Mobile Integrated Solutions

Could you add a slider bar to widgets that support dimming?

Can you add a widget that supports voice commands. It would be really cool if you could press a widget button and then it would say speak command, and you could say kitchen lights 30% and it would work.

dlindamood,

The problem with the slider on the widget is you need the status of that device to show the current dim level. Real-time status in widgets is not supported yet. We're having to work around the problem that Widgets are not designed to open your device's network connected 24/7 just to maintain accurate status. (Not to mention a battery killer). We have some concepts in the lab we are playing with to work around widget limitations while not killing your battery.

Maybe I'm not following what you are looking for, but voice commands for a widget doesn't really make much sense to us. A better option is to wait for our Tasker release and use the AutoVoice plug-in for Tasker to achieve your integrated voice controlled home of the future.

Wes

Why would you need the widgit to read the current state of the scene? Could you not just have a slider bar that starts at zero and when you slide it and let go, it sends a signal to set the % where you let go. The widgits have on and off buttons, but they do not know if the device is already on or already off. Why would this need to be different with a slider bar?


How do you use the tasker support with voice plug-in you mentioned?

dlindamood,

Your proposed method would technically work. It's a perception that we're trying to avoid. If we pop open a slider at 0% that suggests that we're receiving status somehow. By offering all the buttons, we're not suggesting status at all.

We are working on a possible real-time status work around for widgets.

Voice control with Tasker is best done using the Auto-Voice plug-in for Tasker. My suggestion would be to do some YouTube searches on how to setup Auto-Voice with Tasker and then expand the actions to MobiLinc tasks.

Wes

I figured out how to use the voice tasker. It works very well. However, I cannot find my fan-linc in the list of devices for the mobilinc plugin in tasker. Is that a know issue, or am I missing something?
Dave

The FanLinc isn't currently supported via the Tasker plug-in or Widgets since it's a specialty device with 4 On Levels (OFF, LOW, MED, HIGH) and doesn't fit into ON/OFF/DIM for all other devices.

My recommendation would be to create scenes with the FanLinc you can control via Tasker/Widgets instead.

Wes

You know what I ended up doing, was using a program in the ISY with just a "then" command and then use tasker to run the "then" command. works great.

That works as well!

Wes

Wes,

May I suggest you look at Google Cloud Messaging (http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html) in conjunction with the connect service as a way of maintaining widget status on Android without killing the battery?

Your servers surely can already get real time status from the ISY thru the portal subscription - and could then send messages directly to the widgets without having to hold a persistent connection on the client at all. A single GCM push can contain up to a 4kb payload - plenty for this application I would think.

Michael.

Hi Michael,

I think I've mentioned this elsewhere. It's definitely up on our website under the MobiLinc Connect page, but yes, you've hit the nail on the head. That's how we are approaching solving this problem.

Wes