Do you in your long terms plans intend to be able to use other MQTT devices with this app? By this I mean sensors or switches that directly post their information into MQTT, not only those originating from Ariela or HomeAssistant.
Then Ariela could be used as a general front end app for MQTT devices, control and displaying status, also allowing it potentially to include other devices from other hubs or software that supports MQTT.
(I realise I could always integrate them into HA first and then they would appear by default)
I added the HANotify and I was just wonderring - like I do with some other custom components I was looking for some information whether I should add this to my card tracker in my lovelace ui, so I can make sure I always update this to the latest version?
My device tracker is not updating in home assistant. Says I am at home in home assistant when I am 100% away at work. Home assistant did show it at my work zone for about half a second but currently thinks I’m still at home.
I have tried restarting home assistant, restarting my phone, turning on different update intervals, gps and wifi detection. Still cant get it to update to my work zone.
Please enable the debug mode and send me the logs so i can investigate. Thank you.
Also what you can try is : disable device tracker in Ariela and stop your HA server. After that open known_devices.yaml and delete your device, save the modifications, start the server. Open Ariela and enable device tracker and check if works.
Thank you @Ionut
Just bought the Pro version: as others have said the apps look really promising and you are clearly interested in improving it: kudos to you!
I’d like to add some comments: I’ve skimmed through the whole post and I hope I’m not suggesting something already brought to your attention.
If i keep the mqtt topic to “homeassistant” and I copy-paste the sensor yaml code suggested by Ariela into my configuration, I end up with two sensors: the autodiscovery one and the “manual” one. Is this supposed behaviour? If I want to only handle the “manual” version, should I just change the topic, and then define it via code? This is because I’d like to override the icon_template attributes and show if it’s charging or not using the appropriate mdi (i.e. if “(battery_value / 10 | round * 10) = 50” and not charging by using mdi:battery-50 or by using mdi:battery-50-charging if instead it’s connected to the power source)
At first I had some issues with device_tracker, because I was using nmap+zanzitto: to solve this I had to set the device_name in Ariela as the one defined for zanzitto and restart home assistant: maybe this info can help other users who weren’t able to get their device tracked with Ariela. I will monitor battery usage, and report back to you. Have you also considered implementing an owntracks emulation, like zanzitto does?
I’m using Lovelace UI, and I found some really great custom cards and components. It seems that for the moment some of them are not supported, like the ones made by @thomasloven (https://github.com/thomasloven) (for example slider-entity-row or fold-entity-row) or the custom swiper card made by @Bram_Kragten (Lovelace: Swiper card)
Does Ariela support camera streams? I’m using picture-glance cards for my rooms, but the camera entity isn’t shown in the picture-glance element list so I cannot click it and watch it.
_edit: the pictures of the picture-glance card are static, not the feed from the camera, and I switch them based on the status of the lights in the room.
Have you considered integrating the app into Tasker as a plugin, so we can leverage this functionality to fire events to HomeAssistant via Ariela?
Please enable the debug mode and send me the logs so i can investigate. Thank you.
Also what you can try is : disable device tracker in Ariela and stop your HA server. After that open known_devices.yaml and delete your device, save the modifications, start the server. Open Ariela and enable device tracker and check if works.
Deleted from tracker while tracking was turned off and reset home assistant. I’ll let you know tomorrow when Im at work if it updates correctly. I bought the app, thanks for your support.
Not thinked about this until now, i will and it to my TODO list. Thank you for the suggestion.
I will add this implementation to my TODO list.
I will look into it. Can you share the configuration of the card via PM? Thanks.
Not really sure what you actually mean, can you please explain a bit more? Thank you, and i am glad you like the application
That is fine, those objects are actually JSON objects. If you want to do some automations you will have to parse those. More informations you can find here about the bluetooth sensor: Bluetooth – Ariela
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
@Ionut
I just switched from using Zanzito to Ariela because it’s fast development and the future of this app looks great. But i have two problems with this app.
Problem No.1 Device Tracker
I started using Ariela device tracker but for some reason it updates my location every 5 minutes even if i set it to update every 1 minute or 50 meters. The same is on my girlfriend’s phone.
Problem No.2 Firebase Notifications
I enabled HANotify in my Hassio and it works fine but i can’t enable it in Ariela. When I try I get the message “Failed to enable Firebase notifications on this device”
It would be great if Ariela had some features of Zanzito (viewing Mqtt logs, Remote administrating other devices, High Accuracy Device Tracking, and all settings controlled by mqtt from home assistant so can be used in automations) There are a lot of Zanzito users upset because Zanzito is not developed anymore and they would be happy to swapp to Ariela.
Just like me
Well, if you have Android O or later you can “blame” the OS for that (it do not allow starting things in the background immediatly) Anyway, you can enable the permanent notification which will imply that Ariela will going to have a permanent connection with the HA server meaning that the updates of location, widgets will be instantaneous.
Is the HANotify the custom version created for Ariela correct? You may also wanna check if the service is loaded in the HA and also you can also enable debug mode and send me the logs.
The plan is to make Ariela best Android client for HA. If adding Zanzito features to it means that i will gladly do it.
If you already configured for your local network then you will have to use “configure external” options.
Else you do the setup again but instead of puttingocal IP adress of the server you can use the duckdns address.
Please let me know if works or if you have any issues.
I was thinking something like using an event from home assistant as an event trigger in Tasker (like a sensor firing or an automation starting for example), or the possibility to instead execute an action on HomeAssistant (launch automation, turn on lights, execute scripts) from an event raised on the phone. I actually could think only of a use case right now: use another Tasker plugin (autonotification) to create some notification shade buttons to control the lights, and use Ariela as a plugin in tasker to actually issue the command. Right now I’m using an mqtt message from Tasker and an automation triggered by the mqtt payload in HA, but I’d love to be able to remove some automations (also I don’t like to use http intents very much)
I will share the yaml code via PM, thanks again for your incredible support.
I’m a converted zanzitto user too
I’d like to add also my personal experience on battery usage from a day of use:
11 hours device usage since full charge
37% battery remaining
Ariela used for 11h1m with 12% battery usage: I’d say it’s quite good, considered that Google Play Services were at 19% and screen was 9% with 2hours usage.
I have the persistent notification enabled, using device tracker and 2 mqtt sensors.
Today I also received the Pie update for my Mi A1, so tomorrow I will see how this new OS behaves (Ariela is ignoring the battery optimizations though, like Tasker and other apps that I consider critical).
Thanks again for your work! I will spread the word on your app everytime I have the chance!
I have Android P but I don’t think this is because OS limitations. Permanent notification is enabled. Even when Ariela app is open on the screen it still updates my location exactly every 5 minutes (I measured the time). In the meantime Ariela updates my battery sensor so there is communication with Home Assistant. And still location is updated every 5 minutes
Thanks I didn’t know it needs custom version of HANotify. It works now. Are there any advantages of using HANotify built in to Ariela, over the standalone HANotify?
Hi, sorry, but seams that only I have problems to connect to my ha server after updating application to not use tokens but user account. Ariela keeps saying that my credentials are not correct. Sadly they are. I already changed password in ha an created new user too, but the same error. Interestingly after failing to log in I cleared app data and reinstalled application and after opening I was in without any setup, sadly the next day I’m back to login screen and can not get past. There is no logs about failed login in ha too.
One question regarding the custom HANotify component: is it possible to modify it to use my existing firebase project by changing the server key in the py file?
P.S. I’m already using notification with action button, but I’m leveraging HTML5 push notifications. I’m always curious about trying new stuff though XD
(it do not allow starting things in the background immediatly) Anyway, you can enable the permanent notification which will imply that Ariela will going to have a permanent connection with the HA server meaning that the updates of location, widgets will be instantaneous.
