I’m in the same boat and feel your pain, However I found Amazon Echo has greatly helped out in this area and may even replace the Dashboards
I have done as you have requested
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Take a look at Simple Device Viewer. I started using it because of the Smart Tiles authentication issue. I use it to control lights on a “dashboard” android device. So far it seems to work pretty well.
One workaround (not sure if its still working since I haven’t been home in 3 months) was to open the preview through the smarttiles smartapp, then copy the url through safari. It worked for me without any issues at the time and didn’t need authentication.
Hi, I’m new to SmartTiles … can I ask, is there a way to see more info on a screen?
I set Preferences to Small Tiles and Normal font, but there’s still tons of unused space (attachment, inset A). This is on an Android Nexus 6P (2560x1440 resolution). I can only see 9 temperatures.
Compare how my current vanilla SmartThings app is already showing me 9 temperatures (inset B). Same as SmartTiles. SmartTiles can only show as much as SmartThings?
Many apps (like a keyboard) have much more compact displays and interactive buttons (inset C).
If I reduce a SmartTile tile (inset D) to its actual info (E), it is much smaller. I can fit 22 x 3 = 66 of these into my phone’s desk space (F). (Imagine the other two columns filled in.) Of course, this is unpolished, but you get the idea.
I probably would’t choose to have it this compact all the time, but I would at least like to have it as an option. And of course, I would hope I can show far more than 9.
The examples on SmartTiles home page show a 9 x 4 grid (36 info tiles). Much better than my current 9 (or 12 if you call it 3 x 4). How can I at least get that? I hope you don’t say it’s only on a tablet, hehe. I got SmartTiles so I can see more than what SmartThings can show!
Thanks if you can help,
Mike
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How did you get the preview URL? It opens in an embedded browser. I didn’t see any URL.
People using Fully Kiosk Browser simply have it refresh the page every so often. That keeps their session alive. I don’t want to pay for Fully, so I’ve been looking for another way. I wish there was a way to trigger a refresh or automatically hit the refresh button every so often.
Fully will refresh your screen on the free version. At least mine did. Main reason I bought it was to tinker with the built in camera detection and I liked how it worked for me.
If it helps you keep using smart tiles. Isn’t a few bucks worth the programmers time anyways?
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Ya, probably. I did buy the motion detector app. . . I installed the trial version of Fully a while back and I felt like it was pressuring me into buying the full version. . . . I guess I’ll give it another shot. Though I still don’t like having to buy a per device license.
I didn’t realize the license was per device? Hmm guess I’m lucky to only have 1 tablet so far.
$5.38 for the License for premium Fully (discount offered with 10+ licences…).
Ahem… Do you think Fully was developed with slave labor? $5.38 is barely the cost of 2 cups of Starbucks coffee plus a cheap tip.
Why are people so hesitant to pay for useful software? It takes thousands of hours to develop and support an App!
P.S.: In case everyone is wondering, and it should be no surprise, SmartTiles V6 will not be free after a trial period for each installation. The license or subscription terms and price have yet to be set.
We absolutely want it to be affordable and an excellent justifiable value for anyone’s SmartThings equipped home – particularly considering that every smart “Thing” you buy (outlet, contact or motion sensor, etc.) costs at least $30, $40, $50 … and more … each!
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You make an excellent observation and point, Mike, thanks!
SmartTiles is based on a single “square” unit … a Tile… with a few exceptions for double-wide or double-tall Tiles. So far, we haven’t considered “half-size” Tiles, but your example of Temperature may entice us.
Another possible direction that some folks’ suggestions have us thinking about are “hybrid tiles” … e.g., where a single regular square Tile might be able to display “motion, temperature, battery” of a single multi-sensor Thing.
SmartTiles hasn’t changed much in the past several months because all our energy in going into the completely new architecture which will bring a ton of benefits; though, honestly, it will launch with the same “tried-and-true” square-Tile format. The new foundation, however, is more powerful and, with strong customer interest, will be continuously improved based on the most popular requested features.
We’re currently in “invite-only” Beta. Stay tuned…
How did you manage to open the URL? Did they “break” the ST client again and allow to open embedded websites in external browser?
I have a concept for “compact”/“dense” layout. We will have lot’s more layout options.
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I have a custom device driver that reports two temperatures as custom “attributes”. The device metadata defines two tiles and they display correctly when I view the “thing”. How can I make a SmartTiles tile to display the two values for my customer device?
Starbucks is overpriced and tastes burnt.
I built an open source cache a few years back. I understand the burdens. But I’m not reluctant to pay for software in general. . . .
I felt like Fully was a bait and switch. It presented itself as free. And something installed some other apps when I was messing around with it. I’m not sure what did it, but it gave me a bad feeling.
I have no problem paying for Smarttiles when the time comes. I’d pay for the current version.
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Short answer, you can’t.
Long answer, you could make a proxy app that relays sensor data to virtual temperature devices. Then, add the virtual devices to SmartTiles.
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Longer answer…
SmartThings does not have an API into the Device Type Handler metadata sections. SmartApps can query the DTH for the Commands & Attributes, but has now access to the SmartThings Tile definition (color, units, layout…).
Officially, the only API is into the Commands and Attributes of the standard list of Capabilities published by SmartThings (per the Capabilities section of the Developer Documentation). Additional “ad hoc” attributes and/or commands are not exactly uncommon, but any and every SmartApp that refers to them are doing so at their own risk of breaking.
In practical terms, it means that for SmartTiles (“just” a SmartApp) to support ad hoc non-Capability orphan attributes and commands, would have to be hard-coded to handle each and every special DTH.
The possible alternative (as first explored by the developer of Rule Machine) is to provide a non-trivial interface for users to specify the custom stuff to SmartTiles… Implementing our own “metadata” interpretation engine.
Unfortunately, the market size of consumers who use special DTHs is a niche within a niche, so that effort is very difficult to justify… Until the SmartThings Customer base grows so large that the niche is lucrative as well.
Long answer is a good tip. Thank you.
- ->>> John <<<-*
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Thanks for the feedback Terry and Alex, and thanks for your great product. I myself am a data person… I have 21 devices on my hub (many of them multisensors) and am tracking 80 datapoints in a google sheet every 10 minutes.
I would think SmartThings (and all smart home lines) are only going to get much more information intensive in the future. Anyway, I know I’d love to see a ton of info at once.
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Why not just let folks choose the size of their tile (pixels per side). Double- or triple- height tiles would just be multiples of that (height and/or width). Or choose how many rows and columns, but let folks go as big as they dare. All the blank space in the current tile layout would be compressible; just let the data be centered in it (or whatever). If they choose something too small or too big, it will be immediately obvious and easily solved (just change it again).
Something to think about.
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If you do get SmartTiles to show more (or anyone knows a workaround or trick for it), if I’m not still hanging around (active in SmartTiles threads), it will be great if someone can remember to tell me. I’ll still check what else SmartTiles might do for me now, but data visualization was my real problem, and the SmartTiles home page suggested it could do at least 36 tiles per screen.
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Be all that as it may,
Thanks for the reply and keep up the great work! 500 messages in this thread, and it’s one of many … Clearly lots of folks love SmartTiles.
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Wish it were that easy. Dynamically fitting information onto a limited number of pixels (especially when platforms limit you to faux pixels instead of real physical pixels) is frustratingly complex for an app that has to automatically scale responsively on any size and screen density…
But, believe me, we know that flexibility is desirable… To a certain extent.