Add-on to send events when battery is low or items offline

[Kim_Andersen]

@rlkoshak

Lots of people are working on lots of different UIs and there is a well established API for building such a UI. There is a third party UI (I think it costs) called Dashing which might be worth a look. But for now, if you want relatively easy but not the most flexible or attractive you need to use one of the sitemap UIs. If you want fill control and to have more of a dashboard look, you have HABPanel.

Lately I discovered that Habpanel can work with svg´s, and svg´s can be build in layers as well as send/receive data in OpenHab. Like this: Design your SVG floorplan or dashboard for HABPanel with Inkscape
That is my idea of a GUI specially for monitoring a whole house nice and clear. It doesn´t really need any human impact like switches etc… It´s a graphical monitor, showing every important information from the house.

This is the path I´m going, as it´s the only thing that really makes any sense to my understanding of a smart home. You cant have a smart house without somekind of monitoring. Cause sooner or later, something will mess up, and you´ll have the monitor as a tool to what to do.
How you´ll interact with alle the devices in the house depends on other interfaces, (like psycical swicthes, mobilephones, remotes motion sensors, voice, camera etc.).

@rlkoshak

That is really the crux of Vincent’s argument. In an ideal world, you shouldn’t have to use ANY UI. The house just knows what to do. That isn’t always possible so my rule of thumb is doing the action must be as simple or simpler to achieve than the “dumb” solution would be. To me, that pretty much excludes the phone app UIs entirely. So in that case, yes, a wall switch is a better solution. That’s why I use controllable switches over smart bulbs.

Even in a ideal world, you still need a monitor, in my opinion. But it depends on for what use.
Think of it like a car. If the car didn´t have a fuel indicator (which is the same principle as an monitor), you´ll not know when to refuel. The car can and will tell you, no bet. But when it does, it´s too late without this monitor.

A smart home monitor…
You have a light indikation from a room. The light is turned up, the monitors shows.
Now next day, you turn on the light on the switch like you use to, but the light does not turn on in the room. Now what. Is it the bulb or something else? Turn to your monitor and if it´s effectivly coded, it´ll show you the answer, or at least indicate what might be the problem.
In the case with the light problem, I dont have to start my computer first and dig deeper into OpenHab (or whatever system), only to find that the bulb is defect. I can just look at the monitor, and most often find the cause. Without a monitor I could take the chance and exchange the bulb, but if the bulb is not the problem, I have spend time on nothing. I think you get the picture.

@rlkoshak

These are the hard parts of home automation. Maybe you need a room occupancy sensor. Maybe you make sure to set the timer long enough to keep the light on long enough that you will move. Maybe you use events that take place in other parts of the house to tell the system you are no longer in the room. Maybe you just turn off the light at a certain time at nigh

They´re not just hard, they´re close to impossible, cause it all depends on the human factor. One day I move alot, other days I move less. Changing time is therefore not an good option. Using events do really depend alot of the human factor and specially human habbits. It´s only a very few people how can live in a 100% schedule enviroment like that.
But a solution could be a combination of all the options as well as other options. But it will never get 100% automatic and bullet proof system.

@rlkoshak

I don’t really think anyone is arguing that everything needs to be always 100% fully automatic. But it should be automated in such a way that using one of OH’s UIs is the exception, not the rule for how you interact with things.

Exactly! And this is where the monitoring comes in hand. Used for exceptions, (or for curiosity) it makes sense.

@rlkoshak

I like Vincent’s idea of a “In Test” sitemap. Put your WIPs there and it doesn’t really matter if it is a WIP.

For completeness here are a couple screen shots of my BasicUI, which, again only I use for debug and sometimes monitoring.

This is basicly what I´m using BasicUI for, as well as testing new stuff, since it´s easyer and quicker to do a sitemap rather than to create a dashboard in habpanel. Each time i connect a new device, I create a sitemap as well, add all things and items form the device, and start to monitor them, to see how they are acting. When the device has run for some time (may be weeks), I decide wether to keep it or not, and maybe just some of the things/items from the device.
Beside OH, I´m also in another situation as our house is build with the smart home system called IHC. (Intelligent House Control). This system is very smart as well, though it has some limits. In short, it´s 128 digital and analouge in/outputs all wired up with push buttons everwhere, with lots of programming and intelligence, like timers, rules etc. Today the IHC controller takes care of basicly everything, lights, heating, alarm and ventilation.
My plan is to combine openhab with the IHC controller, and let OpenHab cover for the limits of the IHC controller. But I have to take into consideration, what if…I loose interest in Openhab or something more serious happen. It got to be made so I (or someone else) can switch off OpenHab, and the original installation is still running. Maybe some day I´ll be ready to skip this part, and let OpenHab overtake much more intelligence.
Because of the IHC installation, I have tons of items from the controller. But only a very few switch buttons. I can still interact with basicly everything in the installation due to the structure of the IHC, but I don´t need the push buttons at all.

Well long story… But it may explain why I think, that having a monitor is important, at least to me it is.
Now I just need to figure out, how to