Button+: a new display/switch device

Please keep possibility of entering ip-address also (as fallback if device isn’t found by mdns). This can be useful for people putting this kind of devices in separate iot vlan :wink:

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Where did you find Adrian’s PayPal? I would like to donate a beer as encouragement also :grinning:

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I already had him in my PayPal, because I donated to him before.
But his profilename is Adyrock there. You should be able to find him if you search in PayPal.

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For my ONVIF app I add an extra device to the scan results for manually adding a camera by IP, so I will do the same in this app, especially as it might be the only way :grinning:

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Cheers @Adrian_Rockall :beer:

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I have ordered one kit :sunglasses:

Looks very interesting

Heh… since the button+ supports 3 fonts; wouldn’t it be easy to hack/add at least pictograms through swapping a font? :thinking: depending on wether the button+ allows for different fonts used at the same time for different buttons.

Only the 4 built in fonts (four sizes) can be selected and it is limited to one per item.

Thanks for the quick reply Adrian! And more important: thanks for the time and expertise you’re willing to put into this project! Don’t forget a ‘sponsor me a cuppa button’ somewhere on the development (part of the homey) site :pray::pray:

Your answer sounds logical.

Came to the suggestion because somewhere on the tweakers topic one of the questions was: what functionality would we lost if you host all services locally instead of configuring through the cloud per the button+ services?

I think the reply from Ronald was that, amongst a couple of things that would cause problems, one issue would be that, under factory default, the font was not hosted locally but serverside.

That triggered the idea that you could probably host a different font locally. Otoh, that might cause major problems with spacing and positioning.

Cheers,
Joost

It’s an creative idea, but let’s give button+ and developers some time to deliver the mvp solution and later on expand functionality. Especially because button+ has the icons graphics feature on there backlog already.

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A quick update on my progress.
I have created the basics of an app and a couple of nice users have been doing some testing. More features are being added on a regular basis, so a stable version should be available when the product starts shipping.
I have also been given a prototype and granted access to the Button + source code on an NDA, so I have been contributing towards features that will make the integration with Homey as easy as possible.
I am feel really positive as Ronald is passionate about his product and I couldn’t wish for more help and cooperation.

Here are some screenshots of the app so far:

So the principle operation is, use the app settings to define configurations for button panels and the screen.
Each Button Configuration defines the device and capability to display on each side along with other properties.
Each Display Configuration defines the layout for items to show on the screen and you can add as many as will fit on the display.
Add MQTT brokers if required, but the app has both a broker and a client built in.
You then add a panel to the app, which can have one large display and up to 7 button panels. The app uses mDNS to find the panels during the Add device operation so it should be easy to add them. A manual option is also available for panels on other subnets.
You can apply Configurations to each button panel and display on a device via the device screen.
There are flow triggers for button presses, so you can add your own actions for each button.
There is also a status message that can be set via a flow action that can be displayed on the panels.
With flow actions you can change the Configuration that is selected for each button panel and display allowing panels to show different items as you require.

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Sounds nice!

Do you think about having a more clear settings menu?
e.g., using React? Like I used for my Telegram app.

I’m not keen on using React due to the extra overhead it adds. And even if I used something like that it wouldn’t improve my UI design capabilities :slight_smile:

I have just noticed though that my phone messed up the scrolling capture, so the screens are not as bad as they look in the images. I will see if I can fix them up.

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Wow, I see some great improvements since the last version I tested, @Adrian_Rockall!
Very curious about how it works after I come back from holiday next week…!

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I have also ordered a set and looking forward to it @Adrian_Rockall !

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I have submitted the app for test Button + | Homey
so if anyone wants to try it and let me know what you think (be gentle) then it will work with the simulator. Instructions are in the readme.

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I have now created a new topic for the app Button + (Release N/A, Test 0.0.1)

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Received my Button+ today. Started playing around with it :-). Really nice device.

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Anyone with an order number higher than 1300 already received a tracking number for their delivery? Just to check if the second batch is being delivered at the moment.

Hello!
Can someone please explain how this device is powered.

I see a power supply to be ordered, but how is it used? (as you might assume, I am not very familiar with such things)?
Has it to be installed in a wall outlet?

Thank You
Peter