Home Automation Dashboard (HAD)

I wasn’t even aware that this issue existed. I am not using the presence widget in my personal setup. It was a submission from @bmmiller: Any thoughts?

AFAIK, no one is working on a widget moisture or smoke alarms.

Also, if anyone has feature requests or bugs to report: Please, use the GitHub issue tracker if you can.

It’s becoming increasingly harder to keep up with this lengthy thread, and the issue tracker allows us to prioritize the work, and give users a chance to vote on which features they would like to see implemented sooner rather than later, and which bugs are hit most frequently. Thanks!

I kind of tried it - it would’t let me at first then I uninstalled the client and reinstalled, still no luck but I was able to set devices in the app on my iPhone - thinking about it you are probably right. When I get home in a couple of days I’ll try running through that part of the setup again - thanks for the hint.

@seanvree, I actually haven’t had any trouble with the presence sensors updating? Are you certain they are actually reporting the correct value from within SmartThings? Given the recent issues they were having, it’s certainly possible the problem lies there.

@bmmiller Yeah, they are reporting in the app just fine. We are just using our phones as sensors, not sure if that has anything to do with it. I have to refresh my dashboard to get them to update.

Firstly, @florianz, great work on this! Hands down the most fun project I’ve undertaken recently.

I grabbed a couple of cheap tablets from Best Buy and built a custom frame for one in the living/dinning area and mounted the other at the head of the bed. I was able to easily get everything running. Since then, I’ve set up some useful notifications using Google Voice, added the very nice Sonos controller app for Android, and an easy way to switch apps.

After getting everything the way I wanted with the tablets in general, I started working on thermostat and dimmer widgets for Dashing. I’m happy to say I finally have functioning widgets (though I have no idea how really, the code is a wreck). The thermostat widget is pretty cool, though it’s built for my custom virtual thermostat device. It shows temperature and humidity on a 1x2 widget, on tap it reveals the thermostat controls for cool/heat setpoints along with mode and fan mode. The widget reverts back to showing the temperature after fifteen seconds.

Standard View

On-Tap Control View

The dimmer widget is pretty simple, it displays the current level for the light, along with plus and minus buttons to change the level by 10%. Of course, regular toggle works as well by tapping the icon or title area.

Dashboard with Dimmers and Switches

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So I tested it this morning when my wife left and it didn’t update so that would appear to confirm what you are seeing. My only hesitation though is that I also didn’t see a dimmer switch update automatically when pressed locally. Add to that, that I haven’t pulled from master in quite some time, or pushed to heroku so I’m unsure if things are really synced up at this point. I’ll continue to test and hopefully get back to you with something useful. I’ll need to pull from master and figure out what’s changed and spend some time on that.

That looks pretty fantastic actually. When you say “virtual thermostat device,” as long as it is referencing the SmartThings thermostat devicetype somewhere, I’m sure it’s compatible with most other thermostats.

When can we expect the sharing of this? :stuck_out_tongue:

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@ronnycarr That is nice work.

@bmmiller @florianz Exactly what I’ve seen, some things just never update without refresh. It consistently happens with the presence sensor though.

@ronnycar - nice job on the widgets, adding dimmers and also tiles with multiple pieces of information are a very nice add I was going to take a look at myself.

Do you mind me asking which tablets you went for? I have a spare iPad I was going to use but I can’t get many tiles on it so I am looking at alternatives.

And how you framed them in?

Thanks all!

@aimc I found some $60 Insignia Flex 7" tablets running Android 4.4.2. They are mostly perfect for the job! The only complaint I really have is that the screen doesn’t dim very much. I use daydream instead of turning the screen off so that the dashboard is only a tap away, the screen is rather bright even with night mode on.

@bmmiller My virtual thermostat is a custom device type I made to control my two window units and regular fans. It pulls in data from various sensors and uses an app to connect it to the devices. This way I can pretend to have a full on HVAC system with two zones when really it’s just standard old stuff haha. I will need to modify a few things on the widget to work with the standard thermostat device. It should be really easy, though I know humidity would not be supported. It will look odd with only the temperature on the front of a 1x2.

I picked up some 1/4" thick poplar from the hardware store, made the measurements, cut 45s on the ends, used a staple gun to keep it together, painted it black, and taped the tablet in place. I decided on using tape so that I could keep it as thin as possible and close to the wall; it’s also easier to remove the tablet if needed. It’s not pretty on the back, but it actually turned out really nice. For the bedroom, I used the locking velcro stuff and just stuck on the headboard. Keeps it nice and flush, kind of looks like it’s built in.

@ronnycarr, thanks for sharing! Looks great. I also like your color scheme. I’ve been wanting to get a more consistent design, but have been unable to come up with something that satisfies. I may need to employ the help of a design person :wink:
If you are willing to share, I would be happy to pull in some of your changes.

That’s no good. One of the primary goals of this project is for the updating to work flawlessly. My personal setup has been updating very consistently, so I’d love to know if you can narrow down which devices aren’t working (other than the presence widget, which appears to be a bug).
I’ve only noticed issues with the updating when SmartThings itself fails to send out the events. That happens sometimes (though rarely) and you can usually tell by the tile also having the wrong state in the mobile app. Lastly, I have noticed that some of my Aeon devices take a few more seconds to update, whereas other devices are much quicker.

@florianz it’s pretty much everything, locks, switches etc. it’s been going on for some time and is really random. A refresh always corrects the states. I have completely started fresh 2x in the last 2 months as early as last week and that didn’t seem to affect it. I may start fresh again to ensure it’s not something with my color changes.

I’ll gladly share, I need to make some changes to the thermostat so that it works with the standard device type. I also need to clean up the code, I think I can simplify it a bit. I’ll probably work on it tonight so a day or two and everyone can get their hands on some dimmer action!

@mattjfrank: Which browser are you using to display the dashboard? (I am primarily using Chrome for Android)

Chrome …

Dimmers are in pull request!

Once that’s out I should be able to push up the thermostat for PR as well.

yep, exactly what i’ve seen. the presence sensors have NEVER updated on my dashboard automatically.