Introducing : ImperiHome for Android 4.0+

Apps & Remote Access Unmaintained
1

Hi there,

I’m happy to present ImperiHome, a new home automation android app that supports several home automation systems, including Vera’s.
(and to introduce us in one sentence :wink: : we are two home automation enthusiasts coming from France, and developing ImperiHome on our free time since this summer)

Some features of this vera first version :

[ul][li]Supports Micasaverde’s Vera (only UI5 tested)[/li]
[li]Supports Zodianet’s ZiBase[/li]
[li]Voice recognition[/li]
[li]NFC integration[/li]
[li]Fast UI[/li]
[li]Smartphone and [b]Tablet /b layouts[/li]
[li]Available for Android 4.0+[/li][/ul]

Most common devices are supported, but some are still missing for now (Shutter modules or power meters for example).

On the play store you can search for ImperiHome (it’s free)

Please feel free to give us your feedbacks, suggestions, encountered bugs here :slight_smile:

Best regards,

ImperiHome Team

2

Welcome! Glad to see other developers developing for the Android platform.

  • Garrett
3

Thank you Garrett ! :slight_smile:

4

Cool. Looks great.

A few suggestions:
a) an indicator for lots of rooms in a house
I have a lot of rooms setup. I love how you can flick left/right to navigate through them, and see the next/previous ones but I don’t get a sense for how far through the list I am. Perhaps putting “Living room (4/12)” might help in this.

b) devices that aren’t understood don’t shoe up at all.
It would be nice to have a stub representation for all devices, if if you don’t currently support them.

c) energy metering devices don’t show up.
I have 14 of these and it would be handy if there was a display for them.

d) alarm panel devices (DSC, Paradox, GE etc) are missing
Adding basic support for these would be awesome.

Overall i love the simple navigation, and clean ui. Great job!

5

[quote=“imperihome, post:1, topic:173181”]Hi there,

I’m happy to present ImperiHome, a new home automation android app that supports several home automation systems, including Vera’s.[/quote]

Hello! and welcome. It is good to know that people are writing code for Vera/Z wave products.

I have an app idea for you, if you will. I am an installer of Veras and various Z wave devices. I am pretty sure they’re others who install as well.

One of the biggest problems that I have is finding a controller that is as reliable as (virtually) any of the apps written for either platform (Are cell phone OS’s platforms? Hmmm.)

The other problem is finding an app that looks as “pretty” as say a control4 screen.

The need is for some type of a tablet/ipad etc, is to make them become a controller (but use the LAN/WAN instead of being a “controller.” I have tried a few remotes and a couple wall type switch controllers, all overall are not reliable and not as configurable as the Vera. But, I do notice that the apps all work well and are reliable.

In one situation, we opted to install an iPad mounted to the wall. But the issues were:

Mounting it to the wall - no real elegant solution out there
Clients didn’t like the size of it. (Too big)
The “blan” UI - Biggest dislike to apps.

And a few other things. Point is they didn’t like it. But with all the tablets out there (and cell phones I guess,) it would be great to use that as a controller, but the app look “pretty” And I quite mean that. The client has no interest in configuring adding/changing etc, they call us for that.

Anyhow, I think I am rambling now, but something to think about. Also as I am an installer a charge for such an app would be justified as I’m making some money, so why shouldn’t you :slight_smile:

However! I did d/l your app, looks good but (and please do not take offense), the vera app is really (IMHO) is about the best I’ve seen for reliability and I really like the command sent/not sent response on the device. But like most apps the UI is not “pretty” enough.

Keep on coding!

6

Got a chance to download it to my HP Touchpad running CM9 (ICS)

I like the simple lay out per room with just a flick of the finger going to next or previous. I do agree a room 6 of 18 like indicator would be helpful. As would perhaps a drop down allowing you to pick a room directly.

Some hiccups I found.
It does not recognize/display my Trane thermostat.
It shows icons for my 4 Foscam FI8910W cameras/sensors but will not display an image/stream from any of them (not even on the home network) It responds with an ‘unable to read stream’ error. It seems to see the sensors trip though. AuthomationHD on the same device does correctly display the camera feeds. As does Vera Mobile on iOS devices.

Nice start though and definitely has potential. Thanks for making it available.

7

I took my tablet to work today and noticed Imperihome was updated. I tried to access my camera’s from work and lo and behold, they work and show full screen. Refreshes about every 8 seconds (slow public wifi at work) Thank you, the update could not have come at a better time as it allowed me to keep an eye on my pup. Job well done!

Not to be greedy but any chance of access to the 6 presets for the camera’s?

8

Thanks a lot ! Glad to see you like the app.

You’re not greedy :wink: This is a good idea, we already have in our todo list one item about the PTZ support, i’m adding the presets to it.

We’ll weep you updated :slight_smile:

9

Hi everybody,

Just to let you know that version 1.3.0 of ImperiHome will be out in a few days now.
Among new features, some nice improvements for Vera users :wink:

Stay tuned (@ImperiHome), it’s out soon!

10

As announced earlier, it’s now done!
ImperiHome v1.3.0 is available on Google Play.

Multi-box, support of Android 2.3+, and many other features are present in this release.
More details on this article: http://goo.gl/P9Lse

Feedback is, as usual, more than welcome !

11

Camera presets are there and working. Thank you!
The drop down menu to pick a room directly is also much appreciated.

When looking at the about that shows the release info, only the headers are visible. Then a lot of blank space until the next header. Could this be a font color issue.

When running it for extended periods of time, eg several hours, the retrieval of images stops and can only be restarted by going to settings and forcing a stop of ImperiHome. Then restarting the app makes it function perfectly again.

Running on an 32GB HP Touchpad with CM9 (october nigtly)

Thanks again for the reponse to everyone’s suggestions.

12

[quote=“BOFH, post:11, topic:173181”]Camera presets are there and working. Thank you!
The drop down menu to pick a room directly is also much appreciated.[/quote]
We are happy that you like it! :wink:

Weird indeed. What version of Android are you running? Would you be able to share a screenshot?

What do you call “retrieval of images”?

Thanks a lot for your constructive feedback!

Best regards,
The ImperiHome Team

13

I basically take the tablet to work, hook it up to the charger and use our public Wifi to have it load images from my Foscam 8920W IP camera continiusly so I can keep an eye on my puppy. The app refreshes the image about every 10 seconds or so (our public WiFi is not the fastest) After a while, it will just stop getting images. I can see the circle at the top right working but no new image is loaded, it just keeps circling. I checked with my iPhone when this happens and confirmed the WiFi is working and VeraMobile on my iPhone can get an image from the same camera.

The Android version I am running is CyanogenMod 9 (October nightly) which is a version/port of IceCreamSandwich. More info on CyanogemMod 9 can be found at www.cyanogenmod.org and http://rootzwiki.com/forum/232-hp-touchpad-android-development/

My HP Touchpad tablet originally ran WebOS but CyanogenMod made available their CM9 (ICS) port for it. I’m not excluding the above issue could be a CM9 issue.

I figured out the camera moving. Just tap the screen and drag up, down, left or right. Very nice.

Another suggestion. Is it possible in the settings to set the default room to start with? I’d like ImperiHome to start with the room that has my cameras instead of with the first room.

I’ve attached a screenshot of the changelog popup as requested.

I noticed the app is not showing my Trane TZEMT400AB32 thermostat and it is not in hidden devices.

14

Hello,

Thanks a lot for this very detailed feedback! Very appreciated!

I see. We’re gonna check if we do not have some never-ending threads somewhere in the app that could cause such freeze.

[quote=“BOFH, post:13, topic:173181”]The Android version I am running is CyanogenMod 9 (October nightly) which is a version/port of IceCreamSandwich. More info on CyanogemMod 9 can be found at www.cyanogenmod.org and http://rootzwiki.com/forum/232-hp-touchpad-android-development/

My HP Touchpad tablet originally ran WebOS but CyanogenMod made available their CM9 (ICS) port for it. I’m not excluding the above issue could be a CM9 issue.[/quote]
Indeed, it could be the the root cause of the issue, although it will be difficult to be sure of it. But we will check anway.

Thank you!

I like your idea. With your permission, I just logged it in our tracking system :wink:
In the meantime, you may have noticed that when the application starts, the last group selected before the switch off will be selected again.

Thanks for that! Indeed, we have an issue here… Bug logged.

Indeed, this device is not supported yet. However, it has already been requested by other users and is logged with a high priority. So, stay tuned, it should come out soon!

Thanks again for this valuable feedback!

Best regards,
The ImperiHome Team

15

I like your idea. With your permission, I just logged it in our tracking system :wink:
In the meantime, you may have noticed that when the application starts, the last group selected before the switch off will be selected again.

For some reason it does not seem to do that for me. This again, may or may not be CM9 related. No biggie if you coudl put it in the settings, I’d be very happy.

Indeed, this device is not supported yet. However, it has already been requested by other users and is logged with a high priority. So, stay tuned, it should come out soon!

Thank you. It is quite a popular thermostat here in the US, especially as it was clearenced out a little over a year ago for a very low price.[/quote]

Thank you for making this app available to us. Although I now have a very hard time picking a favorite between your and Garrett’s apps. :slight_smile: Although as far as supporting the camera I think Imperihome is definitely at the head of the pack. Good thing I have a 2nd Touchpad. I may have to have both on the coffee table. One running ImperiHome and the other AuthomationHD. :stuck_out_tongue:

16

Hello, and happy new year to you all!

It is occasion for me to tell you that the next version of ImperiHome is progressing well and that it should be released by the end of January!
Among other improvements, you can expect the support of shutters, shortcuts and charts in this new version.

By the way, regarding charts, here is a short video to show you how it will look like: [url=http://youtu.be/j8FKXoY3pms]ImperiHome : Upcoming sensor graphs - YouTube

Stay tuned, it’s coming soon!

17

Nice app :slight_smile:
When you add urn:schemas-micasaverde-com:device:DoorSensor:1 class and urn:schemas-micasaverde-com:device:WindowCovering:1 class ?
Its stopping me from using your app.

18

Hello,

Thank you for your feedback.
You’ll be happy to know that both shutters and door sensor will be supported in the incoming 1.4.0 version of ImperiHome.
This version should be released before end of January the latest.

I hope we will soon have you among our users.

Best regards,
The ImperiHome Team

19

Thanks for info.

20

Hi,
This looks like a very nice start - congratulations :).
One issue I’ve noticed though is that dimmers seem to show 0% even when they are on. If I change the light level, it will show the correct %, but if I change to another screen, and then come back, it’s back to 0% again.

Cheers
Chris