The smart dashboard project

Very cool write up. Looks great! I just finished 6 of these in my home. Looks cool but so far, nobody is using them outside of me. That’s ok though, they’ll come around sooner than later!

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@ittnerpm nicely put together…It looks great…Great informative write up and nicely broken out.

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Awesome write up… gave me a whole lot of information. I was in the process of planning my setup. Have the tablet now done and going to start working on mounting it.

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Very detailed writeup - thanks for putting in so much info! I’m building out my HA setup for a new house, and I’ve also had experience with pro automation systems but haven’t been impressed with the UI for such expensive systems (Control4 is top notch, but so is their price - and out of my budget). I’ve chosen to go more with an OEM approach - unbranded POE touchscreens designed for wall mounting (the 7" one I’ve found is almost identical to the ones used by HAI / Leviton) and very sleek. Using POE to power the tablet in combination with hardwired LAN simplifies installation and reduces lag/occasional WiFi issues, though the tablets can alternatively use the included DC power supply and Wifi for retrofit. I’m still sourcing a 11" touchscreen, but it looks like a decent one should be available later this month. I’m fairly confident in the longetivity of the web-based providers you’ve mentioned, and there’s also some pretty strong fallback solutions available should anything fall through down the road (OpenHAB, HASS, CQC) that could utilize all the same hardware. I like the balance SmartThings provides between cloud and local based.

What kind of dimmers are those? I’ve got a handful of leviton, but those looks way more slick.

I recently added DakBoard as a screensaver from within Fully Kisok, and is pretty configurable within itself - transitions nicely back to AT when using motion detection to wake up the panel when you approach it. :slight_smile:

Cheers!

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Thanks Ron. I can relate to your being the ‘technical evangelist’ in your family.

Cheers!

Thanks for the feedback Graham. I’m really interested in using POE, but have not researched yet… Do you have some recommended configs/equipment?

The dimmers are HomeSeer HS-WD100+… I’ve been very happy with mine, and use the multiple-button capability extensively. Here is a link to related info and the device handler

I’m glad you mentioned DakBoard: We recently added it, and are also happy with. Here is a quick snap for those who may be interested:

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Thanks Darren. Appreciate the feedback!

Thanks GavinCampbell. Would you share a photo and any words of wisdom when it’s done?

I’ve got a Sibo Q896s touchscreen and seems to be working really nicely so far with all I’ve thrown at it. I’m planning on having about 5 of them, and one 11" touchscreen for the kitchen.

They’re about 1/2" thick on top of the drywall which is pretty reasonable, and have a really clean look installed. I haven’t been able to find anything true flush-mount at all (with suitable specs). I’ve just been bench-testing it so no installed pics yet (don’t have the house built yet, either, so might be a while :smiley: )

Oooh, I just saw this on HomeSeer’s site after looking into the WD100’s: HomeSeer HS-WX300-R2 Z-Wave Plus Scene-Capable RGB Smart Dimmer & Swit
Definitely think I’m going to use a few of these!

Hehe, I see your weather API is down too - glad it’s not just me! Looks like something’s wrong at WU, their site’s giving me errors all over.

Awesome write-up.
Thanks for mentioning BigTalker.
I am due to release the development version as Big Talker 2.0 soon. The thread for that is here. It moves to a Parent/Child app structure which allows for more granular control, removes some limitations and addresses some bugs that exist in 1.1.12 and earlier. It’s been out for quite a while and lately, I believe I have only received feedback regarding feature requests and not bug reports. I just need to document the install, configuration process, new variables, etc which is kind of my hold back to final release (among a few easy feature requests).

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Can you help me with this? I am trying to setup my Fire 8 with Fully Kiosk Browser and Dakboard as the screensaver and to go into Action Tiles when there is motion. I am getting stuck on the setup in Fully. And how do I get it to display the Action Tiles when it comes out of Fully?

If I understand your use case, you won’t actually come ‘out of Fully’. To set up for your intended case, do the following in the Fully Kiosk Browser [Settings] menu:

  1. In [Device Management] set the Dakboard URL in [Screensaver URL (PLUS)]
  2. In [Motion Detection (PLUS)} set [Enable Motion Detection] to ON, set [Turn Screen On on Motion] to ON.
  3. In [Kiosk Mode (PLUS)] set [Enable Kiosk Mode] to ON
  4. In [Web Content Settings] set [Start URL] to your ActionTiles panel URL, set [Username] to your ActionTiles User Name, and set [Password] to your ActionTiles Password

There are several other settings I recommend, but these should get you started.

Thanks for the help. I did figure out the screensaver and actiontiles parts but Fully won’t go into Kiosk mode on my Fire HD8

Has anyone considered using a Raspberry Pi and associated screen for the dashboard?


https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-touch-display/

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I am guessing they are trying to keep the client end easier - The rpi will introduce a whole set of complexities you do not want in a consumer end system. You should be able to set it and forget it. Also, costs. The rpi would probably be about $120 per end point. The tablet solution is $50. Consider you deploy 7 of them over the house.

For POE - I found a cheap $8 adapter that does 5.2V usb on the end to provide power - might be worth the look to see if a cheaper tablet can make use of it, rather than have a POE tablet (the ones i saw were $400+)

Link for the adapter: https://www.ebay.com/p/Active-Poe-Splitter-48v-to-5v-5-2v-2-4a-USB-Type-a-Female-802-3af-for-Tablet/2169851593?iid=202005711183&_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D44040%26meid%3Ded71d0bd1e8d4888abe1d6277b063f6d%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D152974488004%26itm%3D202005711183&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

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This YouTube Video (Parts 1 & 2) were helpful to me.
https://youtu.be/WdKsF199Y2M

DAKboard just added direct support for SmartThings. Now in beta.

Cool!

Is there a way to apply for Beta participation?

The feature is in open beta within the current free and premium releases in the cloud. Simply sign up for the free service if you aren’t already signed up, create a screen, and you’ll see that SmartThings is now an available block you can add.

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I got my api token entered to authorize app and when I put in a smartthings custom block and view, it still says not authorized, I’ll try giving it some time, interested to see what it will show