I had played around with Smartthings when it launched on Android Auto. At that time I still had a few things mirrored into Smarthings from Hubitat using Hub Connect just so I could check basic security related things with AA. Not anymore of course since Smartthings shut down groovy IDE. It was limited by the same set of rules that it is now from the looks of it. Understanding those limitations, I'll take what I can get.
Just wanted to post a quick note here....
I REALLY LIKE this wonderful app!!!
SUPER useful and SUPER friendly to use!
I went out and bought 5 Fire HD10 tablets mainly for using this app in my home, and installed it on my Sammy tab in my car (which does not have mobile, only wifi, but that is fine for me).
The support and involvement that Joe has in his app is OUTSTANDING!!!
He answers questions, tries to accommodate requests in a timely manner, doesn't get nasty or demeaning to any of the users.
What they NEED to realize that he is doing this FOR FREE!!!! and I encourage people to throw him a little something if they can, just to help out.
Thank You Joe for your fantastic app and outstanding support!
8 Likes
Loving the app, great work Joe. My OCD is having a field day messing with my dashboard layouts!
Not sure if I'm overlooking a setting or this has been requested before but is there any chance that the tile names can have centred wrap text to fit the tile size instead of ...?
I'm noticing an issue with tile background colors not updating in sync with device/folder on/off events since version .1956. Device turns off, but color selected for "on" remains and vice versa. As soon as you interact with dashboard, it updates.
The only way i found to restore the backup correctly was to edit the file backup i had put on the hub. Everything else i tried messed up my dashboard.
Quick update on Android Auto support
Here's the car-side UI:
Here's the phone UI for configuring the auto side:
- Android Auto option only shows up if you've connected the app to an Android Auto device at one point. I can remove that but figured anyone w/out the car part wouldn't be interested in this option
- You can add or remove devices using the "+" button.
- You can also re-arrange devices by touching and dragging the little icon on the right side
Here's some other notes:
- I'm only supporting (showing) devices that I can display in some way with the very limited options that I have. Generally speaking any kind of switch or sensor.
- By default I'm showing all switches and sensor-type devices but you can configure it using the phone app
- I don't handle every possible device type just yet. I started with the simple ones (lights, switches, valves, locks and similar)
- I'll try to handle any other useful device type one by one.. for example, HSM lets you 'arm' or 'disarm'; The thermostat device type lets you send UP/DOWN commands
- It'll continue to evolve.. my wife's car has Android Auto support but I don't so I won't be using it that often.. so feel free to give feedback or suggestions!
- In order to use an app with Android Auto you must be using the Google Play version of the app. This is something built-into Android Auto
- The tabbed UI I mentioned in my last post isn't actually available on any cars yet.. I can't even test with it. But, I'll be ready to add it when it is.
Last note - I will try to test this for a little while before pushing it to the Google Play Beta channel. In the meantime, there is an internal test track on Google Play. If you have a car with Android Auto support and want to test - send me a DM with your email address and I'll add you to the list.
3 Likes
I see this too.. will get it fixed
I've been playing with Owntracks for a few weeks and made a side by side comparison using my wife's phone. It's hard to find the right settings to make Owntracks reliable. And if you mess with it, you can generate unwanted activity on your hub as OT constantly update your position. It also can eat your battery. OT also gave me many false events even when at a few kilometers from home.
On the contrary, HD+ has been spot on all the time. It will definitely replace the HE mobile app for geofencing on my family's phones.
Or you have one presence device for home /away but you have other locations and if your with in that geo ring there is a variable string that gets updated? IE location "work" ?
I found an issue but I'm not sure if it's the same thing you're seeing. In my case, when I used the 'group by..' option which groups all devices of a certain type (ie: doors) into a new folder -- this was setting the folder background color and it won't use the theme's on/off colors. I'll fix that in the next release.
I did a bunch of other testing to see if I could reproduce any other issues with the background color and couldn't. I'll keep testing though. If you have any ideas how I can reproduce or see something please let me know.
Also, you probably already see this but if you edit the tile/folder it should show a preview how the tile will look in both 'on' and 'off' states (left/right). For folders, this means if 1+ device inside the folder is 'on'.
This issue is with devices and folders.
The state of a device will change (on/off, open/close, etc) and the icon will change to reflect the change but if a background color is assigned to change with it, it doesn't, or at least not right away. Any interaction with the dashboard and the color will update right away but until then, the previous color remains.
I have one wall mounted tablet not on .193#. That one is working fine but I have a 2nd tablet and a phone on .1956 that are misbehaving.
I tried to catch it with screenshots on my phone but the moment I interact with it, it updates. I'll take a picture of the wall mounted tablet exhibiting this behavior later today.
Just a quick note : I THOUGHT my date/time problems had resolved. It was correct for several days. Then yesterday it froze again. I cannot pin down the cause. I know that many others are not having this problem, so I have to think it is on my end. I will continue to investigate.
I have another thought on what this could be.. something small I changed recently when trying to make the app more efficient. I'll make the change and do a release
version 1.0.1974 (beta)
- fix background color not updating on device update
- fix bug that sets background color when grouping devices into a folder
I wanted to do a release before the Android Auto one to take care of a few small bugs. I'll do another one in the next few days with Android Auto support. I'm going to try to keep the minimum version of 18 and see if Google lets me.. if not I'll have to increase the min version to 23.. stay tuned!
1 Like
I've added post to the original thread. I have Virtual Switches with the auto off enabled and they work and display correctly in HD+
3 Likes
@jpage4500 the topic above makes me wonder if you could assign buttons a different icon when they are pressed, maybe with a second or 2 animation. Its god awful trying to figure out if a button press on the dashboard even registered on my phone.
1 Like
That's why I use virtual switches with auto off - for feedback
Ive got a lot of virtual buttons, ugh, makes me cringe to remake them.
2 Likes
I replied to that topic but I can look at improving button feedback.
Normally I show a little spinner icon that shows until the Hub responds with 'success' that the command went through. Then, I show that little asterisk for a few seconds so you know something changed.
The button command (push/hold/doubleTap) doesn't get any hub updates outside of the initial command so that's probably why I'm not showing anything. But, I don't see why I can't just show the asterisk for a few seconds even though nothing actually changed with the device.
I could also show 'push' at the top if that helps too.. like I do with 'hold' and 'doubleTap'
1 Like
