LabVIEW Home Automation User Interface

[vitoi]

One of my planned projects is to write home automation software for my new house. I already have three iPads installed in the wall (kitchen, theatre and upstairs), all my awning windows are motorised, I have a solar powered hydronic in-slab heating system that needs the right type of control, earth tubes, a whole-house fan, solar chimneys, many other passive climate control features and plenty of data cabling throughout the house. User interface access would also be via iPhone, which I carry in my pocket at all times, and mobile iPads.

The intention is to automate the house for climate control, lighting, theatre control, security, monitoring electricity usage, monitoring phone costs, controlling the hot water system, seeing who’s at the front door and letting them in (even if I'm not home), setting up a in-house phone/intercom system, limiting phone use, changing TV channels, looking at weather forecasts for activating systems in anticipation of tomorrow’s weather, remotely viewing the inside of the house, and plenty more. You could call it a life-long project!

I’d like to use LabVIEW for programming since it’s the most fun language I know. The only problem is that when it comes to easily programming a great user interface, I can’t find the way.

1) Data Dashboard for LabVIEW is too limiting with only 6 indicators and no controls (and needs work at the iPad end?)

2) Web UI builder is way too expensive (I need a free solution) and cumbersome

What’s also important is that different rooms can have different user interfaces. Perhaps each can reflect the front panel of a sub-VI.

There are plenty of examples on the web of great looking Home Automation iPad user interfaces. Apart form the example shown above, http://a2.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/089/Purple/v4/d9/23/ec/d923ec9c-0a31-6a62-cb7c-e74a4f8feecc/mzl.uayv... looks good. Such great user interfaces and there is no way (or I don’t know how) to make them happen using LabVIEW.

This may not need to be a product development, per se, but may actually just turn out to be a step by step set of instructions on how to achieve the outcome using existing tools and an example application. Given what I imagine as a wide appeal for such a LabVIEW user interface, I think it’s worth the effort and could be used for many other application such as process control.

The basic criteria are:

1)    Must work with iPhone, iPad (and Android devices)

2)    All programming at the desktop (I don’t want to stand in front of multiple iPads setting them up/updating)

3)    User interfaces must look as good as the examples on the web (and sampled here)

4)    No additional cost

Wouldn’t it be great to have a LabVIEW based Home Automation user interface that is versatile, easy to use and free?

[A-T-R]

FYI....

"BCON" by ICONAG:

http://www.iconag.de/index.php4?lang=en&header=0&sec=produkte_bcon&content=produkte_editor&teaser=3

[AdamKemp]

Have you seen what is coming in Data Dashboard 2?

http://www.ni.com/white-paper/14033/en

I think it will meet most of your requirements. The exceptions that I know of:

1. Only iPad will be supported.

2. Development wil be done on the iPad itself, but it supports sharing of dashboards so you won't have to recreate your UIs on each iPad.

[vitoi]

Good to hear from you Adam. Yes, I've seen the white paper (I was the one that inadvertently mentioned it on the forums before your NI Week presentation 🙂 )

In order to clarify if Data Dashboard would satisfy my requirements, I have a few questions:

1) Given another year of development, would Data Dashboard for LabVIEW allow me to develop a user interface the same as what is shown at the top of this idea post and in the link?

2) Can I programmer the iPad aspects on an iPad on my desk and then quickly (less than a minute or two) transfer the required information to the in-wall mounted iPads to set them up (I really don't want to have to stand for 5 minutes per in-wall mounted iPad for setup and re-setup)?

3) Can I have different user interfaces on different iPads (this is important since each room's iPad would have a user interface suited to that room)?

[GregFreeman]

I was just recently having this conversation with a coworker. I'm curious if/why  this automate-your-home idea hasn't turned into a business yet. I'm guessing the wide range of possible configurations and the potential hardware cost is not something the average homeowner would want to invest in. I can image telling my mom I want to automate her house, and her saying she'd rather put the money towards stainless steel appliances. People aren't yet asking, "can I turn off my sprinklers when I'm on vacation?" but instead care about granite counter tops and fireplaces.

But, it wouldn't surprise me if that changes in the future.

With regards to yoru qeustions directed at Adam, I can say:

1.  not sure but probably. The next version is nifty; I was at an NI week closed door (since I'm not an NI guy, I don't really know, but I can assume they will continue customizing)

2. Yes

3. Yes

[vitoi]

I'm an engineer. I'll go for programming my house for automation before the granite counter top

[AdamKemp]

1. I can't say what we may or may not do in future versions (if for no other reason than it hasn't even been decided yet). What I can say is that you can make some pretty nice looking UIs in DD 2. That said, it's not LabVIEW. Data Dashboard is intended for basic client side UIs where all of the real logic is on the server side. You can't do any actual programming in DD itself, by design.

2. As I said earlier, DD does not support editing on the desktop and then deploying. The editing is done on the tablet itself. However, you will be able to edit on one tablet and then share what you created (via email or our own cloud storage service) with other tablets. That means you will not have to go to the iPad in your wall and do your editing there. At most you will just have to go to that iPad and import the dashboard you created elsewhere.

3. You can have multiple dashboards (they're independent documents) as well as multiple pages per dashboard. I believe that supports your use case.

[vitoi]

Thanks Adam. The one outstanding issue then is when, if ever, Data Dashboard for LabVIEW will be able to produce the user interfaces I see for commercial home automation front ends. This is probably the most important aspect for me.

I've thought of one other problem with using Data Dashboard for my user interface (as opposed to serving up web pages). If I'm at someone else's home PC or have access to another mobile device, I will not be able to interface with my home automation system. This is really limiting since I would like to access it from anywhere, including overseas. I don't think many hotel PC's will have Data Dashboard loaded

Perhaps NI should work on a both a Native App (that is, Data Dashboard) and a Web App that uses a standard web browser. Each have their own strength and weaknesses and I don't think it's one or the other. Standard web pages can look pretty impressive and all applicable devices (fixed or mobile) have a web browser. Do once, cater for all! I know the Web App method has performance limitation, but what I see from web pages is good enough for me (I don't need a graph updating at 20 Hz). The other good thing about the Web App is that is is easy to develop both from NI's side and for the LabVIEW programmers side (or so I've been led to believe).

The more I think about it the more I see a need for Data Dashboard AND a web browser (without any plugins) that reflects a VI or sub-VIs front panel. All the work can be done at a central location and any web browser anywhere in the world can be used. I think I'll put up a new idea to both develop Data Dashboard and web browser LabVIEW user interface. Each has it's place. And if NI put as much effort into each, we can see how each method shines.

[AdamKemp]

I'm still not entirely sure what exactly you mean by "the user interfaces I see for commercial home automation front ends". The screenshot above is a bunch of buttons, sliders, and switches plus graphics. You will absolutely be able to build that in Data Dashboard 2. What's not shown, and what I have no way of telling, is what else that UI might do. In Data Dashboard the controls just send messages to a server. You can't make a button that brings up a dialog or a new screen, for instance. You can have multiple screens, but you switch between them by scrolling. In other words, the UI itself has no logic. It's just controls bound to network variables, and all the logic is on the server side.

What you are describing is basically a whole new product. We deliberately did not design Data Dashboard as just a remote front panel viewer. It is a standalone UI designer with network communication support for interacting with a LabVIEW application. What we're trying to provice is a very simple way to create basic UIs for a tablet. We're not trying to build a general purpose application development environment for Data Dashboard. We think there's significant value in having a simpler UI to solve the simpler use cases.

We also think that native UIs on a tablet offer a far better user experience than web applications so the native approach has been our primary focus. That said, it is possible to create your own applications using whichever other other platform you want and integrate with a LabVIEW application via web services. That means you can use a web development platform or roll your own iOS application if that is what you need.

[vitoi]

With regard to what the user interface should like, the two examples already cited are a start. If you take a look at the user interfaces on http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Data-Dashboard-Direction/idi-p/2144694 that should complete the picture.

The ability to call up a new screen when a button is pressed is crucial. A hierarchical menu structure is important. There would be an executive screen with buttons for things like TV, cameras, awning windows, intercom, etc. For example, when the awning window button is pressed, it would put up a picture of the house. When a room is pressed it puts up a picture of that room with open and close buttons. When a window is pressed then an open or close button can be pressed (with maybe a 50% setting). On top of that, the user interface needs to be able to call up application such as Facetime for intercom use and be able to display the front door camera image when the front doorbell is rung and provide a button to open the door.

I imagine that if LabVIEW was able to serve the front panel of a sub-VI, as well as such things as video, then all would be fine. What I see possible generally on the web for user interfaces is great. Lot's of versatility, video images inside boxes, buttons that call up other pages etc. This is what I want to achieve. Happy to do the application specific programming myself (is there any choice?), but I would like the general purpose (and wide appeal) stuff to be done by NI.

I think the closest idea to what I'm talking about is http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Support-for-HTML5-and-SVG-in-Web-Publishing-Tool/idi-p... , which has already has 121 votes. The other similar idea is  http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Remote-Access-to-LabVIEW-using-HTML5/idi-p/1944781 , which was declined without reason.

I think a separate idea may be required. Although this idea talks about Home Automation (and therefore process control, etc), I think I need to put up a separate idea for the ability to interact with LabVIEW sub-VI front panels from a web browser without any plug-ins. Thinking out aloud about what would differentiate it from this idea and the other ideas listed here, I can think of:

1) We need both a Native App (Data Dashboard) and a Web App approach possible with LabVIEW. They each have their strengths and weaknesses.

2) As with Data Dashboard, don't wait to fully develop it before releasing it. Just start with simple numeric and boolean controls and indicators for the first release and work up from there.

3) Put as much development effort into the Web App as is currently going into the Native App (Data Dashboard)

4) The web browser user interface should reflect the contents of a VI. That is, LabVIEW intrinsically becomes a web page editor - what a great match for a graphical programming language.

The more I think about it, the better it gets. With the Web App approach, we also get the benefits of any web browser anywhere in the world can be used and all development happens at a central location. Is this a great idea or what. I'll put something together and I'll have it out in a day or so.

I just hope it's seen for it's differentiated factors enough not to be declared a duplicate, or worse still, declined without reason!

I think Data Dashboard and a Web App based user interface for LabVIEW are both great innovations. It's gotta help to make LabVIEW more popular.

[nizartunisia]

download link if possible ?