My New Whole Home Controller (Updated: Dec 2021)

dlmorgan999 · December 13, 2021, 11:37pm

Thanks much for sharing your project file. It definitely taught me a few things. However - there is one thing I haven’t yet been able to figure out. I’ve seen at least a couple of projects that do this, so I must be missing something.

I understand (I believe anyway) how to use a combination of a button and an image on top of each other. I also understand using a data trigger on the image to change the image when the associated button is pressed.

What I haven’t been able to figure out yet is this. I find that once the image has been changed, it never changes back to the default image when I select another button.

Honestly, I wouldn’t expect it to change back without having to add another event, but people seem to be doing this. Can you please fill me in on what I’m missing, or where to look in your project file?

Jdamore · December 14, 2021, 11:02pm

Hi Dave! Sounds like you’re digging in and thats good! First off, there’s many ways/methods to accomplish the same thing in many cases. The way I did it is just what I found to work for me for what I wanted to do. There’s other ways and probably more simplistic ways to do what I did… there is probably a better way for sure (I was still learning when I made it)!

In short; if a datatrigger is no longer met, it will go back to the default property…

Here’s a synopsis on my example:

I used a virtual device called “PageSelection”.
If you press a “Button” the event is change “PageSelection” to the corresponding page.
The “ImageButton” is using a datatrigger which is bound to PageSelection. If the datatrigger is met, the property setter changes the image, in my case, to an image that appears to be selected. When the datatrigger is no longer met, the image reverts back to the default image.

I grew fond of PageBrowsers and I use a lot of them in my project. By default, I set the IsVisible property is unchecked. Each PageBrowser has a datatrigger which is bound to “PageSelection” which makes it visible. Again, when the datatrigger is no longer met, the PageBrowser becomes no longer visible. Note: you can use one PageBrowser and use multiple datatriggers to change the Page property. There’s a reason I prefer multiple PageBrowsers. Instead of pagebrowsers, you can use DeviceBrowsers, MediaBrowsers, WebBrowsers, or whatever.

Hope that helps

dlmorgan999 · December 14, 2021, 11:24pm

Thanks much! What I didn’t realize is that the property would go back to the default value if the trigger wasn’t met. That makes things much easier. . I’ll play with that here in a bit.

And I’m having so much fun with HR. I’ve been doing automation in one form or another since the mid 70s (when X-10 came out)! I’ve gone through a number of different automation apps since the early 90s, having recently transitioned to HomeSeer.

I didn’t much care for their UI designer and recently saw a reference to HR in the HomeSeer forums. I work in IT, and while I’m not a developer, I’ve done a bunch of programming over the years. I quite like the way the designer works, and it feels comfortable to someone who is used to Visual Studio.

Bill has done a great job with the design, and I’m actually quite enjoying learning what all this is capable of. The community here in the forums is also a great resource, and between this and the Google Groups, I’m doing a lot of reading every day. Thanks again for the help!

Jdamore · December 31, 2021, 8:38pm

Over the last year I’ve integrated a few new devices and made tweaks to my project (mostly to clean up things from my newbie days) but, I really wanted to over-haul my interface. I began a new project from scratch, but I kept going back to the same layout because its easy. My parents, when they visit, know how to use it and understand it. My parents actually using it is debatably a good thing.

I decided to keep with the same project and just give it a face-lift. It looks better on the tablets then my screenshots… the tablets give it more of a glassy look.

I still have some things I’d like to do (like find a cool lightbulb icon). I’ve been migrating from Hubitat to HomeAssistant so that’s been a lot of work/learning.

Anthem receivers are new to my setup. They have a Web UI so, I added a WebBrowser

Bill added App Orientation several months ago so I use Portrait mode as a favorites page. This is mostly for use on my phone. Still have some work to do here but its been good.