[bug] Activity group - unused device stays on when switching activities

[pkoutsias]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Description

My setup is the following:

1. Panasonic TV (IR with discrete power on/off + power toggle codes)
2. Denon AVR (integration v0.2.3)
3. Shield (integration v0.4.4)
4. STB (IR with discrete power on/off + power toggle codes)

I have 2 activities in an activity group (TV):

• Watch TV with STB, Panasonic TV, Denon AVR
• Watch Shield with Shield, Panasonic TV, Denon AVR

Individually, both activities work correctly when switched off and all associated entities are turned off, as per the Off sequence.
Switching from Watch Shield to Watch TV, everything works as expected and TV stays on, AVR switches source and STB powers on.

However, switching from Watch TV to Watch Shield the STB stays on (both physically and in the R2 UI).

In the logs I see that the STB entity is not selected for power off:
2023-12-16 06:25:59.783038 +00:00 core NOTICE [TV] entities to power off: []
while Shield is correctly selected:
2023-12-16 06:26:11.062422 +00:00 core NOTICE [TV] entities to power off: ["Shield (uc_androidtv_driver.main.00044B5D8FED) ON"]

Is this expected for IR devices?

How to Reproduce

1. Create an activity group
2. Add 2 activities with 2 common and 1 unique entities
3. Switch from activity A to activity B
4. Unused entity in activity A stays on

Expected behavior

Unused entities should be turned off when switching activities inside an activity group

System version

1.5.2

What part of the system affected by the problem?

Core

Additional context

No response

[pkoutsias]

By changing the Activity Group option "Turn off unused entities" from "Always" to "In off sequence", the unused devices are correctly turned off. Either there is a bug in the "Always" option or I misunderstood what the option means.

[apgr]

I have the same issue

[zehnm]

I'm looking into it

[zehnm]

The test case is prepared, but I found another activity issue related to caching. I will fix the caching issue first, then continue investigating this one. Maybe it's even related...

Caching issue: if the activity was already used, before it was assigned to an activity group, it still thinks it's an independent activity. Even though the activity group shows it is part of it. This is the case if the activity is opened in the web-configurator, but missing the "Activity group" link in the left pane, right above the "Edit user interface" button:

[zehnm]

After fixing the cache issue, I could not reproduce that unused entities are kept running.
I've simulated the setup with:

• TV: imaginary IR TV with off & on commands (LG)
• AVR: imaginary IR AVR with off & on commands (Generic Denon)
• Shield: Home assistant light to get visual feedback :-)
• STB: another HA light

Switching back and forth between the two activities toggled the 2 lights and kept the two IR devices in the ON state.

I'll include the fix in the next update.

@pkoutsias to verify if your issue is related to caching: reboot the remote and try again switching between the two activities. This will make sure that both activities are loaded with the configured activity group data. If it still doesn't work, then we have to investigate it further and I would require the log snippet between Starting activity 'XYZ' and [XYZ] activity finished.

[pkoutsias]

Performed some tests with a fresh boot, so here are the results:

• The Activities belong in an Activity Group and it is displayed correctly in the UI
• The issue happens only when the "Turn off unused entities" option is set to "Always"
• When set to "In off sequence" everything works as expected
• The issue happens only with IR entities. Integration entities turn off correctly in both "Always" and "In off sequence"

Watch Shield activity start with "Turn off unused entities" set to "Always":

2023-12-18 17:19:17.984432 +00:00	core	NOTICE	Removed standby inhibitor: activity 'Watch Shield' (on) (max 65s)
2023-12-18 17:19:17.983969 +00:00	core	NOTICE	[Watch Shield] activity finished
2023-12-18 17:19:17.466691 +00:00	core	NOTICE	Added standby inhibitor: activity 'Watch Shield' (on) (max 65s)
2023-12-18 17:19:17.464840 +00:00	core	NOTICE	Started activity 'Watch Shield' (uc.main.a88a6dd4-d1d9-4432-b754-df0901928879) with timeout of 60s
2023-12-18 17:19:17.463804 +00:00	core	NOTICE	[TV] modified power on sequence: [ActivitySequence { sequence_type: Command, delay: None, command: Some(EntityCommand { entity_id: Some("uc_androidtv_driver.main.00044B5D8FED"), cmd_id: "media_player.channel_up", params: Some({}) }) }, ActivitySequence { sequence_type: Command, delay: None, command: Some(EntityCommand { entity_id: Some("uc_denon_driver.main.media_player.0005CD4585ED"), cmd_id: "media_player.select_source", params: Some({"source": String("SHIELD")}) }) }]
2023-12-18 17:19:17.462237 +00:00	core	NOTICE	[TV] original power on sequence: [ActivitySequence { sequence_type: Command, delay: None, command: Some(EntityCommand { entity_id: Some("uc_androidtv_driver.main.00044B5D8FED"), cmd_id: "media_player.channel_up", params: Some({}) }) }, ActivitySequence { sequence_type: Command, delay: None, command: Some(EntityCommand { entity_id: Some("uc_denon_driver.main.media_player.0005CD4585ED"), cmd_id: "media_player.select_source", params: Some({"source": String("SHIELD")}) }) }, ActivitySequence { sequence_type: Command, delay: None, command: Some(EntityCommand { entity_id: Some("uc.main.982d291e-543e-42ba-939a-4f1cffbb8ff4"), cmd_id: "POWER_ON", params: None }) }]
2023-12-18 17:19:17.461584 +00:00	core	NOTICE	[TV] already powered on devices: ["Panasonic TV (uc.main.982d291e-543e-42ba-939a-4f1cffbb8ff4) ON"]
2023-12-18 17:19:17.460633 +00:00	core	NOTICE	[TV] entities to power off: []
2023-12-18 17:19:17.447704 +00:00	core	NOTICE	[TV] found running activity 'Watch TV' (uc.main.b2dfa9ab-e0f5-4067-bdb6-b38151b18371) in the same activity group
2023-12-18 17:19:17.446577 +00:00	core	NOTICE	Starting activity 'Watch Shield' (uc.main.a88a6dd4-d1d9-4432-b754-df0901928879) in activity group: 'TV' (01acdfa8-a967-4de7-9741-748fed07667b)

Watch Shield activity start with "Turn off unused entities" set to "In off sequence":

2023-12-18 17:19:56.743069 +00:00	core	NOTICE	Removed standby inhibitor: activity 'Watch Shield' (on) (max 65s)
2023-12-18 17:19:56.742733 +00:00	core	NOTICE	[Watch Shield] activity finished
2023-12-18 17:19:56.570795 +00:00	core	NOTICE	Added standby inhibitor: activity 'Watch Shield' (on) (max 65s)
2023-12-18 17:19:56.568456 +00:00	core	NOTICE	Started activity 'Watch Shield' (uc.main.a88a6dd4-d1d9-4432-b754-df0901928879) with timeout of 60s
2023-12-18 17:19:56.567679 +00:00	core	NOTICE	[TV] power off sequence: [ActivitySequence { sequence_type: Command, delay: None, command: Some(EntityCommand { entity_id: Some("uc.main.41b6c4dd-99a9-4c69-9327-5e4f0529bd40"), cmd_id: "POWER_OFF", params: None }) }]
2023-12-18 17:19:56.567278 +00:00	core	NOTICE	[TV] modified power on sequence: [ActivitySequence { sequence_type: Command, delay: None, command: Some(EntityCommand { entity_id: Some("uc_androidtv_driver.main.00044B5D8FED"), cmd_id: "media_player.channel_up", params: Some({}) }) }, ActivitySequence { sequence_type: Command, delay: None, command: Some(EntityCommand { entity_id: Some("uc_denon_driver.main.media_player.0005CD4585ED"), cmd_id: "media_player.select_source", params: Some({"source": String("SHIELD")}) }) }]
2023-12-18 17:19:56.566680 +00:00	core	NOTICE	[TV] original power on sequence: [ActivitySequence { sequence_type: Command, delay: None, command: Some(EntityCommand { entity_id: Some("uc_androidtv_driver.main.00044B5D8FED"), cmd_id: "media_player.channel_up", params: Some({}) }) }, ActivitySequence { sequence_type: Command, delay: None, command: Some(EntityCommand { entity_id: Some("uc_denon_driver.main.media_player.0005CD4585ED"), cmd_id: "media_player.select_source", params: Some({"source": String("SHIELD")}) }) }, ActivitySequence { sequence_type: Command, delay: None, command: Some(EntityCommand { entity_id: Some("uc.main.982d291e-543e-42ba-939a-4f1cffbb8ff4"), cmd_id: "POWER_ON", params: None }) }]
2023-12-18 17:19:56.565935 +00:00	core	NOTICE	[TV] already powered on devices: ["Panasonic TV (uc.main.982d291e-543e-42ba-939a-4f1cffbb8ff4) ON", "Home Theater (uc_denon_driver.main.media_player.0005CD4585ED) ON"]
2023-12-18 17:19:56.565332 +00:00	core	NOTICE	[TV] entities to power off: ["Vodafone TV (uc.main.41b6c4dd-99a9-4c69-9327-5e4f0529bd40) ON"]
2023-12-18 17:19:56.552677 +00:00	core	NOTICE	[TV] found running activity 'Watch TV' (uc.main.b2dfa9ab-e0f5-4067-bdb6-b38151b18371) in the same activity group
2023-12-18 17:19:56.548204 +00:00	core	NOTICE	Starting activity 'Watch Shield' (uc.main.a88a6dd4-d1d9-4432-b754-df0901928879) in activity group: 'TV' (01acdfa8-a967-4de7-9741-748fed07667b)

[zehnm]

Thanks for the logs. I just realize that one important log information is missing about the current entity states, which determines the power off sequence. Looks like I have to enable the debug log or change log statements in the next release to get all the details about the included entities.
I'll keep digging, maybe I still find something.

[apgr]

I’ve been experimenting with my setup. If I use "Turn off unused entities" set to "In off sequence" I can switch between watch Apple TV and watch Fire TV which are on two different HDMI ports of my LG TV. This now works fine.

But on the third HDMI port I have a Samsung Blu-ray player which has only a power toggle option. This does not work correctly. It stays on when I move to a new activity. (It is connected via an HDMI switch which has separate on/off commands and which does behave correctly when leaving the activity and turns off).