When you do it manually does your Log show XMLTV-FM or XMLTV-FMRadio
Good question. I have googled Channels DVR logs but had no luck finding it on a Windows PC.
Support > Logs on the dvr web UI
I found it. Will look through it.
It says FMRadio. Fetched guide data for XMLTV-FMRadio in 0s
Im proposing an enhanced audio only feature, for those of us who want to be in a car an hit one button on our phones to access those audio only talk channels as described earlier in this thread.
Channels client have evolved to do audio only, but i still
prefer to use audio only mode with channels through a homescreen direct url bookmark, which still works today - unless you are accessing channels using tailscale remotely
As of today im still able to use this:
http://x.x.x.x:8089/devices/ANY/channels/6166/hls/master.m3u8?acodec=mp3&vcodec=none
as a direct url in ios safari as long as im on my home network. if desired i can create a safari homescreen link with that url for single button operation.
When in the car now, remote operation using tailscale is still clunky, and actually dangerous to use.
In the beta client, under debug, with tailscale active. In order to get things to work reliably you have to.
1: first shut of the channels beta with the app switcher
2 open channels
3 hit the āat homeā selection
4: wait for the guide to load in the background
5: hit cancel on the ios pop up prompt to enter the channels dvr tailscale ip (which was remembered from the last session)
6: select the channel from the guide - either full video or audio only.
This is too dangerous in a car. Too many things to be able to get an audio only feed from a news station. Or a video feed for that matter.
If you use the direct url method its much better, but still clunky.
You still have to
1: open the ios tailscale app
2: hit the tailscale radio button to turn it on
3: get to homescreen
3: use the hard coded url with the channels dvr tailscale ip homescreen bookmark
That is much closer and safer when driving, but clunky
What would be awesome to accomplish, would be able to use our channels dvr tailscale address with no intervention - ie without having to first enable tailscale separately in the tailscale app.
The client already has the ability through the debug menu in settings to store the dvr tailscale ip.
Could there be a similar method used so we can generate a direct tailscale url without having to enable tailscale on our phones first?
Then it could be a lot safer when driving with one button operation?
Thanks
Just create a shortcut on your iOS device with two steps:
1-Connect to your Tailscale network
2-Open URL's (then insert the URL you posted above)
Select the "Add to Home Screen" option in the shortcut details. One button start.
Thanks @cyoungers .
I wound up automating this process using a combination of shortcut automations and focus mode, so that when im driving the tailscale connects, and when i leave my car the tailscale disconnects without any prompting. I didnt want the tailscale connected on my iphone unless i was using channels, and i didnt want to forget not to turn it off.
Now while im driving I can use the hard coded link (as described above) to the tailscale dvr on my ios homescreen
This is much cleaner as the tailscale connection automatically shuts off without me having to remember to disconnect.
For others interested, i had to kludge this to work, because ios shortcut automations dont let you run without the notification prompt under certain conditions like location or connecting to your cars Bluetooth.
However, if you use focus mode (in this case the driving focus), you can have the automations look for the driving focus, and that automation shortcut will run without asking.
I have two automations. The first looks for driving focus on, and this makes the tailscale connection. The second looks for driving focus off, and this disconnects the tailscale.
So now I donāt have to think about it and just have one button press in the car.
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Thanks for mentioning this @mnwxman132 . A while back I tried automating the enable and disable of Tailscale and quit doing that because I was annoyed that shortcuts kept prompting when I left the house. I was using geofencing to determine when Tailscale enables/disables. I never though of using focus modes to get around this prompt.
Same here.
When the tailscale iOS automation support first came out i was stoked and tried to geofence but couldnāt deal with the prompt to run it every time. .
Before iOS 16, you had the same problem with running geofenced shortcuts on the Apple Watch. It was driving me nuts. At that time i saw a post on Reddit how to use focus modes to get around the ārun without askingā problem. Clever idea which i canāt claim as my own lol
I have different watch faces with different complications depending on whether Iām at the gym or swimming etc. - all automated
So Iām using the same technique for tailscale now. Need to try it out in real life tomorrow but it seemed to work in my garage in the car lol
I was just trying it and while the Tailscale connect shortcut worked fine, the Tailscale disconnect did not work for some reason. Interested if you have the same issue.
Cris - I think this is what is going on.
Try this out and let me know - then we should loop in the developers.
If you use the debug menu in the iOS beta client and turn Tailscale on, when you close the app it never shuts down the Tailscale connection. So even if the automation/focus kludge works, the channels iOS app is still keeping the connection alive even when the app is closed.
So the way I got it to work is to deactivate the Tailscale debug setting in the client, and let the focus/automation open and close the connection based on whether my phone OS connected to my cars Bluetooth.
Then the app should still connect, or a direct link should connect. I need to try it again tomorrow when Iām on the road, but it worked in my garage in my car this afternoon.
Also be aware that in the Tailscale control center that monitors all the devices on your Tailscale network - those status indicators can also lag for a minute or so.
Let me know if that works and if so we can ping the developers. We might want to request a feature that the iOS app relinquishes its Tailscale connection when you close the app.
Good luck
I'm not using the iOS beta client (at least I don't think so). How do you turn off debug?
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The beta client is installed via appleās testflight. I use it almost exclusively and I find it to be very stable.
You go to settingsā> support ā> debugā>tailscale
The above menu is not available in the general release channels app thats on my iphone.
If you dont have the beta client than there is something else going on with either your focus or the second automation that disconnects tailscale.
Also make sure you have the latest version of the ios tailscale app
Do you see a notification when the focus turns off?
If so, click the notify when run button in the second automation that triggers when your focus is turned off. If your never seeing anything at that point then your focus probably isnt turning off, or its turning off and right back on for some reason.
Dont rely on the focus itself to turn of the first automation that connects.
You need a second automation that looks for focus āoffā that disconnects tailscale
I havent tried this with geolocation. Im using it with my cars Bluetooth as the trigger - so something else might be going on with your setup
Hope you can get it up and running and let me know.
Finally getting back to looking at this. I think I got it working now. Running Tailscale beta. Created a driving focus with smart activation enabled in the schedule section. I also created a home focus that is on a schedule to automatically enable when I get home (geofence). Then I created a personal automation set so when the driving focus turns on, it turns on Tailscale. The another automation that triggers when driving focus turns off then turns off Tailscale. Not see any alerts and all happens in the background.
For anyone else interested,
I had some issues with the driving focus. Im on ios16.2. Driving focus appears to be buggy in some cases. Im not geofencing tailscale like @cyoungers , but Im using Bluetooth and turning the driving focus on or off based on connecting to my cars Bluetooth.
As i got into debugging this further, i noticed I intermittent issues having driving focus turning both on or off.
I wound up solving this by powering down my iphone and forgetiing the car Bluetooth. Then after I repaired my carās Bluetooth it fixed it.
Its now working reliably with just one driving focus that is triggering two personal automations to toggle tailscale.
Has been working flawlessly for several days now when driving around.
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Sorry to dig this up but... how did you get the guide data for radio? I can't seem to do that.
I made a python script. Not the best code.