So I played a bit with it and anything done through the remote isn’t visible through the Chromecast. This probably is because the apps by default are Google TV (Android TV) Android apps. So if you start Netflix and watch something, you don’t see the media title changing etc. Of course if you cast from your phone, then the Cast apps (which are just Web apps) run and changes can be observed through the Chromecast items.
If you want to tackle something like this yourself, you might be able to use the bleson library. You can see an example of a script I wrote (based on another script) to sniff the BT temp and humidity readings from Govee 5072 sensors. All the BTLE messages received get processed so you could print them all out and look for the ones from the Chromecast remote (assuming it uses BTLE which makes sense that it would).
How did you wire this all? I see that thread. Did you sniff BT events (is BT that insecure?) and then posted on an MQTT queue for openHAB to consume? I am new at all of this… but I can learn 
. Especially with examples. Would MQTT be necessary, and simpler than, say, triggering something over the REST API? (At least as a first step.)
Darn, that’s too bad. I was hoping that Idling would change when you’re using the Google TV interface, but it makes sense that the Google TV interface isn’t invoking any cast functions.
I was planning to pick one of these up to replace my 1st-gen CC, but I might save a few bucks and just get the 3rd-gen instead.
I was planning to pick one of these up to replace my 1st-gen CC, but I might save a few bucks and just get the 3rd-gen instead.
The Google TV UI is great. And you can still Cast from your phone etc. Rumor has it that it’s going to be $39 for the holidays. At that price I’d get that one. It’s also more future proof in that it supports 4K and HDR (but not Stadia yet), for less than the Ultra.
Plus once you have it, you may be motivated to figure out how to detect button presses .
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I just double checked Idling and it’s not used apparently. I turned the Chromecast off: nothing. Turned back on: nothing. Turned the screen saver/ambient mode on: nothing. Of course that channel comes from the binding, which as one you said uses a third party library, so who knows if anything could be detected using a newer library?
There may be a workaround where you use Tasker to get the active app and send a message to MQTT.
You might even be able to get the title of the playing media.
see: https://www.reddit.com/r/tasker/comments/2ok22p/could_somebody_please_help_me_get_tasker_to_read/cmnyh5d/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
But these are just some thoughts.
I did not try this myself.
Many years ago (2016 I think) I needed a way to send commands to a relay attached to a RPi in my garage to open the garage doors. I also had reed sensors that report the open/closed state of the garage doors. So I wrote a Python script I call sensor_reporter that runs on the RPi and reports the sensor states and triggers the relay when it receives messages. Over the years I and others have continued to improve and add to it so it now supports all sorts of BT stuff, DHT sensors, executing command line commands, Amazon Dash buttons, etc. Some of this is duplicative of what is already built into OH but I wrote them before OH had those capabilities, or there are other reasons why I don’t want to do it on the OH server itself.
For the Govee BT stuff, I found an example on GitHub that was actually written for Home Assistant that parsed out the readings from the BT messages. So I took that as an example and adapted it work as a sensor in sensor_reporter.
Basically yes. Unless the device goes through some effort to encrypt the messages BTLE broadcasts can be sniffed by anyone. I can’t claim credit for figuring that stuff out though, as I said, I had an example to work from. The “posted on an MQTT [topic]” part is already built into sensor_reporter. That is based on code I originally wrote five years ago (recently refactored).
MQTT has some advantages that make me choose it over other options most of the time. In particular the LWT and careful use of retained messages and the fact that it’s a standard not tied to any specific home automation system makes it very powerful. But sensor_reporter has another openHAB communicator that uses the openHAB REST API and SSE feed to send/receive Item states. However, because of the dynamic nature of the Govee add-on, I don’t have a good way to use that communicator with it so for now MQTT is the only choice for that specific sensor.
I wrote sensor_reporter to be modular so I only have to figure out how to do things once. So it has a core that is reused by everything. Communicators are independent so with the one exception it doesn’t matter what sensor_reporter uses to send and receive messages. Thus, to add a new capability to it just requires figuring out that new capability and all the rest (loading the configuration file, figuring out how to send and receive messages, running as a service, handling signals from the OS, thread management, etc.) is already done for you.
There are other programs on github that do this too, but mine was first. 
The openHAB Android app has integration with Tasker so no need to mess with MQTT or the REST API directly. But if you didn’t/couldn’t install the openHAB app, you can also use the REST APi directly. See Triggering Items Using openHAB 2's REST API from Tasker for one of several tutorials.
With the AutoInput plugin to Tasker it’s possible to scrape the currently running app’s UI and extract information. For awhile I had a profile that would scrape my estimated arrival time and send an SMS to my wife when I started my commute home. Assuming these can all run and interact with the apps required it might work.
Plus once you have it, you may be motivated to figure out how to detect button presses
I’m currently in a “nothing’s broken, don’t fix it” mood with openHAB, and thus haven’t started playing around with OH3. A new chromecast would be nice to have, but they go on sale so regularly that I’m in no rush and not worried about future-proofing. I might care more if I ever upgrade my 2013 TV.
I just double checked Idling and it’s not used apparently. I turned the Chromecast off: nothing. Turned back on: nothing. Turned the screen saver/ambient mode on: nothing. Of course that channel comes from the binding, which as one you said uses a third party library, so who knows if anything could be detected using a newer library?
Idling turns on when a chromecast isn’t being used, so I wonder what would happen if you left it alone for awhile in ambient mode. Saying that, I think you’re probably right that it’s no longer in use with the new Google TV interface and the newer API that we’re not using.
No Idling seen after hours…
I could try to side load Tasker on the Chromecast, yes… It may even have a chance to detect powering off before being killed and fire off a quick message
@christoph_wempe’s suggestion of Button Mapper could work for your purposes, in concert with the Tasker and openHAB apps sideloaded onto your Chromecast. You could set up Tasker to send commands to OH, and then use Button Mapper to trigger the Tasker routine from the remote.
Looks like I was wrong about not seeing events when playing some the apps:
2020-11-06 14:05:42.536 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Mute' changed from NULL to OFF
2020-11-06 14:05:42.675 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from NULL to ON
2020-11-06 14:05:43.011 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Volume' changed from NULL to 100
2020-11-06 14:05:43.251 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Stop' changed from NULL to ON
2020-11-06 14:12:09.963 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Mute' changed from NULL to OFF
2020-11-06 14:12:10.130 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from NULL to ON
2020-11-06 14:12:10.426 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Volume' changed from NULL to 100
2020-11-06 14:12:10.555 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Stop' changed from NULL to ON
2020-11-06 14:37:11.595 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Mute' changed from NULL to OFF
2020-11-06 14:37:11.783 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from NULL to ON
2020-11-06 14:37:12.203 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Volume' changed from NULL to 100
2020-11-06 14:37:12.398 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Stop' changed from NULL to ON
2020-11-06 14:50:19.023 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_MediaControl' changed from NULL to PAUSE
2020-11-06 14:50:19.027 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_CurrentTime' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.033 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Duration' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.041 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_MediaType' changed from NULL to GENERIC
2020-11-06 14:50:19.052 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Location' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.059 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_ImageURL' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.067 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AlbumArtist' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.072 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AlbumName' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.075 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_MediaArtist' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.078 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_BroadcastDate' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.081 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Composer' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.083 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_CreationDate' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.086 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_DiscNumber' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.088 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_EpisodeNumber' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.092 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_LocationName' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.094 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_ReleaseDate' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.097 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_SeasonNumber' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.099 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_SeriesTitle' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.102 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Studio' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.104 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Subtitle' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.107 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_MediaTitle' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:19.110 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_TrackNumber' changed from NULL to UNDEF
2020-11-06 14:50:20.286 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from NULL to Backdrop
2020-11-06 14:50:20.291 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from NULL to E8C28D3C
2020-11-06 14:50:20.299 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from NULL to
2020-11-06 22:10:15.169 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from Backdrop to UNDEF
2020-11-06 22:10:15.178 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from E8C28D3C to UNDEF
2020-11-06 22:10:15.182 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from to UNDEF
2020-11-06 22:10:15.231 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-06 22:10:15.236 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-06 22:10:15.245 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-06 22:10:15.249 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from ON to OFF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.466 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.475 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.480 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.482 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from OFF to ON
2020-11-07 00:42:34.590 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-07 00:42:34.596 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from UNDEF to AndroidNativeApp
2020-11-07 00:42:34.599 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-07 00:42:34.602 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from ON to OFF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.677 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.683 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from AndroidNativeApp to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.686 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.689 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from OFF to ON
2020-11-07 00:42:37.240 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-07 00:42:37.249 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-07 00:42:37.253 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-07 00:42:37.259 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from ON to OFF
2020-11-07 00:49:17.533 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:49:17.550 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:49:17.564 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:49:17.569 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from OFF to ON
2020-11-07 00:49:17.580 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-07 00:49:17.583 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from UNDEF to AndroidNativeApp
2020-11-07 00:49:17.588 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-07 00:49:17.592 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from ON to OFF
2020-11-06 22:10:15.178 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from E8C28D3C to UNDEF
2020-11-06 22:10:15.182 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from to UNDEF
2020-11-06 22:10:15.231 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-06 22:10:15.236 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-06 22:10:15.245 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-06 22:10:15.249 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from ON to OFF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.466 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.475 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.480 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.482 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from OFF to ON
2020-11-07 00:42:34.590 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-07 00:42:34.596 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from UNDEF to AndroidNativeApp
2020-11-07 00:42:34.599 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-07 00:42:34.602 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from ON to OFF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.677 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.683 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from AndroidNativeApp to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.686 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:42:34.689 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from OFF to ON
2020-11-07 00:42:37.240 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-07 00:42:37.249 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-07 00:42:37.253 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-07 00:42:37.259 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from ON to OFF
2020-11-07 00:49:17.533 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:49:17.550 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:49:17.564 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:49:17.569 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from OFF to ON
2020-11-07 00:49:17.580 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-07 00:49:17.583 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from UNDEF to AndroidNativeApp
2020-11-07 00:49:17.588 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from UNDEF to Netflix
2020-11-07 00:49:17.592 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from ON to OFF
2020-11-07 00:49:17.601 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_App' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:49:17.623 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppId' changed from AndroidNativeApp to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:49:17.626 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_AppStatus' changed from Netflix to UNDEF
2020-11-07 00:49:17.628 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Item 'CrashTV_Idling' changed from OFF to ON
Well, that’s promising! Is AndroidNativeApp the Google TV interface?
I think so. I’ll watch it. However I think I may have seen all of this because I started by casting. Tonight we turned the Chromecast on through the remote, browsed around, started Netflix, used the voice remote, started Netflix agaiin…: not a single event logged.
I also noticed that when in YouTube on a (Android, in my case) phone, if you connect to the Chromecast with Google TV and then tap the Cast icon, you get a dialog with a voice button and a small remote to control the UI. So those things seem to be accessible through a protocol and maybe someone will reverse engineer that too.
@Frenchman, have you learned anything more about the Chromecast with Google TV since this conversation? I’m thinking about getting one now.
I bought a Chromecast with Google TV, and it appears that a firmware update has impoved the information it provides to openHAB. I can start apps using the remote and they’ll show up in the appName channel. Also, the idling and stop channels are responding to everything I’ve tried (Youtube, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Spotify).
What’s interesting is that with Youtube, Netflix, and Prime Video, the channels immediately switch when you open or close the apps. For everything else, these channels only change when you actually start playing content.
I’m updating this thread with respect to the original question about using the Chromecast with Google TV remote to control openHAB. I tried out @christoph_wempe’s suggestion and can confirm that it’s possible through a combination of the openHAB, Tasker, and Keyboard/Button Mapper (KBM) apps.
Button Mapper also works and can be directly installed from the Play Store, but I found that KBM is more powerful. It’s also completely free, though I’m not concerned about that. Neither app can remap the power or volume buttons, but every other button on the Chromecast remote can be remapped with short, long, or double-presses.
None of openHAB, Tasker, or KBM are available in the Android TV Play Store, so you have to sideload them. The annoying thing here is that sideloaded apps won’t show up in the Google TV UI, so you have to keep going to Settings > Apps to open them.
There’s an in-progress project on the KBM Github page to add it to the Android TV store, with an open bug to fix the volume buttons.
Here’s a quick summary:
- Connect a Bluetooth mouse to your Chromecast with Google TV. You’ll need it to configure Tasker. Without a mouse, you can’t navigate to Tasker’s “Add task” button.
- Unlock Developer Mode in the Android TV settings.
- Sideload the openHAB, Tasker, and KBM apps. There are lots of ways to do this. Personally, I installed Solid Explorer from the Play Store, then connected it to my Google Drive to get the APK files I had previously uploaded.
- Configure the openHAB app to connect to your server and enable Tasker integration.
- In Tasker, set up a task to control your openHAB item. Make sure to assign an icon to the task.
- Tasker will keep telling you that it needs to be excluded from energy optimization to work properly. You can do this in the Android TV settings, but I’m not entirely sure how necessary it is.
- In the Android TV settings, go to Accessibility and enable KBM so that it can capture button presses.
- Open KBM. It will complain about wanting some other settings besides Accessibility, but you don’t need them.
- Remap your buttons using KBM (the Bluetooth mouse comes in handy here, though you can do without it). When you choose an action, select “App shortcut” and then “Task Shortcut”. You’ll then be able to select the Tasker task you set up earlier.
Once you’ve saved your remapped button, it should start working immediately. I’ve remapped a short press of the “TV Input” button to toggle the Google TV activity on my Logitech Harmony Hub, so that I don’t need to use the Harmony remote to turn my entertainment system on/off. I also mapped long presses of some buttons to take me directly to the Tasker and KBM apps, so that it’s quicker to get to them.
Note that KBM can also remap button presses from other remotes/accessories connected to your Chromecast with Google TV, and you can have the same button on different remotes do different things. I tried mapping some of my Bluetooth keyboard’s buttons and most of them worked (though not the volume buttons, interestingly).
If you’re thinking about getting a Chromecast with Google TV, I’d recommend it.
Maybe you can ask the developer to fix this, so you do not need a bluetooth mouse in the future.
Yeah, the Tasker developer is very responsive. However, there are a bunch of Android TV requests that mostly go unanswered, so I suspect it’s a low priority.
There’s now an Android TV binding in the marketplace (formerly the Shield TV binding) that’s in development. It can send commands to a Chromecast with Google TV, as well as getting the power status and current app. I’ve tested it with both the HD and 4K versions of the CCGTV.
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