OK as I’m struggling to understand this app, I have put together my understanding at this stage, which hopefully will help some in the same situaion
EXAMPLES OF WHAT DEVICE CAPABILITIES (DC) can do for you
1°) Use of minor actions / info from devices WHY WE NEED “DC APP”:
Many devices in Homey have both:
a main action / info, which is usually showing on the device tile and is usable in a Homey flow because the developer has created flow cards for it. In a simple approach, no real need for the “DC app” here.
a “side” action / info, not showing up on device tile, and for which the developer may not have created a flow card.
WHAT CAN “DC APP” DO:
SIDE INFO EXAMPLE: a weather device measuring temperature (main info) and CO2 level (side info):
Standard device tile will display T°, but not CO2. “DC app” will enable to display both T° and CO2 on a new “DC app” tile.
Standard flow cards will be available for T°: let’s say if T°<x or T°>y to create flows
no standard flow card has been created to use the CO2 value and if you are not a developer you simply cannot use this value in a Homey flow. A “DC app” flow card will enbale creation of flow cards (to be used in Homey flows) using all device actions / info, using potentially advanced logic. For instance if CO2 level was on average >x in the past 24 hours
SIDE ACTION EXAMPLE: a curtain device has actions only to fully open or fully close.
“DC app” can also enbale creation of a button allowing to open a curtain by 50% only for instance. This could also be done through standard Homey flows
2°) Group multiple devices: WHY WE NEED “DC APP”:
displaying info from multiple devices on a single tile is not possible with Homey. For instance if you have 2 temperature sensors, you cannot show T° from each in a single device tile.
displaying action buttons from multiple devices is not possible in a single tile with Homey “standard”. If I want a single tile showing a button to open living-room curtains and another button to open bedroom curtain, I can’t achieve that.
triggering actions from multiple devices from a single button is not possible in Homey “standard”. So if I want to open the living-room and bedroom curtain form a single button, I can with Homey “standard”
WHAT CAN “DC APP DO”:
INFO EXAMPLE: 2 temperature sensors in 2 different rooms
“DC app” allows creation of new device tile showing T° for each room, or average temperature for the 2 rooms, or past temperature 30 min ago…
ACTION EXAMPLE: 2 curtains are separate devices a cannot be actionned together with Homey “standard”
“DC app” can help by creating a single button to control (open / close for instance) multiple curtains at once. You can achieve the same results with other approaches (using regular Homey flows, or using group app for instance).
These are just a few examples to help real beginners understand what Device Capabilities can do for you
If I have made mistakes, please feel free to correct me
For some reason I can’t import the TEF string.
AVD doesn’t show any options to change before clicking update text.
Can you please provide a new TEF string?
Thank you.
btw: I tested other TEF strings and they where working wel.
It seems you try to import the TEF as flow per app config.
But this TEF is an export of an AVD with a flow, this works differently:
you have to create a new AVD first, and then import the TEF
(This is recognisable when a TEF starts with tef:AVD: ....)
I’m looking for a way to set the state of a button (enabled/disabled) without triggering the button itself.
Is that possible?
This is the device I have:
I thought that the setting ‘And nothing else’ would prevent it from triggering other cards, but apparently not.
To be clear: these cards are in different flows.
Is there a way to achieve setting the state without triggering any cards?
Hello @Arie_J_Godschalk,
after the release of the Homey Energy Dashboard, I would like to create an AVD that displays the values of the current power, the energy import and the energy export in the Energy Dashboard as a SmartMeter.
At the moment this is not possible because, for example, the “cumulative” function and the “meter_power.imported” and “meter_power.exported” capabilities are missing. The correct and necessary information can be found here: Energy | Homey Apps SDK
Could you possibly add this, please?
Hi,
i have a Shelly measuring my air heat pump. Shellys show energy consumption just as totals and would want to get a daily consumption… so was thinking of having AVD number field which shows Shellys daily energy consumption like this: Current energy total - energy total at 00:00. What would be the way to do this? Can i use Better logic variable (holding the daily start value) and subtract that from the number field which is tied to Shellys energy property?
I just made my first AVD, but I have a question I hope someone can help me with. Is it a requirement to have Better Logic Library enabled? When I disable it, fields loose their values. For example, if I select a device class and save, when I go to repair again it is gone. If I re-enable BLL everything all fields are back again.
I tried to search, but I can’t find anywhere that this app is dependant on BLL for this. Is it? Or did I already break something?
No, BLL should not be required.
But if i understand you correctly, when BLL is not installed, when you open the configurationscreen of an AVD, wrong values are selected in the configurationfields?
