Hello, I’m looking for peoples opinions on the best Dashboard/display Interface for all the item data in openhab, as well as supporting external things typically seen in a personal/family dashboard like a calendar, weather radar, map, etc, and WHY.
Obvious answers are sitemap & habpanel, etc. I have grafana & influx installed on my openhab raspberry pi, but I’m not sure if grafana should be the main display dashboard, or something like habpanel should be, and display a chart from grafana.
I’m also still trying to get Google calendar to display, and not sure if anyone has the easiest recommendation on where to recieve that data (external php calendar in an embedded url in sitemap? I couldn’t get to work yet via grafana data source or the openhab Cal personal binding). But knowing that might help me down the right path. (I do have another thread for that and it’s a WIP trying to get it to work.)
Screenshots welcome & thanks;
MDAR
(Stuart Hanlon, UK importer of Velbus hardware)
2
Oh dear…
That’s a difficult question to answer.
I guess it comes down to personal preference.
For example, I can’t get my head around sitemaps and text configurations, but I’m venturing into creating widgets for HabPanel and getting some great results, especially when I mix them up with SVG interactive graphics.
I predict that this thread could see a thousand different opinions, that are all absolutely true and ‘correct’.
That was my hope More ideas the better! Seems this needs to be done every year or so anyway as new stuff comes out. Post a screenshot, especially of these widgets!
I use habpanel, but for SVG floorplan only, as I really dont fancy habpanel that much. It´s a bit lumpy with the big tiles, not flexible enough unless you´re a html/css expert, (I´m not even close to beeing knowlegded).
I´m no expert with SVG´s either, but it makes it a bit less painfull to get simple things done, in my opinion.
I wish there were a better GUI/Dashboard for openhab. Perhaps an optimized Habpanel. But in time, I have figured much of this wish has to do with the way I want to use it. I´m probably not that typical, cause I dont want a dashboard which lets the user control anything. My dashboard is for monitoring only. All control/commands is done by the use of voice control, (with Google Assistant).
I´m not graphic expert either. So atm my dashboard looks pretty basic and perhaps a little borring. But I´m still working on it, and it will change as soon as I have the options added I want to monitor. It´s build using layers in the SVG, so I can turn on/off layers I dont want to look at (ie. the four buttons down left corner).
Right it contains:
All lights
clima (heating/temperature, humidity, window control and ventilation).
Motion sensors
Alarm (security alarm, door/window sensors etc).
The Alarm and ventilation system has just been placed random cause I´m working on these.
In future I will hopefully have som animated gagues for my solar system and ipcamera added as well.
I wouldnt think of Grafana as beeing anywhere near the purpose of a main dashboard.
In my opinion Grafana is great for creating charts, but I think the best belonging is a seperate dashboard containing all kinds of charts.
It all comes down to, which info you want on your dahsboard. I have seen pretty awesome stuff for Habpanel which included grafana charts as well. But for my purpose, its doesnt really make sense adding it to my main dashboard.
I do use BasicUI (sitemaps) as well… I know, it´s double work indeed. But I find BasicUI (sitemaps) easier/faster to setup for testing purpose, making sure stuff is working the way its suppose to. (I could have used PaperUI control panel. But I really hate that damn slow and stupid interface). When things/items are working successfully, I add them to my main dahsboard (the SVG file).
I also use the Android openhab app, (though the cloud) when I´m out of home. This requires sitemaps. But at home, the dahsboard showen above is the main dashboard monitoring the house. Thats what I think makes most sense in a real smart home. I know others have another opinion.
It may be worth arguing if a dashboard like mine should provide an option to control stuff by touching the screen. But I really dont fancy people putting their fingers on a screen. It´s not meant to be like a dirty tablet/smartphone. I´m close to kill people who even thinks about touching my screens, monitors/TV etc. at home or at work. My family know this. I just have to look at them, when they´re about to touch any screens in the house, and they quickly put their hands down
Thats why I´d setup voice control insted. In case voice control is to difficult for them, there are lots of pushbuttons around the house, which will provide functions they need to switch on/off everything.
MDAR
(Stuart Hanlon, UK importer of Velbus hardware)
7
I think you’ll find that the Android openHAB2 app supports HabPanel now
I know Stuart. But it´s very slow, and doesnt really fit my svg (I dont get why, cause my mobilphone has a very high resolution). Also fullscreen doesnt seem to work.
Regarding the resolution in Habpanel, its really driven me nuts… I cant seem to fit it correctly for the devices I use.
MDAR
(Stuart Hanlon, UK importer of Velbus hardware)
9
Indeed, it’s not for everyone.
I knew this topic would create opposing opinions
I assume you’ve set the height & width of the SVG to 100%
Yeah, I’ll agree there.
12 columns wide by 82 rows does seem like an odd resolution.
Which is what inspired me to look into creating my own widgets. (Very mixed results there, which is more to do with my own poor design skills)
Yes, it does not really make any difference. SVG should be fully scalable (it is vector graphic). But maybe there is something I have overlooked, cause I cant get it to scale inside Habpanel.
Handling advance html, css as well as general designs really makes a change to Habpanel… I´m far from any of those requirements
More ideas the better! Seems this needs to be done every year or so anyway as new stuff comes out. Post a screenshot, especially of these widgets!
