2008-02-13 06:09:33)

Re: Alarm not going off.

I'm having alarm issues, too. My alarm was set to go off this morning at 7:10, but now at about 8:50 it's going off. My /psp/alarm file looks like:

<alarms><alarm action_param="" action="" auto_dismiss="0" param_description="Beep" param="" arg="Beep" type="beep" duration="30" snooze="5" enabled="0" time="1214" when="daily" /><alarm action_param="on" action="nightmode" auto_dismiss="0" param_description="Bugle" param="" arg="Bugle" type="beep" duration="0" snooze="5" enabled="0" time="20048410" when="once" /><alarm action_param="" action="" auto_dismiss="1" param_description="Beep" param="" arg="Beep" type="beep" duration="0" snooze="5" enabled="0" time="20013962" when="once" /></alarms>

The only one I care about in that list is one of the custom alarms. Settings were: WHEN: one time, TIME: at 7:10 am, DATE: on 02/13/08, AUDIO: for :00, play "Bugle", SNOOZE: snoozing for :05, ACTION: set night mode on; "SET" was checked.

The 00 duration is on purpose, as I have a post_alarm_action_* script file that's activated that controls an X10 device to bring up a light to help me wake up.

I had a bug a week or so ago that when, in the "DATE" setting I pushed "TODAY" it would show the right date, which I would then increment for the following day, but when I hit DONE, the date on the alarm config screen was incremented by one month (so March instead of February).

Control panel version is 2.5.67.

Thanks,


dan

12 (edited by jalm1 2008-03-05 04:48:02)

Re: Alarm not going off.

I too am having alarm problems. So two days ago i removed all my alarms and rebuilt them. Problems started yesterday.

Issue 1)
Alarm:
Daily
at 10:10pm
Audio, forever, shoutcast
snooze: snoozing for :05 and then
do nothing.
set

This alarm went off yesterday but the fee turned off about an hour later well before the 12:00am night mode alarm (alarm 4). So i left this alone.

Come this morning screwy alarms:
Alarm 2:
Weekdays at 5:30am
audio: :20 beep
snoozing for :02
and then change to morning channel.
set

Alarm 3:
Weekdays at 5:31am
audio: forever shoutcast
snoozing for :05
and then
do nothing
set.

This alarm worked yesterday the first instance since the alarms were created. However this morning, i awoke at about 5:34 to the beep and the screen had the turn off alarm or snooze buttons. The alarm should have only played for a 20 seconds and then less then a minute later changed to the shoutcast feed. But the alarm never stopped buzzing and when i turned off the shoutcast did not come on. The volume set in the clock screen is at about 60%.  CP version 2.6.70

I have a few other alarms that change the channel during the day, but since i am not around i am assuming they are working. When i came home yesterday i was on my evening channel. Will check that again this evening.

Re: Alarm not going off.

The alarm play duration is not in seconds, it's in minutes.

We have a Control Panel in QA that revamps much of the alarm subsystem.  Hopefully we'll put out a beta "soon".

Re: Alarm not going off.

Ok, that adds some clarity. However, if another alarm is set to go off within the alarm play period shouldn't that stop any existing alarm?

Re: Alarm not going off.

Yes, it's supposed to - and does in most cases.  We're trying to close out the ones that don't - there are so many combinations with all of the flexibility we've added to alarms.

Re: Alarm not going off.

I come home today and find my chumby missed two more alarms. So far in my limited testing each alarm only seems to work once and then it breaks.

Here are the details of the two alarms that it missed (in addition to the two errors above earlier today)

1)
Weekdays at 9:10am
For :05 play "shoutcast"
Snooz for :05 and then
Change to screen saver channel
set
dont show alarm screen

2)
Daily at 5:00pm
for :05 pay shoutcast
snoozing for :03
and then change to evening channel
set
dont show alarm screen


When i came home i was still on my morning channel that is how i know it skipped these two alarms.

Re: Alarm not going off.

One possible problem today, when i went to manually change my channel, there were no channels loaded. I had to refresh the channels.

Re: Alarm not going off.

had a problem with the alarm this morning. Well it was my girl friends alarm. It went off but there was no audio. 20 minutes later my alarm went off fine. We both have them set to radio streams. Can't stay with beta while this is happing unless I want to sleep on the couch sad

Re: Alarm not going off.

Are you using the 2.6.75 beta Control Panel?

If so, can you tell me *exactly* which music sources (SHOUTcast, Mediafly, etc) and which streams/stations they were set to?

If possible, please send me (duane@chumby.com) the file "/psp/alarms", and I'll attempt to reproduce the problem.

Re: Alarm not going off.

Duane wrote:

Are you using the 2.6.75 beta Control Panel?

If so, can you tell me *exactly* which music sources (SHOUTcast, Mediafly, etc) and which streams/stations they were set to?

If possible, please send me (duane@chumby.com) the file "/psp/alarms", and I'll attempt to reproduce the problem.

Cant get to the file don't know how to get into the chumby (winscp?)

The radio station is a SHOUTcast one, sky fm absolutely smooth jazz

I have to go back to non beta control panel because we cant be screwing around with the alarms

Re: Alarm not going off.

Hi,

I'm having alarm problems too.

I tried (as not a morning person) to set it first to stop night mode  (goes to worm city clock) at 6:30, then from 6:40 to 7:00 AM to play soft jazz and then from 7:00 AM on to play soft jazz and then go to my morning channel widgets.  I had snooze between them for 0:05

It seemed to not like changing channels.

So I changed it from 6:30 stop night mode.  And then 6:40 wake up channel to soft jazz (shoutcast) and my morning widget channel.  This morning no alarm at all!  Not good. 

Fortunately the X-10 system in the house turned on the lights and woke me up.

Judy

I hate mornings!

Re: Alarm not going off.

Update re previous post above: I rebooted the chumby, set the audio to radio.  The channels changed fine, but the first alarm radio came on for about 10 seconds somewhat garbled and then choked and went off.  I tried to turn on the radio just to listen to some music and tried several channels and aside from an initial loading and then choking in a few seconds nothing.

I hate mornings!

Re: Alarm not going off.

Little Bear,
Please contact Customer Support regarding your issue.  This is something we'll have to troubleshoot with you.


Thanks,
Sam

Re: Alarm not going off.

Will do Sam!
Judy

I hate mornings!

Re: Alarm not going off.

The latest control panel update fixed all my problems.  Thanks!

I hate mornings!