Control Panel Store - ability to easily share control panels

Posted on
Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:59 pm
kpurintun offline
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Re: Control Panel Store - ability to easily share control pa

jrickmd wrote:
I absolutely treasure the ability to have control panels and use them much more often than voice (though I have and use HomeKit Bridge). The issue I see is that control pages are so unique to an individual. If I export my control page to someone else, how do they easily link THEIR kitchen light, or their motion sensor, or their temperature monitor, etc. to each of the controls. I tweak my control pages at least once a month... so they stay individualized.


I get this... mostly i am looking for less of a "control panel" and more of a control panel style pack... sort of a theme or so. (layout ideas, font, color pallets, icons, button shapes, background "layouts" for different screen sizes, etc..) Action Tiles is the best i have seen. they show lots of good at a glance data, cameras, clock , alarm, temp, etc.... really sharp and something that Indigo would be able to hit right out of the park.

i use alexa to turn on my lights. but control panels are way more useful than light operation. having a camera feed, or knowing that the lights outside are on when you can't see them. or seeing that your house is operating in a "high energy rates" mode, or counting your energy usage during certain windows of the day.. quick wall access to sonos, weather, etc...

my biggest issue with voice is when it does not work the first time. or the 2yo in the room wants to scream when ever I say "alexa".. or when Alexa thinks "alexa" was said and tries to interpret the command which was not meant for her.

Posted on
Wed Jul 18, 2018 6:02 pm
kpurintun offline
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Re: Control Panel Store - ability to easily share control pa

lastly, control panels are best for the phone because they are the most intuitive way to control the house from a phone or remotely. explaining something to my wife is much easier on control panels that are thoughtfully laid out.

Posted on
Thu Jul 19, 2018 6:45 am
johnpolasek offline
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Re: Control Panel Store - ability to easily share control pa

kpurintun wrote:
lastly, control panels are best for the phone because they are the most intuitive way to control the house from a phone or remotely. explaining something to my wife is much easier on control panels that are thoughtfully laid out.

+1 on that... I haven't messed with homekit or any of the Alexa or google voice control stuff because I was leary of letting anyone's voice do things in my home even before the "Alexa, Where's the nearest burger king?" commercial fiasco, and when I want to check on what's going on in my house, pulling up a control page mosaic of thumbnail security cameras linked to full sized control page images in touch is the quickest and easiest way to see what's happening. And control pages with completely flexible choices of which devices/triggers/actions that are not exclusive are the best way to get around the limitation of only one level of one set of folders to put indigo objects in.

Posted on
Thu Jul 19, 2018 10:47 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Control Panel Store - ability to easily share control pa

As I said, they are both important. But as we work through internal priorities, both have to be considered and they aren't equal.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Tue Jul 24, 2018 12:45 am
srkinard offline
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Re: Control Panel Store - ability to easily share control pa

One thing I think would help with this would be a way to change the target device for multiple buttons/items at once.

I often create a series of preset brightness buttons for my dimmable lights, and any time I add them to control pages I have to click on each button and re-assign the target device. Not changing the values or anything, just the target itself.

I would love to be able to select the entire group and just change the target device ID to something else. If a button references a function/capability the target doesn't have, just skip that device and give a popup saying that "xxx could not be updated to new target" or something.

Then you could import control pages and reassign targets easy.

Ross

Posted on
Tue Jul 24, 2018 2:32 am
siclark offline
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Re: Control Panel Store - ability to easily share control pa

I second this request, as whilst I see the power on control panels, I lack the design skills and patience to figure it all out, and whilst I have done a basic one, I have never got them to where I would love them to be. IDeally would love to just copy and paste, then do some tinkering on someone else's hard work :D

I actually use homekit bridge primarily as an app to do simple control of the house and see cameras, more so than getting Siri control, as most of my voice control is over Alexa and my Dots. Its an app that is much easier to explain to wife and family than the Indigo app. (Sorry Matt and Jay - but I bet Apple has slightly more resource at designing it).

Posted on
Tue Jul 24, 2018 9:51 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Control Panel Store - ability to easily share control pa

siclark wrote:
(Sorry Matt and Jay - but I bet Apple has slightly more resource at designing it).


We totally agree - we're 2, they're thousands. And we have a lot of other things (besides control pages) which require a lot of work. If all we did was just build a automation control client to other systems (like SimpleControl for instance), we would have a lot more time for this sort of thing.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Tue Jul 24, 2018 3:25 pm
siclark offline
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Re: Control Panel Store - ability to easily share control pa

If only there was thousands of you 2!!


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Posted on
Tue Jul 24, 2018 3:29 pm
RogueProeliator offline
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Re: Control Panel Store - ability to easily share control pa

We totally agree - we're 2, they're thousands. And we have a lot of other things (besides control pages) which require a lot of work. If all we did was just build a automation control client to other systems (like SimpleControl for instance), we would have a lot more time for this sort of thing.

Contract some work out, even if it means charging a few bucks more for the license! Or do a crowd funding campaign to contract some specific work/enhancements out. Or I vote Durosity just put up the money for you to hire another programmer, even if part time. No need to ask him, just go ahead and bill... :)

Posted on
Wed Jul 25, 2018 8:14 pm
mundmc offline
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Re: Control Panel Store - ability to easily share control pa

RogueProeliator wrote:
Contract some work out, even if it means charging a few bucks more for the license! Or do a crowd funding campaign to contract some specific work/enhancements out. Or I vote Durosity just put up the money for you to hire another programmer, even if part time. No need to ask him, just go ahead and bill... :)


I would part with a significant some of money to encourage professional-style control page template creation. I suspect many others might. In the meantime I’m having away on my CP’s for my cheap Fire 7’s.


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Posted on
Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:32 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: Control Panel Store - ability to easily share control pa

mundmc wrote:
I would part with a significant some of money to encourage professional-style control page template creation.

If I had charged for the time and resources I put into Room-O-Matic then it would probably be at least a few grand per person to justify building it. It was more hours than I can count in Photoshop painstakingly creating a cohesive stitched system that could be manipulated in a control page.

I actually had two other highly graphical designs in progress that I abandoned when voice control became "doable" because the time to bring them to completion was way too much for a product I knew I would never use.

I still use Room-O-Matic when I need control page access and I do love that design quite a bit but as I use HomeKit for almost all "control page access" anymore I am not sure I'll ever get the bug to do this much graphic work.

If I look back on my control page work that I contributed to the Indigo community just Room-O-Matic and LCD Creator - only two of around 6-8 that I published - probably were 400+ hours of work easily.

The other part of accepting payment to do this kind of thing is that you are then on the hook for it and at the will of the users to an extent. I don't want to feel obligated to put 50 more hours in on ROM just because a new device type is out there that would look cool on it with super stitched graphics. I feel that way about all of my Indigo contributions actually.

My Modest Contributions to Indigo:

HomeKit Bridge | Device Extensions | Security Manager | LCD Creator | Room-O-Matic | Smart Dimmer | Scene Toggle | Powermiser | Homebridge Buddy

Check Them Out Here

Posted on
Fri Jul 27, 2018 5:26 am
durosity offline
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Re: Control Panel Store - ability to easily share control pa

RogueProeliator wrote:
We totally agree - we're 2, they're thousands. And we have a lot of other things (besides control pages) which require a lot of work. If all we did was just build a automation control client to other systems (like SimpleControl for instance), we would have a lot more time for this sort of thing.

Contract some work out, even if it means charging a few bucks more for the license! Or do a crowd funding campaign to contract some specific work/enhancements out. Or I vote Durosity just put up the money for you to hire another programmer, even if part time. No need to ask him, just go ahead and bill... :)


Sounds reasonable. As I own 50% of Jays house I reckon we could sell off 10% of it as a way to raise capital. Who wants to buy 10% of jays house? You’ll be allowed to sleep on 10% of his bed, eat 10% of his food and 10% of his car. I’d recommend bring a circular saw for cutting off your share.


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Computer says no.

Posted on
Fri Jul 27, 2018 9:58 am
mundmc offline
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Control Panel Store - ability to easily share control panels

I was thinking a “Buy Plugin Developer Beer” plugin, linked to a user’s Paypal and the developer’s favorite bar. I legitimately would fire off that action group periodically.


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