Updated 2008-04-03 (1.44) : LCMinutes - Monitoring your minutes, SMS and data usage

[LyonPlus]

Note: Now it's supports WM5 & WM6 Pocket PC phone and smartphone edition. Please check the change history below to see the details.

Basically LCMinutes is an application that keeps track of phone calls, SMS, and data traffic, calculates their charge based on user defined rate plan, and thus keep user informed of the up-to-date balance information: like current charges, used free minutes, used free messages, used free data allowlance, expire date for prepaid plans, etc.

Installation

For detailed installation guide, check LCMinutes Installation Guide (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2008/01/lcminutes-frequently-asked-questions.html#Install)

Change History:
Version 1.44:

* Feature change: Add more traces for day and month change.
* Bug fix: change free minutes or data allowance is not updated to balance info when user choose to apply new rate plan to existing usage.
* Bug fix: +/- sign in special rates not handled correctly.

Version 1.43:

* Feature change: Time based charge mode for data usage.
* Feature change: New sharing flag for special rates string to support free long distance minutes is shared before free daytime/weekend/evening minutes.
* Feature change: Maximum length of special rates increased to 2048.
* Bug fix: Support new service message format for balance info from Rogers.

Version 1.42:

* Feature change: Character "+" now supported for number in free number and special rates string, along with character "*", which is already supported.
* Feature change: Data allowance unit changed from MB to KB.
* Feature change: Correct misc setting display for call minute warning.
* Feature change: Add more trace for importing phone calls.
* Feature change: Add more trace for GetCellTowerInfo in case of failure.
* Feature change: Remove trace for signal changes.
* Bug fix: call connection fee is charged even when free minutes is still available.
* Code optimization: Use constant for bytes per kilobytes definition.

Version 1.41:

* Project configuration change.

Version 1.40:

* Feature change: font customization for both main window and plugin item partially supported, through 3rd party registry editor.
* Bug fix: rate plan setting display incorrectly in editing state for some htc Touch phones when using some fonts.
* Bug fix: daily used minutes is not correctly updated when updating balance by user setting or detecting from service messages.
* Bug fix: detecting T-Mobile used minutes from service message now working correctly.

Version 1.39:

* Feature change: setting for display calls, SMS, data, and balance in main window is now saved.
* Feature change: data usage charge unit can be set by user to any number of kilobytes.
* Feature change: add network id for rate plan to support monitoring balance info in service messages from Kuwait Zain and T-Mobile USA.
* Feature change: support displaying expire date or effective date without year info.
* Feature change: add more traces for debugging rate plan displaying problem in some htc Touch phones.

Version 1.38:

* Feature change: Monitoring balance info in service messages from Kuwait Zain and T-Mobile USA is supported, along with Canadian Rogers and Fido.
* Feature change: used data display format changed: now decimal places or fractional digits is changed to 2 or 1 or 0 based on the size of the used data.
* Feature change: add more traces for debugging.
* Bug fix: currency symbol with multiple characters supported.

Version 1.37:

* Feature change: support simultaneously data connection and phone call.
* Bug fix: rate plan change (free minutes, data/SMS allowance) is not reflected in balance.

Version 1.36:

* Bug fix: trace setting not saved.

Version 1.35:

* Bug fix: used data of balance is imported incorrectly.

Version 1.34:

* Feature change: charge for multiple recipients and concatenated SMS supported.
* Feature change: trace for LCMinutes today/home screen plugin.
* Feature change: special rates length increased from 512 to 1024.
* Feature change: Precision of rates per KB for data usage is increased by one digit.
* Bug fix: after shared units for call minutes and SMS is all consumed, SMS usage will not add up to used minutes. It will now only add up to the usd SMS count.

Version 1.33:

* Bug fix: data traffic monitoring now works on Samsung CDMA phones.

Version 1.32:

* Feature change: free long distance minutes supported: now user can use free long distance minutes before applying long distance rates for their phone calls.
* Feature change: new special rates format: now it's possible for special rates numbers to share free numbers before applying special rates. This should be helpful for some Polish and Australian users.
* Feature change: data traffic is now dynamically updated on today screen before it's disconnected and charged.
* Feature change: used minutes is now displayed with seconds if the charge interval is not exact 60 seconds.
* Feature change: start minutes is now second based in stead of minute based, so user can set a start minutes like 1 minute plus 20 seconds.
* Bug fix: the call minutes is now rounded up to charging interval for start minutes if the call is shorter than the start minutes.
* Bug fix: call time calculation error for phone call surpass two days and using special rates.
* Bug fix: exporting balance before opening balance tab will export garbage data.

Version 1.31:

* Today / Homescreen display customization: now user can choose what to display on their LCMinutes Today / Homescreen plugin.
* Minute beep support: timing and period are both user defined, incoming call and outgoing call can have different timing and period. So user can define a half minute (or whatever seconds he wants) beep period if his/her charging unit is 30 seconds instead of 1 minute.
* The data allowance limit can be 4T bytes, instead of 4G bytes, in maximum.
* New data connection type support: this should fix the problem that data traffic is not recorded on some phones, or some operators.
* Effective date support when importing balance: this enable user to set a balance for a past date.
* Data traffic sample timing now can be changed by user.
* Trace mode support.
* Some minor code optimizations.

Version 1.30:

* Feature change: support for data traffic, user can set monthly data limit and rates per kilobytes for extra data traffic, and whether to round up to the next full kilobytes when calculating charges.

Check LCMinutes Change History (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2007/12/lcminutes-change-history.html) for the full change history.

Download:

Download LCMinutes 1.44 for Pocket PC Phone (http://lyonplus.googlepages.com/LCMinutesPPCV1.44.CAB)
Download LCMinutes 1.44 For Smartphone (http://lyonplus.googlepages.com/LCMinutesSPV1.44.CAB)


For more information, please visit http://lctools.blogspot.com.

[Knockz]

Looks very good. I will definately give this a try. Everything I have tried up until now to monitor sms and calls has not been too good.

I can't wait for the version that can monitor the data too. That way I can have one app to monitor all and display on the today screen.

Thanks for the new tool.

[Moe5508]

Yeah, nice app. Data meter integrated into this would be the perfect usage monitoring tool. Maybe you can include that in your next version? Thanks

[shyboy]

looks promisiong..but maybe you can integrate the following in your next version
- data rates.
- international call and sms rates
- user can adjust peak and offpeak times.

Merry Christmas

[LyonPlus]

Hi, Knockz, Moe5508, and shyboy, thanks for the comments. Data rates is the next feature I will be implementing.

And for shyboy:

1. SMS rates is already supported: it supports free incoming SMS, rate per SMS out, rate per SMS in, and number of free SMS;

2. I am not sure what do you mean by Peak Time, but in my application there's support for different rates for daytime, evening and weekend. You can define what means evening in the Rate Plan Setting.

[rorydaredkign]

great app, i was going to make it myself not so long ago. really couldnt do it though. thanks very much.

[famewolf]

Attempting to setup my rate plan... evening time is 9pm to 7am and free weekends....so in the "evening time" field do I put 21-07 ?

Also..what is the "expired time" on the balance field? My plan cycles on day 2 of the month so not sure what needs to go there.

[LyonPlus]

Attempting to setup my rate plan... evening time is 9pm to 7am and free weekends....so in the "evening time" field do I put 21-07 ?

Also..what is the "expired time" on the balance field? My plan cycles on day 2 of the month so not sure what needs to go there.

1. Yes, put 21-07 there for evening time;
2. Expire time is meaningful for prepaid plan, which mean you need to recharge your balance otherwise your existing balance will be lost. For postpaid plan, I set the expire time as the last second (23:59:59) of the last date of your plan month.

Hope it helps.

[famewolf]

Thank you for the nice program. Any chance the minutes used or remaining could be displayed on the today plugin?

[LyonPlus]

Thank you for the nice program. Any chance the minutes used or remaining could be displayed on the today plugin?

Actually the used minutes and used SMS info are supposed be displayed on the today screen and the main window, I just forgot that before I release it, because my own plan is a prepaid plan.

I will try to fix that very soon.

[famewolf]

Actually the used minutes and used SMS info are supposed be displayed on the today screen and the main window, I just forgot that before I release it, because my own plan is a prepaid plan.

I will try to fix that very soon.

I'm not sure how close you are trying to "match" to the person's existing monthly bill...the two things I saw missing were a "Misc Monthly Fee's" to lump all the carrier fee's and 911 fee's that occur each month but are not part of the monthly "rate" and the option to tell sales tax percentage rate which would apply to the bill after everything else was accumulated.

If you add data as several people requested then you also run into issues such as how much they pay for data access...is it a flat rate like on tmobile or by the megabyte transferred as most UK providers do.

If you try to support things like "myfaves" then they have to be able to provide a list of phone #'s that are "free" I suppose...this however could also be used for things like voicemail #'s or if they have free mobile to mobile etc....

Hopefully this will be helpful and not make you go "What have I done?!?" and hide from us. ;)

[LyonPlus]

Hopefully this will be helpful and not make you go "What have I done?!?" and hide from us. ;)

So far, all these are still not enough to scare me away. :cool:

Actually I am trying to emulate the real life operator charge as near as possible, but I also know it's simply impossible. For example, there's no way for me to support the so called free in network phone call, as we have no way to know which phone belong to which network, especially after this portable phone number thing.

So my goal is, fulfil the 80% feature of the 80% of normal users.

And for your qeustions:

1. I did think about separate monthly rate and monthly surchage (like 911 fee and system access fee), but then I found no specific advantage for me to do that, so I gave it up;

2. I have not given too much thoughs for the sales tax, the reason, my prepaid plan has not tax on it; :D

3. For data plan support, it's already in the plan. But it's a little bit difficult to separate it from MMS, so I simply delay it. As you know some operator have plan that give user free data for MMS, and I need to consider this situation if the data plan is not a flat plan. (but if it's a flat plan, I don't need to do anything about it, right?);

4. I plan to support a list of free numbers in the rate plan, so user can add service number, myFaves number, and any in network number into the list if they have free in network call feature.

Cheers!

[LyonPlus]

LCMinutes V1.01 uploaded, VGA support and displaying of minutes & SMS usage in today plugin are added. Please check the first post in this thread for details.
;)

[xmonster]

After installation, upon restart...

Error: Not signed with a trusted certificate......

I am using a O2 Stealth WM5.

pls advise..thanks

[famewolf]

LCMinutes V1.01 uploaded, VGA support and displaying of minutes & SMS usage in today plugin are added. Please check the first post in this thread for details.
;)

I get something like: 285/0 8/0

285 is weekday minutes used. 8 is sms used...what are the two /0's?

[LyonPlus]

Error: Not signed with a trusted certificate......


This is caused by the fact that my application is not signed, which I don't plan to do as I can't afford the time and money.

You can solve this by CID unlock your phone.

I get something like: 285/0 8/0

285 is weekday minutes used. 8 is sms used...what are the two /0's?

Hi, famewolf, the two 0's are the free counts of minutes and SMS, and 0 means you don't have free minutes, free SMS. ;)

[famewolf]

This is caused by the fact that my application is not signed, which I don't plan to do as I can't afford the time and money.

You can solve this by CID unlock your phone.



Hi, famewolf, the two 0's are the free counts of minutes and SMS, and 0 means you don't have free minutes, free SMS. ;)

Then I see a problem..because I have 1000 anytime minutes and free nights/weekends.....I've indicated "unlimited nights" and "unlimited weekends" in the rate plan and 1000 weekday minutes......

[LyonPlus]

Then I see a problem..because I have 1000 anytime minutes and free nights/weekends.....I've indicated "unlimited nights" and "unlimited weekends" in the rate plan and 1000 weekday minutes......

For the first 0, it's definitely a bug. But in my own test, when I update the rate plan, the weekday minutes will be correctly updated to the balance info. So could you please try to update the weekday minutes to something like 1001, and then check whether it's reflected in the today screen?

For the second 0, it's also a bug, but it's because I have not considered of this. Do you think it's worthy to display the used weekend/evening minutes if the weekend/evening minutes is unlimited? I tend to not to display it, but I am not sure.

[famewolf]

For the first 0, it's definitely a bug. But in my own test, when I update the rate plan, the weekday minutes will be correctly updated to the balance info. So could you please try to update the weekday minutes to something like 1001, and then check whether it's reflected in the today screen?

For the second 0, it's also a bug, but it's because I have not considered of this. Do you think it's worthy to display the used weekend/evening minutes if the weekend/evening minutes is unlimited? I tend to not to display it, but I am not sure.


Changing the free minutes to 1001 causes the /1001 to be displayed. The 8/0 is correct as I have no free SMS's.... Since I have unlimited nights and weekends I don't need to see them but if you do decide to add them it would be simple to either show a number or something like this: N: ULMT WE: ULMT

Also not sure if you want to consider that calls to "611" and "911" are almost always "free" calls for any provider.

[vapor]

Hi

How do I put unlimited in the setup field? For example, I want to set it up such that I have unlimited weekend. What value should I put in this field?

[LyonPlus]

Also not sure if you want to consider that calls to "611" and "911" are almost always "free" calls for any provider.
Yeah, maybe "611" and "911" can be added as the default free numbers for the generated rate plan. But they can't be always free as they are not free numbers in some countries, or more accurately, not service number and emergency number.

How do I put unlimited in the setup field? For example, I want to set it up such that I have unlimited weekend. What value should I put in this field?
Just check the free weekend call checkbox, if it's also free for evening, you can check evening as weekend checkbox and free evening call.

[LyonPlus]

The only change is the displaying of minutes and SMS usage on the Today Plugin and the balance bar in the Main window. Please check the my first post for details.

[Keithj]

I can't get it to work in my XDA Orbit. It tells me the package isn't signed, and that there's something missing. I tried a couple of times, with the same result.

Should it work in an XDA (which is a P3300 in a different housing)?

[knightcapain]

been looking for something like this. great app. if you are taking suggestions here are somethings that maybe useful

per min/ sec option to either round up or not the alloted mins per month

option to remove the $0.00 on the today screen if you are not on a pre pay plan

have the field for operator automatically detect the network the phone is on (may not work well with cdma phones or roaming), just an idea rather than entering it in manually

[LyonPlus]

I can't get it to work in my XDA Orbit. It tells me the package isn't signed, and that there's something missing. I tried a couple of times, with the same result.

Should it work in an XDA (which is a P3300 in a different housing)?

Honestly I have not tested it on a P3300, so I can not be sure. But if it's installed with a Windows Mobile 6 and if it is CID unlocked, then it should work. You can change the security setting to allow unsigned application to run.

As I mentioned before, I have no plan to sign my application as it is time and money consuming. :o

been looking for something like this. great app. if you are taking suggestions here are somethings that maybe useful

per min/ sec option to either round up or not the alloted mins per month

option to remove the $0.00 on the today screen if you are not on a pre pay plan

have the field for operator automatically detect the network the phone is on (may not work well with cdma phones or roaming), just an idea rather than entering it in manually

Thanks for your suggestions, and they are taken. :cool:

And actually, whether charged by minutes or second is already implemented, just the setting is not in the rate plan setting for user to change. It actually supports charging by any seconds. I will add this item to the rate plan setting list in later release.

For now, options for user interface are not yet supported. But maybe later, when this application is really robust enough. I guess the balance displaying even for postpaid plan doesn't hurt, if you still remember the poor calgary guy story (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2007/12/12/cell-phone.html).

Actually the operator name is supposed to automatically appears in the rate plan. But because of a bug, it doesn't work. I will fix that.

Thanks for your interest and suggestions!

[famewolf]

Here are some bugs I've noticed.....

If you go into start, settings personal, today and move the LCMINUTES today plugin up or down from it's current position and then exit...it writes itself at the top of the today screen even if that overlays other plugins instead of where it should be.
-----

[See cause listed below but still a valid bug in my opinion]

Also, if you update plan balance and minutes used the today plugin does not reflect the change (maybe after a soft reset it would)

Specifically I have gone into balance and edited the minutes used from 262 to 272 three times now and each time it is resetting it back to 262 (yes I'm clicking on save and it says it's saved....

and having said that the cause appears to be because the clock was not set on my phone (had to pull the battery on previous restart and had not set it yet)....I would think even if the date/time is wrong you should still save balance and minutes if the user changes them?

[LyonPlus]

Here are some bugs I've noticed.....


Hi, famewolf, thanks for your information and I am really sorry for the inconvenience this application has caused to you.

My version 1.03 (http://lyonplus.googlepages.com/LCMinutesV1.03.CAB) has fixed the today plugin bug. You can see its details in my first post.

For the balance saving issue, I think it's really a big issue. Does the change reflected on the balance bar in the main window? Is the change listed in the main area?

For the clock part, I don't quite understand, you mean your timer is something like 2007-01-01?

Please try version 1.03 to see whether they can be reproduced. Thanks!
:)

[famewolf]

Hi, famewolf, thanks for your information and I am really sorry for the inconvenience this application has caused to you.

My version 1.03 (http://lyonplus.googlepages.com/LCMinutesV1.03.CAB) has fixed the today plugin bug. You can see its details in my first post.

For the balance saving issue, I think it's really a big issue. Does the change reflected on the balance bar in the main window? Is the change listed in the main area?

For the clock part, I don't quite understand, you mean your timer is something like 2007-01-01?

Please try version 1.03 to see whether they can be reproduced. Thanks!
:)


Thanks..will try the new version..as to the time....yes my phone had 10-01-2006 as the date and a random time (when the battery is pulled it gets the starting date/time from the rom and my particular rom uses that date)....so when I was updating the balance and minutes used I assume it was trying to write a history record earlier than already existing ones.....I imagine this caused problems because as soon as I fixed the time it wrote out a new history record and the changes to minutes and balance were saved.

I don't mind helping to test at all...only thing I'm hoping to see soon is the option to specify sales tax percentage which will get added to the "balance" so the amount matches my provider. I'm also curious if you are rounding up partial minutes (I assume you are).

[LyonPlus]

I don't mind helping to test at all...only thing I'm hoping to see soon is the option to specify sales tax percentage which will get added to the "balance" so the amount matches my provider. I'm also curious if you are rounding up partial minutes (I assume you are).

Hi, I don't verify the time info before adding a new balance record. But I my database is sorted based on time, and I do always get the last balance as the newest balance. So I guess the problem is, though your balance is correctly saved, when I try to refresh the balance, it will get the older one who has the latest time.

And yes, for now all seconds is rounded to the minute, but actually charging by one second or any seconds is supported. I just need to add the option for user to change the default value, which is 60 seconds.

For the tax issue, I would like to add this support. But the question is, do you know which part or the whole bill is taxed? If you don't mind, could you please give me a link to your operator's page about this?

Thanks.

[famewolf]

To my knowledge the entire bill is taxed at the same rate...I'll double check this with tmobile and see if they have something online regarding it. I will have to go back through some old bills and see how the sales tax matches to the bill...specifically one that does NOT have any sms's on it.

[Keithj]

Version 1.02 wouldn't work in my O2 XDA Orbit. I just downloaded v 1.03 and get the same error message - "The file 'LCMinStart' cannot be opened. Either it is not signed with a trusted certificate, or one of its components cannot be found. You might need to reinstall or restore this file."

The problem shouldn't be the "trusted" thing, since most of the stuff I've installed on here has triggered the "Not trusted" warning on installation, but then worked fine once installed. I can't find any app on the Orbit to allow/disallow not-trusted items. Is there a setting somewhere that might be blocking it?

I installed it to the Storage Card, since main memory is a bit short. Would that make a difference?

The device is running WM5 and a raft of extra installed apps.

[famewolf]

More bug reports....

Installed V1.03 and did a soft reset (this seems mandatory or things act very strange)...on reboot display showed balance as 0.61...instead of the $61.18 it should be....going into plan I see that the carrier now shows Tmobile...the monthly fee, cost per minute on weekday and sms rates are all 0.....I go in and try to set them to values and save the info..I get a message that the save FAILED....I go to balance and instead of 61.18 it shows 0.6118.

Screenshots follow:

[LyonPlus]

The device is running WM5 and a raft of extra installed apps.

Hi, Keithj, sorry for this incovenience. But your machine running WM5 maybe a problem, because I tested LCMinutes only on WM6, I don't have a WM5 in hands.

But before we blame it on WM5, could you please:
1. verify the file LCMinStart.lnk is in \Windows\Startup folder;
2. verify the file LCMinStart.exe is in \Windows folder;
3. If you have MemMaid, start it and go to the 4th tab that controls Startup Services, check whether there's a LCMinutes service item;
4. And the answer to 3 is yes, check whether you can start the service by click on the circle icon on its left.

Please let me know how things goes.

EDIT: installation on storage card is not a problem, I installed my own on storage card.

More bug reports....

Installed V1.03 and did a soft reset (this seems mandatory or things act very strange)...on reboot display showed balance as 0.61...instead of the $61.18 it should be....going into plan I see that the carrier now shows Tmobile...the monthly fee, cost per minute on weekday and sms rates are all 0.....I go in and try to set them to values and save the info..I get a message that the save FAILED....I go to balance and instead of 61.18 it shows 0.6118.

Screenshots follow:

Hi, famewolf. This is a problem I should have handled, but I don't know why it doesn't work on your phone, maybe you run the application before you reboot? But anyway this is caused by the fact LCMinutes now use a different database, and it's imcompitable with its previous version. And the solution is to change the registry value RatePlanID in key HTLM\Software\LCTools\LCMinutes to 0. And after changing the value, immediately reboot the machine. It will then delete the previous database and create a new one. Of course you will loose the rate plan info and balance info. But call and sms info should be left untouched.

Hope it helps.

[famewolf]

I completely uninstalled 1.03 and verified that the registry tree you specified was gone then reinstalled....reset the plan info and everytime I enter "59.98" for the monthly rate and click save it changes it to 0.9976.

[LyonPlus]

I completely uninstalled 1.03 and verified that the registry tree you specified was gone then reinstalled....reset the plan info and everytime I enter "59.98" for the monthly rate and click save it changes it to 0.9976.

Hi, famewolf, sorry for the late response. This really puzzles me. One last solution:

1. Uninstall LCMinutes;
2. Reboot machine;
3. Go to \Application Data\LCMinutes folder, delete the files there.
4. Reinstall LCMinutes;
5. Reboot.

Hope this will fix the problem, otherwise I will be lost. :(

[Keithj]

Hi, Keithj, sorry for this incovenience. But your machine running WM5 maybe a problem, because I tested LCMinutes only on WM6, I don't have a WM5 in hands.

But before we blame it on WM5, could you please:
1. verify the file LCMinStart.lnk is in \Windows\Startup folder;
2. verify the file LCMinStart.exe is in \Windows folder;
3. If you have MemMaid, start it and go to the 4th tab that controls Startup Services, check whether there's a LCMinutes service item;
4. And the answer to 3 is yes, check whether you can start the service by click on the circle icon on its left.

Please let me know how things goes.


Hi. Thanks for that.

In \Windows\ there are:
LCMinMonitor.dll - 96k
LCMinStart.exe - 4.5k
LCMinToday.dll - 55.5k

In \Windows\Startup there is
LCMinStart.lnk - 28 bytes

In \Storage Card\Program Files\LCMinutes there are:
LCMinutes.exe 104k
LCMinTool.exe 64k


All three .exe files give the same error message as above, about it not being signed with a trusted certificate, or one of its components cannot be found.

Most of the software I've installed on the Orbit gave the "not signed" warning when I installed the .cab files, but they all work fine. I don't get that message elsewhere.

Are there any other files it should be able to access, or are there any "flags" that can be changed anywhere?

Otherwise, I guess it's "abandon it" time.

I can't update to WM6 because, although my Orbit is a genuine O2 item, the update website says it's not. I learned about "must use IE to download", but that made no difference. I guess I'm stuck with WM5.

[LyonPlus]

All three .exe files give the same error message as above, about it not being signed with a trusted certificate, or one of its components cannot be found.

Most of the software I've installed on the Orbit gave the "not signed" warning when I installed the .cab files, but they all work fine. I don't get that message elsewhere.

Are there any other files it should be able to access, or are there any "flags" that can be changed anywhere?

Otherwise, I guess it's "abandon it" time.

I can't update to WM6 because, although my Orbit is a genuine O2 item, the update website says it's not. I learned about "must use IE to download", but that made no difference. I guess I'm stuck with WM5.

Sorry to hear this, but it does seem that LCMinutes won't run under WM5. I don't have any other solution for now.

I might look into this WM5 later, but for now, it's time for you to look for other solution. Sorry and thanks for your patient trying.

[famewolf]

Hi, famewolf, sorry for the late response. This really puzzles me. One last solution:

1. Uninstall LCMinutes;
2. Reboot machine;
3. Go to \Application Data\LCMinutes folder, delete the files there.
4. Reinstall LCMinutes;
5. Reboot.

Hope this will fix the problem, otherwise I will be lost. :(

Ok..I'm giving up on this...I'm cell phone only and the constant reboots are becoming an issue...uninstalled it...deleted the LCMINUTES folder...rebooted...reinstalled it....same thing....this time all I did was go into the plan being displayed and changed the monthly rate to 59.98 and uncheck prepaid then save it...and it changes it to 0.9976. Quite frankly V1.02 was alot more useful then V1.03.

Batterystatus will do similar tracking but it's nowhere near as user friendly...but I suppose thats the direction I have to take. Good luck with your project.

[LyonPlus]

Ok..I'm giving up on this...I'm cell phone only and the constant reboots are becoming an issue...uninstalled it...deleted the LCMINUTES folder...rebooted...reinstalled it....same thing....this time all I did was go into the plan being displayed and changed the monthly rate to 59.98 and uncheck prepaid then save it...and it changes it to 0.9976. Quite frankly V1.02 was alot more useful then V1.03.

Batterystatus will do similar tracking but it's nowhere near as user friendly...but I suppose thats the direction I have to take. Good luck with your project.

Hi, famewolf, sorry for all your pain. This is a bug. Somehow I uploaded a wrong version and so I could not reproduce myself because I am using the newest version. I just downloaded a online version and found out this problem. I will upload a fix soon for this.

Sorry for this!

[LyonPlus]

Ok..I'm giving up on this...I'm cell phone only and the constant reboots are becoming an issue...uninstalled it...deleted the LCMINUTES folder...rebooted...reinstalled it....same thing....this time all I did was go into the plan being displayed and changed the monthly rate to 59.98 and uncheck prepaid then save it...and it changes it to 0.9976. Quite frankly V1.02 was alot more useful then V1.03.

Batterystatus will do similar tracking but it's nowhere near as user friendly...but I suppose thats the direction I have to take. Good luck with your project.

Hi, famewolf, I just uploaded a new version. I am sure I fixed this problem.

Though I am sure you are really pissed off by the quality of LCMinutes, if you will give this new version another try and tell me the result, I will really appreciate it. Even though you uninstall it immediately after this verification, I will still be very grateful for your trying. :o

Thanks!

[famewolf]

Hi, famewolf, I just uploaded a new version. I am sure I fixed this problem.

Though I am sure you are really pissed off by the quality of LCMinutes, if you will give this new version another try and tell me the result, I will really appreciate it. Even though you uninstall it immediately after this verification, I will still be very grateful for your trying. :o

Thanks!

Version 1.04 appears to take the plan information and display it correctly. I've configured my existing usage again.

Here is another bug report...when LCMinutes is first installed...whatever item was #1 on your today screen list will become the LAST item displayed. I can understand if LCMinutes wants to be #1 in the list by default but whatever it replaces should become #2.

If you look at the screenshot of my today screen from the previous post what basically happens is Weatherpanel gets bumped down below TodayAgenda when LCMinutes is installed...I can then go into the today screen and manually adjust it back up and move LCMinutes down to where I want it but it's a quirk you should consider addressing.

Batterystatus also has the ability to monitor data transfer...perhaps the author could give you some ideas on how to track the information since his product is also free.

An additional thought was maybe you should consider some form of alarm to alert the user when they are close to using all their "free" minutes"...not sure if the user should specify the amount or perhaps you alert them when they have 60 free minutes or less with either an icon on the plugin or a popup of some sort.

Thanks for the quick response.

[LyonPlus]

Here is another bug report...when LCMinutes is first installed...whatever item was #1 on your today screen list will become the LAST item displayed. I can understand if LCMinutes wants to be #1 in the list by default but whatever it replaces should become #2.

Batterystatus also has the ability to monitor data transfer...perhaps the author could give you some ideas on how to track the information since his product is also free.

An additional thought was maybe you should consider some form of alarm to alert the user when they are close to using all their "free" minutes"...not sure if the user should specify the amount or perhaps you alert them when they have 60 free minutes or less with either an icon on the plugin or a popup of some sort.


Thanks for trying again after being tortured so many times, famewolf. I really should figure this out earlier.

For the today plugin position problem, I just thought it should be in position one, but I forgot the today plugin manager will move the existing item to the last one. I will try to figure out a solution for it, or maybe just put my item in the last position.

I am not sure whether user should be alarmed if the information is already on the today screen. But it will be nice to be there as an option, especially for the prepaid plans, because mostly when it's expired, all the existing balance is gone!

And thanks for the guide about BatteryStatus, I will try to get their help on tracking data usage.

Thanks again, famewolf! :)

[famewolf]

Although I don't have them it did occur to me that you also have the potential to handle rollover minutes...a checkbox for "Rollover unused minutes" and the fact you know how many minutes they used vs their "free minutes" and the day their cycle restarts would allow you to handle the unused minutes. I know many of the AT&T plans allow rollover..they also allow calls between AT&T mobile's to be free but I have no clue how you would track that.

[LyonPlus]

Although I don't have them it did occur to me that you also have the potential to handle rollover minutes...a checkbox for "Rollover unused minutes" and the fact you know how many minutes they used vs their "free minutes" and the day their cycle restarts would allow you to handle the unused minutes. I know many of the AT&T plans allow rollover..they also allow calls between AT&T mobile's to be free but I have no clue how you would track that.

Yeah, I have planned to support rollover. This is a nice feature I can not neglect to support.

I am going to overhaul my charge caculating algorithm to support quite some features, like charge by minutes for the first several minutes and then charge by seconds, and peak time in weekend, and adjusting the used minutes calculating (currently it's round up), etc.

Another aspect is, I find the operator (in my case Rogers) will always charge me about 10 seconds more than what is recorded by my phone. And I am going to let user to add such an adjustment to more "accurately" reflect what operator will charge.

[famewolf]

Here's something that may be of value...not sure if this is true of all carriers but it is true for tmobile...if I start a call at 8:55 and my free minutes normally start at 9 the call does NOT become free...it continues to use weekday minutes until the end of the call.

Likewise...if I make a call at 6:55 am and talk for an hour...that entire hour is "free" because the call started during the free period. Not sure how your calculating algorithm is handling these so figured I would mention this.

[LyonPlus]

Here's something that may be of value...not sure if this is true of all carriers but it is true for tmobile...if I start a call at 8:55 and my free minutes normally start at 9 the call does NOT become free...it continues to use weekday minutes until the end of the call.

Likewise...if I make a call at 6:55 am and talk for an hour...that entire hour is "free" because the call started during the free period. Not sure how your calculating algorithm is handling these so figured I would mention this.

Currently I calculate all the time strictly based on what the time belong. So the part within free time zone is free, and the part within charged zone is charged. Based on your experience, since I need to add another option to this.

Things become more and more complicate. :cool:

[LyonPlus]

This is a build for Windows Mobile 5, and it still works fine for Windows Mobile 6.

It has not been verified on a real Windows Mobile 5 device, but it does works fine on a Windows Mobile 5 emulator - It doesn't before this rebuild.

Existing 1.04 users don't need to upgrade to this version, if they are working.

[famewolf]

My phone rebooted while the storage card was ejected (lcminutes is on the storage card)...the today plugin showed balance and minutes of zero...I plugged the card back in and rebooted the phone again....lcminutes had zeroed out the balance, sms and minutes used.

[LyonPlus]

My phone rebooted while the storage card was ejected (lcminutes is on the storage card)...the today plugin showed balance and minutes of zero...I plugged the card back in and rebooted the phone again....lcminutes had zeroed out the balance, sms and minutes used.

Hi, famewolf, sorry for the lost. Just want to confirm:
1. your version is 1.04, right?
2. Are all your balance records wiped out? Can you see any balance records in the main window?
3. Is your rate plan also wiped out?

This is a little strange to me, because even when selected to install on storage card, the lcminmonitor.dll and lcmintoday.dll are installed in \Windows folder. And the database is also in the phone memory. I deliberately do this to avoid the situation when the card is out. And the balance database is regenerated only when it's just installed.

Hope to hear your details.

[famewolf]

I was on V1.04 and my plan information was retained...only the actual balance, minutes and sms used was lost. All that information had been added manually when I installed V1.04. My balance records are still present however I have a record for 12/30 3:30 where I set the balance to 61.18 which says "update by user" and then another balance record at 6:35 which shows "update by software" and zero's out the balance.

[LyonPlus]

I was on V1.04 and my plan information was retained...only the actual balance, minutes and sms used was lost. All that information had been added manually when I installed V1.04. My balance records are still present however I have a record for 12/30 3:30 where I set the balance to 61.18 which says "update by user" and then another balance record at 6:35 which shows "update by software" and zero's out the balance.

Thanks for the info, famewolf.

If all previous balance records are retained, then it means the database is still good. Then there's only 2 reasons for the balance to be reset:

1. A new rate month is reached, all used minutes, SMS are reset;
2. When starting lcminmonitor.dll, there's an error on mounting database and thus LCMinutes thought the balance database is empty and then it will automatically create a new balance. I do this to avoid some nasty situation, but it seems now causing problems.

So no. 1 reason is not the case, right?

[famewolf]

Thanks for the info, famewolf.

If all previous balance records are retained, then it means the database is still good. Then there's only 2 reasons for the balance to be reset:

1. A new rate month is reached, all used minutes, SMS are reset;
2. When starting lcminmonitor.dll, there's an error on mounting database and thus LCMinutes thought the balance database is empty and then it will automatically create a new balance. I do this to avoid some nasty situation, but it seems now causing problems.

So no. 1 reason is not the case, right?


My rate month resets on the 2nd day of the month so it should not be happening yet. I can work around this I suppose by installing the cab to the phone storage instead of the minisd card but I imagine others would also like to be able to store the cab on minisd.

[LyonPlus]

My rate month resets on the 2nd day of the month so it should not be happening yet. I can work around this I suppose by installing the cab to the phone storage instead of the minisd card but I imagine others would also like to be able to store the cab on minisd.

Hi, famewolf, if the error is the reason no.2 I listed before, then it won't help for you to install it in phone memory. Because the database, monitor and today plugin are all already in phone memory.

I guess sometimes it's just difficult to prevent mounting database from failing, so this could happen. I might need to figure out a way to handle this situation more graciously, instead of simply adding a new record.

Now 2008 is coming, wish you a happy new year! :)

[famewolf]

you must be overseas cause in usa we have 1 hour 10 minutes till mon dec 31st. ;)

[LyonPlus]

you must be overseas cause in usa we have 1 hour 10 minutes till mon dec 31st. ;)

I am at the north of usa. :cool:

And 1 hour plus 10 minutes add not so much time in waiting. :)

[7s7]

Hi thanks for the app.

I'm running with Telstra Australia and they charge their call rates in 30 second blocks is it possible to do this with your app. Also they charge a call connection fee. eg each call costs $0.30 plus $0.38/30 seconds.Could you please add this feature.
Many Thanks

[LyonPlus]

Hi thanks for the app.

I'm running with Telstra Australia and they charge their call rates in 30 second blocks is it possible to do this with your app. Also they charge a call connection fee. eg each call costs $0.30 plus $0.38/30 seconds.Could you please add this feature.

But I am changing my algorithm now, after this LCMinutes should be able to charge per any seconds. ;)

For the per call connection fee, is it both way (incoming and outgoing)?

[7s7]

But I am changing my algorithm now, after this LCMinutes should be able to charge per any seconds. ;)

For the per call connection fee, is it both way (incoming and outgoing)?


Thanks,

Only outgoing.

Happy New Year :-)

[LyonPlus]

Thanks,

Only outgoing.

Happy New Year :-)

Thanks for the info.

Happy New Year!

[LyonPlus]

There're quite some new supported feature for rate plan definition. Please check my first post for the details. Please follow the following step to upgrade:

1. Uninstall previous version, reboot;
2. Remove folder \Application Data\LCMinutes;
3. Reinstall Version 1.10, reboot;
4. Setup rate plan and balance, and reboot;

Please let me know any comments, suggestion, or bugs.

[chunga168]

Awesome plugin. Thanks for your work.

Really looking forward for the version with free numbers implemented.

I'm with 3 in Australia, and we have x minutes per month that we can call to any other 3 numbers. I think it's probably too troublesome to implement a feature to support that, but would be nice if I can list out numbers that is excluded from the normal charges.

Just like 7s7, all my calls have a flagfall fee as well, which is the connection fee for all outgoing calls.

Anyways, thanks again for your work!

[LyonPlus]

Awesome plugin. Thanks for your work.

Really looking forward for the version with free numbers implemented.

I'm with 3 in Australia, and we have x minutes per month that we can call to any other 3 numbers. I think it's probably too troublesome to implement a feature to support that, but would be nice if I can list out numbers that is excluded from the normal charges.

Just like 7s7, all my calls have a flagfall fee as well, which is the connection fee for all outgoing calls.

Anyways, thanks again for your work!

Now version 1.11 is out with free number support and ready to be tested.

Cheers!:D

[HDuser]

LyonPlus


I just installed 1.11 over 1.05 (which it removed before hand).

Cant inport logs (SMS or Phone), see the amount but comes back with 0 Inported and 300 failed.

Did not have this issue with 1.05

Softreset did not help
remove plugin, soft reset did not help
re-intall 1.11 did not help

However going back to 1.05 did.
Here I found all the calls /SMS and did not need to import.

Runing on a BA and WM6.

[LyonPlus]

Cant inport logs (SMS or Phone), see the amount but comes back with 0 Inported and 300 failed.

Did not have this issue with 1.05

Softreset did not help
remove plugin, soft reset did not help
re-intall 1.11 did not help


Hi, MDAIIIUser, I guess it's caused by incompitable database. Could you please delete folder \Application Data\LCMinutes and then try again with 1.11?

[HDuser]

Deleted folder
re-instlled 1.11
imported sms - Got none
Imported Phone - Got none

Re-installed 1.05
found all

[HDuser]

Then re-instlled 1.11
softreset
then inported and it worked

Life with a WM is differnt to say the least.

[LyonPlus]

Life with a WM is differnt to say the least.

I just can't agree more. LCMinutes is designed to delete the previous databases, and I verified that it worked on my TyTN. But then it seems it doesn't work on many other's phones.

But glad it works at last. And sorry for all the inconveniences!

[HDuser]

On the display list...

How about icons in color to show the items

Letter -> for sms out
Letter <- for sms in
<-- phone in
<-- ! Phone in misssed
--> ! Phone out no answer
--> Phone out

---

Can you shorten the date from YYYY-MM-DD to YY-MM-DD ??

SMS In
You cut of to much of the name when a SMS comes in and a long name is displayed.
YYYY-MM-DD_HH:MM:SS_In****Name cut off
*** are blanks were the front part of the name has been cut off.

----

Can we have a tap on SMS mesage to open up the message so that you can see the whole text.
This could be good for phones calls with long names and long formatted numbers will be tuncated on the right of the display.

----

Inport calls
Here I have inported 300 only see 50 in the display, is this due to the fact that I have not set up my plan thus the period is wrong ??

[LyonPlus]

Can you shorten the date from YYYY-MM-DD to YY-MM-DD ??

----

Can we have a tap on SMS mesage to open up the message so that you can see the whole text.
This could be good for phones calls with long names and long formatted numbers will be tuncated on the right of the display.

----

Inport calls
Here I have inported 300 only see 50 in the display, is this due to the fact that I have not set up my plan thus the period is wrong ??

Thanks, MDAIIIUser!
1. Yes, I will use the shorter year format;
2. A single page for a SMS/phone call is already in the plan, just not getting the time to implement it yet;:o
3. icons for SMS/call is good idea, will be considered for later version, as I think it's not so urgent;
4. You mean you successfully imported 300 phone calls but can only see 50 of them? This is really weird. Could you please try to disable it and then re-enable it through menu menu -> View -> Call.

Thanks!

[chunga168]

Brilliant!
Thanks for the fast request turnaround time!!

Btw, where do you setup the free numbers?

[bbubo]

Hi,

I've installed version 1.11, setup the rates, import the call and sms logs successfully, but the program shows 0's everywhere.
Do I need to fill the balance tab also?
But how do I calculate the used minutes and so on ...

Maybe I need a little bit detaild setup indtructions ... :confused:

I'm using a postpaid service which has a minimal mounthly fee. This is the minimal cost for a mounth which could be used up for calls and sms in 100%.
So, no free minutes, but this fee ususally enough for 100 minutes in a mounths calculeted from the call fees ...

I've filled out only the basic plan, charge day, weekdays, evening, free calls and call rates fileds. Everything else is set to 0.
After a soft reset I didn't see anything else just 0's.

Where is the mistake? I've read the FAQ, but I didn't find the solution...

Thanx in advance!

[LyonPlus]

Brilliant!
Thanks for the fast request turnaround time!!

Btw, where do you setup the free numbers?

Hi, chunga168, to setup free numbers:
1. Go to Menu -> Settings -> Current Rate Plan -> Edit;
2. Below free evening call checkbox, there is a multiline editbox where you can input your free numbers, each separated by a semicolon (;) or a carriage return (CR).
3. Save the change.

Hope it helps! :)

[HDuser]

Thanks, MDAIIIUser!
4. You mean you successfully imported 300 phone calls but can only see 50 of them? This is really weird. Could you please try to disable it and then re-enable it through menu menu -> View -> Call.

Thanks!

Yes can confirm that. Also if I have all ticked and remove calls, then sms, I still see outgoing sms, only after remove of balance does the screen clear.

[LyonPlus]

Yes can confirm that. Also if I have all ticked and remove calls, then sms, I still see outgoing sms, only after remove of balance does the screen clear.

Hi, MDAIIIUser, could you please confirm following aspects:

1. What's your OS build and your machine?
2. Can you see the missing call logs after reboot?
3. If you delete all SMS and balance records, are these missing call records still missing?
4. And above doesn't work out, do you mind send me your database file with only call records so I can have a look?

Thanks!

[LyonPlus]

Check my first post for the details.

Enjoy! :cool:

[starfarer]

Hi, Currently I'm using my Wizard as emergency phone using prepaid card and trying to setup your program with following:
Rate: $0.12/1 min
Off Peak Rate: $0.05/min
Off Peak period: 21:00 - 12:00
SMS(all): $0.7
NO weekends

I did input the above values where applicable but what about all other remaining fields? what to fill them with: "0"/blank/leave as default? Seems to be working fine filled with "0" but want to be on safe side.

Thanks.

[LyonPlus]

Hi, Currently I'm using my Wizard as emergency phone using prepaid card and trying to setup your program with following:
Rate: $0.12/1 min
Off Peak Rate: $0.05/min
Off Peak period: 21:00 - 12:00
SMS(all): $0.7
NO weekends

I did input the above values where applicable but what about all other remaining fields? what to fill them with: "0"/blank/leave as default? Seems to be working fine filled with "0" but want to be on safe side.

Thanks.

Hi, starfarer, for your plan, following setting are needed:
1. weekday: 0-6
2. evening: 21-00
3. weekday rates: $0.12, evening $0.05, per 60 seconds
4. $0.7 for both SMS out and SMS in.
5. This may not be true with your operator, but seems famewolf and my operator both use start rates only, so you may check this too.
6. This also may not be true with your operator, but it seems adjust about 10 seconds or so make the calculation more matching with the charge by operator. So you may also want to leave the 10 seconds Adjust there.

For all others, leave or change them as all zeros.

Hope this helps.:)

[mcw]

What's the proper way to enter free numbers into the app (for U.S.)?

(XXX) YYY-ZZZZ
or
XXXYYYZZZZ
or
XXX-YYY-ZZZZ
or
XXX YYY ZZZZ
?

Would it be possible to make a button to select a number from the contacts list so it can be added directly to the free call list? Sometimes we'll know the contact's number is free, but can't remember the number, so we have to open up Contacts and copy it, or memorize it, and then come back in and paste it or type it.

Thanks - and great work on the app, I've never come close to using my minutes, so this way, I can get what I pay for.

[LyonPlus]

What's the proper way to enter free numbers into the app (for U.S.)?

(XXX) YYY-ZZZZ
or
XXXYYYZZZZ
or
XXX-YYY-ZZZZ
or
XXX YYY ZZZZ
?

Would it be possible to make a button to select a number from the contacts list so it can be added directly to the free call list? Sometimes we'll know the contact's number is free, but can't remember the number, so we have to open up Contacts and copy it, or memorize it, and then come back in and paste it or type it.

Thanks - and great work on the app, I've never come close to using my minutes, so this way, I can get what I pay for.


The format doesn't matter, LCMinutes will normalize the numbers anyway. But XXXYYYZZZZ will be the simplest form I recommend.

I have a plan to support adding the call number in the call logs list as a free number. So after a phone call, user can select the call in LCMinutes and set it as free number.

Thanks for your interest.

[mcw]

Perfect - I enter numbers in the XXXYYYZZZZ format in applications when I'm not sure, so I entered them that way already...

I can't wait for the next update - seems like you've been adding quite a few new features every few days.

But thanks for the quick reply - once I upgrade my wife's phone from the Treo 755 to the Moto Q9c (or some other WM phone), I'm definitely adding this to her phone - I've had to pay for overages waaaay too many times.

Thanks again!

[starfarer]

Actually setting Evening 21-12 working perfectly. I'll again try as you suggested 21-00. Actually that is 12:00 noon. Again Thanks for your program which after some testing did matched correctly with the operator's balance enquiry. I'll keep it :-)

Anyone know how to enable "minute" reminder or any such program/regedit/anything ? I don't want to hang up at 10s and be charged for full 1 min.

[LyonPlus]

But thanks for the quick reply - once I upgrade my wife's phone from the Treo 755 to the Moto Q9c (or some other WM phone), I'm definitely adding this to her phone - I've had to pay for overages waaaay too many times.

Only I hope I can have the time to get a Smartphone version out. :cool:

Actually setting Evening 21-12 working perfectly. I'll again try as you suggested 21-00. Actually that is 12:00 noon. Again Thanks for your program which after some testing did matched correctly with the operator's balance enquiry. I'll keep it :-)

So you mean 12 in the noon, instead of midnight? Then my setting is simply wrong.

And thanks for letting me know that the calculation matches with your operator.

[fourcc]

It seems the the LCminutes today plugin is not compatible with SPB Pocket plus 4.02.
It can not be integrated because your today plugin does not appear in the list of available plugins, instead it can be selected using the WM6 / settings/ today.

Could you do anything to try to make it possible to be integrated into SPB Pocket plus?

thanks

[LyonPlus]

It seems the the LCminutes today plugin is not compatible with SPB Pocket plus 4.02.
It can not be integrated because your today plugin does not appear in the list of available plugins, instead it can be selected using the WM6 / settings/ today.

Could you do anything to try to make it possible to be integrated into SPB Pocket plus?

thanks

I will have a look, but I can't guarantee anything yet, as I am not familiar with Spb Pocket Plus.

[jumong69]

Hi, Currently I'm using HTC TOUCH as postpaid and trying to setup your program. I understand the all setup except two parts. I read your instructions also.

I want to set up as following:
Free: 300 min on weekday(Mon-Fri.) Free evening/ weekend 6pm to 7am.
Additional Rate after 300 min.: $0.40/1 min
I have used "Adjust" as 10 sec.


For weekday, do I have to set as 0-6 or 1-5? 0-6 measns sunday to Sat and 1 -5 means Monday to Friday?

For weekend, I set mine to 18-7. (6pm to 7am)
I checked the boxes for evening as weekend, free weekend call, free evening call.

Is this setup correct?

Thank you for your help

[LyonPlus]

For weekday, do I have to set as 0-6 or 1-5? 0-6 measns sunday to Sat and 1 -5 means Monday to Friday?

For weekend, I set mine to 18-7. (6pm to 7am)
I checked the boxes for evening as weekend, free weekend call, free evening call.

Hi, Jumong69, you need to change your setting a little bit:

1. weekday is 1-5: you have 0 and 6 as weekend;
2. your evening setting (18-07) is correct;
3. checking evening as weekend is correct;
4. checking free weekend call and free evening call should be removed, as they means all calls happens in weekend and evening is unlimited free. In your case, it's not.

Hope it helps!

[jumong69]

Hi, Jumong69, you need to change your setting a little bit:

1. weekday is 1-5: you have 0 and 6 as weekend;
2. your evening setting (18-07) is correct;
3. checking evening as weekend is correct;
4. checking free weekend call and free evening call should be removed, as they means all calls happens in weekend and evening is unlimited free. In your case, it's not.

Hope it helps!

Sorry I did not make myself clear and just want to confirm again.

I have the "the unlimited free" on weekend and evening. Basically free (in/out) from Friday 6pm through Monday 7am.
The 300 min free(in/out) is only Monday7am to Friday 6pm.
This means I have to check the 3 boxes for evening as weeekend, free weekend call, and free evening call because I have the unlimited weekends.

Also my setting for weekday is 1 to5? Monday to Friday


Everything should be:

Charged at: day 9 (My cycle starts at 10th of the month)
Free min.: 300 for weekday
weekday: 1-5 (monday- Friday)
evening: 18-7 (6pm to 7am)
checked evening as weekend
Free calls:
checked Free weekend call
checked Free evening call
Call rates: 0.40 in weekday
0.00 in weekend
0.00 in evening
Rest is defult (how it came with)

Thanks again.

For your help if you are interested (maybe you already have one), I have one more invitation to Grandcentral for free so please let me know. More info: http://www.grandcentral.com

[LyonPlus]

Sorry I did not make myself clear and just want to confirm again.

For your help if you are interested (maybe you already have one), I have one more invitation to Grandcentral for free so please let me know. More info: http://www.grandcentral.com

Sorry, Jumong69, it's my bad. Your setting is correct.

Just free evening call can be checked or not, it doesn't matter as long as you checked evening as weekend.

And thanks for your GrandCentral invitation. Just I am in Canada, I guess which means I can't enjoy this service, right?

[jumong69]

And thanks for your GrandCentral invitation. Just I am in Canada, I guess which means I can't enjoy this service, right?\
I live in Canada too. you can foward (free)your call to your canada number. I have a NY number that can be fowared to you Canadian number. Just PM me or you can post your email address here so I can email the invitation. I only have one left so.

Back to the application,so my setting is correct then :)

With in 15 min, I am going to snowboard for the night. (live in Vancouver)
Thanks you for your great application!

[LyonPlus]

Sent you a private message already. Thanks!

[jumong69]

Sent you a private message already. Thanks!
I have sent the last invite. Enjoy. I am off to a mountain now.
Once again thanks for the help and software!

[fourcc]

I will have a look, but I can't guarantee anything yet, as I am not familiar with Spb Pocket Plus.

thx lionplus. hope you find something easyly

[LyonPlus]

thx lionplus. hope you find something easyly

H, fourcc, could you please have a try on version 1.14 to see whether it works with Spb Pocket Plus now?

[fourcc]

there i go...

[fourcc]

WOW! it works, you are quick! thx a lot.
Now i will fight with the settings to see if i can control my cellular expenses.

[LyonPlus]

WOW! it works, you are quick! thx a lot.
Now i will fight with the settings to see if i can control my cellular expenses.

Thanks for letting me know it works on your phone too, fourcc.

[graffitisurf]

Firstly thank you for this great app I think it is going to be just what i've been looking for.However I'm still not sure what my balance actually indicates . Could you please advise?What does 3/10, 0/1000,0:0/125 indicate exactly? Also It doesn't seem to be recording SMS messages.Any idea what I may have missed?

[lando]

thank you for your software, it's now essential for me.

I have juste 1 request :
I have a plan with free SMS for evening, it's possible to add this feature (except if I don't see it).

I don't if it's a bug, but my plan has reset today (01/11) or I set it to charged a "19"...

And last, It can be good to make a repository with many plan for people.

thank you :)

[LyonPlus]

Firstly thank you for this great app I think it is going to be just what i've been looking for.However I'm still not sure what my balance actually indicates . Could you please advise?What does 3/10, 0/1000,0:0/125 indicate exactly? Also It doesn't seem to be recording SMS messages.Any idea what I may have missed?

1. 3/10, 0/1000, 0/125 means you have 10 weekday minutes, you have used 3 of them, 1000 weekend (or evening) minutes, you have used zero of them, and you have 125 free SMS, you have used none of them.

If it's not recording the SMS, are you using 3rd party SMS program like treo like threaded SMS application? I am investigation this situation, but for now LCMinutes can only track SMS in standard message stores.

I have juste 1 request :
I have a plan with free SMS for evening, it's possible to add this feature (except if I don't see it).

I don't if it's a bug, but my plan has reset today (01/11) or I set it to charged a "19"...

And last, It can be good to make a repository with many plan for people.

thank you :)

1. Good suggestion. It's not supported yet, but I will try to add the support for free SMS in evening and weekend in the near future. I don't know there're such feature before;
2. It seems a bug, I will look into it;
3. Good suggestion for this repository concept, I will try to implement similar solution.

Thanks!

[elFahd]

im sorry but is it possible to include an in-call alert that say either vibrate or rings when "x" seconds is reached ("x" scpecified by user) or something similar?

[LyonPlus]

im sorry but is it possible to include an in-call alert that say either vibrate or rings when "x" seconds is reached ("x" scpecified by user) or something similar?

But I need to investigate how it will affect the other application, especially the phone call application. And I am working on several features that are already in plan now.

[sniperess]

Is there a way to enable Rogers-to-Rogers free minutes?

[LyonPlus]

Is there a way to enable Rogers-to-Rogers free minutes?

Hi, except Rogers, or any other mobile operator for that matters, there's no way for us to know whether a number belongs to Rogers or not, especially after this number portability thingy. So there's no way for LCMinutes to implement a free in network call feature.

But you do have an alternative, that is, put the numbers you know that are Rogers and free into the free number list of the rate plan, then you will get free calls.

[graz100]

Thx for such a good program. It is particularly useful when on a prepaid plan as it allows prompt awareness as to the remaining credit.

Just few comments:
- I am on a prepaid plan whose rate is 0.24 euros/minute. However I am charged per the actual seconds of conversation, so I guess I should put as call rate 0.004 (0.24/60) per 1 second. The program however seems not to take into account 0.004 as it rounds it to 0.00, which of course does not work. Any chance that you can add fractions of cents as units?
- Since I do not have free minutes/sms half of the today plugin is not useful to me as it contains just zeros. Any chance that you can add the possibility to customize the information shown (widening the choice to last call/sms details, name of operator, daily minutes, etc.) and the layout (would like not to use bold as it does not match with the rest of my today....)? It would be nice also not to have the $ sign for us in euro countries...

Thx anyway for all your efforts and keep up the good work!

Graz

[LyonPlus]

Thx for such a good program. It is particularly useful when on a prepaid plan as it allows prompt awareness as to the remaining credit.

Just few comments:
- I am on a prepaid plan whose rate is 0.24 euros/minute. However I am charged per the actual seconds of conversation, so I guess I should put as call rate 0.004 (0.24/60) per 1 second. The program however seems not to take into account 0.004 as it rounds it to 0.00, which of course does not work. Any chance that you can add fractions of cents as units?
- Since I do not have free minutes/sms half of the today plugin is not useful to me as it contains just zeros. Any chance that you can add the possibility to customize the information shown (widening the choice to last call/sms details, name of operator, daily minutes, etc.) and the layout (would like not to use bold as it does not match with the rest of my today....)? It would be nice also not to have the $ sign for us in euro countries...

Thx anyway for all your efforts and keep up the good work!

Graz

Hi, graz100, thanks for your interest.

1. To get precision number as 3 so you can input a rates of 0.004 per second, please change your regional setting to change the currency decimal places to 3.

2. If you want the euro sign instead of $, you can also change it in your regional setting.

3. Customization of today screen is not in plan yet, but it might come in later version if I got the time.

Hope it helps.

[sniperess]

Hi, except Rogers, or any other mobile operator for that matters, there's no way for us to know whether a number belongs to Rogers or not, especially after this number portability thingy. So there's no way for LCMinutes to implement a free in network call feature.

But you do have an alternative, that is, put the numbers you know that are Rogers and free into the free number list of the rate plan, then you will get free calls.

That's what I was thinking, same issue comes into play when I looked at commercial software...

Any idea where I can get a list of Rogers numbers? I understand it won't be completely accurate due to number portability, but it's better than nothing...

[LyonPlus]

That's what I was thinking, same issue comes into play when I looked at commercial software...

Any idea where I can get a list of Rogers numbers? I understand it won't be completely accurate due to number portability, but it's better than nothing...

Hi, sniperess, sorry I don't have such a list. And it's not recommend to do that, because the length of free numbers in LCMinutes is only 512 characters, which means you can roughly input only about 50 numbers.

The free number list is designed to support the numbers you will use most often.

Of course I am still evaluating whether 512 is the most appropriate number, as you know, the big this number, the more memory LCMinutes will consume, and it will run slightly slower.

[graz100]

Hi, graz100, thanks for your interest.

1. To get precision number as 3 so you can input a rates of 0.004 per second, please change your regional setting to change the currency decimal places to 3.

2. If you want the euro sign instead of $, you can also change it in your regional setting.

3. Customization of today screen is not in plan yet, but it might come in later version if I got the time.

Hope it helps.

Lyonplus,

thanks. Of course it works. However the change in the regional settings make all other amounts (including balance) being expressed with 3 decimals, which is not correct for euro and slightly misleading. Some other programs (I could not test) may also be affected by this.

What I was suggesting was the possibility to have only the rate per unit field (weekdays/nights/weekends) to accept 3 digits so that we could express corrrect values per second if that is the base unti for the plan (which is my case).

Thx

Graz

[mugglesquop]

is there a way of configuring the charges so that this program works with T-Mobile Flext tarrif?

My plan currently costs me £20 a month for £60 of credit (use for anything) and i also pay £7.50 for as much GPRS use as i want.

if someone could advise on how to set the program for this, it would me much appreciated!

Cheers,

[LyonPlus]

Lyonplus,

thanks. Of course it works. However the change in the regional settings make all other amounts (including balance) being expressed with 3 decimals, which is not correct for euro and slightly misleading. Some other programs (I could not test) may also be affected by this.

What I was suggesting was the possibility to have only the rate per unit field (weekdays/nights/weekends) to accept 3 digits so that we could express corrrect values per second if that is the base unti for the plan (which is my case).

Thx

Graz

Hi, Graz, your suggestion is taken, while LCMinutes will still get the precision from regional setting, all rates will have one more digital precision than that for balance. My next release should be ready within 3 days.

is there a way of configuring the charges so that this program works with T-Mobile Flext tarrif?


Hi, mugglesquop, could you please let me know a bit more about T-Mobile Flext tarrif? Or its only special aspect is that you pay $20 and get $60 credit?

[graz100]

Hi, Graz, your suggestion is taken, while LCMinutes will still get the precision from regional setting, all rates will have one more digital precision than that for balance. My next release should be ready within 3 days.



Hi, mugglesquop, could you please let me know a bit more about T-Mobile Flext tarrif? Or its only special aspect is that you pay $20 and get $60 credit?
Lyonplus,

thx for considering my suggestion. However, I believe that balance should stay with two decimals (i.e. X,XX) to match euro currency. What we need to have is 3 decimals for call rates field under "plan" tab in order to allow precise calculation for those (like myself) on a per second rate.

Thx again

[LyonPlus]

Hi, just want you to know I have uploaded version 1.20, which supports import/export rate plan and balance, and also have some minor changes.

And its smartphone edition is also ready for the Windows Mobile 5/6 smartphones that are allowed to install unsigned applications. But it's not for download yet, those brave hearts want to have a try need to leave email address here, PM me, or send me an email.

[HDuser]

>>>>>
* Call and SMS display in main window is changed: now 2 digits is used to display year, e.g. year 2008 is displayed 08. And the direction of call and SMS is moved to the second line, while "Out" is replaced with "<=", and "In" is replaced with "=>".
<<<<<

Love this option but I feel its the wrong way round based on the way the phone app defines the direction of a call a --> is an out and <-- is a in.
This is best seen in the phone Call log were the arrow is a "|>" and "<|"

Also I have 2 SMS, the first one says "incoming SMS" but has now arrow and no text,
the second one arrow -> and text and is infact a SMS that I got.
So I am not sure what you are doing as you only show text and arrows in one diection.

[LyonPlus]

Love this option but I feel its the wrong way round based on the way the phone app defines the direction of a call a --> is an out and <-- is a in.
This is best seen in the phone Call log were the arrow is a "|>" and "<|"

Also I have 2 SMS, the first one says "incoming SMS" but has now arrow and no text,
the second one arrow -> and text and is infact a SMS that I got.
So I am not sure what you are doing as you only show text and arrows in one diection.

Hi, MDAIIIUser

Thanks for the info, but could you please tell me where I can find the definition of direction of call & SMS? Or are you refering to the icons currently used in default Call History?

For your SMS displaying, I think the first one is for its balance, and you should see and charge information on the right corner. And the second one is for the SMS itself. You can try to see the difference using Menu -> View -> Balance and Menu -> View -> SMS.

BTW, does this mean now LCMinutes can run on your BlueAngel?

[HDuser]

>>> BTW, does this mean now LCMinutes can run on your BlueAngel?

Sure is does (grin) but I can still make it loop insettings but as I am the only one it does not matter.

>>> please tell me where I can find the definition of direction of call & SMS?

Well I have a WM6 rom and if you go into the Phone applet and then into the Call history it list the the call with an arrow.
Outgoing ---> in green
Incoming <--- in Yellow
missed with "!" in red

The first 2 calls are outgoing and answered to a contact A A6 and A, A9 here you don't render the contact.

The second one is to jill, here you show it twice once wih no contact and value and then with 9 secs and the arrow the wrong way for me.

[LyonPlus]

Sure is does (grin) but I can still make it loop insettings but as I am the only one it does not matter.

Well I have a WM6 rom and if you go into the Phone applet and then into the Call history it list the the call with an arrow.
Outgoing ---> in green
Incoming <--- in Yellow
missed with "!" in red

The first 2 calls are outgoing and answered to a contact A A6 and A, A9 here you don't render the contact.

The second one is to jill, here you show it twice once wih no contact and value and then with 9 secs and the arrow the wrong way for me.

Hi, MDAIIIUser

Now I guess I understand what do you mean by loop insettings, do you mean that the plan name editbox keeps updating itself infinitely untill it loses the focus? If this is what you mean, then I know it, and I am still investigate the reason for it. But because it's a minor issue, I didn't attach too much importance to it.

For the phone call history icons, I think the icon can easily express it because the green arrow is clearly leaving the microphone, while the yellow arrow is clearly forwarding to the microphone. But for my simplified text expression, using "<=" as out and "=>" as in makes just a little bit more sense to me.

For the outgoing call info, I do read the call info from call log, but I can't get the name of the call. I guess the phone call history application deal with this situation. I might need to check for Contacts to solve this problem.

For the call and SMS that appear 2 times, it's not an error. One of them is for call log or SMS log, the other one is for balance, about the charge caused by this call or SMS. But for any call that last for zero second, there's no charge information, though.

Hope this clarifies.

[HDuser]

Now I guess I understand what do you mean by loop insettings,



Yup


For "<=" as out and "=>" as in makes just a little bit more sense to me.


Your choice as you are the programmer. I am sure that the guys that wrote lotus123 thought that they made sence as well.

[LyonPlus]

Your choice as you are the programmer. I am sure that the guys that wrote lotus123 thought that they made sence as well.

Hi, MDAIIIUser, do you mean the Lotus 1-2-3 that is replaced by Microsoft Excel? They have similar expression for directions? In their situation what they are for, also telephone calls? :confused:

[HDuser]

LyonPlus

It was a lit dig (as in a small joke). Never mind.

The point I was trying to make is the M$ sort of defines the way the arrows go.

[LyonPlus]

LyonPlus

It was a lit dig (as in a small joke). Never mind.

The point I was trying to make is the M$ sort of defines the way the arrows go.

Got you! :cool:

[LyonPlus]

The main features introduced with this version are auto loading of phone call & SMS log, calculating charge for past calls & SMS, support of charging units shared by both call minutes and SMS, and new special rates format. Check its change history for details, and the FAQ for the new special rates format.

The support of calculating charges for the past should be helpful for smartphone edition, as it doesn't need the monitor module running all the time. But again, please contact me for the smartphone edition. It's still in the test stage.

[LyonPlus]

Now automatic loading of call and SMS logs is changed to manual loading. LCMinutes is fast again!

[sevakm]

Could you please explain what exactly this "loading" does?

Do I understand correctly that this application calculates the usage data of this phone, and uses no information from the carrier?

Does it have the ability to inquire the carrier for the used minutes for the billing cycle? E.g. for T-Mobile in the US you can call #min# and get a small message listing the used minutes. Does this application have the ability to do this automatically after every call and display the information on the today screen?

I think the answer is no.
If that's the case, this would be a very nice addition.

For those who are on postpaid family plans, it's much more important to know the number of used minutes by everybody together rather than a single user's.

[LyonPlus]

Could you please explain what exactly this "loading" does?

Loading means copying the call logs and SMS saved in the phone into the private database of LCMinutes, and automatically calculating their charges.


Do I understand correctly that this application calculates the usage data of this phone, and uses no information from the carrier?

Correct.


Does it have the ability to inquire the carrier for the used minutes for the billing cycle? E.g. for T-Mobile in the US you can call #min# and get a small message listing the used minutes. Does this application have the ability to do this automatically after every call and display the information on the today screen?

I think the answer is no.
If that's the case, this would be a very nice addition.

For those who are on postpaid family plans, it's much more important to know the number of used minutes by everybody together rather than a single user's.

The answer is no, with one exception: for Canadian Rogers and Fido prepaid users, if they dial *225 to know the balance, then the service information is detected and the new balance and expire date are updated in the LCMinutes database.

I can do this to T-Mobile, AT&T (and any other operators) if I can get the help to know more about the details of the format of these service message.

[sevakm]

Thanks for the support.

Here are screen shots of the information T-Mobile provides. You get it when you dial #646#.
You cal also dial #225# and get your balance.

Let me know if you need more info.

It would be nice if LCMinutes could dial the above codes automatically and update the information say daily or after every phone call.

[LyonPlus]

Thanks for the support.

Here are screen shots of the information T-Mobile provides. You get it when you dial #646#.
You cal also dial #225# and get your balance.

Let me know if you need more info.

It would be nice if LCMinutes could dial the above codes automatically and update the information say daily or after every phone call.

Thanks for the info, sevakm.

I am implementing the data support now, after that I may try to support this, and may come back for your further help, as this feature will be deeply operator specific. And I can't test in real life.

[LyonPlus]

For those of you that demanded data traffic monitoring support, LCMinutes 1.30 is ready for your testing. It can keep track of your data allowance usage, calculating the charge for your extra kilobytes, and displaying them on your today screen.

Enjoy! :cool:

[ww2250]

looks like lcminutes is now complete. i remember that you have a post about how to get data count accurately a while ago and seems now you have cracked it. congratulations! i will give it a try.

[DrZEUS]

neat app this is what i have been looking for.

it would be nice to implement a feature to account for Rogers to Rogers calling for example (if this is even possible since this would be on the network side). Another request would be to include long distance charges, and/or free long distance.

[LyonPlus]

looks like lcminutes is now complete. i remember that you have a post about how to get data count accurately a while ago and seems now you have cracked it. congratulations! i will give it a try.

Yeah, as time goes by, I learned more about the Windows Mobile. :cool:

neat app this is what i have been looking for.

it would be nice to implement a feature to account for Rogers to Rogers calling for example (if this is even possible since this would be on the network side). Another request would be to include long distance charges, and/or free long distance.

Hi, DrZEUS, my fellow Rogers user, thanks for your interest first.

But unfortunately I am unable to implement the feature like free in network calling or My Five, because you know ONLY Rogers knows which number are theirs or not. But you can always use the free number feature to put your My Five number there, or any free number, free service number you have. Free number feature of LCMinutes is designed as an alternative to features like myFaves, My Five, and free in network calling.

For long distance, you can use the special rates feature of LCMinutes to define the rates for the long distance you use. To know the format of special rates, check LCMinutes FAQ (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2008/01/lcminutes-frequently-asked-questions.html).

[arpy]

Nice Tool.
But the HomescreenPlugin did not work for me (SmartPhone s730).

[LyonPlus]

Nice Tool.
But the HomescreenPlugin did not work for me (SmartPhone s730).

Currently the smartphone edition is still under testing, and is not available for direct download yet.

If you want to try LCMinutes on your smartphone, please leave your email address here or send me an email. I will email it to you.

But before you do that, please make sure your smartphone is ready to install and run unsigned application. If you are not sure, then most possibly your smartphone is not ready to run unsigned application.

[arpy]

Yes, your PPC-Version works well on my SP...and calculates all Connections...Only the configuration is a little bit tricky...

yes, my Phone is always Unlocked, please send me the SP-Version.

thanks...

[LyonPlus]

Yes, your PPC-Version works well on my SP...and calculates all Connections...Only the configuration is a little bit tricky...

yes, my Phone is always Unlocked, please send me the SP-Version.

My mail;

mpxrp@hotmail.de

thanks...

Hi, arpy, please check your email, I have sent you the smartphone edition. Please note the input for configuration is still broken. You will need the export/import feature to do the configuration.

The main reason using smartphone edition is the homescreen plugin, this is also the only difference between PPC and SP editions.

[josho]

great program ... thats what i need badly! Had posted in ur blog for more question... ;) Cheers mate! :D

[LyonPlus]

great program ... thats what i need badly! Had posted in ur blog for more question... ;) Cheers mate! :D

Hi, josho, I have answered your question under your comments. Thanks for letting me know it works for you. :)

[jumong69]

I have upgraded mine to the 1.3. Thanks for the great software.

[LyonPlus]

LCMinutes 1.31 is now ready with support of minute beep (its timing is user changeable), today / home screen plugin customization, and it should fix bugs that on some phones the data traffic is not recorded.

Check its change history in the first post for details.

[Kasush]

The answer is no, with one exception: for Canadian Rogers and Fido prepaid users, if they dial *225 to know the balance, then the service information is detected and the new balance and expire date are updated in the LCMinutes database.

I can do this to T-Mobile, AT&T (and any other operators) if I can get the help to know more about the details of the format of these service message.

I have to dial *142# for my prepaid balance to show. I have enclosed the screenshot of the reply.

Also I have discovered that the plugin only shows the K from the KD sign used in Kuwait for Kuwait Dinars (instead of $ we use KD here) I have also shown that screenshot as well.

Also discovered that the SMS is not being tracked with the default WM6.1 SMS application.

[elFahd]

Excellent! I was waiting for the beep feature to become available, im on a payplan, the first 1 minute and 20 seconds cost 2 units, then every 40 second 1 unit, is it that customizeable?

[LyonPlus]

I have to dial *142# for my prepaid balance to show. I have enclosed the screenshot of the reply.

Also I have discovered that the plugin only shows the K from the KD sign used in Kuwait for Kuwait Dinars (instead of $ we use KD here) I have also shown that screenshot as well.

Also discovered that the SMS is not being tracked with the default WM6.1 SMS application.

Hi, Kasush, thanks for the info, I will try to implement the automatic dialing of special service number to retrieve balance info in later version. I will try to include your operator into support list. Could you please let me know your operator?

Excellent! I was waiting for the beep feature to become available, im on a payplan, the first 1 minute and 20 seconds cost 2 units, then every 40 second 1 unit, is it that customizeable?

Hi, elFahd, unfortunately it's NOT supported yet. LCMinutes does support the exact charging pattern like you, but for now the starting minutes can only be fully minutes, not XX minutes plus YY seconds.

But if it's desired, I can easily change that to support that. Because internally, the starting minutes is seconds based.

[elFahd]

But if it's desired, I can easily change that to support that.
If its not too much work LyonPlus :)

[LyonPlus]

If its not too much work LyonPlus :)

You will get it in the next release! :cool:

[Kasush]

Hi, Kasush, thanks for the info, I will try to implement the automatic dialing of special service number to retrieve balance info in later version. I will try to include your operator into support list. Could you please let me know your operator?


My operator is MTC-vodafone.

Any ideas about the SMS + WM6.1 issue I mentioned

[LyonPlus]

My operator is MTC-vodafone.

Any ideas about the SMS + WM6.1 issue I mentioned

Hi, Kasush, I have no idea of SMS issue under WM6.1. Could you please help me to turn the trace ON (Menu -> Settings -> Misc -> turn on monitor trace) and then send/receive a SMS and then send me the trace file, which you can find under \Program Files\LCMinutes?

[rast62]

I have a simple rate plan. It's a prepaid-tarif and any outgoing call costs 10 Cent/min and every sms costs also 10 cent. Round the clock and every day. Thats it. I configure the rate plan but it dosn't work correct. The home plugin shows 0/10, 0/1000, 0/125 and the balance shows 49,xx (xx = different cents, maybe 30 or 40). I tried to change the effective and expired date and some other settings. Then the home plugin shows 0 (for calls) and 0 (for sms) but it dosn't count new calls and sms. some ideas? I think, i do one ore more wrong settings. but which?

[Kasush]

Hi, Kasush, I have no idea of SMS issue under WM6.1. Could you please help me to turn the trace ON (Menu -> Settings -> Misc -> turn on monitor trace) and then send/receive a SMS and then send me the trace file, which you can find under \Program Files\LCMinutes?

Here is the file, hope it helps.

[LyonPlus]

I have a simple rate plan. It's a prepaid-tarif and any outgoing call costs 10 Cent/min and every sms costs also 10 cent. Round the clock and every day. Thats it. I configure the rate plan but it dosn't work correct. The home plugin shows 0/10, 0/1000, 0/125 and the balance shows 49,xx (xx = different cents, maybe 30 or 40). I tried to change the effective and expired date and some other settings. Then the home plugin shows 0 (for calls) and 0 (for sms) but it dosn't count new calls and sms. some ideas? I think, i do one ore more wrong settings. but which?

Hi, rast62, what's your phone? Is it a smartphone? And can you see any phone call records in the main window of LCMinutes?

Here is the file, hope it helps.

Hi, Kasush, I can not see any actitivies related to SMS, so I totally have no idea on this.

[Kasush]

Hi, Kasush, I can not see any actitivies related to SMS, so I totally have no idea on this.

I know, I looked at it as well and saw nothing that looked like an SMS. I hoped I just didn't know what I was looking for and that you would spot it.
Curiously now my phone reds as follows:
K5.929: 28,0,0: 1:90K 08-06-06
I know the K is the cut off KD (out symbol for money) and the 5.929 is the amount of remaining balance. the 28 is the number of phone calls made. Not sure on the ,0,0:1. The 90K is the data transferred and the 08-06-06 is the expiration of my balance.
Hope that helps

[LyonPlus]

I know, I looked at it as well and saw nothing that looked like an SMS. I hoped I just didn't know what I was looking for and that you would spot it.
Curiously now my phone reds as follows:
K5.929: 28,0,0: 1:90K 08-06-06
I know the K is the cut off KD (out symbol for money) and the 5.929 is the amount of remaining balance. the 28 is the number of phone calls made. Not sure on the ,0,0:1. The 90K is the data transferred and the 08-06-06 is the expiration of my balance.
Hope that helps

Hi, Kasush, the 0,0:1 should mean that you have not used weekend minuted, used evening minutes, and have one SMS.

And if you want, you can try to customize your today screen to remove the info you don't want. You need to disable and then re-enable LCMinutes today screen item, or change the balance info, or reboot your machine for it to take effect.

[HuiBuh_1]

Hello LyonPlus,

I really like your tool: Exact what I'm looking for, small footprint and best of all: it's free:).

So first I have to send a big THANK YOU for the work done so far.


Second I have one small feature request: I'm on a prepaid plan and it is nice to have the expiring date on the today screen. But I have missed my date once and I do not want this to happen again. So is it possible to change the color of the expiring date in the today Screen depending on the time until the minutes are up? Ideally this would also be customizable, but a warning at least two weeks before expiring date would be more than nice.

If it is not possible (or to complicated) I will setup a reminder in Outlook to remind me as a fall-back-solution.


But once again: Thank you for your work.

Huibuh_1

[LyonPlus]

Second I have one small feature request: I'm on a prepaid plan and it is nice to have the expiring date on the today screen. But I have missed my date once and I do not want this to happen again. So is it possible to change the color of the expiring date in the today Screen depending on the time until the minutes are up? Ideally this would also be customizable, but a warning at least two weeks before expiring date would be more than nice.


Hi, Huibuh_1, glad to have a fellow prepaid user! I forgot once to refill too, and lost all my remain credits. (and hence came LCMinutes! :o )

This feature is not hard to implement, but, come on, are you telling me that you will only be alerted by a bright color, but not by the same message with normal color? Another question, why are you requesting 2 weeks warning? Shouldn't 3 days enough for you to call your operator to refill your balance? Just for my curiosity.

[LyonPlus]

Now free long distance minutes is supported with version 1.32. Other changes are automatic updating of traffic info for long lasting data connections, new special rates format, seconds based starting minutes, displaying used minutes with seconds info, call minutes calculating bug fixing, etc. Please check change history for detailed information.

Polish and Australian users may use the new special rates format to support their network based charging mode while sharing the same free numbers. While other users may now input start minutes per call that is not full minutes, like one minute plus 20 seconds.

[daxliniere]

Hey there!
LC Minutes is GREAT!

Only one problem for me with the latest version; my data is charged at $0.004 per kb, but that text field only allows 2 decimal places. Can this be changed for 1.33 please?

Thanks!

[daxliniere]

Also, I think it needs a recalculate button.

Upgrading from v1.20 to v1.25 was seamless.
Since I upgraded from v1.25 to v1.31, LCMinutes lost all my plan details and now that I've corrected them, it hasn't recalculated the correct total.
(The default plan start date is the 12th day, but I'm billed on the 16th. My total was up to about $300, but now shows only $42 even after I've changed it back to 16th)

[LyonPlus]

Only one problem for me with the latest version; my data is charged at $0.004 per kb, but that text field only allows 2 decimal places. Can this be changed for 1.33 please?


Yes I can change the display in the next release. At the same time, you can input 0.004 there NOW and it will be accepted, though it can not displayed with 3 digit precision. You can check the charge to see whether it's using the right rates.


Since I upgraded from v1.25 to v1.31, LCMinutes lost all my plan details and now that I've corrected them, it hasn't recalculated the correct total.
(The default plan start date is the 12th day, but I'm billed on the 16th. My total was up to about $300, but now shows only $42 even after I've changed it back to 16th)

Actually I don't think we need a recalculate button. All you need is after you made some changes to your rate plan, you will be asked whether to apply the new rate plan to previous records or not, you just choose yes to recalculate. Please let me know if it doesn't work as it should.

[Slide]

Hi LyonPlus,

thanks for your perfekt programm!

can you change the Data Traffic on Today Screen in MB not kb?


Sorry for my English!

Slide

[LyonPlus]

can you change the Data Traffic on Today Screen in MB not kb?


No, I can not. But you can - when your data traffic is greater than 10M, the unit will be changed to MB instead of KB automatically.

However when the count is less than 10MB, I feel KB as unit is what most user will want.

[Slide]

No, I can not. But you can - when your data traffic is greater than 10M, the unit will be changed to MB instead of KB automatically.

However when the count is less than 10MB, I feel KB as unit is what most user will want.

Cool!

Thanks.

Gruß
Slide

[Slide]

Hi LyonPlus,

now he shows me in MB.
Is it possible to the traffic with mb and kb indicate?
For example 11.15M/200M.

Gruß
Slide

[LyonPlus]

Hi LyonPlus,

now he shows me in MB.
Is it possible to the traffic with mb and kb indicate?
For example 11.15M/200M.

Gruß
Slide

Sure, I can. But the problem is the space in the today screen for LCMinutes is very limited, does it make difference to add that detail after you reach 10M traffic?

I am not really convinced yet, but I am open for comments. ;)

[Slide]

Sure, I can. But the problem is the space in the today screen for LCMinutes is very limited, does it make difference to add that detail after you reach 10M traffic?

I am not really convinced yet, but I am open for comments. ;)

Hi LyonPlus,

It would be nice to see what some programs to cause traffic.
Could you possibly be as option in the settings?

Gruß
Slide

[daxliniere]

Hey LyonPlus,
I'm having a problem with LCMinutes 1.31 and 1.32 where the "Import Call and SMS log" function only imports SMSs, but no calls.

I have removed it and reinstalled but no luck.

Any ideas?

Also, if you clear a text field (monthly charge, etc) instead of entering "0" it defaults to the previous value (25.00, etc)

[LyonPlus]

It would be nice to see what some programs to cause traffic.
Could you possibly be as option in the settings?

It's a really good idea to keep tracks of which program causes which data traffic. But I need to figure out how to do it. And it might take quite some times. So don't count on it for now.

Hey LyonPlus,
I'm having a problem with LCMinutes 1.31 and 1.32 where the "Import Call and SMS log" function only imports SMSs, but no calls.

I have removed it and reinstalled but no luck.

Any ideas?

Also, if you clear a text field (monthly charge, etc) instead of entering "0" it defaults to the previous value (25.00, etc)

It seems a database issue. If you have not done that yet, could you please try to remove folder \Application Data\LCMinutes after you uninstalled LCMinutes and before you install it again.

If still not working, maybe you can take a trace for me to have a look. To take trace, use a registry editor to change the value of HKLM\Software\LCTools\LCMinutes\MainTraceMode to 4097 (or 0x1001). After that run LCMinutes to change your rate plan, import your call & SMS records. After that, email me your trace file \Program Files\LCMinutes\LCMTrace.txt to my email address lyonplus[AT]gmail[DOT]com.

[LyonPlus]

Version 1.34:

* Feature change: charge for multiple recipients and concatenated SMS supported.
* Feature change: trace for LCMinutes today/home screen plugin.
* Feature change: special rates length increased from 512 to 1024.
* Feature change: Precision of rates per KB for data usage is increased by one digit.
* Bug fix: after shared units for call minutes and SMS is all consumed, SMS usage will not add up to used minutes. It will now only add up to the usd SMS count.

Version 1.33:

* Bug fix: data traffic monitoring now works on Samsung CDMA phones.

[daxliniere]

Hi LyonPlus,
Deleting the database fixed the problem - Thanks!

Another question, what is the exact definition of the "Charged At" field?
My post-paid billing cycle is, for example, 17-Jan to 16-Feb.
So do I enter 17 or 16?

Thanks!

[daxliniere]

Oh, and I had another couple feature requests and a question.

1) Could you make LCMinutes generate a CSV output file of phone usage/billing? It would be great to generate a report for a previous month. I suppose even just a total would be good.

2) My work phone calls are paid for by work, but I have to read through my phone bills and find them myself. This can take a long time.
Could you add a feature where I can set up a list (or several lists) of phone numbers which are tallied to a separate total.
Obviously these calls should still count towards my standard monthly totals, otherwise I could accidentally go over my cap plan.
Perhaps LCMinutes could even output a CSV file for each list.

What do you think?

Q) I'm with 3mobile and I can call friends who have 3mobile phones for free, up to $210 value. Could I make a list of those numbers and LCMinutes keeps track of that $210 automatically?

[LyonPlus]

Another question, what is the exact definition of the "Charged At" field?
My post-paid billing cycle is, for example, 17-Jan to 16-Feb.
So do I enter 17 or 16?


17. Charged At is treated as the first date of your rate plan month.


1) Could you make LCMinutes generate a CSV output file of phone usage/billing? It would be great to generate a report for a previous month. I suppose even just a total would be good.

Yeah, this is under my plan already, as the database will surely become larger and larger, there should be a way to deal with the logs for previous months. I want them there for reference forever, but at the same time I don't want them always displayed when user don't want them.


2) My work phone calls are paid for by work, but I have to read through my phone bills and find them myself. This can take a long time.
Could you add a feature where I can set up a list (or several lists) of phone numbers which are tallied to a separate total.
Obviously these calls should still count towards my standard monthly totals, otherwise I could accidentally go over my cap plan.
Perhaps LCMinutes could even output a CSV file for each list.

I am not convinced to support exporting different lists based on numbers, but I think I can export the list sorted by numbers (or by time which should be default), and this should almost solve your problem I guess. What do you think?


Q) I'm with 3mobile and I can call friends who have 3mobile phones for free, up to $210 value. Could I make a list of those numbers and LCMinutes keeps track of that $210 automatically?

You can do it now:
1. Put all numbers not belonging to 3mobile into the special rates list. For example if you know any numbers started with 123 are not 3mobile number, then you can put 123 as the number in special rates. Please check LCMinutes FAQ (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2008/01/lcminutes-frequently-asked-questions.html) for special rates format.

2. Set $210 as you monthly payment.

[daxliniere]

Hey LyonPlus,
One tiny flaw... I have about 200 contacts and only about 4 friends on 3mobile ;) (It doesn't really matter anyway, since my actual charges will be lower than my charges shown.)

Regarding the output file being sorted, I think date sorting is the best idea and if it's a CSV, it can be imported into Excel for further editing, data analysis, etc.
I would also be able to accomplish my task of working out how much my work has to pay me for phone calls with a CSV file.

Perhaps the user could specify how many months to keep. Personally, 2 months (plus active month) would be plenty for me.
Also, to save further space, there should also be an option to not keep contents of SMSs, only receive/send time. (I personally see no reason to keep what I said to someone in an SMS for billing purposes, which is the whole point of LCMinutes. I use PIMBackup to archive my SMSs)

Either way, great program my friend!

All the best,
Dax.

[LyonPlus]

Hey LyonPlus,
One tiny flaw... I have about 200 contact and only about 4 friends on 3mobile ;)

Then, maybe you can use free long distance for this purpose? I mean casting the $210 into ??? free long distance minutes?

Tell me more details about the charge to your 4 friends number? The charge for SMS to/from these 3 friends? The call rates for their numbers? Any peak time, evening, weekend treatment for their numbers?

[daxliniere]

Okay, here are my plan details:

I pay $69/month (Cap Plan)

I get $550 worth of calls+sms, but not internet
Voice calls $= 0.35/30secs
Connect fee (aka Flagfall) = $0.25
SMS = $0.25
Internet = $0.004/kb (very expensive!)
Incoming calls & SMS are free

On top of this, I get $210 worth of calls per month to anyone else on the 3mobile network, all day.
If I go over $210 worth of calls to 3mobile numbers, they count towards my monthly $550 allowance.

(Also, please re-read my previous psot, I updated it before I noticed you replied. thx)

[LyonPlus]

Okay, here are my plan details:

I pay $69/month (Cap Plan)

I get $550 worth of calls+sms, but not internet
Voice calls $= 0.35/30secs
Connect fee (aka Flagfall) = $0.25
SMS = $0.25
Internet = $0.004/kb (very expensive!)
Incoming calls & SMS are free

On top of this, I get $210 worth of calls per month to anyone else on the 3mobile network, all day.
If I go over $210 worth of calls to 3mobile numbers, they count towards my monthly $550 allowance.

(Also, please re-read my previous psot, I updated it before I noticed you replied. thx)

OK, one thing to confirm: the SMS sent to your 3mobile friends is counted into the $210 allowance first, right?

I will consider supporting this feature, but not sure when it will be ready. Too many promised features not implemented yet. :rolleyes:

[daxliniere]

Hey man, it's cool, I completely understand.
If it were my choice, file export would be the most important new feature to me.

And no, there are no free SMSs between 3mobile customers.


Thanks again.

[LyonPlus]

LCMinutes 1.35 fixes a bug that the used data in balance setting is incorrectly imported when it's longer than 4 digits. Users of 1.34 should upgrade to 1.35 if they use data traffic monitoring features.

[fourcc]

it seems that the last 1.35 version has lost the compatibility with SPB Pocket Plus. The 1.32 still worked with SPB Pocket Plus
is it possible to take a look there?
thanks a lot

[LyonPlus]

it seems that the last 1.35 version has lost the compatibility with SPB Pocket Plus. The 1.32 still worked with SPB Pocket Plus
is it possible to take a look there?
thanks a lot

Hi, fourcc

To make LCMinutes today plugin work with Spb Pocket Plus, just change following registry value from 1 to 2.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Today\Items\LCMinutes\Sele ctability

Why I change back the value from 2 to 1? Because this is the correct type of LCMinutes today plugin, it doesn't support the functionalities of type 2 yet.

Hope this clarifies.

[fourcc]

thanks, that did the trick!

[LyonPlus]

LCMinutes 1.37 is out with support of simultaneously data connection and phone calls, it also fix a bug that change of free minutes and data/SMS allowance is not reflected in balance initially.

Version 1.3x user should upgrade to 1.37.

[sevakm]

Is version1.37 WM5 compatible?

I just installed it, and it doesn't run properly.
Mainly, in the settings most of the fields don't show up. Even those that shop up don't behave like they should. E.g. nothing I type shows up.

[LyonPlus]

Is version1.37 WM5 compatible?

I just installed it, and it doesn't run properly.
Mainly, in the settings most of the fields don't show up. Even those that shop up don't behave like they should. E.g. nothing I type shows up.

LCMinutes should work on WM5 & 6, both PPC Phone and Smartphone. If it's not, please let me know your phone info.

If your phone is smartphone, please check whether you have followed the install guide (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2008/01/lcminutes-frequently-asked-questions.html#Install) or not.

[sevakm]

I have a T-Mobile MDA running the official T-Mobile rom. I had installed version 1.25 several weeks ago, and it was fine. Couple of days later I did a hard reset for unrelated reasons. Yesterday I decided I wanted LCMinutes back, and installed 1.37 and have the aforementioned problems.

I noticed today, that even though when in the settings I am typing something I don't see anything (it shows blanks), when I save the changes, they appear in the settings tab. But still, some of the settings are just not settable.

I should mention that I have changed the system font from Tahoma to Arian AMU, but this probably has nothing to do with the problem as other text shows up fine.

[LyonPlus]

I should mention that I have changed the system font from Tahoma to Arian AMU, but this probably has nothing to do with the problem as other text shows up fine.

Hi, Sevakm

Fonts might matters, as I am using default fonts except in the today screen plugin. And these edit box are responsible for their own display, when the size doesn't fit, they will not display.

BTW, can you get all your settings done (rate plan and balance) with the import/export feature?

[sevakm]

Hi, Sevakm

Fonts might matters, as I am using default fonts except in the today screen plugin. And these edit box are responsible for their own display, when the size doesn't fit, they will not display.

BTW, can you get all your settings done (rate plan and balance) with the import/export feature?

Actually when I type something in the multi-line fields, what I type does show up even in the edit mode, so perhaps you are right that the reason it doesn't show up in the one-line fields is that because of the font change the characters are too big.
But some fields are not editable at all. Only the name shows up, and the actual field doesn't show up. For example this is the case for the "Monthly Pay".

I did try to type something, save, export and then import back. It worked all right.

[LyonPlus]

But some fields are not editable at all. Only the name shows up, and the actual field doesn't show up. For example this is the case for the "Monthly Pay".

You mean there's no editbox for Monthly Pay and some other items? Are these missing editbox the same every time or are they different every time when you enter editing mode?

[sevakm]

You mean there's no editbox for Monthly Pay and some other items? Are these missing editbox the same every time or are they different every time when you enter editing mode?

Yes, there is no editbox for some items. I believe the same items are missing all the time.
Some of the missing ones are
Monthly Pay
Charged At
Call Rates
Connect Fee
Extra
SMS Rates

[LyonPlus]

Yes, there is no editbox for some items. I believe the same items are missing all the time.
Some of the missing ones are
Monthly Pay
Charged At
Call Rates
Connect Fee
Extra
SMS Rates

Hi, sevakm, thanks for the info, but I have no idea how this happens. I will try to add some more traces to find out why. Hope you can help me then.

BTW, I am trying to support fetching balance information from service message from your operator now, could you please let me know your operator?

[sevakm]

Hi, sevakm, thanks for the info, but I have no idea how this happens. I will try to add some more traces to find out why. Hope you can help me then.

BTW, I am trying to support fetching balance information from service message from your operator now, could you please let me know your operator?

Thanks for all the help.

As for the operator, I have T-Mobile and I'm in the US.

Let me know what other information you might need.

[LyonPlus]

Hi, sevakm, LCMinutes 1.38 is out with support of detecting balance info from service message, though without the auto dialing support.

If you are interested, you might have a try to see whether it works as it should.

And Kasush, if you are reading, please let me know how it works for your operator.

[sevakm]

Hi, sevakm, LCMinutes 1.38 is out with support of detecting balance info from service message, though without the auto dialing support.

If you are interested, you might have a try to see whether it works as it should.

And Kasush, if you are reading, please let me know how it works for your operator.

Thanks. I didn't quite understand how it should work. Is it supposed to automatically capture the information from the T-Mobile message? I dialed the codes several time, and got the messages stating the balance and used minutes, but LCMinutes didn't seem to detect anything.

The other problem I mentioned is still there. I attached a screenshot so you can see better what I mean. Hopefully this can be fixed. (I do really need to have a different system font, as that's the only way I have found to view text in Armenian).

One more thing. I would like to monitor how much of my calls are to one specific phone number. Is that possible? Since I don't have any other numbers to put in the special rates section, I thought I would put this number there, but with settings that would still imply the same usage price. Now, if there was a separate counter for special rate calls, this would be a solution to my task. Is this possible? Or is there another way to do what I want to do?

[LyonPlus]

Thanks. I didn't quite understand how it should work. Is it supposed to automatically capture the information from the T-Mobile message? I dialed the codes several time, and got the messages stating the balance and used minutes, but LCMinutes didn't seem to detect anything.

LCMinutes should detect the balance info when your service message arrives, after you manually dialed the service number. Could you please turn on the monitor trace, reboot and dial the service number again?

The other problem I mentioned is still there. I attached a screenshot so you can see better what I mean. Hopefully this can be fixed. (I do really need to have a different system font, as that's the only way I have found to view text in Armenian).

I might need to force the edit box to use specific fonts to do that. But again, could you please turn on the main trace, and repeat this screen, so I can check what's happening behind the scene?

One more thing. I would like to monitor how much of my calls are to one specific phone number. Is that possible? Since I don't have any other numbers to put in the special rates section, I thought I would put this number there, but with settings that would still imply the same usage price. Now, if there was a separate counter for special rate calls, this would be a solution to my task. Is this possible? Or is there another way to do what I want to do?

I am not sure what you want to monitor for that specific number. If it's the charge related to that specific number, then there's no way to do that, as there's only one counter for all charges. But if you only want to monitor the minutes related to that specific number, then you can use long distance counter for this purpose. Just check my special rates format (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2008/01/lcminutes-frequently-asked-questions.html#SpecialRates) on how to set this specific number as a long distance number.

And please send me the two trace files (monitor and main), which you can find under \Program Files\LCMinutes, to my email lyonplus[AT]gmail[DOT]com.

[oese]

Hello,

I have a litle question: For my data-access my provider rounds up to 10 kb. Is it possible to set up this?

oese

[LyonPlus]

Hello,

I have a litle question: For my data-access my provider rounds up to 10 kb. Is it possible to set up this?

oese

Hi, oese, it's not supported yet. But I may add this support in later release.

[Kasush]

Hi, sevakm, LCMinutes 1.38 is out with support of detecting balance info from service message, though without the auto dialing support.

If you are interested, you might have a try to see whether it works as it should.

And Kasush, if you are reading, please let me know how it works for your operator.

Unfortunately it is not catching the balance information. I have enclosed the screen shot of the log showing the time I did a balance inquiry, but it failed to change the values. Turned on the traces and created a trace log and attached as well.

[oese]

Hi, oese, it's not supported yet. But I may add this support in later release.

Thanx, that would be fine!!!

oese

[LyonPlus]

Unfortunately it is not catching the balance information. I have enclosed the screen shot of the log showing the time I did a balance inquiry, but it failed to change the values. Turned on the traces and created a trace log and attached as well.

Hi, Kasush, I will release a new version that let you manually set the network id so the detecting will start by force. Sorry for the false hope.

[oese]

Hi,

there's one question again:
My calls are rating in tow steps: For every call I have to pay at minimum 60 seconds, but after one minute of call I have to pay every 10 seconds. Is it possible to adjust?

(I think, that's my last question - for now ;-) )

oese

[Kasush]

Hi,

there's one question again:
My calls are rating in tow steps: For every call I have to pay at minimum 60 seconds, but after one minute of call I have to pay every 10 seconds. Is it possible to adjust?

(I think, that's my last question - for now ;-) )

oese

Actually, that is exactly how my provider charges as well.

[LyonPlus]

My calls are rating in tow steps: For every call I have to pay at minimum 60 seconds, but after one minute of call I have to pay every 10 seconds.

It's already supported for a very long time.

Set your rate plan as: assume your per minute rates is $60.
Call Rates: $10.00 in weekday
Per: 10 seconds
The First: 60 seconds in every
: Call is charged at
: $60 for every
: 60 seconds.

For further questions, please check LCMinutes FAQ (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2008/01/lcminutes-frequently-asked-questions.html) for setting up rate plan.

[LyonPlus]

LCMinutes 1.39 is now ready, again, for detecting balance info from service messages of T-Mobile USA and Kuwait Zain. Now user need to manually set their rate plan network id to related network to get the detection work.

What also changed are the charge unit for data usage can be set by user to any number of kilobytes, expire or effective date can now be displayed without year information, view setting for LCMinutes main window is now saved, and more importantly, more traces are added to debug the problem that some editing box for rate plan setting are not displayed in some htc Touch phones. Check LCMinutes change history (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2007/12/lcminutes-change-history.html) for more details.

For those htc Touch users that have this problem in rate plan setting, please install 1.39, turn on the main trace, reproduce the bug, and send the trace file (LCMTrace.TXT) to me.

[sevakm]

I am not sure what you want to monitor for that specific number. If it's the charge related to that specific number, then there's no way to do that, as there's only one counter for all charges. But if you only want to monitor the minutes related to that specific number, then you can use long distance counter for this purpose. Just check my special rates format (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2008/01/lcminutes-frequently-asked-questions.html#SpecialRates) on how to set this specific number as a long distance number.

.

I only wanted to monitor the minutes used for the specific number(s), so your suggestion worked. Thanks.

I tried the detecting of balance info and used minutes from service messages, and both worked ( I looked in the trace files). Thanks for fixing this.
Is it possible to display the used minutes reported by the message? Anyone who is on a family plan will probably interested in this, since if you want to make sure you don't go over limit with free minutes, it's not enough to know your usage.

And lastly, I decided to test if the reason the settings windows weren't showing up correctly was actually the font, so reverted back to Tahoma, and everything worked as it should (I was surprised to see the tabs in the settings, or the "Edit" buttons, since with the other font these don't show up at all). So as you were guessing, this is definitely caused by the font. Perhaps you should force your application to use the Tahoma font, no matter what the system font is.

I'll e-mail you the new trace files from my phone.

[LyonPlus]

I tried the detecting of balance info and used minutes from service messages, and both worked ( I looked in the trace files). Thanks for fixing this.
Is it possible to display the used minutes reported by the message? Anyone who is on a family plan will probably interested in this, since if you want to make sure you don't go over limit with free minutes, it's not enough to know your usage.

And lastly, I decided to test if the reason the settings windows weren't showing up correctly was actually the font, so reverted back to Tahoma, and everything worked as it should (I was surprised to see the tabs in the settings, or the "Edit" buttons, since with the other font these don't show up at all). So as you were guessing, this is definitely caused by the font. Perhaps you should force your application to use the Tahoma font, no matter what the system font is.

I'll e-mail you the new trace files from my phone.

Thanks, sevakm, for verifying for me about the font issue. I will try to force using the Tahoma font. But I need to figure out how to do that as for now I am not directly controlling these edit boxes.

And for balance and used minutes detecting, I didn't find any related info from the trace files you send me (and thanks for these traces!). How do you know the detecting is successful? Did you see a new balance in the main window?

And If it's added into the database, then it should be reflected in the today screen, just like any other used minutes change.

[LyonPlus]

LCMinutes 1.40 is ready with partially support of font customization, you need a registry editor to do it. And it fix the rate plan setting editing problem on some htc Touch phones. It also fixes error in detecting USA T-Mobile service messages. Check LCMinutes change history (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2007/12/lcminutes-change-history.html) for details.

Enjoy! :cool:

[Mike1002]

Hi, only just started using this app, seems to be working excellent currently.
Im trying to set up the specuial rates.

Basically i get half price stuff (pretty much) to t-mobile numbers, and i txt my gf most of the time, whos on t-mob.

Would this special rate work?

<number here>:<>:<0>:<0.08>/<0.08>/<0.08> /<0.08>/<0.08>/<0.05>/<0.00>;

Cheers, Mike.

[LyonPlus]

Hi, only just started using this app, seems to be working excellent currently.
Im trying to set up the specuial rates.

Basically i get half price stuff (pretty much) to t-mobile numbers, and i txt my gf most of the time, whos on t-mob.

Would this special rate work?

<number here>:<>:<0>:<0.08>/<0.08>/<0.08> /<0.08>/<0.08>/<0.05>/<0.00>;

Cheers, Mike.

Hi, Mike, let's assume you have a tmobile number 1234567, and the charge for outgoing call is $0.50, $0.40, $0.30 for weekday, weekend, evening respectively, while all incoming call is free, charge interval is per minute, every outgoing SMS is $0.20, and incoming SMS is $0.10, then your special rates string should be:

1234567:0:0.50/0.40/0.30/0.0:60:0.20/0.10;

You can also check special rates format (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2008/01/lcminutes-frequently-asked-questions.html#SpecialRatesFormat) for more details.
Hope this helps.

[Mike1002]

Thats great, cheers mate.

Is there anyway to get the operator name from the reciever?
I get 5p T-Mob -> T-Mob texts so this would be useful, although it sounds like it wouldnt be possible.....

Mike.

[LyonPlus]

Thats great, cheers mate.

Is there anyway to get the operator name from the reciever?
I get 5p T-Mob -> T-Mob texts so this would be useful, although it sounds like it wouldnt be possible.....

Mike.

Hi, Mike, which receiver you are referring to? RF receiver? Currently I do get the operator name for OS for the name of the rate plan.

But what the usage of operator name in your mind?

[Mike1002]

No, sorry, didnt make that clear :)

Say i send someone a SMS - is there a way of working out which network their on (eg - Orange, o2, t-mobile).

Some of my SMS rates are based on which network the person im sending the message too.

EG - I am on t-mobile, and i send an SMS to someone on t-mobile, it will cost me 5p (20p for a call) - that to everyone on t-mobile.
If i send someone an SMS on Orange, itll cost me 12p, calling costs 40p.

So im looking for the operator name of the person receiving the call/SMS.

Cheers, Mike.

[LyonPlus]

No, sorry, didnt make that clear :)

Say i send someone a SMS - is there a way of working out which network their on (eg - Orange, o2, t-mobile).

Some of my SMS rates are based on which network the person im sending the message too.

EG - I am on t-mobile, and i send an SMS to someone on t-mobile, it will cost me 5p (20p for a call) - that to everyone on t-mobile.
If i send someone an SMS on Orange, itll cost me 12p, calling costs 40p.

So im looking for the operator name of the person receiving the call/SMS.

Cheers, Mike.

Hi, Mike, please use special rates for this, it's designed specially for supporting long distance, per pay service numbers (900 numbers), and network based rates (your case). Check special rates format (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2008/01/lcminutes-frequently-asked-questions.html#SpecialRates) for details.

[illi]

Hi
I had v1.39 installed. It was fine. When you release v1.40 I had that installed after having v1.39 uninstalled of course. I followed your installation instructions to the book.

The problem arises when I reboot my device. It hang at the splash screen. Even removing the battery didnt work. I managed to revive the device by reflashing the ROM.This time I only installed LCMinutes and no other software. It power up but didnt read my SDcard. This caused a new folder "Storage Card" to be created. My actual SDcard was renamed to Storage Card2. There is no way to correct this situation except flashing the ROM; again!

It was a mess. Sorry!

Do you think you can release me v1.39. I was comfortable with that version.

For your info my device is Htc Tornado with home brewed WM6 ROM.

thank you

[daxliniere]

Hi
This created "Storage Card". My actual SDcard was renamed to Storage Card2.

This happened to me once with some other bit of software. I can't remember exactly what the solution was, but I found it on this forum. ...somewhere :rolleyes:

[daxliniere]

Hey LyonPlus,
I'm still on 1.37, so forgive me if these options have been added since...
All of my calls and SMS are included in my monthly cap, but all internet traffic is charged on top.
I currently have my today screen displaying "Show balance" and "Show Used Data Allowance" which gives me a pretty good idea how close I am to going over my cap, but it includes data charges, giving me a false impression of actual non-data use.

I would really like to see the options "Show data cost" and "Don't include data cost in balance" added to the Display Settings menu.
Both should be easy for you to implement, even if you had to implement "Don't include data cost in balance" as BALANCE-DATACOST=BALANCE_WITHOUT_DATACOST

What do you think? 1.41? :D

All the best!
Dax.

[Mike1002]

Hey again.
I just installed 1.40.
And it was either that, or the fact i tried to add another special rates thing to the list, but now none of the special rates work.

How do i seperate the special rates, just with the ; - is there anything else that i need?

Cheers, Mike.

PS - how exactly would i go about setting up a special rate for people on different networks?

Thanks!

[illi]

This happened to me once with some other bit of software. I can't remember exactly what the solution was, but I found it on this forum. ...somewhere :rolleyes:

Sorry I cant remember which web site I got this very useful guide to give credit to. But I found 2 periods worked better.

Can the originator of this guide please stand up!

"Easy way to fix SD card "Storage Card2" issue.
The best fix requires proper preparation but if you're reading this AFTER your storage card was renamed Storage Card2 you're still in luck. If you have not done so you should install the App Unlock cab. Then install WM5torage to the DEVICE, not the storage card. When you activate WM5torage it unmounts the SD card from the device and when you deactivate WM5torage the device remounts the SD card with the default name. So what are the step by step instructions? Here they are.

1. Use File Explorer to rename "Storage Card" to "Storage Card.." (you're basically adding two periods to the end of "Storage Card".

2. Activate WM5torage then deactivate WM5torage.

3. Reboot

4. Delete "Storage Card.." (the two with the period)

This method takes less than a minute and restores the name of the SD card to "Storage Card""


THANK YOU

[HuiBuh_1]

This caused a new folder "Storage Card" to be created. My actual SDcard was renamed to Storage Card2. There is no way to correct this situation except flashing the ROM; again!


I had the same problem.
In my case removing the storage card, deleting the folder "storage card" using for example "total commander" and reinserting the Storage card helped.

I'm not sure, may be I did it the other way around: delete "Storage card", then remove Card and reinsert.

So give it a try. You have nothing to loose (as far as I understood: You have a clear phone with only LCMinutes installed :)).

regards
huibuh_1

EDIT: too slow.....

[LyonPlus]

Do you think you can release me v1.39. I was comfortable with that version.

For your info my device is Htc Tornado with home brewed WM6 ROM.


Hi, illi, Sorry to hear the mess, but this is the first time I have heard of this, I really have no clue. And you can download 1.39 here (http://lyonplus.googlepages.com/LCMinutesPPCV1.39.CAB).

And just want to confirm, does the method you mentioned in following post fix this mess?

I would really like to see the options "Show data cost" and "Don't include data cost in balance" added to the Display Settings menu.
Both should be easy for you to implement, even if you had to implement "Don't include data cost in balance" as BALANCE-DATACOST=BALANCE_WITHOUT_DATACOST

What do you think? 1.41? :D


Hi, daxliniere, this is good idea but unfortunately for now there's not separate charge counter for data usage (or call minutes, SMS usage for that matters). But I will consider adding separate counter for each type of usage.

How do i seperate the special rates, just with the ; - is there anything else that i need?

Cheers, Mike.

PS - how exactly would i go about setting up a special rate for people on different networks?

Hi, Mike, just a ; is enough. But you can also use a new line for better format.

Special rate for different networks? That really depends on these characteristics of these phone numbers. For example, if all numbers from ntwork A started with 222, then you can put something like

222:0:0.50/0.40/0.30/0.0:60:0.20/0.10;

And this will apply to all numbers started with 222. So you can have strings like:

222:0:0.50/0.40/0.30/0.0:60:0.20/0.10;
333:0:0.50/0.40/0.30/0.0:60:0.20/0.10;
444:0:0.50/0.40/0.30/0.0:60:0.20/0.10;

But if unfortunately you have phone numbers that no one know which network it belongs to unless you are familiar with this number (or you are its operator), then you have to list them one by one in the special rates.

Hope this helps.

[LyonPlus]

EDIT: too slow.....

Hi, Huibuh_1, thanks for sharing your experiences.

Too slow? And you are referring to ...? :confused:

[HuiBuh_1]

Hi, Huibuh_1, thanks for sharing your experiences.

Too slow? And you are referring to ...? :confused:

Hi LyonPlus,

I was referring to the solution illi posted just some minutes before the solution I posted.
Anyhow now I'm confused: there are post in the thread which haven't been there the last time I visited, but there are dated some hours before my visit (daxliniere post at 1:46 and Mike1002 at 02:17). I'm pretty sure they haven't been there at my last visit (03:15 pm ):confused:

Regards
Huibuh_1

[illi]

Hi, illi, Sorry to hear the mess, but this is the first time I have heard of this, I really have no clue. And you can download 1.39 here (http://lyonplus.googlepages.com/LCMinutesPPCV1.39.CAB).

And just want to confirm, does the method you mentioned in following post fix this mess?



@LyonPlus
Thanks for v1.39. Will install shortly.
Yes! This method help me over-come Storage Card2 issue. No need to re-flash he ROM.

Thanks

Edit: To satisfy my curiousity, I re-installed v1.40. The same thing happened with ths SDCard.
I then installed v1.39. The plugin wont display. Wondered why.
I cant get the plugin to install.
It is not in the CLSID registry. How can I get this done?

[Mike1002]

Hi, ive just installed 1.40 and now it seems that its not recognising any calls/SMS.

They arent appearing in the list, but the credit is still deducted properly?
I can't really figure out whats going on.
I'll try to re-install 1.39, which seemed to work.

Cheers, Mike.

EDIT - Just re-installed 1.39, and its still not recognising, not SMS/Calls - still updates balance though.
It just wont recognise a NEW call/sms out/in bound.
I've tried opening the program first trying it, leaving it open and trying it, just trying it, and it doesnt want to recognise anything.

Any help please? :(

Cheers, Mike.

[LyonPlus]

Hi, ive just installed 1.40 and now it seems that its not recognising any calls/SMS.

They arent appearing in the list, but the credit is still deducted properly?
I can't really figure out whats going on.
I'll try to re-install 1.39, which seemed to work.

Cheers, Mike.

EDIT - Just re-installed 1.39, and its still not recognising, not SMS/Calls - still updates balance though.
It just wont recognise a NEW call/sms out/in bound.
I've tried opening the program first trying it, leaving it open and trying it, just trying it, and it doesnt want to recognise anything.

Any help please? :(

Cheers, Mike.

Hi, Mike, if the balance is changed but no call or sms is displayed, could you please check Menu -> View -> Call/SMS/Data to see whether the display is turned off for call/SMS/data?

[LyonPlus]

@LyonPlus
Thanks for v1.39. Will install shortly.
Yes! This method help me over-come Storage Card2 issue. No need to re-flash he ROM.

Thanks

Edit: To satisfy my curiousity, I re-installed v1.40. The same thing happened with ths SDCard.
I then installed v1.39. The plugin wont display. Wondered why.
I cant get the plugin to install.
It is not in the CLSID registry. How can I get this done?

Maybe you should install LCMinutes 1.39 for Smartphone (http://lyonplus.googlepages.com/LCMinutesSPV1.39.CAB)?

[Mike1002]

They are ticked, but now the balance isnt changing either.
Its like the software isnt "on".

Cheers, Mike.

Also, if i go into the Balance options, when ive made a call/SMS - the minutes used/SMS used dont update.

[LyonPlus]

They are ticked, but now the balance isnt changing either.
Its like the software isnt "on".

Cheers, Mike.

Also, if i go into the Balance options, when ive made a call/SMS - the minutes used/SMS used dont update.

Hi, Mike, could you please turn on the monitor and main trace, reboot your machine and check what's in these 2 trace files (LCMMTrace.TXT and LCMTrace.TXT) under \Program Files\LCMinutes? If you can't find LCMMTrace.txt, then it means the monitor module is not running.

And you can email me the trace files to lyonplus[AT]gmail[DOT]com.

[illi]

Maybe you should install LCMinutes 1.39 for Smartphone (http://lyonplus.googlepages.com/LCMinutesSPV1.39.CAB)?

Thanks LyonPlus. It worked.
I wished I could change the font size/color to be the same as my other items on the homescreen...:D

[Mike1002]

how do I turn the trace on? I tried opening the mintool, and othing happens.
I did a soft reset though (on 1.39) and its working now.
tomorrow ill try putting in my special rates and see if it still does it.

cheers, mike.

[LyonPlus]

Thanks LyonPlus. It worked.
I wished I could change the font size/color to be the same as my other items on the homescreen...:D

Unfortunately font size change is only available in 1.40. And color change not supported yet.

[LyonPlus]

how do I turn the trace on? I tried opening the mintool, and othing happens.
I did a soft reset though (on 1.39) and its working now.
tomorrow ill try putting in my special rates and see if it still does it.

cheers, mike.

Hi, Mike, to turn on trace, go to Menu -> Settings -> Misc, check turn on monitor trace, turn on main trace.

[Mike1002]

Hi, I've soft re-set my device, then turned the traces on, then soft-reset it again, and it seems to be fine (confused).

I havent updated any of the settings yet, though.

I'll leave the trace on whilst i update the settings, and if it happens again ill send you the log files.

And for future reference, whats the name of the trace process? So i can physically see if its running.


Cheers, Mike.

UPDATE - After setting all the right options, i put in my special rates. 1 special rate works fine, and the monitoring happens still, but when i add another one, then it monitor anything.
I've 2 special rates set up, one for my balance line (calls and SMS are all free) and one for a friend of mine (07 number).

Just done a test, with either special rates on, it monitors everything fine, and works everything out right.

Just put 2 in, hmm, and now its working :P

Could it be the order?
I swapped the order of them around.

Maybe not, maybe im going insane.

It seems to work now :S
Well there you go, it all works 100% perfectly.

I've uploaded the logs, if you can make anything out of them??

LCMMTrace.txt - http://freetexthost.com/kwsmm2hhwp
LCMTrace.txt - http://rapidshare.com/files/97941406/LCMTrace.TXT.html

Thanks for your help throughout :)

Mike.

[LyonPlus]

Hi, I've soft re-set my device, then turned the traces on, then soft-reset it again, and it seems to be fine (confused).

I havent updated any of the settings yet, though.

I'll leave the trace on whilst i update the settings, and if it happens again ill send you the log files.

And for future reference, whats the name of the trace process? So i can physically see if its running.


Cheers, Mike.

UPDATE - After setting all the right options, i put in my special rates. 1 special rate works fine, and the monitoring happens still, but when i add another one, then it monitor anything.
I've 2 special rates set up, one for my balance line (calls and SMS are all free) and one for a friend of mine (07 number).

Just done a test, with either special rates on, it monitors everything fine, and works everything out right.

Just put 2 in, hmm, and now its working :P

Could it be the order?
I swapped the order of them around.

Maybe not, maybe im going insane.

It seems to work now :S
Well there you go, it all works 100% perfectly.

I've uploaded the logs, if you can make anything out of them??

LCMMTrace.txt - http://freetexthost.com/kwsmm2hhwp
LCMTrace.txt - http://rapidshare.com/files/97941406/LCMTrace.TXT.html

Thanks for your help throughout :)

Mike.

Hi, Mike, so it at last works fine now, if I understand you correctly?

I have gone through your trace files, and I didn't find problems with it. You can delete them now.

[Sushikidd]

hi, this is truly a very interesting application, n im so glad i found it.. ive been frustrated with smaato's solution (if you happen to know it:) which doesnt seem to work properly at all, and now even installs some annoying autonomous adware too...

one question tho, is there a way in which i can make LCminutes show the individual cost of a particular call just after (or during) i made that call? and does it update the today screen immediately?

thanx!

[Mike1002]

Yeah, all seems to work fine.

Ill keep you posted though :P

Cheers for your help :)

Mike.

[LyonPlus]

hi, this is truly a very interesting application, n im so glad i found it.. ive been frustrated with smaato's solution (if you happen to know it:) which doesnt seem to work properly at all, and now even installs some annoying autonomous adware too...

one question tho, is there a way in which i can make LCminutes show the individual cost of a particular call just after (or during) i made that call? and does it update the today screen immediately?

thanx!

Hi, Sushikidd, no display in today screen for the cost of a single call yet. But the overall cost will update immediately, and you can open LCMinutes to check the cost for every single call and sms, or data usage.

And why not try LCMinutes on your touch to see how it works? :cool:

[Sushikidd]

Hi, Sushikidd, no display in today screen for the cost of a single call yet. But the overall cost will update immediately, and you can open LCMinutes to check the cost for every single call and sms, or data usage.

And why not try LCMinutes on your touch to see how it works? :cool:

ok, thats satisfactory for now then, ill be waiting for the next version :)

i am trying the current version now, and so far so good, but i have a few questions tho..

i want to set an extra charge for a few foreign numbers that i regularly call, and a few 'discount' numbers.. the question is: can i add numbers starting with a '+' sign? since thats the international code..

and how to use the warning during calls? it has 2 separate timers..?

and one more: im using a flexible plan by t-mobile, that adjusts the rates as my use increases.. if i use more than my usual monthly fee, ill be bumped up to a bigger plan with cheaper minutes and sms's for the rest of that month.. do you have any way to deal with that in the application?

[LyonPlus]

i want to set an extra charge for a few foreign numbers that i regularly call, and a few 'discount' numbers.. the question is: can i add numbers starting with a '+' sign? since thats the international code..

You can add the "+" sign, but it will be discarded. So "+1416" is the same with "1416".

and how to use the warning during calls? it has 2 separate timers..?

Seems my text for call warning timer need better wording. The first timer is time it should warn, while the second timer is the period.

40 second for incoming call
60 seconds

means LCMinutes will warn you at the 40th second of every 60 seconds.

and one more: im using a flexible plan by t-mobile, that adjusts the rates as my use increases.. if i use more than my usual monthly fee, ill be bumped up to a bigger plan with cheaper minutes and sms's for the rest of that month.. do you have any way to deal with that in the application?

No plan for this support yet, but I will consider it. Could you please give more details? Like what's the limit? And what rates is changed? Is there further charge rates change (just 2 levels or even 3 levels)?

[Sushikidd]

thnx for your swift replies :)

well ive a bigger problem even, as it turns out.. ive tried to soft reset, and ive checked the log texts, but i dont see anything wrong but its still not registering my calls and sms's... very strange.. maybe ive doen something wrong in the settings? i have set my phone not to store sent sms's... could that have anything to do with it? since LCminutes doesnt log sent sms's in the overview either...

ive set the call price, the sms price, and listed a few numbers that need to be charged extra when dialed.. i
ve enabled the traces..
ive manually updated the balance..
ive set free incoming sms and calls...
same charge for day, evening, or weekend..
ive an data flat rate plan so ive set 0 expense for data..
ive set 0 for call start charges or first minute charges...
no extra charges...
ive set free minutes at a test number of 100 per day and 200 per weekend.. ive set the charged date at 27..
ive set all charges to rollover..

see:
weekdays 0-6
evening 00-00
evening as weekend yes
free incoming call yes
free calls: 112;0800
call rates 0,17 for weekday, weekend, and evening. per 60 seconds.
first 0 seconds in every call is charged at 0.000 for evey 0 seconds
connect fee 0.00 per call
free minutes: 0 for long distance
special rates (for example):
09000213:+:0:0.13:0.13:0.13:0:60:0.29:0.0
09000206:+:0:0.06:0.06:0.06:0:60:0.29:0.0
+44:+:0:0.55:0.55:0.55:0:60:0.29:0.0
etc.
so in the first example its an extra charge of 13 ct. per call and 29 ct. per sms (is that extra or replacement then?)

further:
extra 0.00 charged daily
adjust 10 seconds per call
data limit 0 mb
0.000 for every extra 1 kb
round up yes
free sms 0
rollover yes
shared SMS/ Call units yes
0 seconds per sms
sms rates 0.08 per sms out, 0.00 per sms in
free incoming sms yes
tax rates: all 0.00

btw is there a limit to the special rates window? i have quite a few special rates numbers n i i seem to have reached the limit..i cant complete the last string...


ill check if i can find a t-mobile flex plan for u to have a look at..

[Sushikidd]

T-Mobile Flex.
Flex 15 Flex 20 Flex 25 Flex 30 Flex 45 Flex 70 Flex 100
Je koopt per maand een maandbedrag van € 15,00 € 20,00 € 25,00 € 30,00 € 45,00
€ 70,00 € 100,00
Je betaalt € 15,00 € 20,00 € 25,00 € 30,00 € 45,00 € 70,00 € 100,00
Tarief per minuut € 0,22 € 0,20 € 0,18 € 0,16 € 0,15 € 0,13 € 0,12
Tarief per sms € 0,22 € 0,20 € 0,18 € 0,16 € 0,15 € 0,13 € 0,12
Tarief per mms € 0,44 € 0,40 € 0,36 € 0,32 € 0,30 € 0,26 € 0,24

Sms Verdubbelaar
Je betaalt + €2,50 + €2,50 + €2,50 + €2,50 + €2,50 + € 2,50 + € 2,50
Tarief per sms € 0,11 € 0,10 € 0,09 € 0,08 € 0,08 € 0,07 € 0,06
Tarief per mms € 0,22 € 0,20 € 0,18 € 0,16 € 0,15 € 0,13 € 0,12

well this isnt very clear becos of the format but maybe i wil give u a good enough idea..

this is how it works:
lets say i have a flex 30 contract. f.e calls will cost me 16 cts per minute. if i use more than the 30 euros credit belonging to that account, ill be charged according to a higher plan (flex 45, or 70, or 100, depending on how much i exceeded my credit). if i use sleghtly more than my 30 euros credit, ill be charged 15 cts per minute instead of 16, becos ive been automatically bumped up to the flex 45 plan for this month. if i then even exceed 45 euros, ill be bumped up even higher, with according rates. and so on.
so its in steps, yes. the more i call/sms, the lower my charges per minute/sms become. this is calculted at the end of each contract month.

the "sms verdubbelaar" just means u can pay 2,50 to have the price of sms's cut in half(or: you can have double the amount of sms's for the same price, but its the same.)
oh, all this is only valid for national calls and messages, not international or service numbers.

i know this is quite complicated. but do you think you could use this/work this into the LCminutes plan somehow?

[LyonPlus]

well ive a bigger problem even, as it turns out.. ive tried to soft reset, and ive checked the log texts, but i dont see anything wrong but its still not registering my calls and sms's... very strange.. maybe ive doen something wrong in the settings? i have set my phone not to store sent sms's... could that have anything to do with it? since LCminutes doesnt log sent sms's in the overview either...


Yes, that could very much be the reason, because LCMinutes does fetch the outgoing SMS from the sent folder.

special rates (for example):
09000213:+:0:0.13:0.13:0.13:0:60:0.29:0.0
09000206:+:0:0.06:0.06:0.06:0:60:0.29:0.0
+44:+:0:0.55:0.55:0.55:0:60:0.29:0.0


These special rates should be:

09000213:+0:0.13/0.13/0.13/0:60:0.29/0.0;
09000206:+0:0.06/0.06/0.06/0:60:0.29/0.0;
44:+0:0.55/0.55/0.55/0:60:0.29/0.0;

Please check the special rate format (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2008/01/lcminutes-frequently-asked-questions.html#SpecialRatesFormat) for more explanation.

btw is there a limit to the special rates window? i have quite a few special rates numbers n i i seem to have reached the limit..i cant complete the last string...


Yes, the limit for special rates is 1024 UCS2 characters.

[LyonPlus]

this is how it works:
lets say i have a flex 30 contract. f.e calls will cost me 16 cts per minute. if i use more than the 30 euros credit belonging to that account, ill be charged according to a higher plan (flex 45, or 70, or 100, depending on how much i exceeded my credit). if i use sleghtly more than my 30 euros credit, ill be charged 15 cts per minute instead of 16, becos ive been automatically bumped up to the flex 45 plan for this month. if i then even exceed 45 euros, ill be bumped up even higher, with according rates. and so on.
so its in steps, yes. the more i call/sms, the lower my charges per minute/sms become. this is calculted at the end of each contract month.

the "sms verdubbelaar" just means u can pay 2,50 to have the price of sms's cut in half(or: you can have double the amount of sms's for the same price, but its the same.)
oh, all this is only valid for national calls and messages, not international or service numbers.

i know this is quite complicated. but do you think you could use this/work this into the LCminutes plan somehow?

Hi, Sushikidd, basically this is a charge mode based on monthly usage. I have no plan to support it for now, but maybe I will come back for this later after I have implemented other more common features, like roaming, time based data usage charge, exporting monthly usage, etc.

[Sushikidd]

Yes, that could very much be the reason, because LCMinutes does fetch the outgoing SMS from the sent folder.

is there anyway around this? and after i delete my sent folder contents, will that affect the LCminutes balance then?

These special rates should be:

09000213:+0:0.13/0.13/0.13/0:60:0.29/0.0;
09000206:+0:0.06/0.06/0.06/0:60:0.29/0.0;
44:+0:0.55/0.55/0.55/0:60:0.29/0.0;

Please check the special rate format (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2008/01/lcminutes-frequently-asked-questions.html#SpecialRatesFormat) for more explanation.

ive changed it as you described here, thanks for the correction.. the balance does get updated now, however, it still seems to ignore the special rates... is there anything else i should change?

Yes, the limit for special rates is 1024 UCS2 characters.

could you expand this? oh, and u said in special rates it ignores the '+' sign before a phonenumber.. does it ignore '00' too?

this is truly an ingenious application... it must have taken a lot of thought to come up with the (many) solutions to flexibility problems.. i would love to have it working pefectly..

[LyonPlus]

is there anyway around this? and after i delete my sent folder contents, will that affect the LCminutes balance then?

LCMinutes record sent message immediately after it's moved to sent folder, and save it in its own database. So it's fine for you to delete the sent sms after it reaches the sent folder.

But if you can take a trace, maybe I can find a solution so I can change the LCMinutes algorithm a little bit so it can track your sent SMS without saving it to sent folder. But of course it's just a possibility, it may well not work out.


ive changed it as you described here, thanks for the correction.. the balance does get updated now, however, it still seems to ignore the special rates... is there anything else i should change?

Please turn on LCMinutes monitor trace, and then reboot your machine, reproduce this problem, and export your rate plan, and send me a copy of your rate plan and trace file LCMMTrace.TXT so I can see what happened.


could you expand this? oh, and u said in special rates it ignores the '+' sign before a phonenumber.. does it ignore '00' too?

"00" will not be ignored. But I will add "+" sign to the supported character list so LCMinutes can support international call rates better.

And could you please let me know why you need more space than 1024?

[Sushikidd]

LCMinutes record sent message immediately after it's moved to sent folder, and save it in its own database. So it's fine for you to delete the sent sms after it reaches the sent folder.

and can i prevent LCminutes from logging everything? or make it easier to clear the log?

But if you can take a trace, maybe I can find a solution so I can change the LCMinutes algorithm a little bit so it can track your sent SMS without saving it to sent folder. But of course it's just a possibility, it may well not work out.

i dun mind trying ;) trace is attached in the next post..


Please turn on LCMinutes monitor trace, and then reboot your machine, reproduce this problem, and export your rate plan, and send me a copy of your rate plan and trace file LCMMTrace.TXT so I can see what happened.
And could you please let me know why you need more space than 1024?

well ull see when u open my special rates plan :)

[Sushikidd]

heres the special rate plan and the trace75113

[LyonPlus]

heres the special rate plan and the trace

Hi, Sushikidd, thanks for the traces. But it seems I need more traces for this message thing to get more details. So I still have no idea what's wrong here, because from the traces everything is detected and fine.

But it also seems you still get the special rates format wrong, which should be something like

Correct: 44:+0:0.55/0.55/0.55/0:60:0.25/0.0;

instead of

Wrong: 44:+:0:0.55/0.55/0.55/0:60:0.25/0.0;

Please notice the extra colon (:) removed.

Hope this helps.

BTW: please delete your trace files now.

[Sushikidd]

Hi, Sushikidd, thanks for the traces. But it seems I need more traces for this message thing to get more details. So I still have no idea what's wrong here, because from the traces everything is detected and fine.

But it also seems you still get the special rates format wrong, which should be something like

Correct: 44:+0:0.55/0.55/0.55/0:60:0.25/0.0;

instead of

Wrong: 44:+:0:0.55/0.55/0.55/0:60:0.25/0.0;

Please notice the extra colon (:) removed.

Hope this helps.


yes it did!! :) very happy now.. stil a few minor wishes: on the today plugin sms counter it doesnt register the sent special rates sms number.. it does register the normal sms's sent tho..

is there a better way to delete the log, instead of deleting each category separately? or not to log anything at all, but still have the counter updated properly? when i tap the today plugin i would prefer to see the quick babance overview as the one in 'settings' instead of the whole long log list.. thats a bit too much detail for me as a power user..;)
besides, i like to save as much memory space as possible..

other than that, this app is fantastic!:) just what ive been looking for for years already...! my bills usually come as unwelcome surprises at the end of the month, and im very bad at guessing my balance by myself... this gives me a much needed constant overview and helps to tone my phone use down if needed..
mucho kudos!

[LyonPlus]

yes it did!! :) very happy now.. stil a few minor wishes: on the today plugin sms counter it doesnt register the sent special rates sms number.. it does register the normal sms's sent tho..

Unfortunately there's no separate counter for special rates yet. And I don't know whether such a counter makes sense or not, as the special rates can be used for various purposes, like long distance, network based charge, pay per call numbers, etc.

is there a better way to delete the log, instead of deleting each category separately? or not to log anything at all, but still have the counter updated properly? when i tap the today plugin i would prefer to see the quick babance overview as the one in 'settings' instead of the whole long log list.. thats a bit too much detail for me as a power user..;)
besides, i like to save as much memory space as possible..

You could check Menu -> View -> Balance, while uncheck all others, so you see only balance info. And yes, charging but not logging is a nice suggestion I might implement in later version.

other than that, this app is fantastic!:) just what ive been looking for for years already...! my bills usually come as unwelcome surprises at the end of the month, and im very bad at guessing my balance by myself... this gives me a much needed constant overview and helps to tone my phone use down if needed..
mucho kudos!

Thanks for sharing your ideas, and this is all LCMinutes is about! :D

[Sushikidd]

Unfortunately there's no separate counter for special rates yet. And I don't know whether such a counter makes sense or not, as the special rates can be used for various purposes, like long distance, network based charge, pay per call numbers, etc.

well i mean not a separate counter, but the regular counter.. it counts only sms's sent to normal numbers, not the ones sent to special rate numbers..

plus, i may have been cheering a bit too soon, because it also seems not to register outgoing calls to normal numbers, while it does register outgoing calls to special rate numbers.. i dont know if this can be caused by my settings somehow..?


You could check Menu -> View -> Balance, while uncheck all others, so you see only balance info. And yes, charging but not logging is a nice suggestion I might implement in later version.

hey, that worked! :D sorry i missed that option completely.. ill schedule an appointment with the optometrist tomorrow..

[Morphdesign]

well.. i dunno what i've done wrong.. but the program doesn't seems to charge me for any calls i made :S

it actually added 0.12€ for sending an SMS :S and it doesn't charge me for calling.

this is what Vodafone does: costs my monthly 50Eur. And i can call for 0.11ct per minute.

This is what my settings are:

operator: vodafone
monthly pay: €50,-
addon/net/misc: €0,-
Charged at: day 1
Free minutes: 0 for weekday/weekend/eveing
(i didn't checked the rollover boxes.. (dunno what this does :S)
weekday: 1-5
evening is not as weekend

free calls: free incoming calls
call rates: 0.11 in weekday/weekend and evening
per 60 seconds (no start rate)

The first 0 seconds in every day is charged at 0.000 for every 0 seconds (this doesn't do anything i guess :S)

free minutes: 0

Then also i set up the current balance at 30euro. It also says:
Minutes used: 11 weekday
Used sms: 1

------

Any thing more needed??

[LyonPlus]

well i mean not a separate counter, but the regular counter.. it counts only sms's sent to normal numbers, not the ones sent to special rate numbers..

Oh yeah, I just noticed in your situation (because + is used) the SMS counter should be increased. I will check that.

plus, i may have been cheering a bit too soon, because it also seems not to register outgoing calls to normal numbers, while it does register outgoing calls to special rate numbers.. i dont know if this can be caused by my settings somehow..?

I will investigate this too.

[LyonPlus]

well.. i dunno what i've done wrong.. but the program doesn't seems to charge me for any calls i made :S

it actually added 0.12€ for sending an SMS :S and it doesn't charge me for calling.

Hi, Morphdesign, did you see the calls in the main window of LCMinutes?

If yes, then please turn on monitor trace, reboot your phone, reproduce one call or two, then send the trace file LCMMTrace.TXT which you can find in \Program Files\LCMinutes to me at LyonPlus[AT]gmail[DOT]com.

[LyonPlus]

LCMinutes 1.42 is out with some minor feature changes and bug fixing. Check the change history (http://lctools.blogspot.com/2007/12/lcminutes-change-history.html) for details. The main changes are use KB instead of MB as the unit for data allowance (thus support data allowance like 3.8M or so), add character "+" into allowed number char in free number and special rates strings (so user can put number like "+14161234567" into special rates), and fix a call connection fee bug.