[RELEASE] HD+ - Android Dashboard

The changes are for running the dashboard/app on a FireTV and using the remote control to navigate. Are you asking about controlling a FireTV with the hub? I got that confused too when someone asked me for FireTV support recently. I'm not aware of any way to directly control the FireTV from the hub

yep, I found a bug after releasing it so I made a quick fix :slight_smile:

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Yep, I misunderstood. Thanks for the clarification.

Yes that's exactly what I'm saying. Been trying for days to just see if it reconfigures itself, but as long as gps is not turned on... Even on local networks the app thinks I'm on cloud, and said unable to connect to server.
I'm using the xiomi mi 10 ultra and the latest Android.
Xiomi have strict battery saving protocols but I bypassed it to let me android run as other phones do.
What a drawback as battery life was up to 4 days but now two max. This in turn means any app that was not open, would not receive notifications or run in the background

Location permission is required for cloud mode detection - just the permission - no location is ever even fetched by the app as mentioned earlier. You don't need location permission if you want to use the app to connect to your Hub by IP address. Just re-install the app and when the app prompts to enable cloud mode select 'no'.

Just a preview of an upcoming version - widget support!



There's still plenty left to do and some logic to think though. For example, an app widget can update itself on a configurable basis - but it won't be realtime updates like the app can do while it's running. Meaning, if you turn off a light via a switch, the homescreen widget isn't going to reflect that state until it refreshes (or never if you don't want it to refresh).

Because of that - when you click on a widget I need to get the 'actual' device state from the Hub first - and then send a command to turn the light on/off, etc.

Also, Android doesn't allow for a widget to be re-configured once it's setup (without putting a button on the widget).. that's annoying.. So, if you want to change something you'll probably have to delete and add a new widget.

Anyway, I'll try to make it functional and push out a new beta version while I keep working on more advanced features

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This is going to be soooo great for my garage door opener and unlocking the house door! And scenes to welcome us home! Can't wait.

The thing is I want to use the app outside the network. Maybe it's just my phone.
Guess it's not possible as once cloud has been activated or a code is put in then only gps constantly on won't tell me that it cannot connect to server..
Thank you anyway.

Will have to stick to dashboards for remote control

You can try to setup a VPN via your router (or a Pi device) and connect that way instead.

1 Like

I am trying to wrangle with the time tile, but having some issues.

I can set the Date Format pretty easily enough, but that only changes the main date/time. In the right-hand bottom corner you will still have a time field, in my case comprised of "Sun, 2/14 / 5°"

How can I also edit this right-hand information to show an actual "correct" date :wink:

Not exactly related, but I was looking for a way to make wider tiles for bulbs. Editing a Dimmable light tile will not show the "Wide" option. But, changing that tile "Device Type" to a button will enable wide, and then changing it back again to a Dimmable Light you will now have a wide (or high) bulb tile ! :wink:

Huge collection of transparent background icons/images
HiClipart - Transparent background PNG]
https://www.hiclipart.com/

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ha - that's a bug :slight_smile: any tile can technically be wide and/or tall. You can also edit the config file as well to make every tile wide or tall. The only reason I didn't make the option global was I wanted to show more or different info.. like how the thermostat has a different layout.

I can set the Date Format pretty easily enough, but that only changes the main date/time. In the right-hand bottom corner you will still have a time field, in my case comprised of "Sun, 2/14 / 5°"

In my case I wanted the time only (11:04) on the main tile to make the font as large as possible but still want to see the date (02/14) too. So, I'm always putting that info in the status bar. Are you looking to hide the date in the status bar or display something different?

I thought as much that the tile width was a bug, but I was actually looking for that, so perhaps make it a feature ?

For the date, I would love to have it, but as I live in Europe we usually have dd/mm/yy or something to that effect. The temp is a nice bonus, it is just that I don´t recognize the 14th month of the year :wink:

@jpage4500- is there a way to change folder icons? I tried, but it doesn't seem to work.

Yes, by default though a folder will display the contents in the folder.


You have to disable that first (edit -> disable show contents). Then, select Change Icons and pick "This Device" (unless you want the icon to apply to all folders) and lastly select "On" checkbox if you want the icon to show if 1 or more devices inside the folder are 'on', "Off" or both.

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version 1.0.959 (beta)

  • added Widgets support

Most of the details are already covered above.

Some details:

  • Any HE device can be added to the homescreen as a widget
  • You can select a refresh rate which will apply to all widgets. This is to keep updates as efficient as possible.
    • The default is "No Refresh" which means the widgets won't automatically refresh their state (on/off). They will, however, get the updated state if you open the app.
    • Refresh rate is in seconds.. So, 600 would mean the widgets would refresh every 5 minutes. Note that I'm NOT waking up a sleeping device so that periodic refresh only happens while the device is running
  • Clicking on a device first fetches the latest state and then toggles that state. This will only work for devices that have one of these attributes: [switch/lock/valve]. So, lights and locks primarily but lots of different devices has the "switch" state even though they're not lights.
  • You can change existing widget configuration in the app. Click on the nav menu -> More Settings -> Configure Widgets (NOTE: this won't show up if you don't have any widgets added)

Improvement #1: On clicking a widget, I'm not sure about fetching the 'latest' state and then toggling it. Meaning, you might see a light bulb widget that's OFF, click on it expecting the light to come ON but the app actually sends the OFF command instead. The reason is - the app doesn't always know the latest device state so the UI could be out of sync. Is it better to just toggle the state the user sees on the screen or the actual state?

Improvement #2: Some devices (locks, valves) should probably show a "Do you want to lock/unlock?" before actually doing it. I'll add that to the config options in a future update

Other improvements:

  • add a 'grid' widget which can show multiple devices on a single widget
  • more control over the UI of a device.. I'm not showing much detail today (icon + name)

Anyway, that's the high-level.. let me know what you like and don't like and I can adjust from there!

3 Likes

That capability would be absolute fantastic. It would make using ZRTS driven shades with the somfi "MY" button very easy to control.

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I would suggest: fetch the actual state first. If the actual state is the opposite of the displayed state (e.g. the light is on but the widget still thinks it's off), update the widget and don't send any command.

I like this idea.

Is it possible to automatically refresh all the widgets whenever the screen turns on? That might solve improvement #1 at the same time.

EDIT: improvement #1 would still be needed for remote control devices configured to never turn the screen off.