some user interface suggestions?

[tom]

Here are some requests for the user interface:

1.  Have an option for displaying the circuit number when the station is named.  My wiring can get very complicated, and I need to track them as wire numbers, not names.  Besides, it is easier sometimes to talk about zone 8.

2.  Display the name of the controller on the main screen, in case you are running multiple controllers.

3.  Hide unused zones, so I don’t have to scroll through 24 zones when I’m only using 9.

4.  Allow multiple access levels, to allow a gardener to do basic control, but not let them mess up the whole controller.  For example, access level 1: can only turn on or off zones (subject to a maximum time, say, less than 1 hr), Level 2) may modify programs (with an email to designated address naming the change, and perhaps an export of the old configuration),  Level 4) Query Only, and 5)  full access (the current option)

5.  Allow a query to a single zone to show its current programming and the log information about how often it has been run. (minutes in last week, month, etc.)  And how much water it has used, when the flow sensor logic is enabled.  I would like this to be REST enabled, so I could place QR codes around my yard.  I could then scan them and see this information pop up.

6.  Geolocation to restrict access to the website.  I would like to put a QR code on my controller box to allow anyone with a smart phone to access my Open Sprinkler (subject to the access authorization in 4).  But if they move a certain a geo fence, a distance away from the property, their access is denied.

7.  Geolocation for zones.  I’d like to be able to define my sprinkler zones on Google Maps, so that I can just walk around and my phone would automatically detect which zone(s) are nearby.  This could be done with GPS geolocation technlogy, or with iBeacons (Qualcomm is selling iBeacon buttons for $5, which would allow us to tag our zones for precise location feedback to the controller from a mobile phone.

 

 

[Ray]

1. This is similar to adding per-station note, which someone mentioned on the forum previously. Ideally this should be stored in EEPROM space on the controller (along with other station attributes), but because the EEPROM space is pretty limited, it might be better to store this information in the app and not on the controller.

2. Display controller name in the main screen: this should be easy to do.

3. Hide unused zones: this is already supported. You can disable a station and when disabled, the station will not be shown.

4. Access levels: this is harder to achieve, especially on the microcontroller-based OpenSprinkler, which does not run a Linux system.

5. Per-zone query: this is fairly easy to do and is mainly a UI change.

6 and 7: geolocation — these are pretty difficult to implement. Well, first, if you don’t allow remote access all together, then already users can only access the controller when they are within your WiFi range, so it sort of does what you need already. Otherwise, limiting access based on geolocation is pretty difficult, because one can always send fake GPS location to fool the controller, and I don’t see an easy way to prevent that.

[Johan Schön]

Hi,

I control several window lights. Now I don’t know which window the stations belong to. Possibility to add a specific name to each station even if it’s a code from RFToy could be nice.

Johan

[Ray]

@Johan, you are right that being able to set a proper name for the RF stations would be nice. The current way is a hack (i.e. using the normal station name to store the hex code), and it’s really because there is not enough EEPROM space to store a lot of additional data. However, it should be totally possible to store the data in the SD card. We will be adding this support at some point in the future.

[Author]

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