Ariela - Home Assistant Android Client

[Petrica]

I think there still might be valid situations when using http on the watch for connecting to HA over internet is still secure that I haven’t thought off initially: such as by using a VPN client on phone to connect to home router whilst HA doesn’t have port forwarding enabled (so HA is still accessible by 192.168.x.y on LAN).

Then, if the watch connects over bluetooth to phone, the entire chain doesn’t use unsecured components (except, off course, for bluetooth or the VPN connection itself ) but I don’t have a Wear OS watch to test.

Yeap, 2/multi FA is quite nice to use and not only in this case.

[rtx]

That’s a good sign that the credentials were synced. Unfortunately i think the watch is not using the local wifi in order to get internet and that’s why the connection failed. Please try to put the correct external IP and see if works.

There is no external IP as the machine is not internet facing. If I need to access Home Assistant from outside the local network I do it via my VPN.

I forgot to mention that I have tried the switching the WiFi APs for the watch and phone, plus making sure they were both on the same AP, but it didn’t make a difference.

[rtx]

Hi,

Don’t even try to connect to HA over a http connection as you are providing easy access to your house for (almost) the entire internet; the username and password are sent in clear. And, with (probably) same password for several accounts/devices, madness follows.

First set HA to be accessible over https (if using Hassio, I found Duckdns + Nginx addons quite easy but there are different opinions from the community so you might want to check them up) and only then worry about connecting your watch

Hi,

The machine is not accessible from the internet, unless someone aquires my VPN certificates and pass phrases, at which point I have much larger concerns than home assistant being accessible . The picture is redacted purely from force of habit.
Oh, and I haven’t reused a password for decades.

[andyinno]

Hi Ionut

Please, it is possible to add a setting for an external MQTT now that MQTT client is available?
MQTT it’s my only chance to reach Home Assistant from outside.
Having the possibility to connect to receive notification on the phone via MQTT is lightweight on the battery and on the data usage.

[Ionut]

Hi Ionut

Please, it is possible to add a setting for an external MQTT now that MQTT client is available?
MQTT it’s my only chance to reach Home Assistant from outside.
Having the possibility to connect to receive notification on the phone via MQTT is lightweight on the battery and on the data usage.

Hello,
Unfortunately is not kinda easy. Everything in the app is made in the way that is requiring connection to Home Assistant. I will think on a method to do that and see what i can do.

[Ionut]

Hello all,

Version 1.2.9.8 is out.
What’s new:

• NEW: MQTT Text to Speech (TTS) support
• fixed picture glance background issue when camera is set
• show entity names on one line only
• fixed crash when entering settings
• fixed firebase registration issue
• webview mode back button improvements

TTS MQTT Documentation: http://ariela.surodev.com/2019/02/28/mqtt-text-to-speech/

[marksev1]

The watch shouldn’t be directly accessing HASS, the base phone app (Ariela) should be accessing everything from the HASS server and sending it to the watch via bluetooth (or that the watch request a refresh from the base phone app connected to the HASS server). That is how most Android Wear apps do things…maybe perhaps it would be cool to use a MQTT translational layer between phone and watch, and just buttons and textual/numerical sensor values would be shown in the watch…so no pictures and stuff like that.

Also regarding the phone app disconnecting and reconnecting, couldn’t you make it ping the HASS server in regular intervals or something so that it would be connected all the time…its annoying to see the disconnected thing, even tho’ it reconnects fast.

[thawizard]

In Ariela, conditional cards are always shown and dont show any cards that are coming after in the same tab.

Also the light card brightness slider works now since 1.2.9.7 but the sliding value goes only between 0-100 (about halfway full bright). Most lights have brightness values of 0-255.

[Ionut]

The watch shouldn’t be directly accessing HASS, the base phone app (Ariela) should be accessing everything from the HASS server and sending it to the watch via bluetooth (or that the watch request a refresh from the base phone app connected to the HASS server). That is how most Android Wear apps do things…maybe perhaps it would be cool to use a MQTT translational layer between phone and watch, and just buttons and textual/numerical sensor values would be shown in the watch…so no pictures and stuff like that.

Something like this will require always for phone / wear device to reading data (like we do in credentials)
and update things. Having such process i believe can kill performance and battery. Still i will investigate.

Also regarding the phone app disconnecting and reconnecting, couldn’t you make it ping the HASS server in regular intervals or something so that it would be connected all the time…its annoying to see the disconnected thing, even tho’ it reconnects fast.

I will add some options i Ariela that would improve those disconnecting time ( connect timeout, read timeout).

In Ariela, conditional cards are always shown and dont show any cards that are coming after in the same tab.

Issue will be fixed on the next version

Also the light card brightness slider works now since 1.2.9.7 but the sliding value goes only between 0-100 (about halfway full bright). Most lights have brightness values of 0-255.

I will take a look into this problem. Thank you for reporting it.

[Ionut]

Hello all,

Version 1.2.9.9 is out.
What’s new:

• fixed Battery sensor invalid icon issue
• NEW: conditional lovelace card support
• fixed MQTT camera rotation issue
• fixed light lovelace card slider max value
• updated German localization

[syphernl]

A conditional card is now hidden, but the space it takes up is still being used.
So, there is a massive gap in between “card 1” and “card 2”.

[Ionut]

Thank you for reporting this. I will investigate.

[SNoof85]

Hi there. Using ariela since few days now and I’m thinking about buying it (and make the French translation to grow the WAF here)
Just a disturbing thing : I use the filter card for my lights (quick view of what’s on). And on Lovelace this card has a header toggle to power off all lights but it’s not here in ariela. Could you make it appears ?

[Ionut]

Hello,

Hi there. Using ariela since few days now and I’m thinking about buying it (and make the French translation to grow the WAF here)

You can find english data and other languages too here: https://github.com/MCrissDev/Ariela

Just a disturbing thing : I use the filter card for my lights (quick view of what’s on). And on Lovelace this card has a header toggle to power off all lights but it’s not here in ariela. Could you make it appears ?

I am planning somewhere next week this to be supported.

[Ionut]

Hello all,

Little teaser for tomorrow’s update: MQTT Next Alarm sensor.
Having this enabled you will be able to know when the next alarm on your Android device is scheduled.

Documentation of this new sensor can be found here: http://ariela.surodev.com/2019/03/03/mqtt-next-device-alarm/

[mihaistoian]

Hi Ionut,
If tracking mode is set to GPS in Ariela pro, HA shows my device at home, but coordinates are not exactly the same as the home zone. But if set to Wifi, then my device is always Away, coordinates sent to HA being 0,0. Home Wifi networks are set properly in Ariela config. Is this the intended behavior or am I missing somehting in my config?

[Ionut]

Hello,

When using GPS mode the coordinates Ariela send, is what its receiving from the device.
Regarding Wifi GPS, Ariela will send 0 / 0 coordinates if:

• you are not connected to a home wifi
• Ariela couldn’t identify retrieve zone.home

Can you send me the debug file so i can investigate?
Thank you,
Ionut

[Ionut]

Hello all,

Version 1.3.0.0 is out.
What’s new:

• NEW: add possibility to change server read / connect timeout
• NEW: next alarm MQTT sensor
• fixed payload MQTT retrive issue
• fixed MQTT apps run kodi example issue
• support for payload_template on MQTT calls
• fixed settings crash while changing orientation
• fixed build in MQTT client while disconnecting
• fixed crash of conditional card

[marksev1]

Something like this will require always for phone / wear device to reading data (like we do in credentials)
and update things. Having such process i believe can kill performance and battery. Still i will investigate.

Why always, just when the Wear app would be launched and in view on the Android Wear watch, when not in view, for example when looking at the watch menu or have other apps in view, the updating would not need to be in effect. So for example just a bluetooth “ping” from the Wear app to the phone just that it knows its alive, and then when the user wants to see the info send the entire package of data over bluetooth.

[Ionut]

I will investigate the behavior. Thank you.