Wanted to announce the newest version of HomeDash which we’ve been working on, as I think this is probably the first version ‘feature complete’ for most people. HomeDash is a kiosk type browser with a focus on fitting in with HASS/HADashboard environments. Oh and it will wake the screen back up if there’s motion in front of the camera Basically, put your cheap/old Android device to use displaying your dashboard web page of choice!
What I think is cool here is that you can command it over MQTT, which means its much easier to maintain remotely. I made it work better for me, and the momentum is still going… looking for feedback!
Upcoming>
For 0.5: New name
For 0.5: Zoom level parameter for the browser (eg, 150%) and fit content to screen
For 0.6? Hardware input control (eg, keyboard/usb input)
For 0.6? Unlock the screen even if Android forces a lock screen (eg, on FireOS)
Add full remote configuration capability
Provide a HASS component to streamline setup
Enhance/finalize the API (for v1)
Add network webcam capability along side motion detection
I am using fully browser atm, because it offers a zoom function. On the wall I would otherwise not find the buttons I like your ideas. A HA component sounds really interesting. Looking forward!
Can you describe the zoom function and how you use it? On the surface it sounds to me like, the function in desktop browsers to change +/- 100% zoom? I would think it might be easy to tell the browser engine to change the zoom level but not sure what that means from a UI perspective.
Nope, not known. Would you be able to use the debug build and capture logs on a computer? Hard to really diagnose without the hardware in hand. We’ve gone through a lot of crazy Android hardware differences with the cameras and I’m surprised to still hear of a crash.
For sanity, did you grant the camera permission when asked? Or did it ask?
Here you go - two x same tablets
Top is Fully at 150%
Bottom is HomeDash
Fully will also scale page to fit screen which could be handy - can take a while to work out pixel size of widgets, gaps, grid in HADashboard until you get it right.
Im pretty sure Ive seen parameters in the browsers to handle the zooming of content. It may also be possible to inject Javascript that handles that as well. I’ll note it at the top
Also, cough cough, I started doing an iOS version… it runs a page and MQTT control is working…
Yes it did ask and I did grant permission. Want to say it happened when changing from back camera to front camera but I can’t confirm that yet. Will get the debug loaded when I have a chance and see if I can capture the logs (once I figure out how to do that, using a mac).
No thank you. Unfortunately I don’t have all the hardware on hand to bang this stuff out. I thought we finally had the weird cases covered. It will probably end up being another small thing. Always is
Your question makes me think we could be clearer when renaming this app. This is basically a fancy, controllable browser that facilitates displaying your dashboard application of choice, eg, HADashboard or pointing at the HASS homepage. Some folks want a bit more than ‘full screen Chrome’ and a lot of the apps out there are focused on locked-down kiosk scenarios and cost money.
Basically you need to point it at a webpage that makes sense for you, in the pictures above that’s HADashboard v2.
I’d probably clear cache/cookies if you had to start over on HADashboard but used the same URL (which I realize isnt in the GUI at the moment, but there’s an MQTT command for it… assuming you did that… hah… ok…)
Basically, put your cheap/old Android device to use displaying your dashboard web page of choice!
