While I am enjoying setting up Hubitat, I am feeling very dense. I found an app called Device Watchdog. I figured out how to load HPM and then the Device Watchdog App in HPM. I have read all of Bryan's Docs but I cannot find anything that tells me how to use the App, how to display its output, etc. Can anyone who uses this App please lead me a few steps forward? Thanks
Larry
When you launch the app there are a couple of configuration items you need to take care of. The first is the virtual tile device. The app will send a report to a virtual device that you can add to a dashboard. Just flip the switch to ON and have the app create one for you. Whether you use it or not is not critical at this juncture. Then you'll need to configure the various reports that are available, by selecting the devices you want to report on, and the parameters of the report. For instance, the device activity report requires a list of devices, whether you want to force a refresh (I leave this off), the number of hours of inactivity before the device will show up as inactive (I use 72), and so on. There are a whole bunch more configuration options but those are the basics. Once you've configured the report go back to the app's opening screen and click in "device reports." Choose a report that you've configured and the results will be displayed.
THe app can also be configured to run on a schedule and dump the results into a tile that you can display on the dashboard. I find the data is usually too big for the dashboard to report and often generates an error but your experience may vary.
2 Likes
You can also post questions on the page for the app:
2 Likes
Thanks! I got there and it is working! Now I need to see if I can use my tablet dashboard as the display tile.
Larry
Use the “attribute” tile type and just choose what you need to display.
I am not sure what I did or what that did for me. HPM created a virtual device called DW that now shows up on my device list. I can see reports separately by clicking on the reports box of the DW App. What I was hoping to do was see the reports on my tablet which has an App called Hubitat Dashboard, recommended on this forum and available as an Android App. But so far, I can only see the status of my installed devices.
Larry
Using the regular Hubitat dashboard, you can create tiles for each of the reports. Here's what I have set up:
Here's what the first tile looks like behind the scenes:
1 Like
Hey, it's an old house. Imagine what those walls would say if they could talk.
Actually, it's the northwest corner room in the basement with little light and a summer humidity problem. Since addressed with humidity sensors and a humidifier but the name stuck.
1 Like
I didn't want to say.... 
1 Like
They'd say you have a leak... 
Well 25% of a leak....
1 Like
Lol no that's the leak sensor... has a low battery.
2 Likes
Good thing you're using Device Watchdog.... 
Wouldn't want to have to go down there and check on it too often, who knows what you might find....
3 Likes
Thanks, very helpful. I'll have to see what I can do with this unofficial dashboard.
Larry
Turns out the Hubitat Dashboard is more powerful than I realized and can give me everything that I was looking for, for now. Much learning to do!
Larry
2 Likes
I find it fine for what I need to do as well, though there are some more energetic dashboard builders who chafe at its restrictions. IMO the idea behind HE is automation not remote control so the dashboard functionality isn't really a priority.
3 Likes
is watchdog can monitor device state and trigger an event when it goes offline or online? I have a wifi switch that is a child device from tuya driver... There is no status capability but a status attribute... So I can check the status but not trigger anything in realtime...
Does watchdog can do that?
These apps check the "Last Activity" timestamp on the device to see if it has posted any events recently. That gets updated with all events triggered. It does not work well with all drivers, depending on how they are coded. Even some of the system drivers do not work great with it.
I would recommend this app though instead of the watchdog app, as it is still being maintained:
