flaON 2024 Autumn updates
The latest updates of flaON personal smart home system are here with a lot of improvements & changes.
This Autumn version has some stability improvements, Node red updates and a complete different android app.
Stability improvements
The stability improvements are related to the power cutoff, that blocked or disabled many function of flaON system. These power cut off affected most of my devices, including Raspberry servers, node red database and android app.
Now the software is protected by a backup system, relling on some JSON files. Easy and safe. Also some updates and upgrades to raspberries PIs OS.
Node red updates
Like previous mentioned the backup FS, protects the Node red also and assure a continuous and reliable functionality. Some cleaning has been made in Node red flow.
A new Node Red node for Alexa commands, where this node provides an end point for an Alexa Home Skill based on Node-RED Alexa Home Skill Bridge.
This node and service allows me to create my own "devices" to work with the Amazon Echo's Home Skill system, giving me voice control over basically anything I can interface with Node-RED. There is support for not only things like Belkin WeMo and Philps Hue, but also a whole range of homebrew devices. I can also use Alexa to kick off seqences of events not just discrete on/off type actions.
New Android App
The new android app that's running on every wall mounted tablet in my house is based on a new concept of user interface, where the daydream is not used anymore. From the main interface the user can navigate to the whole flaON system through a floating menu concept. That floating menu links directly to surveillance camera, android main UI or app's settings.
There were added new try catch exception loops to almost everything that comes from the mqtt, connectivity or power.
The main app UI is divided now in tiles, related to different sections of the flaON system, with the most important info at a glance of an eye. From each section tile, the user can access detailed info.
- Temperatures - shows detailed info about each room temperature;
- Weather - shows info about the current weather conditions and a forecast for the next three days;
- Security - just sequential images from all installed surveillance cameras;
- Notification - all system notifications, today events and next events synced from the google calendar;
- System - power consumption for the current day and the last 7 days, alarms, devices status;
- Settings - just the app & system settings at the user's fingertips;
The security is mainly focused on the surveillance cameras installed outside of my house. The surveillance camera from the gate has the highest priority, followed by the backyard cameras. Unfortunatelly I wasn't able to have a real video stream from those cameras on my android app, so I chose for a sequential playback with a refresh rate of 10 seconds.
Nothing new for the app settings, just a new UI and an apply button for the chosen settings.
Another great feature is the app compatibility for all tablets of my house, regardless of android version. That's an important boost of flaON system.