ISY-99i and AT&T Text

[BeachISY]

Hi ISYers,

 

I have an odd behavior with AT&T texting with my ISY-99i (3.2.6). I want to see if others have reliability issues as well.

 

I have my doorbell setup to trigger a sensor on an I/O Linc. The sensor triggers a doorbell program on my ISY that sends an email/text message to AT&T (number@txt.att.net), triggers a voice response on my Elk M1 announcing "doorbell", and triggers my Q-See cameras to send an email photo snapshot of the person at the front door (via an Elk output relay).

 

The solution is a bit of a hack (three different systems), but it works really well when I test it. Someone hits the doorbell, I get a text on my phone alerting me, the whole house speakers say "doorbell", and then I get an email with 3 photos of the person at the door -- also on my phone (email, not a text).

 

The problem is with the AT&T text message. When I test the solution at home the text message always works. About every other time when I am away the text message fails to come (I still get an email) and then it magically appears at random times 12-48 hours later. I also send a text to my wife at the same time and her text messages are equally unreliable and also seem to be sent in the middle of the night or some later date.

 

Again, I can't seem to reproduce the latency or unreliability when I test at home, so I am not sure if the issue is with 1) AT&T or 2) my outbound email account -- Cox personal email or 3) with the ISY. I know the program executes fully, since the Elk commands fire and the Q-See sends me an email. The Q-See is using the same outbound email account/smtp, so I wonder if the two devices conflict with Cox, but I don't think there should be limits on outbound smtp connections. I don't think this is a cell coverage issue (e.g., not in an area recieving texts), because when I miss the text my wife also misses the text and I instantly recieve the email everytime to my phone.

 

Any advice? Any other experience with AT&T text messages being unreliable? I have seen other posts with people switching to Twilio or other texting services.

 

thanks for any thoughts.

 

Mike

[oberkc]

I have experienced, in general, delayed text messages (unrelated to ISY-99 use), but don't know if this is your problem or whether it is one of your other list of well-thought-out possibilities.

 

Until you can figure it out, perhaps use and EMail address rather than your text, to see if there are latencies there. Can you use your email accouunt to forward to a text address? Perhaps doing so would give additional clues as to the source of your problems.

[Xathros]

I too suffer with horribly unpredictable AT&T SMS delays. Not just from the ISY or even the Email to SMS gateway but straight SMS sent from other AT&T phones. It's AT&T's network.I've found that if there is a MicroCell involved, the situation is worse and often messages won't deliver until I have left the vicinity of the MicroCell and pick up a real cell tower instead. Sometimes it works as it should. No rhyme or reason.

 

All of that said, I have found that MMS messages are far more reliable on the AT&T network though still not immune from late delivery and as an added bonus, they all arrive from the same address rather than random numeric addresses. MMS can be sent through the AT&T Email to MMS gateway at: your_10_digit_number@mms.att.net I believe this is due to the fact that MMS messages require an IP Data connection to AT&T central servers rather than a cellular voice control channel connection to a distributed network of towers that may or may not be aware of pending messages. Just a somewhat educated guess.

 

Anyway, Hope this helps.

 

-Xathros