Activity Switching Issue – Amplifier fails to power on when switching activities

General
1

Hello
I am using two specific activities on my setup:

  1. ‘TV’: Includes only the Television.

  2. ‘TV + Amp’: Includes the TV, Nvidia Shield, and the Amplifier.

Both activities work perfectly when started individually from an ‘All Off’ state. However, when I switch directly from the ‘TV’ activity to ‘TV + Amp’, the amplifier fails to power on, even though a discrete ‘Power On’ IR command is assigned to the sequence.

It seems the command is either being skipped or blocked during the transition between activities.

cu

2

Are both activities in the same activity group? Is the amplifier entity assigned to the “TV” activity as well (even if not used in Start sequence)?

3

To answer your questions:

  • Activity Group: Yes, both activities are located within the same activity group.

  • Amplifier Assignment: As a test, I have now added the amplifier entity to the ‘TV’ activity as well, even though no specific commands or actions are performed with it in that setup.

Despite including the device in both activities, the issue persists when switching from one to the other.

4

Sorry, I meant the opposite: If the amplifier is in the “TV” activity then it will not be switched on / off when changing to the other activity… so in your case it should NOT be in TV activity. Can you do the following:

  • Switch on TV
  • download debug log of process
  • Switch off TV
  • Switch on TV + Amp
  • Download debug log of this process
  • Switch off TV + Amp
  • Switch on TV
  • Switch to TV + Amp
  • Download the log of the switching process

Upload the relevant portions of the 3 logs here. We might see why the process decides to not switch on Amplifier

5

Thank you for the instructions. I am currently away from home, so I cannot access the system right now. I will perform the tests and provide the debug logs as soon as I am back. Thanks for your patience!

1 Like
6

From my understanding the power commands for IR devices have to be POWER_ON and POWER_OFF in capitals for the remote to register whether the device is switched on or off in the sequence.

I could be mistaking, but I’ve done this and have no problems in this regard

7

@Daan
That was it! Using POWER_ON and POWER_OFF in all caps was indeed the solution. It seems the system requires this specific syntax to correctly track the power state of IR devices during activity transitions. Everything is working perfectly now. Thank you so much for that tip!

It would be great if this requirement were explicitly mentioned in the documentation or the UI, so others don’t fall into the same trap. It’s a small detail that makes a huge difference.

@Tode
Since this fixed the issue, there is no longer a need for the debug logs. Thank you very much for your time and for offering to dig through the logs to help me out – I really appreciate the support!

8

It is mentioned in the documentation:

  • IR remote-entities require the power buttons to be named POWER_ON & POWER_OFF (or POWER_TOGGLE for “dumb” devices).

https://support.unfoldedcircle.com/hc/en-us/articles/13215168236188-Activity-groups

9

@marton

You are absolutely right. I did read that section, but I completely glossed over the fact that the capitalization was a strict requirement and not just a stylistic choice in the docs. My bad!

Everything is working flawlessly now that I’ve corrected the names.

By the way… your name sounds somewhat familiar. I have a feeling you might know a thing or two about how this remote works! :wink: Thanks again for the clarification and for building such a great device.