Might be possible but I have no device for testing it, even my five year old nook tablet runs Android 6.
Next build I try and will ask for your feedback.
Haha yes it does work. I suppose I didnāt say so but yeah seeing mqtt work isnāt much of a screenshot. Thereās a pull request waiting for that and another toggle to turn off the page loading status; personally I donāt want that but others might.
I am using a rooted Fire HD6. I was using Cyanogenmod before however 4.x is the most that runs on it and the camera doesnāt work which is now an issue. Shame because FireOS is a lot slower but it will do. So to the comments in here about 4.x I didnāt play with compiling down, I also have no clue on the impact to APIs and such, Iād imagine thereās something to it. I think though it would be desirable as lots of useful old android tablets would be on 4
Other thoughts I hadā¦
- the json payloads for control appear to need to be {āwakeupā:ātrueā} or really any value since it isnāt evaled, since its json parsing. That made me think it wasnāt working at first. Iām using mqttspy to inject by hand right now.
- I didnāt see the jsaction one work yet
- Iām using another app to do auto start on boot but it probably makes sense for it to be in this app natively?
- I could see doing a HASS component to support tablet dashboards or such, maybe thereās a spiritual pairing on the iOS side to sync up with, or maybe create. Again the MQTT stuff was a great idea!
How could i build it my own? can u post a short how to `?
if you could tell me how to create it myself, i could try.
but if not i am happy to test, when you create it.
Another thing Iāve noted this morning. If the cycle is to allow the device to lock, then the app is effectively not running in the background, or not updating as the camera wake does work. When itās back the widgets are in inaccurate states 
not sure of the effect on MQTT commands either
So I guess four thoughts
- keep the app running appropriately when itās locked
- donāt allow a lock at all and turn of the screen some other way?
- accept the screen will never turn off and use the keep awake dev setting. Iād prefer to save the backlight tho
- force a page reload. Which is adding a delay but I guess itās more appropriate than running the screen
Personally I think the second idea seems like the easiest/best outcome, but not sure if itās feasible for an app to do that.
This looks pretty awesome! I think I need to get some wall mounted tablets as well 
Runs nicely on my Huawei M2
Does this app also run on amazon FireHD?
Or does anyone have a tip for a nice looking cheap 7 inch tablet. At best in the EU.
Might it be possible to implement a zoom function?
For me it wakes up even after a full day out. Wakeup only works while in the browser activity but not for the settings.
things to check
- is doze mode interfering? Some Android version are pretty aggressive about stopping applications. Try to disable battery optimization in the Android settings
- is the motion detector working at all? Maybe the app uses the wrong camera
- does waking up via MQTT work for you?
- does URL work for you while display is off?
- do see something interesting in the logcat?
I went for screen off since my Nexus 10 discharges even when connected when the screen stays on and itās another 2 watts more consumption. If you want to force keeping the screen on the wakelock is already implemented for waking it up. Currently itās removed immediately again. See HomedashService->wakeup.
Seems like i force everybody around into Android Development 
Download the source build it with Android Studio.
Review \homeDashApp\build.gradle relevant setting should be
'minSdkVersion 22
See here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history for the version. The motion-detector lib requires at least SDK15 so Android 4.0.4.
Good luck.
If someone manages to rebuild it for ither anbdroid versions please upload it somewhere for the rest of us to give it a try
While integrating the changes of @quadportnick i tried build for older version but everything below API 21 Android 5.0 requires a different implementation of various features. Itās nothing that canāt be done.
Since all my devices work it is really low prio for me. Letās hope for volunteers.
New apk: https://github.com/ray0711/homeDash/releases/tag/0.2
1 Like
i have installed android studio (in the past)
i downloaded and imported the code, but i have no clue how to build.
since you mention that different implementations are required, i guess i am not able to make a lower version.
so all i can do is hope that someone else does it.
The apk is working for me, i just need to find time to get to know it better
OK works but i cannot see mqtt topics in my broker but nice beginning!!!
Itās not that it doesnāt wake, its that while it was locked (asleep), nothing updates in the webpage. The Web UI comes back in completely the wrong state of things. eg, if lights were switched while it was asleep, the dashboard shows the completely wrong state. As you said I think its the OS being aggressive with not letting the app process while itās locked, which I get. I havenāt played with the mqtt behavior, which may be better off.
The āalternativeā for me in the past was to have the dev mode set to not allow sleep when plugged in. The screen dims but it certainly doesnāt turn offā¦
In all cases the camera detection wakes it fine. I just donāt want it to have to run the backlight, ya know?
I dont have many options on FireOS, but it is rooted. (eg, I was able to remove the lockscreen entirely. Thatās not an option the OS allows in the UI, but, itās possible to do it underneath. If the lockscreen is enabled, the camera wake just comes back to the lock screen and you have to swipe it to unlock which is obviously not desirable). I could go back to Cyanogenmod I suppose if we could get this built on Android 4.x, but, from what I read the front camera is broken on this model soā¦
Ok, I did some searches and Iāve got some mods to how the wakeLock stuff is setup, and Iām not using the window flags at all. So far, it seems to work, at least for my deviceā¦ but it will need the overnight test. UPDATE: Still not good. But I think the issue is: WiFi is being turned off! Playing with locking WiFi now.
All the MQTT stuff and updating seems to happen fine while the screen is off now ā and i can push in a new URL and when I wake it (camera or MQTT) poof, the new page is there. I dont know why that seems magical
Edit: Ok I should quit tonight. I have implemented the following in my fork:
- Hopefully better locking/unlocking code for my tablet at least, but this needs to be tested
- Fixed a typo with jsExec which made it not work
- Fixed a quirk where going back to settings keeps punting you back into the browser if you have start with browser enabled
- Added an option to auto start on Android startup
- Added a save option to the URL command, so it saves that URL as the new startup url
https://github.com/ray0711/homeDash/compare/master...quadportnick:master
Thatās just plain great!
I think a switch for more or less aggressive wakeup in the settings would be cool. Then we can keep both versions and everybody can choose himself.
Exactly what I was thinking. I have a situation where this is important, but it will suck more battery in a non tethered situation. And different tablets have different behavior
Wifi locking seems to have been the trick. I saw it posted sensor data all night, and when I woke it up with the sensor the dashboard state was correct. So I guess the previous locking kept the App alive however the networking was not. 
Will clean this up tonight!
Iāve posted a test release of the changes I made to 0.2, can some folks please try this and see if there are any behavior regressions? (ray ā do I need to post a signed copy for others to sideload? Iāve not had a problem so far)
- New code for screen locking
- WiFi Locking option
- Option for prevent screen sleep entirely
- Added save option for MQTT url command
- Added option to start homeDash when device boots
- Auto-browser only activates when first starting app
- Fixed jsExec MQTT command typo
- Added reload MQTT command
Afaik: no signing required for the debug version. Only if you set the build to release.
You can create a new (self signed) signing key in Android studio. Should be somewhere in the build signed apk dialog.
I guess iām gonna switch to your version over mine
@ReneTode what version of Android exactly do you have on those tablets?
It looks like they moved to the Chrome engine for default webView rendering around 4.4, I have a feature-broken version of homeDash running on 4.1 and the way the browser works is SUPER miserable and not going to work well at all with HADashboard. I donāt know yet if I can grab Chrome separately and embed it in the app, might be a way, but the āeasiestā route would be to use 4.4