HABPanelViewer 0.9.27

vbier · September 11, 2017, 4:22pm

I have created an openHAB controlled kiosk browser as a frontend for habpanel.

Some of the available features are:

it can be set as home screen (it allows to start installed apps on the device)
it allows to control the camera flash, screen backlight, volume and bluetooth from openHAB
it allows to use the android TTS service or start apps from openHAB
it can capture pictures or screenshots and send them to openHAB
it can report device sensor values to openHAB.
it detects motion using the front camera and can report motion events to openHAB (this does not work at the same time as the flash control on my tablet).
it has an auto-restart on crash feature
it auto-discovers the openHAB server on first start

I have uploaded the Android Studio app code to github:

A pre-built apk file is available as release in the github project. It is the current development state (and only works with OH3):
https://github.com/vbier/habpanelviewer/raw/master/app-debug.apk

The app is also available on fdroid. Install using the fdroid app or download from fdroid.org (thanks to @mueller-ma).

There is an outdated version available on the play store. It is not advised to use this version, as it has bugs that are already fixed in the fdroid version and lacks some of the features of the fdroid version. This is why I am not going to support people running the play store version any more.

Here is a screenshot of the app with open main menu (swipe left starting from the right screen edge to open it):

Feel free to check it out and leave comments. I will work on it in my spare time, so if you have problems or feature requests let me know.

Versions up to 0.9.25 will work on Android 4.4+. Starting from 0.9.26, Android 5 is required or the app will crash on start. All features are available from Android 6.

In case of problems check out the online help or the Wiki. Feel free to add information you think might be useful to other users.

I will not answer questions that have already been answered in this thread or are answered by the help file or wiki. Use the search function before asking questions. Make sure you have the latest version installed before reporting bugs.

furax54 · September 11, 2017, 8:08pm

I will try it. thank for your work.

adtwomey · September 12, 2017, 3:02am

I will give it ago.

miker · September 12, 2017, 5:19pm

Hi vbier,

I was also working on and testing a very similar purpose Android app… main intents were:

Start on Boot
Immersive / No Exit without pin/key combo (config option, could use same app on-demand for quick access from phone, etc)
Maintain Volume Preset in Preferences
Restart App on crash, etc
Some “MDM” type features.
Scheduled Reboot / Remote reboot request (ie if you want changes reflected on all your panels immediately)
Housekeeping tasks (clean cache/mem if needed)
“Check-in” type feature - ex. have status page of touch-panels. red icon if no checkin for >1hr, etc.

I was planning to make it work on >=4.2 (some features) or everything >=6.0

Will take a look at your asap! Thanks!!

(my 1st Android app as well. Did all this on Debian/Raspberry Pi type devices, but Android fit the bill for all form factors )

micware · September 12, 2017, 7:27pm

Wow, I think a lot of people will love this app, very useful.

I will test the app if I have time.

Maybe you can make a option that turns on the screen when motion is detected.

miker · September 13, 2017, 1:33am

FYI… Some of the ideas/features/functions I had noted along the way…

vbier · September 13, 2017, 3:38pm

I have just updated the app. I have added the restart on crash functionality, regexp validation and a “Status Information” menu entry that currently shows app version, detected cameras, and the values of the configured openHAB items. Note that these are not updated while the Activity is showing.

Also I changed the minSDK to 23, so the app should now run on Android 6+.

vbier · September 19, 2017, 5:00pm

And another app update.

I have now added motion detection. Unfortunately, it does not work at the same time as the flash, at least not with my tablet. In this case motion detection takes precedence over flash light control.

I have also added a maximum number of restarts before auto-restart is suspended to avoid endless restart loops.

5iver · September 25, 2017, 2:54pm

Nexus 7, Android 6.0.1, habpanelviewer app-debug.apk from Sept 19

I was thoroughly excited to try this for the motion detection! I found ADB over WiFi flaky and needed to be reset regularly. But I can’t seem to get motion detection to work. The screen will stay on when the camera detects motion, and the screen will turn off eventually (a timer configuration setting would be helpful!). But once the screen is off, it does not turn back on with motion. This tablet has back and front facing cameras, but no flash.

Also, what does the Backlight Control do? Does it just dim the screen or turn it on and off completely? I have a switch item configured in the app, but when it turns ON and OFF the screen does not change.

vbier · September 25, 2017, 3:16pm

Do you have motion detection enabled in the preferences? Is flashlight control disabled? What does the System Information screen show about the detected cameras?
Currently, the motion detection is running all the time and only turns the screen on when motion is detected.

Backlight control just turns the screen on when the configured regexp is met. I have not yet found a way to force the screen on while the regexp is met. You can check in the System Information screen if the item can be read from openHAB and what its value is.

5iver · September 25, 2017, 3:26pm

Yes

Yes, it was disabled automagically due to no flash being found.

The Enable Regex Expression is greyed out:

I’m not sure what you mean by this.

vbier · September 25, 2017, 3:33pm

This means that the screen turns off after inactivity (as defined in the android preferences), regardless of motion detection or value of the configured item. Whereas I am a looking for a way to force the screen to stay on as long as the regexp is met.

The disabled preference was a bug. I just fixed it and uploaded a new version. Please check if you can now specify the regexp and if the screen turns on when it is met.

5iver · September 25, 2017, 3:55pm

Sweet! That worked to turn on the screen. It did not turn it off when the regexp was no longer met, but the screen will timeout on its own. I think this is workable for me!

Is there anything I can test for you in regards to the motion detection not turning the screen on? I just set the tablets screen timeout to 15s, hid the screen, and it is not coming back on.

vbier · September 25, 2017, 3:59pm

Nice to hear that at least something works .

I will add some more information about motion detection to the System Information screen. The app also logs interesting stuff to the android log. According to some other post this can be accessed with
adb logcat

You could check if you can see something there.

vbier · September 25, 2017, 4:30pm

I have once again pushed an update. Preview size (which is needed for motion detection) calculation is improved and I have added information about motion detection to the System Information Screen.

5iver · September 25, 2017, 4:55pm

Motion is not detected:

vbier · September 25, 2017, 5:21pm

The detection count is not updated while the System Information Screen is open, so if you open it right after the start it might be zero. In this case close and reopen Status Information and check if the count has changed.

I have once again added some more info to the System Information screen, but this is a very cumbersome process. Can you please check if you can access the log as described?

5iver · September 25, 2017, 7:35pm

At one point I did see detections show up, but only once.

The forum was unhappy with the amount of data (and it keeps crashing!), so I created an issue in GH with the log.

vbier · September 28, 2017, 9:16am

I just pushed another update.

It contains an alternative motion detection mechanism using the new camera api 2 (this is now enabled by default). It is tested to be working with my Galaxy Tab A and a Nexus 5. If you have problems with this, you can switch back to the old mechanism in the preferences but have to restart the app manually.

There is now a restart menu entry (but as I have found out this morning, it does not work on the Nexus, but only on my Galaxy Tab A). I will investigate this, but I am not going to have any time during the next week.

I have also removed the default value for the panel name so that initial installs should show the habpanel start page once the URL has been configured.

stinkediesel · September 28, 2017, 3:08pm

Very cool! At this time I am using Filly Kiosk Browser. IT would bei nice to activate Screen Using Openhab Switch or Contact Item (from my KNX Motion sensor).