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SMS Trouble after power failure
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 Posted: Sunday Jun 3rd, 2018 11:32 pm
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caravanboy
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Hi, ever since I installed my UCM/GSM4(3G) module last year I've always been convinced it doesn't quite work correctly when there is an AC power failure. Initially I assumed the local cell maybe also failed at the same time (although unlikely) and each time I have a power failure there seem to be some missing SMS messages but I never get around to investigating further at it works normally again after that. "Normal" means that various zones trigger SMS messages and I also use various Control menus via SMS.

However, this time, the first power failure for 7 months happened when I'm away (we normally get ~1 power cut per month on average). Comfort dialled me via Landline and reported a power failure. I did also receive one Power Fail and a Power Restore SMS message but then the power went down again for a couple of hours.

Now that power is back I can dial-up comfort via the landline and that is okay but it is refusing to respond to SMS texts and if I phone the SMS module it answers (with silence) and then disconnects.

I've managed to get a VPN connection and retrieve my event log and I can see various failures where it tried to send me other SMS messages about power failure and restore but more worryingly I can see various events that I don't understand: "SMS Dial Failure #89" events and also 98 /99 / 100 / 16 at various points and also "SMS Trouble ID # UCM 2" and "SMS Restore ID # UCM 2".

From the Comfigurator "Get Status" mechanism I can see in the toolbar that UCM status of the GSM Module is showing that it does have a good network signal and then the status message status "Normal/No error".

Anyone got any ideas?



 Posted: Monday Jun 4th, 2018 02:57 am
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slychiu
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The event log should show the dialing attempt as well the successful acknowledgement of the SMS by the mobile network provider
egDial Number #3 means there was a dial out to phone 3. This may be Voice Phone or SMSIf the selected phone is an SMS Phone Type then the next event should be "Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge". That shows that the message was deleivered, not that you received the message, as there may be delays through the SMS network.
If the SMS fails to send there should be "SMS Dial Failure". Comfort will resend up to 5 times . SMS Dial Failure #89 - you can ignore the #89 or other numbers. The evemt log listing has to incliude a number parameter but in the case of SMS Dial Failure a random number appears. So just treat them as SMS Dial Failiure. We may change that in the future version of Comfigurator

05/15 17:49 Mode Change # Away Mode
05/15 17:49 Dial Number # 3
05/15 17:49 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
05/16 07:31 Zone Activation # StoreMainDoor (33)

If you dial the GSM number and there is silence, it could be that the 5 way audio cable was not connected betwen the GSM and Comfort PCB in the first place. I wonder if you have tried to dial before?
Try a remote reset from Comfigurator  using Transfer > Reset System



 Posted: Monday Jun 4th, 2018 08:33 am
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caravanboy
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Hi, I've used the voice dial-in to the GSM module before so it's unlikely to be a cable fault.
Looks like everything returned to normal about 3:30am so at least it is working now.
I saw a couple of the "SMS Acknowledge" events that you mentioned for when it did initially text me - I assume they only get set on dial-out activities and not for custom SMS message sending as I don't see them anywhere else in the event log?
If I ignore the 2 digit number on the end of the SMS Dial Failure messages then all I see in the log for a while is repeats of those plus these two messages:
SMS Trouble ID # UCM 2SMS Restore ID # UCM 2
I've connected this morning and downloaded the event log again but there is nothing new since my forum post last night and nothing around 3:30am when the custom text messages suddenly got sent.  So, perhaps it was due to the local cell partially failing since the SMS module did say it had a good network signal.
If the "Trouble" messages above don't give any clues then I will have to do some specific power fail tests when I get back.



 Posted: Monday Jun 4th, 2018 12:15 pm
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slychiu
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Yes I believe that it was a failure of the SMS provider to send messages even thpough the signal was good
Send SMS messages is not recorded in the event log as it is not considered to be an alarm event



 Posted: Saturday Jan 5th, 2019 05:57 pm
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caravanboy
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Hi, over the recent holiday period I had another incident related to my above issue (SMS messages not always sent during/after power failure) and this leads me to believe it is definitely a Comfort bug. My system is configured to send custom SMS messages in the event of a power failure and should also send a standard Power failure alarm messages. The behaviour I saw was as follows:
We had a power failure at 3:45am 22nd December when the system was in night-mode. I got out of bed to sign-in and acknowledge the power-failure alarm. We received no SMS messages at all (standard or custom). Messages were not received by either my mobile or my wife's (two different mobile network providers).

A few minutes later (~3:48am) I sent a custom Control SMS to Comfort and I successfully received a reply, so it was still sending those types of SMS test messages okay.

As I've always had unreliable Comfort SMS issues around power failures I thought nothing of this until a few days later. On the 27th Dec I accidentally triggered an Intruder alert in Night Mode late in the evening. Both my phone and my wife's then received several standard SMS messages about the power failure from 5 days earlier, plus a text about the Back Door being opened (i.e. the cause of the alarm in Night Mode). I'm not sure why the event log also such a lot of "Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge" messages?

So, since Comfort had sent lots of other custom SMS messages in the meantime (e.g. every time my gate opens) this implies that Comfort must have had these standard Power Failure alarm SMS messages stuck in some sort of internal queue and the intruder alarm condition caused it to flush this queue. If so, that must be a bug? 
The custom power failure/restore SMS messages still never did arrive. I have other custom responses that send SMS messages in the event of non-intruder alarms like Line Cut/Restore and they seem to work okay (and we have had a lot of line cuts due to broadband fault repairs).

Another odd thing also occurred with this intruder alarm: I had missed the phone call from Comfort (on my mobile) but I was pretty much immediately signing in on the Comfort keypad to cancel the alarm. It announced “Back door” (which was the contact that had triggered) then there was a very long silence, perhaps as long as 60 seconds, or more, then it eventually announced “Security off”. That also seems very odd.

I've pasted the relevant parts of the event log below and also attached a picture of the messages received. Can anyone see any issues? I could send my config by private message to Cytech if this will help investigation.

12/21 23:18 Sign in - User # Keypad
12/21 23:18 Mode Change # Night Mode
12/22 03:44 AC Fail 1
12/22 03:44 Send SMS Custom Message # 3  ["Powercut Detected" message]
12/22 03:44 Dial Number # 2
12/22 03:44 Send SMS Custom Message # 6  ["Power Restored" message]
12/22 03:44 Dial Number # 2
12/22 03:44 AC Restore 1
12/22 03:44 AC Fail 1
12/22 03:44 Alarm Type # PowerFail (8)
12/22 03:44 Send SMS Custom Message # 3
12/22 03:44 Dial Number # 2
12/22 03:44 Send SMS Custom Message # 6
12/22 03:44 Dial Number # 2
12/22 03:44 AC Restore 1
12/22 03:45 Sign in - User # 1
12/22 03:45 Sign in - User # 1
12/22 03:45 Mode Change # Security Off
12/22 03:45 SMS Dial Failure # 12
12/22 03:45 Sign in - User # Keypad
12/22 03:45 Mode Change # Night Mode
12/22 03:45 SMS Dial Failure # 12
12/22 03:45 SMS Trouble ID # UCM 2
12/22 03:45 SMS Restore ID # UCM 2
12/22 03:46 SMS Trouble ID # UCM 2
12/22 03:46 SMS Restore ID # UCM 2

12/22 07:25 Sign in - User # System Response
12/22 07:25 Mode Change # Security Off
...
12/27 23:13 Sign in - User # Keypad
12/27 23:13 Mode Change # Night Mode
12/27 23:26 Alarm Type # Intruder (1)
12/27 23:26 Zone Activation # BackDoorContact (1)
12/27 23:26 Restore - Zone # BackDoorContact (1)
12/27 23:26 Dial Number # 1
12/27 23:26 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
12/27 23:26 Dial Number # 2
12/27 23:26 Sign in - User # 1
12/27 23:26 Alarm Type # AlarmAbort (20)
12/27 23:26 Sign in - User # 1
12/27 23:26 Mode Change # Security Off
12/27 23:26 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
12/27 23:26 Dial Number # 3
12/27 23:28 Dial Number # 1
12/27 23:28 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
12/27 23:28 Dial Number # 2
12/27 23:28 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
12/27 23:28 Dial Number # 3
12/27 23:29 Remote Signin - User # 2
12/27 23:29 Remote Signin - User # 2
12/27 23:29 Dial Number # 1
12/27 23:29 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
12/27 23:29 Dial Number # 2
12/27 23:29 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
12/27 23:29 Dial Number # 1
12/27 23:29 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
12/27 23:29 Dial Number # 2
12/27 23:29 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
12/27 23:29 Dial Number # 1
12/27 23:29 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
12/27 23:29 Dial Number # 2
12/27 23:29 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
12/27 23:33 Sign in - User # Keypad
12/27 23:33 Mode Change # Night Mode

Attachment: Mobile messages received 2018-12-27.jpg (Downloaded 72 times)



 Posted: Sunday Jan 6th, 2019 02:06 am
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slychiu
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It would be helpful to send your cclx file and event log  to support@cytech.biz so we can check.Your custom power failure messages were never sent but the standard power failure mesages seem to be  stuck behind the custom messages so there may be a problem with the custom power failure message
"Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge" means the SMS was delivered successfuly  to the network.
If this does not appear after "Dial Number #" that means the SMS was not successful perhaps due to network issues. Comfort should re-dial

"Remote Sign-in User N" means someone signed in to accept a call to voice phone. If this is not seen then the usert did not acknowledge or sign in, and Comfort should redial
The delay for announcing security aff after you disarm on the keypad while is it dialing out should be due to Comfort terminating the outgoing call and doing its housekeeping



 Posted: Sunday Jan 6th, 2019 07:04 pm
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caravanboy
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Ok, I will email you my config file now. Thanks for investigating.



 Posted: Monday Jan 7th, 2019 04:24 am
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slychiu
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It looks like the problem is because in the Power Failure alarm, you have  set dial out to several SMS numbers, but you have also an Alarm Response to send the custom message

This is causing a conflict causing one of them not to get sent out

The power failure alarm set to SMS Phone dial out will send the SMS message to the programmed phones, so you do not need a custom SMS message, as that will be duplicate

You can either disable the Alarm Response and allow the Power Failure alarm dialout, or disable the Dial out to the SMS phones in Power Failure alarm.
We will investigate why the sms message is suppressed when you select both methods of sms dial out

Last edited on Monday Jan 7th, 2019 05:46 am by slychiu



 Posted: Monday Jan 7th, 2019 10:13 am
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caravanboy
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Ok, I'll do that for now as a workaround but I think I only added those custom SMS messages last year when I originally had issues with the standard power fail SMS messages regularly failing to work.



 Posted: Wednesday Jan 9th, 2019 04:43 am
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slychiu
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It seems that the Custom SMS messages may interfere with the alarm sms messages if they occur at the same time. We wiill look at how to make them work better together



 Posted: Wednesday Jan 9th, 2019 08:23 am
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caravanboy
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Great, I'll look forward to a firmware update some time in the future. Thanks for investigating!



 Posted: Thursday Apr 25th, 2019 07:21 pm
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Any news on a firmware update for this yet?
I removed my custom AC failure messages. I had an AC power failure today but received no standard Comfort SMS messages whatsoever.
Comfort phoned me and I signed in (AC had already restored by this point), I can see those events in Event log and then a few minutes later I see it attempt to "Dial" other numbers, presumably to send standard SMS messages, and I see SMS Dial Failure #16 and #99, but I thought you said those were to be ignored? I then see SMS Trouble and SMS Restore a couple of mins later again, and a few more SMS related events after that too, but no actual texts. It just feels like something is still wrong with Comfort's logic/config here?



 Posted: Saturday Apr 27th, 2019 07:32 am
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slychiu
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Can you send the actual event log after the power failures?
Dial failure means the message was sent to the mobile provider station but it was not delivered for some reasoncan you repeat the power failure test?



 Posted: Monday Apr 29th, 2019 11:56 am
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caravanboy
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Hi, yes, sorry. Below are the actual event log entries.
 
Please note that I later realised I had actually received two AC failure related SMS messages (not sure how I missed spotting them the other day), one for the failure, one for Restore. 


However, there is still something not right as both text messages were delayed by 5 minutes and did not arrive until 13:43, which seems to align with the repeated Dial Failures below.
 
Yes, I can also try and simulate a power failure again if needed.
 
04/25 13:37 AC Fail 1
04/25 13:37 AC Restore 1
04/25 13:37 SMS Trouble ID # UCM 2
04/25 13:37 Dial Number # 3
04/25 13:38 Remote Signin - User # 2
04/25 13:38 Remote Signin - User # 2
04/25 13:38 Sign in - User # 2
04/25 13:38 SMS Restore ID # UCM 2
04/25 13:38 Dial Number # 1
04/25 13:39 SMS Dial Failure # 16
04/25 13:39 Dial Number # 2
04/25 13:39 SMS Dial Failure # 99
04/25 13:40 Dial Number # 1
04/25 13:41 SMS Dial Failure # 16
04/25 13:41 Dial Number # 2
04/25 13:41 SMS Dial Failure # 99
04/25 13:42 Dial Number # 1
04/25 13:43 SMS Dial Failure # 16
04/25 13:43 SMS Trouble ID # UCM 2
04/25 13:43 SMS Restore ID # UCM 2
04/25 13:43 Dial Number # 1
04/25 13:43 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
04/25 13:43 Dial Number # 2
04/25 13:43 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
04/25 13:43 Dial Number # 1
04/25 13:43 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
04/25 13:43 Dial Number # 2
04/25 13:44 Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge
04/25 13:46 SMS Trouble ID # UCM 2
04/25 13:47 SMS Restore ID # UCM 2
04/25 13:53 SMS Trouble ID # UCM 2
04/25 13:54 SMS Restore ID # UCM 2
 
Then nothing after this for a few minutes at which point everything is normal again



 Posted: Monday Apr 29th, 2019 12:42 pm
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slychiu
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As there are many SMS Trouble and Restore I would check the GSM signal strengthIt is shown in the left bottom in the UCM/GSM4 window The signal could be dropping out, so the SMS is sent when it recovers. We have a high gain antenna which improves the signal level



 Posted: Monday Apr 29th, 2019 01:22 pm
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caravanboy
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I've looked at the signal in the past and it is always good.

My Comfort system regularly SMS messages throughout the day when it notifies me of gates opening & closing. I never have any issues with those messages, they're always received within 1-2 seconds, and there is also a back-up Gmail message (sent at the same time by a different system) so I'd know if the Comfort SMS messages were ever delayed.

I only ever get issues with missing Comfort SMS message around power failures.



 Posted: Wednesday May 1st, 2019 03:39 am
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"SMS Dial failure" in the event log means that the UCM/GSM sent the message to the GSM network, but it failed to be accepted. The reason for this is not known.However Comfort will repeat the attempt 5 times until it gets an acknowledgement that it was accepted ie  "Remote Signin - User # SMS Acknowledge"
There were 3 rounds of attempts to phones 1 and 2 until the next try succeeded - that is why there was a 5 minute delay
I am not sure why this happens with power failure. We will do some testing



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 7th, 2020 08:00 am
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Hi, has there been any progress on investigations of this? I had another power failure last night and had similar problems.

I did receive a call from Comfort (via landline) but received no standard SMS AC Failure notifications.Power was off for ~35 mins. During this time I was unable to get any response from any SMS control messages that I sent and making a voice call to the GSM Module immediately cut off.  I DID receive an AC Restore SMS about 10 mins after power was restored.
I also noticed a new issue - when I made a call to Comfort's landline during the power outage it took about 25 rings before Comfort voicemail answered even though it is configured to answer after 8 rings. This is very odd and was as though Comfort was just too busy stuck with its CPU processing something else (maybe failing to send SMS, or GSM module issues?).
Also, I noticed that even 25 mins after AC power was restored I could still NOT get the Comfort GSM module to answer a voice call. I tried twice but it just immediately hung up after a single ring. I know the GSM modue was partly working though as it was now answering SMS messages again. 
I tried again a voice call to the GSM module couple of hours later and it was working normally again.
This is very annoying and I'd really like Comfort to work correctly when there is a power failure. Do you have any ideas?



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 7th, 2020 11:16 am
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slychiu
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Can you turn off your AC power, ie make a POWER  faiure
Check the status bar in the UCM/GSM Module screen .
\It should show the GSM signal strength
what is the signal strength shown?
Turn in the power, and check what is the signal strength



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 7th, 2020 11:24 am
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slychiu
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It is better totry the following.

with AC on,Get on the UCM/GSM modules tab ad check that the GSM signal strength on the bottom left status is normal ie 2 to 4
Turn off the AC and check what happens to the signal strenth on the status bar. does it disconnect and try to reconnect
wait for it to revonnect to the network. if it reconnects, try the sms and call in
Turn on the AC agaibn and checj what happens to the signal strength



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