Home Buddy 0.28 BETA [CLOSED]

Apps & Remote Access Home Buddy (Android)
#21

Yeah, I do. That was part of automatic discovery, which worked fine, including getting my Vera’s IP address on the LAN.[/quote]

Does the URL above work in a browser?

The error “username required for remote access” would come up if it falls back to remote mode and you don’t have Username filled in in your settings. Make sure of the following:

  • The URL above works
  • You entered a valid Mios Username and Password
  • your SSID matches exactly – same case and no extra spaces
#22

You’re welcome, glad you like it!

Yeah, I had to change the way shortcuts are saved because (and I forgot to mention this in the first post), Home Buddy now supports multiple Veras. Let me go add that to the first post now…

#23

You bet it does. All 240 glorious kilobytes of it. Vera is on a DHCP reservation, so this address doesn’t change.

The error "username required for remote access" would come up if it falls back to remote mode and you don't have Username filled in in your settings. Make sure of the following:
  • The URL above works
  • You entered a valid Mios Username and Password
  • your SSID matches exactly – same case and no extra spaces

I’ll have to wait till I get home and can post a screenshot of it. I double-checked the ESSID, all twelve characters of it, for capitalization as well as spaces, but I will let the screenshot vouch for my eyesight.

There is no MiOS password. I don’t use remote access and I want to bypass any attempt by Home Buddy to even try. This is purely on my LAN over WiFi to a fixed IP address, which is how I’ve set up my other HA access points successfully (AutHomation and SQ remote).

Can it be that my tablet is lying to Home Buddy about the ESSID name, so your string-compare function is returning false?

Edit: screen captures:
[url=http://img.tapatalk.com/9665a6a0-2895-eca6.jpg]http://img.tapatalk.com/9665a6a0-2895-eca6.jpg[/url]
[url=http://img.tapatalk.com/9665a6a0-290c-576f.jpg]http://img.tapatalk.com/9665a6a0-290c-576f.jpg[/url]
[url=http://img.tapatalk.com/9665a6a0-2941-3cba.jpg]http://img.tapatalk.com/9665a6a0-2941-3cba.jpg[/url]
[url=http://img.tapatalk.com/9665a6a0-2956-f9bd.jpg]http://img.tapatalk.com/9665a6a0-2956-f9bd.jpg[/url]

Edit Edit: if I supply Home Buddy with a bogus username and password, it will work.

#24

Nicely done and many thanks for the email invite.

I am happy to see SSID based auto local detection. This addresses multi-AP networks perfectly. All appears to be working nicely, whilst roaming between access points.

On the UI, my initial reaction is that the rows are not tall enough and remind me a bit of stylus based UIs. I would suggest increasing the row heights. Accidental presses of the adjacent rows is the issue. Also, the increase/decrease toggles for thermostat seem not to be tall enough, but after thinking about this, I realized that it would be better if the ± for heat and ± for cool lived on opposite sides, with larger set-point numbers. My doctored layout suggestion is shown in the attached. Let me know what you think.

#25

Also, to show what the current detected mode is on the main UI would be good. This could be done graphically, like shown in the attached representation of remote mode.

#26

I’ve been using the Beta without any errors. It looks very nice. My feedback involves the persistent message that comes up asking for permission to do a full refresh. It always adds a step to getting to a certain device and/or scene.

That being said, I see the need for a refresh in that the displayed status might not be accurate. One compromise would be to have explicit on/off buttons so a switch could be turned on or off regardless of knowings the current state.

I had to create new launcher shortcuts, but they still work just fine.

Great work

#27

I’ve been testing while in local mode. I am able to control lights, but as it automatically refreshes to get the new status I get this error message: “ERROR: refresh failed. Please check your settings. (java.lang.NullPointerException)”. If I manually refresh, I get the same error and the status is not updated. If I exit the program and come back in again, the status is accurate. (I am running a beta version of Ice Cream Sandwich - so that may be a contributing factor)

I do like the new look - well done. I agree with jjwatmyself - the thermostat arrangement isn’t intuitive…I like his proposed layout.

Is there any way we can run both the stable version and the beta in parallel? I’m happy to beta test, but I’ve grown dependent upon Home Buddy over the last 6 months and don’t want to lose the reliability of the stable release.

#28

I like the look of the new UI, what I miss from the old version is the thermostat does not say what the state is, if its heating,cooling or idle. same with the ademco alarm panel, the lock shows armed but no detailed state is given.

#29

Best UI. Smooth transitions quick refresh when sending commands. Great job!

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

#30

Thanks for the suggestions. changing the UI to look like that for thermostats will require a special case. While it looks nice in the front end, the code may end up being very messy. Home Buddy dynamically renders each row depending on what services Vera says a device has. Heat Set Point and Cool Set Point are 2 different services. I don’t know such a device exists, but if a thermostat only had one and not the other, that layout would look awkward and I’d have to handle that use case separately.

As for the local/remote indicator, I agree, that would be very useful. I will add that to the list. Thanks.

#31

[quote=“tedp, post:26, topic:170787”]I’ve been using the Beta without any errors. It looks very nice. My feedback involves the persistent message that comes up asking for permission to do a full refresh. It always adds a step to getting to a certain device and/or scene.

That being said, I see the need for a refresh in that the displayed status might not be accurate. One compromise would be to have explicit on/off buttons so a switch could be turned on or off regardless of knowings the current state.

I had to create new launcher shortcuts, but they still work just fine.

Great work[/quote]

I honestly don’t know Vera’s algorithm in requesting a full refresh. I basically just followed the guidelines detailed here. I first assumed it would only request when new devices/scenes were added/removed or when the number deltas passed a certain threshold, but it seems to be more than that. Can anyone shed some light on this?

I will add to the list an option to make this less annoying. Maybe instead of a popup, some sort of indicator at the top warning you that your data may be out of sync while still allowing you execute commands. BTW, I do have it now that on/off are separate explicit buttons rather than one state-dependent one.

#32

[quote=“ChrisAZ, post:27, topic:170787”]I’ve been testing while in local mode. I am able to control lights, but as it automatically refreshes to get the new status I get this error message: “ERROR: refresh failed. Please check your settings. (java.lang.NullPointerException)”. If I manually refresh, I get the same error and the status is not updated. If I exit the program and come back in again, the status is accurate. (I am running a beta version of Ice Cream Sandwich - so that may be a contributing factor)

I do like the new look - well done. I agree with jjwatmyself - the thermostat arrangement isn’t intuitive…I like his proposed layout.

Is there any way we can run both the stable version and the beta in parallel? I’m happy to beta test, but I’ve grown dependent upon Home Buddy over the last 6 months and don’t want to lose the reliability of the stable release.[/quote]

I addressed the layout issue in this forum post.

I think I’ve figured out what’s causing the NullPointerException. I will update the apk and post back when it’s available for download.

I did try to make both stable and beta work side by side at one point but it caused some problems in my development environment. I will try again. Thanks for the feedback.

#33

[quote=“rakstar, post:31, topic:170787”][quote=“tedp, post:26, topic:170787”]I’ve been using the Beta without any errors. It looks very nice. My feedback involves the persistent message that comes up asking for permission to do a full refresh. It always adds a step to getting to a certain device and/or scene.

That being said, I see the need for a refresh in that the displayed status might not be accurate. One compromise would be to have explicit on/off buttons so a switch could be turned on or off regardless of knowings the current state.

I had to create new launcher shortcuts, but they still work just fine.

Great work[/quote]

I honestly don’t know Vera’s algorithm in requesting a full refresh. I basically just followed the guidelines detailed here. I first assumed it would only request when new devices/scenes were added/removed or when the number deltas passed a certain threshold, but it seems to be more than that. Can anyone shed some light on this?

I will add to the list an option to make this less annoying. Maybe instead of a popup, some sort of indicator at the top warning you that your data may be out of sync while still allowing you execute commands. BTW, I do have it now that on/off are separate explicit buttons rather than one state-dependent one.[/quote]

Rakstar,

The way you are doing it is the correct way for user_data2.

  • Garrett
#34

[quote=“garrettwp, post:33, topic:170787”][quote=“rakstar, post:31, topic:170787”][quote=“tedp, post:26, topic:170787”]I’ve been using the Beta without any errors. It looks very nice. My feedback involves the persistent message that comes up asking for permission to do a full refresh. It always adds a step to getting to a certain device and/or scene.

That being said, I see the need for a refresh in that the displayed status might not be accurate. One compromise would be to have explicit on/off buttons so a switch could be turned on or off regardless of knowings the current state.

I had to create new launcher shortcuts, but they still work just fine.

Great work[/quote]

I honestly don’t know Vera’s algorithm in requesting a full refresh. I basically just followed the guidelines detailed here. I first assumed it would only request when new devices/scenes were added/removed or when the number deltas passed a certain threshold, but it seems to be more than that. Can anyone shed some light on this?

I will add to the list an option to make this less annoying. Maybe instead of a popup, some sort of indicator at the top warning you that your data may be out of sync while still allowing you execute commands. BTW, I do have it now that on/off are separate explicit buttons rather than one state-dependent one.[/quote]

Rakstar,

The way you are doing it is the correct way for user_data2.

  • Garrett[/quote]

Nice to get assurance from a fellow developer. Thanks Garrett!

#35

I would suggest that if it needs to get full data, either have some sort of indicator or just ignore notifying the user and get the full data and let the progress indicator do the talking.

  • Garrett
#36

Hi all,

I just uploaded a new beta build. Please use the same link from the first post to download/install it. Changes include:

  • Fixed some force closes
  • Color coded HVAC Operating State – shows temp in red when heating and blue when cooling
  • Enhancements to combo devices
  • Local / Remote indicator
  • Added Expand / Collapse
#37

[quote=“rakstar, post:31, topic:170787”]I honestly don’t know Vera’s algorithm in requesting a full refresh. I basically just followed the guidelines detailed here. I first assumed it would only request when new devices/scenes were added/removed or when the number deltas passed a certain threshold, but it seems to be more than that. Can anyone shed some light on this?

I will add to the list an option to make this less annoying. Maybe instead of a popup, some sort of indicator at the top warning you that your data may be out of sync while still allowing you execute commands. BTW, I do have it now that on/off are separate explicit buttons rather than one state-dependent one.[/quote]

Thanks for looking into this! Without knowing too much about the ins-and-outs of the vera API, I was wondering if it’s possible to locally store the schema on the Android. Presumably, one only adds and removes devices rarely, so there’s no need to re-download unless you want to know the status of a particular device. If it was possible to just send “on” or “off” or “dim level” without caring about the current status of a particular device, that might obviate the need to constantly refresh the dataset.

Also – I have 2 access points in my house: can you support either one for “local” mode?

Lastly, one for the future: I am thinking of setting up a Vera in another home. Is there any way to support both locations from Home Buddy (i.e. either through a dropdown or by identifying the local network).

Thanks!

#38

I just updated to the 3/10 build and the force closes have gone away so far as I can tell. I really like the remote/local indicator - very simple yet fully functional.

Thanks again!

#39

Another idea for the thermostat, would be to keep the temp rows as is (but taller) and only display the heat and / or cool row, based on the current mode: heat, cool, auto (show heat and cool row) , off (show no temp control rows) . I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit and it would make quite a bit of sense.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

#40

It has also occurred to me that we should see radio toggles or button toggles, not both. My vote is radio toggles, so that there can be any number of options supported, without the need for modifying the layout. A complete list of options are shown below, and the current UI is missing a couple:

System Mode: Off, Heating, Cooling, Auto (this is already a radio, but is missing the label ‘System Mode’)
Fan Mode: On, Auto (changed from 2 buttons to 1 radio)
Run Mode: Hold, Run, Energy Save Mode (changed from 2 buttons to 1 radio)

My most current UI mock-ups are attached. One-service-per-row is noted as the simpler coding method. The rows do need to be taller though, as we are working with fingers, not a stylus. The temp increase/decrease buttons could also be < (less) > (greater) symbols as tends to be recognizable when using the single service per row UI, in my opinion.