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Airfoil to Airfoil Pro again

PostPosted: Sun Aug 11, 2019 3:33 pm
by colovin
Once again I’m trying to go from the Airfoil to the Airfoil Pro Plug-in. I just got a new MacMini which brings me to Mojave. I’d rather not be, but I have no choice. I’m stuck on Indigo 7.1.1 because 7.2 brakes the old Airfoil plug-in. When it came time to renew my Indigo subscription I tried to see if some one could translate one of my Airfoil routines to an Airfoil pro routine to do the same thing. I use Apple script. The only thing I heard was how bad apple script was and that it would go away in future OS’s. OK, fine, then how do I get the same results using Airfoil Pro? I didn’t renew my subscription because why should I pay a yearly subscription when I’m locked into 7.1.1? I don’t really need Prism. Since moving to Mojave it seems that every day a schedule (never the same one) doesn’t run as planned, never had that problem with the old computer (High Sierra, going on a week with the new system). Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but I’m thinking that 7.2 might fix that which 7.2 isn’t an option without Airfoil Pro. So once again I’m wading through the directions trying to get Airfoil Pro to do what works flawlessly with Airfoil. I would probably renew my subscription if I weren’t land locked in 7.1.1.

In the directions it says, “Note: this plugin requires v1.5 or later of the Airfoil API. This was delivered in Airfoil 5 . . .” I’m running Airfoil 5.8.6. Is the API within the app or is this a separate file? I only have an Airfoil and Airfoil Satellite files in what I got from Rogue Amoeba. I went on their site to see if there was an API file and couldn’t find one. Is this something that I’m missing?

I hit new in the home window. On the Create New Device window under type, I select Airfoil Pro which brings up the Add Airfoil Instance dialog. My only option as an instance is my computer name. OK, now what? I have no image files and I’m not using iTunes. Here is a routine that if I can translate it to Airfoil pro maybe I can get everything else over to it.

I use:

Airfoil 5.8.6
Play Sound
Phillips AD7000W/37 Fidelio SoundAvia WiFi Speaker

At 6 PM to denote coming out of Peak Electric time so the house can come back to life, Westminster Chimes Play from an .aif file first on the computer then on the WiFi Speaker.

The 6PM Action:
Airfoil changes audio source to indigoserver
apple script has Play Sound play the .aif file which plays on the computer.
Then Airfoil changes the audio source to Play Sound
apple script plays the .aif file which plays the WiFi speaker.

As archaic as apple script is, this has worked for years. I’ve tried to use Airfoil Pro since it first came out. Every time I read through the setup my eyes roll into the back of my head. I’m not computer illiterate, I’ve been using computers since the first home computers came out (Interact was my first computer, then Commodore, Amiga, Mac and unfortunately windoze) I’ve designed and built TV studios and edit suites, I can handle complicated but Airfoil Pro . . . :-)

Can someone please tell me how to engineer this simple 6PM Action in Airfoil Pro. Am I missing the API file? Do I need to use iTunes? If so does it need to be up and running all the time? Basically at such and such time or at such and such trigger I need to play (however needs to be) an .aif file to the computer and to the WiFi speaker. Hey, maybe Airfoil Pro can play both places at the same time! That would be wonderful but so far, in as long as pro has been out there, I haven’t gotten it to play anywhere.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Airfoil to Airfoil Pro again

PostPosted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:40 am
by howartp
Hello!

I’m sure we can get you sorted.

There’s no additional API needed; if you’re seeing your computer name as an instance when adding a device, then that’s working correct.

Presumably you already have the Speakers configured in Airfoil itself? (Not the plugin yet). If so, once you save the instance device, the speaker devices should automatically appear in Indigo from memory.

Image

Are you with me so far?

What’s your Airfoil look like?


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Re: Airfoil to Airfoil Pro again

PostPosted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 12:11 pm
by colovin
OK, Great!! Yes speakers are configured in Airfoil, Computer (Bose USB Audio) for the computer and BridgeCo 097DA4 for the Phillips WiFi Speaker. When I was playing with it before I always deleted the new devices that I created after disabling Airfoil pro. When I enabled it again, the speakers were already in the home window, I don't know if pro automatically creates the instance or if it was left over from last time but I am seeing both speakers in my device list. I didn't know to be looking for that before. Maybe there's hope :-)

Re: Airfoil to Airfoil Pro again

PostPosted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 1:39 pm
by howartp
Ok, so now you have an Instance and some Speakers, you should be able to control Airfoil Pro.

Indigo > Actions > New > Device Actions > AirFoil Pro Controls >

Connect Speaker
Change Source
...

If you have any Speaker Groups in Airfoil, they'll be represented in Indigo as well, so you can "Connect Group" to connect local and wifi speakers for example.

Having got to this part, I confess I've just realised I don't know myself how you would play the .aif file without applescript - partly because I don't know Mac very well!

The EPS Mac Commander plugin supports running iTunes, so whether you could use that, or whether there's a better way such as a shell script (not Applescript) to execute an audio file (such as I would on Windows) I don't know... Others i'm sure will chime in, no pun intended.

Re: Airfoil to Airfoil Pro again

PostPosted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 11:13 am
by colovin
I see said the blind man :-) It is up and running. Apple script works just fine. I've been able to duplicate my activities (keeping the old just in case) and modify keeping the scripting in place. I'm amazed at how many routines I have going so I haven't disabled the old plugin just yet.

Sorry for the slow report back. I've got all sorts of other issues that jumped up. Moving to the new computer total screwed up my mail. More troubling is I just put in a 240v receptacle for charging my car (Hyundai Sonata PHEV) which seems to be interfering with INSTEON when the car is charging. Not sure what's going on there????

Re: Airfoil to Airfoil Pro again

PostPosted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 12:55 pm
by howartp
We don’t have Insteon over here, but for X10 I believe there’s a noise filter that keeps ‘noisy’ (electrical noise) off the powerline and thus stops X10 issues.


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Re: Airfoil to Airfoil Pro again

PostPosted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 6:03 pm
by colovin
A couple of things. Since switching to Pro my WiFi speaker is going off line a lot. In my routines I've been turning on the speakers and then turn them off. I suspect that when it's off on Airfoil it causes the speaker to go offline. Turning on the speaker in Airfoil doesn't bring the speaker back on line once it's gone off line. Am I thinking right here? I'm going to try keeping them on in Airfoil all the time, just looking for a, "you might be right" :-)

Also on my 220v noise problem. My electrician thought that the car charging cable required the 2 hots, neutral and ground which he thought was strange but he setup the receptacle that way. I've contacted the manufacturer and they said that no, it's pure 220v it does not need the neutral line. I think this may be the problem, isn't all INSTEON commands sent on the neutral line? I'm waiting on the electrician to come back and get rid of the neutral but does this seem like a solution to the noise problem? When the car is charging lots (not all) of automation routines fail. I hate it when that happens :-)

Re: Airfoil to Airfoil Pro again

PostPosted: Sat Aug 17, 2019 2:05 am
by howartp
I don’t know US electric wiring but to my UK mind, the idea of something working without Neutral is impossible.


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Re: Airfoil to Airfoil Pro again

PostPosted: Sat Aug 17, 2019 4:15 am
by colovin
That's what I would have thought, but when the electrician was pulling the 4 lines he had commented that it was unusual. Here is a quote from the manufacturers email.

Our product is only connected with three lines without zero line, because our charger is only recommended to be used in 240V, not in 110V, so the zero line is not connected, but only connected with two fire lines and one ground line.


Since the neutral (zero) is now connected, and I think INSTEON commands are sent on the neutral line, my thinking is that somehow something is feeding back into the neutral bus when the car is charging. Everything is working fine when the car is not in the charge mode.