Sharptools.io

Hi folks,

Anyone use sharptools instead of the native hubitat dashboard and rules engine?

If so, would like to know you’re thoughts.

Thanks.

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A bunch of us use it, so come join the SharpTools discussion over at SharpTools.io Dashboard and Rule Engine

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I'm the founder of SharpTools, so feel free to tag me if you have any questions. :grinning:

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It’s looks great! How much different is it then the native dashboard and rules engine?

Used it for a few years. It's ace.

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I started using SharpTools when I was still on SmartThings. The dashboard is fabulous and there is constant investment in developing new features. Their community is similarly responsive and helpful as what you find on this forum.

Most of my rules are local now (via webCoRE), but I still have a few active rules in SharpTools. I find the interface flow to be intuitive. The rules operate via the cloud if that is a concern.

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Any chance of a one time payment instead of monthly or yearly subscription?l for sharptools?

Hi Craig - I got your PM and replied there, but wanted to reply here as well for the broader community. No, we don't have any immediate plans to introduce a one time payment option.

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Does SharpTools allow for ip camera feeds?

Does it allow control of Hubitat "virtual" devices?

I'm currently using action tiles and I'm pretty happy with it except for these two gripes. Action tiles is completely free but I would not mind paying for a dashboard that would allow this.

Edit: also wanted to mention that I have four tablets currently running action tiles around the house and it's been incredibly reliable. I've been wanting to wall mount these tablets but what's been holding me back is my understanding that action tiles is basically a skeleton crew and could drop their app at any time leaving me scrambling with a bunch of tablets on my walls. If something doesn't work 100% of the time I try not to even bother with it. Time is precious as you get older and tinkering with things that are just supposed to work is infuriating.

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I’ve seen action tiles. To your point, if they are going to close soon, I don’t want any part of it. I’d like a better dashboard and solution that what comes built in with hubitat.

Does sharptools.io allow for Reolink nvr camera integration?

If your camera provides a supported stream type (eg. MJPEG), you can add it to SharpTools:

Alternatively, some people prefer to use an image snapshot from their camera and have it refresh quickly (<5 seconds), then set the action on the tile to open the stream fullscreen or open their preferred camera application so they have all the native controls of their camera.

The article also covers cameras which don't provide an MJPEG stream and some popular options in the community (including Blue Iris and TinyCam to translate the camera stream).

Yes, as long as the device matches one of the core capabilities on the authorization list or at least implements one of the generic "Sensor" or "Actuator" capabilities, you can add it to SharpTools.

If it's a common device type (think Switches, Locks, Garage, Motion, etc), there will likely be a native tile type for it. If not, there's a variety of other options including Hero Attribute tiles and Super Tiles that let you pick and choose what information you display from the device(s).

I had a bunch of Reolink RLC-410 cameras connected to my dashboard in my last house, but I don't recall if the NVR or cameras themselves directly provide an MJPEG stream as I believe my dashboard streams were all coming from Blue Iris (the NVR software I used at the time).

Check out the help article I linked in my above reply as it has more details. If the cameras or the NVR offer an MJPEG stream as an output, you can stream them directly to your dashboard. Otherwise you could either use the snapshot approach I mentioned above or use a software like Blue Iris or TinyCam to translate the stream into a supported format.

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Using sharptools/blueiris

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Awesome. Thanks for the visual!

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You're using Blue Iris to convert the camera feed to something that sharptools can work with, correct?

My cams are set up in BI.

I then set up a media tile.

The media tile points to my server details for BI, including the 'blue iris name' of the camera (in this case, Decking) and the user/pass for the cam itself.

Works flawlessly for any cam I've added to bi. There are a variety of makes and models but this part is identical.

The dash adds a small live preview. If you tap it, it opens fullscreen if you set the options as below.

I find this approach to be perfect - provided the dash itself is set as landscape. If its portrait, the handling is annoying. Hard to describe.