Best Simple Display "Controller"

[diggs]

Not sure if this is a straight forward question or not. I have played around a bit with Domoticz and OpenHAB which are great as controllers, but I also have an application where I have a couple of sites where I just want to have a simple network of sensors (mysensors) but with a basic/simple (idiot proof) interface for users to view, log and recall the data as required, maybe a few realtime alerts based on values. Happy to use a PI to serve out the info if required and most machines on the network are windows based.

With all the controller options available (or others not listed), is there one strategy that is particularly suited for this type of simple data presentation and logging?

I would like the core of the system to be local and not have to depend on an external connection to the www

Something robust that just works.

Any input appreciated

[John]

I will not say it is the simplest way to achieve it, but currently i'm busy with updating clients to provide personalized dashboards with clients having a mobile and fixed profile. You will be able to "design" a dashboard with resizable widgets (graphs, time, media, weather, etc..)

It is being worked on by a couple of people and will replace all current clients which are now available for PiDome. But, you have to wait a bit for it. The official release is targeted for around half November.

Some screenshots:
A part of the dashboard editor with a mobile next to it for comparison: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLHoDJhWIAAStjp.png:large
A screenshot for showing similarities between larger interfaces: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLEyhQdWsAEeIOQ.png:large

For larger screens (wall mountable/tablets):
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CMIJplgWgAAulYf.png:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CMD6iCXWEAAUbVX.png:large

For smaller screens (phone targeted):
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CMIJppKWIAAauQR.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CMD6h-gWwAQs_44.jpg:large

The current larger display targeted clients for example contain customizable 3d floor maps which will also be put on devices supporting these and where not use 2d maps. There will also be support for customized dashboards for wall mountable clients using face recognition (showing the dashboard of the user standing for the wall mounted client) and a lot of other usable and maybe idiotic features. The main target is simplicity and usability on the clients where the server can be challenging.

But as said, you will have to wait until at least half way November. All clients are based on Java(FX) with a single code base so the clients will look exactly the same on every device type. We are already testing windows,mac,ios,android and raspberry pi.

[Oitzu]

@diggs Maybe have a look @pimatic? www.pimatic.org
A few screenshots from google image search:
GUI overview:
http://www.youscreen.de/rjfbc94-pimatic.jpg

Detail view of data:
https://camo.githubusercontent.com/6e99dcabec0c347f9a2401f706b1887629b1b0ee/68747470733a2f2f662e636c6f75642e6769746875622e636f6d2f6173736574732f363536363630382f323234303533332f37326137343130322d396339392d313165332d396664652d3932313034646564356565342e706e67

GUI on phone:
https://camo.githubusercontent.com/02b114e2020a66114f840e31c581769a1f418d62/687474703a2f2f692e696d6775722e636f6d2f737746643446442e6a7067

Detailf view of data on phone:
http://forum.mysensors.org/uploads/files/upload-b055a13d-1019-4b8f-a312-22211cef4a59.png

[diggs]

@john @Oitzu Thanks for the suggestions. Will look over those controllers in a little more depth.

One of the other things I am keen to be able to do with the controller is drill down into the data in a fairly easy and straight forward manner to look at temperature variations, alarms etc so I shall see how those systems go.

[Oitzu]

@diggs: to get a better feeling how that works i made a few screenshots from a sensor of mine:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/llk13xiiucwrfl8/sensor.jpg?dl=0

1.) Sensor in Overview
2.) Click or Touch on sensor value
3.) Graph of Sensor Data
4.) Altered graph to hide battery level and instead show switch state of a device that influences the sensor. (A big ventilation in the same room)

Best is maybe to try different Controller and see whats best to fit your needs.

[John]

@diggs To use one of my clients you have to wait until November. Unless you are fine with development snapshot builds

[diggs]

@Oitzu

Cool. Have had a little play with the demo system. I like the slider option on the Graph to allow a zoom in. Very functional and simple. What system/database is used to store the data an does it have limits?

[diggs]

@John

Happy to try the snapshots to get a feel for how things are developing and the direction headed

[Oitzu]

@diggs it runs typically on a raspberry pi with a serial gateway connected. Written in javascript/coffeescript/nodejs so it should also run on any other system that has nodejs installed.
The data is written into a sqlite database with configureable hold-times.
The only limitations known to me are: SD-Cards tend to have problems with very big databases. (I think this isn't a problem with pimatic itself but more a general problem with sd-cards. Pimatic tries to solve this with buffering of write transactions)
And that the mysensors plugin for pimatic https://github.com/DheerajKhajuria/pimatic-mysensors probably needs some work to support the full set of sensor-node-types available.

[John]

@diggs I expect the first usable snapshot builds at the end of this week. They are located at: http://builder.pidome.org/view/Snapshot builds/job/PiDome clients collection/

These clients are build to provide ease of use. Data aggregation and details will stay on the server.