Answered

alarm setup

  • 4 June 2023
  • 5 replies
  • 88 views

I’m going to attempt to set up an “alarm” in an effort to solve my issue with my 1 ½ week old Sonon Port that stops playing music when my amp shuts off then turns back on. If I see it correctly, I can set the start time of the alarm, set the duration of the alarm and select the input audio for the alarm. So I should have music from the Sonos library(alarm source), playing at my alarm start time of 1030am until my 10 hour duration is up. Correct?

Here’s the current setup. The Port is connected to the internet via a Cat 5 cable. I’m streaming music from the Sonos app. The Sonos Port outputs to a Shure mixer. The Shure mixer outputs to a QSC CSX 800V amplifier that drives 5 Episode all-weather  70 volt speakers. The speakers provide sound at our large community swimming pool. The music has to be off between the hours of 9pm and 1030am, community rules. I saw no way to turn the Sonos Port, the QSC amp and the Shure mixer off then back on with some setting feature. I put a mechanical timer on the A/C power line for the amp that shuts it off then back on during these times.The Port stays on and the mixer stays on, all the time. So one will hear music playing from the Port right up until the amp A/C power is switched off by the mechanical timer. The next morning, the amp turns on at 1030am. The mixer is still on and the Sonos Port is still on. They were never shut off. There is no music! I get phone calls from the people who frequent the pool to please come and fix it. The fix is driving my golf cart to the pool and getting close enough to get on the same network as the Sonos. I have to open the Sonos app, tap the music playing box, select a streaming source and press the play button. MUSIC!  I’ve had to do this every day since the Port was installed. 

icon

Best answer by Corry P 6 June 2023, 10:18

View original

5 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Cheapshot 

Thanks for your post!

Firstly, if all you need to do to get things working is to get within WiFi range and then press Play, then all they need to do to achieve the same effect is to press the physical Play “button” on the Port - no app needed! That should at least save you a golf cart trip each morning, assuming the staff have physical access to the Port.

Presumably, the Port is ceasing playback after 10 hours as the alarm instructs it to do, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t start up again the next day with the alarm, especially when just pressing Play works.

The next time you need to go round to get the music playing again, please use the Sonos app to submit a support diagnostic. If you then get in touch with our technical support team and give them the diagnostic number, they should be able to see what caused the last playback session to stop, and why the alarm hasn’t restarted it.

I hope this helps.

Thank you for the reply. The alarm thing appears to be working at this point. I’ve actually set 3 different alarms with the input being 3 different kinds of music for a little variety for the pool people.

I’ll do the diagnostic when I do have to golf cart it to push the play buttom.

Okay, unbelievable!! I just got a call that the Sonos Port Alarm I set to play Country Western music from 10:10am to 12:00pm was sending a chime out to the speakers instead of the music I had selected. It’d been going on for 40 minutes before I received a call. I sent a diagnostic # 1832172420. 

I turned off the alarms, all 3 of them, and put regular music back on for play with no alarm settings. So I am back to square 1.

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Cheapshot 

Thanks for the diagnostics!

Hearing a chime for an alarm means that the unit was unable to reach the specified server in sufficient time and resorted to playing the fall-back chime instead (in case you needed something to wake you up in the morning, for example - something I use Sonos for). If this happens again, please again direct your staff to tap the Play button on the Port - this will stop the playback of the chime.

We don’t have access to SiriusXM here in Europe, but from what I can gather here on the Community, our US customers have issues with playing Sirius channels from time to time (and perhaps a bit more frequently than is typical for other sources).

My recommendation to you is to - temporarily, at least - specify another source of music to be played on your 10:10 alarm - Spotify Free, local radio or Sonos Radio, for example. Anything other than SiriusXM, really. If the alarm is then instantly more reliable, then that would be a fair indication of where the problem lies.

I do, however, see some non-alarm-related playback errors of Sonos Radio in the logs - with your Port being ethernet wired, this is most likely due to network issues rather than interference. If possible, please try rebooting the router by switching it off for at least 30 seconds. I presume this would be best done outside of opening hours, as it will take several minutes for internet/WiFi to return.

I hope this helps.

Thank you for the suggestions. I’ll give them a shot

Reply