alarm functionality

[papyrus]

I just got my SB3 this week. I'm VERY impressed so far. I'm especially excited about the alarm funcitonality but have some questions:
1 - i set the alarm for this morning @ 6am, but it didn't go off. I had 'powered off' the unit last night before bed, so it was showing the date/time. I turned on the unit around 6:05am to test, and as soon as it came on it started playing a track.. as if it has to be 'on' for the alarm to work. This doesn't seem right. It isn't.. right? it can be 'powered' off and come on via the alarm - correct?
2 - I like the squeezenetwork alarm options - the various nature sounds etc. How can I randomly choose a different sound each morning? Is it possible to add those 'tracks' to a playlist and random over it? I'd rather just random live over the networked-list, so new sounds could be added without my intervention. Waking up each morning 'in' a different environment - beach, meadow, city, FIRE!.. would be awesome.
3 - This seems simple, but I would want the option of tuning an internet radio station via alarm. Possible? Do I need to add it to a playlist? Is that possible?
4 - I upgraded to 6.5beta last night, and now I see a fade-in option on the alarm. Excellent. Is there a time setting to specify how much time the fade takes?

Thanks in advance

[mherger]

> 1 - i set the alarm for this morning @ 6am, but it didn't go off. I
> had 'powered off' the unit last night before bed, so it was showing the
> date/time. I turned on the unit around 6:05am to test, and as soon as
> it came on it started playing a track.. as if it has to be 'on' for the
> alarm to work. This doesn't seem right. It isn't.. right? it can be
> 'powered' off and come on via the alarm - correct?

Did your server go in suspend mode? Was the clock displayed all the time?

> 3 - This seems simple, but I would want the option of tuning an
> internet radio station via alarm. Possible? Do I need to add it to a
> playlist? Is that possible?

Tune in to the station, save it as a playlist. It's then available from
the alarm's settings.

--

Michael

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[papyrus]

Did your server go in suspend mode? Was the clock displayed all the time?

I don't believe the server was suspended. If nothing else, I did not touch the PC at all this morning when I troubleshot - didn't even turn on the monitor. The clock was indeed live all the time. I just hit the red power button on the remote and a track was playing. Oh.. while the clock was on I noticed the alarm icon in the top right - as if to confirm it was set.


> 3 - This seems simple, but I would want the option of tuning an
> internet radio station via alarm. Possible? Do I need to add it to a
> playlist? Is that possible?

Tune in to the station, save it as a playlist. It's then available from
the alarm's settings.

--

Michael

-----------------------------------------------------------
Help translate SlimServer by using the
SlimString Translation Helper (http://www.herger.net/slim/)[/QUOTE]

[mherger]

> I don't believe the server was suspended. If nothing else, I did not
> touch the PC at all this morning when I troubleshot - didn't even turn
> on the monitor. The clock was indeed live all the time. I just hit
> the red power button on the remote and a track was playing. Oh.. while
> the clock was on I noticed the alarm icon in the top right - as if to
> confirm it was set.

What about the alarm's volume setting? Is it lower than your normal volume?

--

Michael

-----------------------------------------------------------
Help translate SlimServer by using the
SlimString Translation Helper (http://www.herger.net/slim/)

[papyrus]

volume settings are pretty similar... ~50%.

Since it seems this is all unexpected behavior, I'll have to monkey with it when I get home tonight. Given I just got it AND this is the first morning i tried the alarm, I think the liklihood of me screwing something up is just too high.

SO.. any word on whether those ambient/nature alarm 'tracks' in the squeezenet alarm can be added to a playlist? If so, would the sb 'log in' the squeeze net automatically on playing? The whole idea of 'logging in/out' if sqnet is pretty dumb, by the way. It should just be another subset of internet radio or something to that effect. Perhaps the whole sqnet set of sources should be dropped down a level so they are parallel with browsing local mp3s, internet radio etc. Then the duplicates could be discarded and pandora etc. would just be additional source options. The alarm functionality would also get merged, with 'online' content parallel to local for audio choices.

[Mark Lanctot]

It's not obvious from your posts, but did you set the alarm through SlimServer or SqueezeNetwork? If you did it through SlimServer, and then logged into SqueezeNetwork (and stayed there) you'll lose the alarm. SqueezeNetwork has no idea what SlimServer was doing and vice-versa.

Note: if you set the alarm in SlimServer, you'll see a little "bell" icon to the right of the display if there's an upcoming alarm.

In all cases, the Squeezebox turns on automatically at the specified time, but you have to remain logged in to SqueezeNetwork for SqueezeNetwork alarms and SlimServer for SlimServer alarms.

SO.. any word on whether those ambient/nature alarm 'tracks' in the squeezenet alarm can be added to a playlist? If so, would the sb 'log in' the squeeze net automatically on playing?

SqueezeNetwork ambient sounds are stored on SqueezeNetwork. To get them to your SlimServer, you'd somehow have to save them to your PC and organize them in a playlist. You could then play the playlist back in random order.

Some of the SqueezeNetwork ambient sounds appear to be copyrighted so Slim can't help you in saving copies.

If you turn the player off while you're in SqueezeNetwork mode, you actually remained logged into SqueezeNetwork so there's nothing that needs to be done when the alarm comes due. It just powers up and starts playing the playlist you specified. Ditto for SlimServer, except it's the alarm set in SlimServer that will activate.

The whole idea of 'logging in/out' if sqnet is pretty dumb, by the way. It should just be another subset of internet radio or something to that effect. Perhaps the whole sqnet set of sources should be dropped down a level so they are parallel with browsing local mp3s, internet radio etc. Then the duplicates could be discarded and pandora etc. would just be additional source options. The alarm functionality would also get merged, with 'online' content parallel to local for audio choices.

Keep in mind SqueezeNetwork is a little over a year old. Slim does want to integrate it more seamlessly into SlimServer, so stay tuned.

[papyrus]

Not sure how you reply in such a nice format, given my two options of "reply" (this, void of all prior msgs) or "quote", in which case a gang of tags are jammed into the message and it repeatedly tells me i need to type more than 10 words before submitting...

anyway on the issue at hand. Thanks for the reply. Yes i was using slimserver. I'll toy with it more today and likely have better luck. On the sqznet issue, I see the idea of moving the sounds into local files and making a playlist, but I would loose the joy of having sqznet admins add and remove sounds at their will and getting to wonder where or what would play each morning. That would be the rub. I hope the see the idea and roll with it. Perhaps a tour the-world-channel that plays sounds from different locations around the world each morning...

[Mark Lanctot]

Yes i was using slimserver.

This has a more powerful alarm feature than SqueezeNetwork - you can set a global alarm or day-by-day, with different times and playlists for each day.

Again, look for the little bell icon to be sure you have it set properly.

Which reminds me, I should submit a bug - I find that by setting it through the web interface it gets set to 12:00 AM. If I set it through the Squeezebox it works fine.

On the sqznet issue, I see the idea of moving the sounds into local files and making a playlist, but I would loose the joy of having sqznet admins add and remove sounds at their will and getting to wonder where or what would play each morning. That would be the rub. I hope the see the idea and roll with it. Perhaps a tour the-world-channel that plays sounds from different locations around the world each morning...

Slim Devices has made the bug list open to everyone: see http://bugs.slimdevices.com/ Search for it first, then you may wish to file an enhancement.

BTW to quote a post like I did, start up by using the Quote button, then add more "quote" and "/quote" tags as you see fit, using square brackets [] around the tags. (I can't show you because the forum software will create a quote ;-) ).

[snarlydwarf]

I don't believe the server was suspended. If nothing else, I did not touch the PC at all this morning when I troubleshot - didn't even turn on the monitor. The clock was indeed live all the time. I just hit the red power button on the remote and a track was playing. Oh.. while the clock was on I noticed the alarm icon in the top right - as if to confirm it was set.

If the server was suspended, the clock on the SB wouldn't be updating, so that's not it. The 'power makes it play' is player setting. Personally, I don't have mine on like that, but it is one of the choices on the player settings. I can't remember what the default is, but one of the choices is "on means to start playing"

It's on the 'audio' page of the player settings.

It sounds like your alarm just plain didn't go off: recheck the time (note AM/PM)?

It certainly should work: I rely on it to get up every morning.

[kdf]

Quoting Mark Lanctot
<Mark.Lanctot.251hpb1142977801 (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com>:

>
> papyrus Wrote:
>> Yes i was using slimserver.
>
> This has a more powerful alarm feature than SqueezeNetwork - you can
> set a global alarm or day-by-day, with different times and playlists
> for each day.

that is the same as will be for slimserver (it is already in 6.5
builds, but being a new feature, is not in any earlier builds)


> Which reminds me, I should submit a bug - I find that by setting it
> through the web interface it gets set to 12:00 AM. If I set it through
> the Squeezebox it works fine.

known issue.
http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1878
-kdf

[Mark Lanctot]

that is the same as will be for slimserver (it is already in 6.5
builds, but being a new feature, is not in any earlier builds)

Err, I think that was what I said? (that SlimServer alarms were more powerful than SqueezeNetwork's?) :-)



> Which reminds me, I should submit a bug - I find that by setting it
> through the web interface it gets set to 12:00 AM. If I set it through
> the Squeezebox it works fine.

known issue.
http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1878
-kdf

That's not quite the issue I have - any time I set via the web interface ends up being 12:00 AM. But if I do it a second time, it seems to work fine. I haven't experimented with it enough to determine if this "it only takes the second time" thing is repeatable. I just discovered it now.

[gweiner]

The problem is with the space before the first digit. If you remove it when changing the time in the web-interface everyting will be fine. A workaround is to change to a time format that uses a zero instead of a space. " 7:30" will set the alarm time to 12:00. "7:30" and "07:30" will set the time to 7:30.

I havn't filed this as a bug.

Gunnar

[anandrag]

It certainly should work: I rely on it to get up every morning.

Does it also mean you need to leave your amp (that SB plugs into) on all night?

[snarlydwarf]

yeah, though I'm considering spending the $10 and getting the IR Blaster... it's on my ToDo list, but, then, so are a lot of other things. :)