Zipatile as interface

Does anyone know if zipato zipatile can be configured as an interface in some way to smart thing ?

Thanks!
D

Zipato is a hub competitor to SmartThings. Based on @spopovic 's post below, The zipatile is an android tablet which also acts as a Z wave controller. I’m just not sure how well it could be integrated with SmartThings, but based on his post it might certainly be worth trying. :sunglasses:

Actually, Zipatile is not a hub competitor to SmartThings. Zipato IoT platform could be considered as sort of competitive to SmartThings, but Zipatile is just an Android WallPad with bunch of sensors integrated inside, and running Zipato IoT agent by default. However, there are at least 3 ways to integrate Zipatile with SmartThings eco system:

  1. MQTT. Zipatile Internal application can be connected to Mosquito broker, and it will communicate all sensors, relays, buttons and gestures through this connection. Furthermore, SmartThings Android app can be installed and set as default application on Zipatile. Zipato IoT is not mandatory to be used, and in this case, it is not even to necessary to register Zipatile with Zipato, although this is free of charge and it will only provide few more options (see option 2 and 3).

  2. Z-wave. Zipatile can work as Z-wave secondary controller. This means that Zipatile can be included in SmartThings network as a secondary controller. In this case, Zipatile will communicate all built in sensors statuses, gestures, buttons, and relays to SmartThings hub. Of course, again SmartThings Android application can be installed on Zipatile as the default one, and run the whole SmartThings installation.

  3. REST API. Once register the Zipatile with Zipato IoT platform, REST API is available for interconnecting with any third party system. This way of integration requires more work, but it allows integration of not only built in hardware devices, but also all Zipato virtual devices such as fully featured Security system, Thermostat, Rule Creator etc…

Additionally, registration of Zipatile with Zipato allows some basic integration by using the whole set of Zipato virtual devices (virtual sensor, virtual meter, virtual switch…). This is the easiest way as it can be done through graphical user interface, but it is not as powerful as other 3 options mentioned above.
Of course, installation of SmartThings Android application is recommended in any of these options since this way, user can use Zipatile for controlling the whole system.

In general, Zipatile is running Zipato android applications by default, but it can be used as a multifunctional smart device with any other home automation eco system, and run any other Android application which is necessary for better user experience.

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Thanks for the information. I’ve corrected my post above. :sunglasses:

My guess is that operating as a secondary controller under your point 2) will not work quite the way you described, because it doesn’t with any other secondary Z wave controller. SmartThings just doesn’t work very well with secondaries. They pretty much end up being independent with the device status information not being communicated back to SmartThings. So smartthings can control the devices and the secondary can control the devices, but there’s very little communication between the secondary and primary. Smart things also isn’t great with multi endpoint devices. But you can certainly try it and see.

The SmartThings android mobile app is just a UI. The actual logic runs in the SmartThings cloud. Many people are surprised to learn that if the Internet is down or if the SmartThings cloud is unavailable, the mobile app cannot communicate with the SmartThings hub at all even if they are on the same LAN. That may already be what you meant by “run the whole system” but I just wanted to mention it for clarity. :sunglasses:

Anyway, it sounds like it might be worth trying to see what can be done. The MQTT option or the cloud to cloud integration would certainly be worth exploring. Lag is always a potential issue with the cloud to cloud, of course.

That’s interesting information - thank you for the detailed reply. Have you actually got anything up and running with smart things yourself ?

It looks like a potentially neat access point/ control panel for SmartThings.

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So far we haven’t been playing with SmartThings hub, but we might do so in order to check how it works as primary controller.

Also, we don’t know how whether SmartThings support any custom virtual devices or Mqtt in general. This is something to discover yet, but I wanted to point it out as an option.

Hi,

I was just wandering if you had played with Zipatile and Smartthings yet?

All the best,

D

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Well, i just hit buy on amazon and will have a play.

I wander if ST will see any of the sensors? or if I can fund a way to interact with ST virtual switches…

I am in the process of completely removing SmartThings from my network and replacing it with zipatile or zipato controller.

ST fails me more and more and I simply tired of their nonsense and consistently breaking my sensors for the last 4 years

Also, ST does not have a rules engine and the removed the one and only rules engine which no longer works on the latest release. I am not sure who makes these stupid decisions

Although you have already made your decision, have you checked out webCoRE for a robust rule engine for SmartThings?

I want purchase the new zipatile 2 and I m curious if someone managed to make it work as a secondary controller?

I would take a serious look at ActionTiles…as it works GREAT as a ST Visual Interface.

YMMV

Has it been released yet? It’s not showing on their US site.

In any case, it’s not going to work as a secondary control except potentially for zwave. All of the other features, including zigbee and Bluetooth, cannot be combined with smartthings. So it depends which model you get.

@thesmartesthouse might know more, they carry the first generation:

We have at least one user using the Zipatile V1 with SharpTools.io dashboards as their interface to SmartThings. The Zipatile V1 is running an old version of Android with a limited browser, so we had to tweak some things to get it to work. :smiley:

If you are looking at buying a new device, you are probably better off buying a modern tablet with an updated OS/browser. (eg. iPad, Galaxy Tab, Fire Tablet, etc)

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I switched to Hubitat a while ago, but was running actiontiles on a Zipatile. I liked it because it looked like it wasn’t a DIY job but it can’t be rooted, it is extremely slow running fully kiosk browser and the version of android is dated. I actually took it off the wall about a month ago and replaced it was a fire tablet with a 3D printed wall mount - it looks equally as professional and considerably faster or more usable…

I was keeping an eye on the release of the new zipatile, but the release date kept getting pushed and I wasn’t convinced the price premium would give me what I wanted anyway … personally I really wouldn’t pay the premium for this use case and as JD Roberts mentioned you can’t use it as a secondary controller with ST sadly …

D

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Unfortunately, we discontinued the Zipato product line and don’t plan to introduce any of their new products in the near future so we wouldn’t have any additional information about this device.

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Thanks rontalley
I look ActionTiles and it’s all I search for!
I ordred an Fire HD 10 with a wall mount! Thank for your input

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