Custom interface on android tablet

Developer's Corner General Dev Discussions
1

Hi,
I would like to mount a (android) tablet to the wall so i can trigger all devices from there. I have been looking around but I still haven’t found an interface that I like. Therefor, i started programming a bit ;D
I now made a very basic android app that gives me the possibility to trigger a device via “http requests”.

I would like to know from people with more experience on this what problems i might encounter during my project.
What are the quirks? Will this be feasible?
It looks so simple :o

Any advise is welcome.
Thanks in advance,

Herman

2

i am doing pretty much the same, but using a mobile friendly webUI, this way i can re-use the UI for any device that has a browser.
So far i have not encountered any real problems with this approach, apart from the vera sometimes not responding in a timely manner.
I started using a lot of local caching and local logic to conquer this
ie: switch command sent, vera takes time to return “OK”, use a callback to check wether it was ok, but toggle the switch state in the UI immediately
this way it feels responsible, even if vera takes some time to deal with a command.

3

Thanks Niko for the reply.
I have been thinking as well on creating an app that works on both a tablet and on my mobile. It would be nice if that could work.
Nevertheless, I have choosen to go for the tablet only (locally in my home) as I want to integrate some other systems (eg cameras on blue iris , alarm system, skybell, hunter irrigation system) as well in my app . I think this will not be feasible.
Anyway, good to hear that it’s working for you … so I think it will for me as well :smiley:

Herman

4

I have done the same thing using Tasker (Andorid). By using a Tasker scene, it is easy to copy the scene to all of my Android devices.

The other advantage to using Tasker is that I can send Tasker commands from my Pebble smartwatch. So I now have the ability to control my HA through my watch. Eventually I will install the AutoVoice plugin to Tasker to allow voice commands as well.

Doing this via HTTP requests to Vera works well for me.