IMO if you're using the dashboard to adjust something you haven't really automated anything, you just moved the physical buttons to a dashboard.
The dashboard should be for setting larger scenes.
Example: If you want to watch a movie, you should either be able to say something to your digital assistant of choice or press a single physical/digital button. That automatically sets the lights correctly, closes any blinds and turns on all AV equipment needed.
Don’t you ever need to step out of the automation predefined values sometimes?
I do have most of my house automated, but my pain point is in those rare moments when I need to do something that doesn’t fit anymore in my predicted automation.
I said it in a previous comment as well, but I’ll give some more personal examples here:
1. We have friends coming and we need more light for a board game
2. My wife wants to sew some new clothing creation and needs bright white lights for short periods of time
3. Sun is still very bright at sunset but HA already turned on the lights (I kinda like the sunset natural light, and want to enjoy it without artificial lighting. I have a light sensor for this situation but it’s hard to get it right)
4. I want to change volume of a speaker but I’m not using the device playing the music
5. I want to get the blinds higher/lower without getting out of bed
I’m not saying everyone needs my app, of course. I made it for myself, and just decided to share it with the world, in case there are other people sharing my pain points.
I still don't see why you're not exposing these devices to Homekit in Home Assistant so that they show up natively on your Apple devices in the control centre? Having my smart speaker volume control next to my iPhone's volume control just makes sense for that? Same for quick access to lights? Just pull down from the clock and tap to turn on/off specific lights, or have sliders next to the iPhone brightness slider for lights with brightness granularity. I don't see what an app adds to that?
#3 is boggling for me as I live in Finland. "Sunset" isn't really a thing here.
Automating anything based on "Sunset" or "Sunrise" is 100% useless as the time for both changes multiple minutes per day. Currently the sun will set at 22:28 and will rise again at 04:07. I don't want to control anything based on either =)
1 & 2 sound like something you should have a scene for. For #1: "Alexa, board game mode" and boom you've got enough light. And for #2 just slap on a cheap zigbee switch from Ikea next to the sowing table.
Yeah it’s odd how many of the home automation stuff are thought and created for the temperate zones of the globe.
Well it’s hard to give enough context but none of those would work for me. We sometimes take our board games in the living room, other times on the balcony, sometimes even in the bedroom if the guests have a little child and they need to keep an eye on it. I would have to create a scene for all those things and end up with the same problem: too many button to choose from, doing what I want takes too much effort.
Calling Alexa in English as a Romanian is a sure way to get you some laughs and weird looks from those around you; not everyone is accustomed to voice controlled tech and some even feel uncomfortable around it.
I have a lot of those Zigbee switches, but Conbee has failed on me sometimes and I don’t want to see that type of frustration from my wife again. You know the type: “why can’t you just turn on the lights like a normal person?!”
When you have something in mind to do and the simple stuff stop working, the situation is very frustrating. I imagine it’s like when I want to add some features to my app, and Xcode decides to throw some impossible error that has no concrete solution and I have to do the “clear data voodoo” and restart until it starts working.
The dashboard should be for setting larger scenes.
Example: If you want to watch a movie, you should either be able to say something to your digital assistant of choice or press a single physical/digital button. That automatically sets the lights correctly, closes any blinds and turns on all AV equipment needed.