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[dbemowsk]

I have a suggestion for an add-on to this.  Being able to text a status request for a module and have it text back the status.  I have an app called Drive Safely on my BB curve and it will read text messages and e-mails to me as they come in.  The two together would be KICK A**.

[shuggins]

Jim,

Alright, the past 24 hours I have had some good times with StarbotControl.  First of all, what a brilliant idea...  The set up was a cinch and the first time it worked I just went bonkers....   so cool!   But after that....several anomalies....  some of which might not be the software's fault.

• I kept it super simple (at first)...  just turn on/off a lamp module.
• I texted "lamp on", it turned on, I turned it off (google text "lamp off") it turned off.  AWESOME
• I tried it over and over, and after about the 4th time, things got weird.  The lamp would go on and off several times by itself.  Almost like the texts weren't getting marked as read.  I kept doing it and then Starbot crashed.  It said there was an error and then just exited and returned to the command prompt.
• I logged in to Google Talk and erased all texts.
• I started the program back up and it worked fine when I texted after that ....  for a while (5 minutes).
• Also, (I'm quite sure of this) you need to put your macros in the starbotcontrol.csv in LOWER CASE.  If you mix case, they won't match.  I looked in the log files and they even showed they weren't matching.  Once I changed to all lower case and I texted in lower case, we were good.
• I added several macros to starbotcontrol.csv file to test voices, lights, email, cameras, etc
• I am just not sure if it marks everything as "read" after it processes.  I sent several different macros in several different texts...it got to where ALL of them were firing every single time a single text rolled in.  Lights, voices (LOL!), cameras were going off all over my house.  My wife hates me (LOL).  Again, maybe not marking a "read" text?  Even after stopping/starting starbot that didn't help with what - a single text would initiate a history of ALL of them!.  I had to log into Google voice and manually delete my texts.
• Also, we briefly lost internet connectivity and StarbotControl immediately crashed. Maybe put in error checking and just keep on trying?
• Would be very nice to have it read a config file for user/pw for Google talk, so that when you start it, it does not prompt you....automation!

Again, bravo...and I sure hope you continue to work on this.  I have a case of beer in your name!

Scott

[jimpster]

I got a handle on the issues you mentioned.  The repetition of all your command history has to do with the way that gvoice remarks the entire conversation as Unread -- hence causing all commands in prior messages from the same sender to behave as if they were never read.  The lower case issue should be easy -- who texts in all caps??

Some of the enhancements will be in the bigger update I'm working on.  Meanwhile give me a day or weekend to fix the bugs you mentioned.   Bravo back for the feedback!

BTW, my real name is John.  Jimpster is a random username I use. Hehe.

[shuggins]

John,

One more thing that might help in debugging - it seems to work a lot better if you send the text and then immediately get out of text mode on phone.  On my iPhone I open up the text sender, send my text macro and immediately send.  My thoughts are that the text app is immediately marking it as read on GOOGLE SMS server upon receiving the text.  Just an idea....

[dbemowsk]

If you have your phone set up to receive your GV texts, that may be the issue.  IF your phone picks up the text before StarBot does, that could be part of the issue.

[shuggins]

Ahhhh...    that might be part of the issue.  Good catch.  Let me check on that.   If I text and then exit the text app, it works a bit better....   Hey dbemowsk, you still doing RemoteWatch X10?  I remember that app and it was good- did you get more done on it?

[dbemowsk]

Not to completely hijack this thread for RemoteWatch, but I want to get back into it soon.  I have some new ideas I want to try.  I am going to see if I can juggle it in between the other app I am working on.

[jimpster]

I updated the USB version with a fix to the multiple commands issue mentioned by shuggins.  Now messages are moved to the trash if they are recognized to have a starbotcontrol macro.  In the future there will probably be an option to decorate your macros with a keyword, for example: x10:lights on  or >>lights on<<.  This would make it better for starbot to identify real commands rather than responding to an SMS that might happen to have a special phrase.

Note: starbotcontrol upon bootup marks all messages in your SMS inbox read -- this is to avoid blasting stale commands waiting in your inbox. This will probably change for the better in the future.

Cheers!

[jimpster]

I have a suggestion for an add-on to this.  Being able to text a status request for a module and have it text back the status.  I have an app called Drive Safely on my BB curve and it will read text messages and e-mails to me as they come in.  The two together would be KICK A**.

This can be done with queryplc right?  Right now I don't have the device to test this, but certainly is doable.  I'll keep it on the list of enhancements.

[shuggins]

jimpster,

Installed new version and gave it a try (lots of tries, heehee....).     This works much better and much more consistently.  It was good at marking older texts as read and not repeating the same commands over and over.  Also, I noticed it is completely case "insensitive now".  So if I mix case, it certainly still recognizes it if the macro in the startbotcontrol.csv is all lower case, for example.  I LIKE THAT A LOT actually, as iPhone (and many smart phones) try to upper-case letters it thinks it should do so for.

WELL DONE, jimpster!  I can see me using this a ton.  Can't wait to see what else you come up with.  I still think a config entry of some sort would be nice to be able to throttle the amount of time (currently at 10 seconds) it waits before checking google voice inbox.  Just my 2 cents....

[Aquadeveloper]

Hi,

Can the  program using an X10 - CM17 (etc) SEND a text message to a google voice number?   I want to get alarm alerts using GV.

Thanks for any info!!